Are Your Weekends Ruining Your Progress?

You train hard all week, hit your protein, and stay within your calorie goal. Then the weekend comes and suddenly, it’s a free for all. Drinks, takeaway, big meals, snacks, and without even realising - you've easily eaten 3,000+ calories. Sound familiar?

This is one of the biggest reasons people stay stuck in the same place and frustrated that nothing is changing. Let’s break down why this happens and how to fix it so you can actually make progress while still enjoying your weekends.

Why You’re Overeating on Weekends:

1. You’re Too Restrictive During the Week
   If you’re eating super low calories, avoiding sugar, or forcing yourself to eat “clean” Monday to Friday, you’re probably building up a mental and physical need to overeat when the weekend comes. Your body is craving more food and psychologically, you feel like you “deserve” it after being so strict.

2. You Treat Weekends as a “Break” From Your Diet
   If you see your nutrition as something you “follow” during the week but take a break from on weekends, you’ll never build real consistency. Progress doesn’t happen Monday to Friday… it happens over the entire week.

3. Alcohol Leads to Mindless Eating
   A couple of drinks turn into a late night kebab, which turns into a hungover brunch the next day, and suddenly you're eating way over your weekly target. Alcohol lowers your ability to make good food choices, and the extra calories add up fast.

4. You’re Eating Out Too Often Without Awareness
   Restaurant meals are notoriously high in calories, even the “healthy” ones. If you’re eating out multiple times over the weekend and not tracking, you’re likely underestimating how much you're consuming.

5. You Have a “Fk It” Mindset
   One untracked meal turns into an entire weekend binge because you think, “I’ve already messed up, I might as well keep going.” This is SO toxic. Ditch the “all or nothing” mindset.

How to STOP Doing This:

1. Stop Over Restricting During the Week
   If you’re constantly starving and miserable Monday to Friday, of course you’ll feel out of control on weekends. Make sure your weekday diet is sustainable - eat enough calories, include some foods you enjoy, and don’t cut out entire food groups.

2. PLAN Your Indulgences Instead of Going All In
   If you know you’re going out for dinner, plan ahead. Look at the menu, pick a meal that fits your goals, and enjoy it without overdoing it. You don’t have to eat like an athlete all week and then a teenager on the weekend. Find a middle ground.

3. Set Alcohol Boundaries
   If alcohol is a big trigger for you, set some limits. Maybe that means 1-2 drinks instead of an all night bender, or no drinks at all. The less alcohol you drink, the more in control you’ll be with food.

4. Stay Active (But Not to “Burn Off” Calories)
   Keeping up your training and movement over the weekend helps maintain structure. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can out train a bad diet. You can’t.

5. Adopt a Weekly Mindset, Not a Daily One
   Stop looking at your progress in days and start looking at it in weeks. If your goal is fat loss, focus on staying in a slight calorie deficit across the entire week, not just Monday to Friday. If you go a little over on one day, just get back on track the next - no need to spiral.

The reason you’re not seeing results isn’t because you “ruined” your diet with one meal - it’s because of repeated patterns that add up over time. When you break the cycle of letting your weekends get in the way of your goals, you’ll finally start making real progress.

Enjoy your weekends, but don’t let them hold you back from what you actually want.

Stay locked in… Monday through Sunday.

With love,

Coach Sandra x