This one just strikes my funny bone for some reason. I love that somebody was able to convince someone this needed scientific study! And these results are a crack-up!
It turns out; we eat more on Saturdays than the rest of the days of the week.
Researchers published the 2008 study in Obesity research journal and describe that they followed 48 non-obese adults between ages 50 and 60 for one year. Some were assigned to change nothing, some assigned to reduce calorie intake by 20%, and the remainder were assigned to increase activity by 20%.
At the end of the year, the researchers found consistent results across the board: weight loss slowed dramatically over weekends throughout the year—not just during the holidays—and Saturdays were the day for mass calorie consumption. The calorie reduction folks stopped losing weight but the exercisers gained weight on weekends!
So this means we can now relax, as it isn’t “just me” here. We all love to eat more on Saturdays!
I assume we eat more on Saturdays because we have a change in our routines on the weekends and because I think we tend also to be more social. More social activity and less structure usually means more wacky blood sugars for me and more food eaten on the run. Both are in line with what these researchers found.
But I do want to point out a couple things with these results:
(1) they still lost weight and
(2) even when you are active you still need to watch what you eat.
When I did Weight Watchers I used the point system new at the time and was able to put extra points in the bank for the week. I always used my points for nachos. I’d dream about those nachos all week long! They were so tasty.
After reading about this study, I betcha I ate them on Saturdays.
Now I have to have nachos for lunch. Dang.