WU researchers find weekends hinder weight loss
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| Susan Racette |
"It's about meal planning and watching what you're eating," said Danielle Arand, a clinical dietitian at St. Anthony's Medical Center.
The food concepts are much easier to execute during the week because there is structure.Weekends pose problems. People sleep in, eat out and may slack on exercise. And not to mention barbecues, parties and social outings that add extra calories.
Results from a Washington University School of Medicine study reveal that weekends are a hindrance for overall weight loss.
Simply put people consume more on weekends - defined as Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the study - than during the week.
"People on diets often don't lose as much weight as we would expect and this finding helps to explain why," said Susan Racette, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy and medicine at the university.
Findings of the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) study were published in the advance online publication of the journal Obesity. The study is designed to determine whether taking in fewer calories over a long period of time will slow down or reverse some of the common markers of aging.
This is the first study to carefully monitor daily body weight, calorie intake and calorie expenditure during a year and to demonstrate that increased caloric intake isn't just a problem during the holidays. It also happens on most weekends.
Other research has shown that people who are successful at maintaining weight loss have consistent eating patterns.
"We thought it was ideal to look more carefully if weekends do have an impact before an intervention as well as during a prescribed diet or exercise intervention," Racette said.
Researchers expected the weekend to influence weight in the beginning, but not during the intervention because it was carefully controlled. Racette believed the weekend effect demonstrated in the beginning wouldn't persist so strongly throughout the study, she said.
But researchers were surprised by the results.
Weekends were a problem, with Saturday being the biggest culprit. People in the diet group stopped losing weight due to the extra calories they were eating while individuals in the exercise group gained weight because of the extra calories.
Researchers learned through studying 48 adults between the ages of 50 and 60 over a one-year period that volunteers on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.
Trisha Semon is a participant in the second phase of the study. Before enrolling she had similar experiences to the first group.
"I was eating a lot more than I thought and I wasn't aware of it," she said.
The second phase study has made Semon, a 30-year-old South County resident, more aware of her eating. She counts calories, eats healthier and has lost weight. She selects lower-calorie bread, snacks and stocks up on fruit and vegetables at the store.
Eating out was a challenge at first. She would research restaurants online, view menus that contained calorie counts and visited them to stay on track. Now she can go anywhere and calculate about how many calories she has consumed.
Semon echoes what phase one results revealed - weekends are difficult. The work week is structured and the weekends provide more social activities that make it tough, she said.
To keep the more than 20-pound weight loss going, Semon likes to bank calories for the weekend or eat a lighter breakfast and lunch so she can splurge at dinner.
Phase two, which began about one year ago, calls for a 25 percent reduction in calories over a two-year period.
A total of 240 subjects will be enrolled at three sites. WU will have 80 volunteers. Other institutions participating include Tufts University in Boston and Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.
Semon is a happy the study is two years long.
"I hope by the end it will be a lifestyle change," she said. "I hope I'll be able to see the benefits and it will be a habit."
