Diet Destroyed? Blame the Weekend

Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

Weekends are for letting your hair down, de-stressing, relaxing and gosh darn it, cutting loose. You've worked hard all week. That's cause for celebration. Dinner out. Drinks out. Time on the couch. With the remote. And a bag of chips. Hey, indulgent laziness on two of your seven days of the week won't hurt. Or will it?

Weekends can definitely derail a diet, says RealAge. So much so that you can rack up nine pounds per year because of your off-days. Apparently, most folks on diets or following exercise routines drop out of the race on weekends and actually gain weight. Now a bad day here and there won't kill an otherwise healthy lifestyle. It's when weekend wine and cheese and Sunday buffets become commonplace that the flab starts sticking around.

Go ahead, blame the weekend if you can't seem to pinpoint the reason your scale is stuck and your bulge won't budge. Health.com says it's very likely Saturday and Sunday are your culprits. One year-long study found a striking difference in what overweight people ate during the week compared to the weekend. On Saturdays, folks ate well over 2,200 calories and on Monday through Friday, they averaged 2,000. They gained about .17 pound a week. Yep, that's nine pounds per year. You OK with that? If not, check out these AOL Health tips for keeping your weekend habits lean.

• Splurge with savvy. The need to reward ourselves is natural. Go for it. But control your portions by choosing treats that require you to leave the house. Go get one chocolate chip muffin from the bakery or one serving of ice cream. Better yet, indulge in non-food items. See a movie, get a massage or buy a slimming pair of yoga pants.
• Plan activities, not meals. Organizing a Friday frolic at the local pub? Or a gathering at your favorite burger joint? Stop. Research shows you'll eat 50 percent more if you're with a group. I bet the same goes for drinking. Make it a group trip to an art museum, instead. Or a trip to the mini-golf course or batting cages.
• Relax. Not in the recliner, though. Long stretches of inactivity lead to compulsive eating. Try decompressing with a little monotonous veggie chopping, a soothing yoga class, a leisurely walk through the neighborhood.

MedicineNet.com says to stick with the 80/20 rule (eat healthy 80 percent of the time, indulge 20 percent) and suggests you make up for lost exercise time during the week by sweating up a storm on weekends (because don't we always complain there are never enough hours in the work day?). About.com offers some more great tips too (teaser: don't skip breakfast). And my final word of wisdom: moderation.

Let America Takes It Off help you moderate your weekend ways. Just click on the badge below.