To eat carefully all week and then splurge at weekends?

[diiet]

I am trying to lose a stone, so probably shouldn’t but I wonder if it’s more effective like this, as I’m less likely to make bad choices in the week if I know I get a ‘treat’ at weekends?

I guess if depends what your "splurge" looks like!
Are you counting calories? Do you exercise?

Do you mean you splurge all weekend or just have 1 or 2 'treats' ?

For me the issue would be getting back into that train of thought if the weekend was reckless wild food eating. But having a treat is fine.

Can't you make good choices at the weekend that are also a treat?

If you are avoiding puddings, cream and cheese, go out on Saturday night and have a fabulous steak and perfect veggies that someone else cooked (and will do the washing up)?
One glass of really good wine.

Honestly this wouldn’t be a treat for me at all (I don’t even like steak!)

I do count calories so yes I’d be kind of relaxing that, having cake, a biscuit, that sort of thing.

I limit myself to 1 'naughty' thing. That way you ain't denying yourself. So much easier to do. Plus exercise.

I can can lose weight this way it's good to have something to look forward too.

80/20 is a good balance. But I find it easier to incorporate a small treat every couple of days as opposed to a huge blowout at the weekend. You can easily undo your deficit in a weekend.

As long as the calories overall still leave you in a deficit it will
work, I do it by having less calories in the week and a few more at weekends but still counting. It was slow progress but I lost 1.5stone last year doing it over 8 months. Hoping to do the same again this year

If I have a small treat and I know that’s all I’m getting I just want more, whereas if I know I can have what I want, I don’t crave it anything like as much.

I have a similar approach to you op, I'm maintaining weight though, so will have a mid week biscuit, packet of crisps etcif I fancy one.
I still try and eat healthily at the weekend but have the treat of a glass of wine maybe a pudding, it depends.
I've been looking at this as a sustainable lifestyle change rather than a diet which is why it's worked for me.
I'll be honest, it's not what I eat but how much of it that seems to make the difference and that is something I've had to change completely.

The 5/2 diet is supposed to be very effective. Very limited calories for 5 days, eat whatever you like for the other two. My Dbro does it now and then and swears by it.

Not sure I’d have the willpower for the ‘5’ bit, though….

Are you going to take yourself out of your deficit though?

The occasional treat is definitely better than trying to deny yourself completely then bingeing. As others have said if you average out your calories over a week and you're still in a deficit you'll lose weight - if you're 200 under every day then you eat a family sized stuffed crust pizza and a tiramisu designed to feed 4 on a Saturday night, not so much...

I also find it helps to get myself really good quality, rich, full flavour treats so a little bit feels like enough. We've got a local chocolatier who sells individual Venchi chocolates and one or two of their rum truffles is easily as much of a treat as a huge bowl of ice cream or a big bar of galaxy.

I wouldn’t have thought so. I don’t eat much in the week. But on Sundays it’s nice to have a roast dinner, on Saturdays it’s nice to have a cake and a cappuccino, etc.

that was pushed a lot a few years ago @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER I remember. I don’t think it would work for me if I needed to lose a lot of weight, but for a small amount might be manageable.

Depends. If you then blow out too much and eat more than the calories needed to lose weight you still won’t lose it.

To lose weight a 500calorie daily deficit below your BMR+PAL requirements is usually recommended. So a 3,500 calorie deficit each week. If you have that gap you will lose, if not you won’t.

It’s normally the other way around - 500 cals on 2 days and eat normally the other 5 days!

If yo count calories, work out your TDEE and then 'bank' calories during the week for your weekend treats.

It really depends, when I want to lose weight I do something like have a G&T or one piece of cake on the weekends, but I’m quite bad at falling off the wagon if I relax a bit so find it better just to stick to the diet all the time for a set amount of time/until I feel like I’ve lost enough weight.

If it works for you though and you’re still losing weight doing it this way, why not.

Pointless. If you’re trying to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit.
If you stick to say 1600 a day in the week and 3000 at weekends you’re actually having the equivalent of 2200 a day.

Ive just lost over 5 stone and I never splurge or it would all go right back on. Ive stopped thinking of food as "treats" and more as fuel. Ive also given up alcohol as its empty calories. I have splurged and got the worst indigestion of my life. My old splurging was mainly big bags of sweets. Now if I really want sweets Ill have a roll of refreshers and that satisfys the craving.
I treat myself in other ways like a new dress or shoes.
It sounds thankless but it isnt. Being grossly overweight was thankless and made my life a misery. Im very happy now.

5:2 is five days of eating normally with 2 days of 500 calories. Calorie deficit over the week.

I lost 3 stone with it about a dozen years ago and found the 2 days very easy to deal with, knowing that it was time-limited. Over time, my appetite over the rest of the week also reduced. It helped to break some snacking habits and made the actual feeling of hunger more recognisable.

By contrast, starving for 5 days would probably encourage some binging at the weekend and risk the overall deficit whilst also being miserable.

You need to find what works for your head.

Depends on how many calories. I did this when I was dieting, but for me, a weekend splurge would involve have the regular 2000 calories, instead of 1000 on diet days. As long as you are still in a weekly deficit it doesn’t matter.

What are your maintenance calories, and what are you deficit calories?
Ensure that your ‘treat’ doesn’t move you out of your deficit into maintenance, then you should continue to lose - albeit at a slower rate.
If you don’t count the calories in your treats, you could find yourself in a surplus on average for the week!

I used to do this but my doctor pointed out that was me eating like a kid whose parent went away for the weekend…. And she was right … focus on the emotion of why food makes you happy and what food you crave and then make a better choice …. Note a better choice doesn’t meet eating like a rabbit

I’m team savoury so found avocado toast filled my savoury need

and dark chocolate helped my late night sugar need without gouging on chocolate

Depends if you’re still keeping under your calories for the week really.

I'm doing this sort of thing, and it’s working for me at the moment, but I’m being careful not to go crazy with it. So like having a small treat for dessert rather than non-stop eating junk all weekend.