The Most Important Time for Weight Loss

Ever notice how your jeans tend to seem a little tight come Monday morning? It's not your imagination—it's your weight cycle. Almost everyone cycles between losing a small amount of weight during the week, only to gain it back over the weekend, report Cornell University researchers. Yet what separates thin people from heavier ones isn't how much weight they gain on weekends—it's how much weight they lose on weekdays, say researchers. 

MORE: "I'm Smaller Than I Was in High School!"

In a new study to be published in the journal Obesity Facts, 80 adults were divided into three groups: weight losers (who routinely shed 3 percent of their total weight during the week; weight maintainers (whose weight fluctuated from 1 to 3 percent each week); and weight gainers (who added 1 percent to their total body weight over the week). In general, the study subjects hit their lowest weights on Fridays and highest poundage on Sundays and Mondays. This makes sense since many people splurge on weekends. But the weight-gaining group had a different pattern: Their highest and lowest weights could occur at any time of the week, and they were slower to start melting pounds after the weekend was over. 

The takeaway: It's normal for the scale to vary a little, depending on whether you weigh yourself on Friday or Monday, say researchers. But the trick to balancing it out and not upsizing might mean eating lighter and/or torching calories at the gym during the workweek…so you can enjoy those Friday and Saturday night splurges without any long-term consequences for your waistline. 

MORE: The Trait That Makes You Susceptible to Overeating
 

1. Prev:Sane Ways to Burn Fat
2. Next:Teff