Written By: Upneet Pansare | Published : September 15, 2018 6:49 AM IST
Love eating out on weekends? © Shutterstock
For most of us, weekends are the only time we get to spend with the family and our friends. We often treat weekends as an excuse to do some things like sleeping late and getting up late, skipping homecooked food and exercise. In short, we completely ignore our health because we think it is okay to be lax then. But the fact is that weekends are like any other days when it comes to health. You can't compromise on some things even on weekends. Stop doing these bad weekend habits because they are making you fat!
Eating out
Long Sunday brunches, indulgent Saturday night dinners who doesn't like these? Eating out is essentially putting high sodium, high fat and high cholesterol food in your stomach which could completely ruin your weight loss goal. Studies have shown that even one cheat meal can disrupt your health and cause weight gain.
Watching TV
Or playing video games or binge-watching your favourite shows on your computer. After all, you need to catch up on all the episodes and action that you have missed throughout the week. But all these can cause weight gain. According to Dr Ramen Goel, Senior Bariatric Surgeon and Director, Center of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Wockhardt Hospitals, there are multiple health issues associated with people who watch excess TV as it restricts the time for physical activities. Sitting idle for long in front of screens also lowers the metabolism of the body. Besides, we also tend to subconsciously eat and, that too, eat junk food. All this can cause weight gain.
Sleep bingeing
We think sleeping for more time during the weekend can help us recover all the sleep we have lost during the week. This is not true. According to a research, 'recovery' sleep over just a single weekend may not reverse all the effects of sleep lost during the week. Dr Vikas Agrawal, Sleep Apnea and Transoral Robotic Surgeon, Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, says that some of the changes in the body like sleepiness, lethargy, etc, can be reversed after a weekend sleep binge, but changes like hypertension, diabetes that happen as a result of lost sleep during the week do not reverse. These are directly linked to weight gain. Another study has shown that both short and long sleeping times predict an increased risk of future body weight and fat gain in adults.
Missing exercise
Exercise has so many benefits! Why would you want to miss out on those on weekends? In fact, on weekends, you can devote more time to exercises. Skipping exercising won't release endorphins or the feel-good hormones in your body and cause more tiredness. This could result in more sleep and more eating.
