These women gorge on 8,000 calories every weekend. So how do they stay so Slim
Answer: by virtually starving themselves from Monday to Friday ... but at what cost to their health?
mONDAY mornings are always a bit of a trial for Melissa Keighley. Feeling tired, listless and a little bit queasy, she struggles to do up the waistband of her skirt, and tries not to linger on the sight of her bloated belly in the mirror before heading out the door.
No wonder Melissa’s not feeling her best. Even by her standards, this weekend was a bit of a blow-out.
Friday night, she’d picked up a couple of pizzas on her way home from work to share with her 15-year-old son. There was also a bottle of wine waiting in the fridge, which she managed to all but polish off on her own.
Saturday morning, after a bit of a lie-in, she was up for a long, leisurely brunch with pancakes, waffles and plenty of maple syrup. Then there was another big meal in the evening, with pudding, followed by a few hefty G&Ts, crisps and nibbles on the sofa in front of the TV.
Sunday, there was no letting up either: a massive Sunday lunch, with all the trimmings, followed by a big creamy, homecooked pudding.
And to banish that Sunday night feeling, a glass of wine or two before bed, and maybe a cheering big bar of chocolate to see the weekend off.
On Monday morning, Melissa, a music therapist from Ramsgate, Kent, tots up the calories she’s consumed.
‘I reckon I must get through around 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day at the weekend, easily,’ she says. ‘Sometimes, I weigh half a stone more on a Monday morning than I did on the Friday night.’
But Melissa doesn’t see this as a problem at all. At 5ft 7in, she weighs 9st 12lb and easily fits into size 10 clothes.
And she says her body maintenance is purely down to her regime of weekend bingeing and weekday fasting. For, from Monday to Friday, she barely eats anything at all.
Since the 5:2 diet or Fast Diet — which specifies calorie restriction for two days a week and normal eating for the other five days — became popular four years ago, this ‘ feast and famine’ attitude to food is being adopted by an increasing number of women.
Researchers have found that many women aged 18 to 40 restrict their diets during the week so that they can overindulge at weekends on junk food and alcohol.
One in ten women confess they’ll barely eat 1,000 calories a day Monday to Friday — but will triple that at the weekend.
A40-YEAR-OlD single mother, Melissa says it works for her. ‘For as long as I can remember, I’ve eaten very little during the week and made up for it on the weekends.
‘It’s partly practical. My job is very physical — busy and demanding. I often struggle to find the time to eat properly. And even if I could find time to eat, I never really fancy leaping around on a full stomach.
‘My weekday diet consists of a couple of pieces of toast for breakfast then a cereal bar during the day.
‘I’ll spend my lunch breaks in the gym, swimming or on a treadmill, and when I get home from work I rarely feel like cooking, so often just have a tin of soup, or bread and cheese.
‘I never drink alcohol on a weekday either. At weekends, however, I really go for it.
‘ Of course, I pay for it on Monday mornings, when I always feel heavier and tired — but I never let myself slack.’
While Melissa certainly looks good on the outside, what is her ‘all or nothing’ diet doing to her health?
Dietitian and nutritionist Annemarie Aburrow fears women like Melissa could become seriously deficient in certain nutrients by adopting these eating habits.
SHEsays: ‘ It is very difficult to achieve your micronutrient requirements on a restrictive diet.
‘Then, at the weekend, if their calories are coming from junk foods and alcohol, much of this will be “empty calories” of poor nutritional quality, so they’re unlikely to make up the nutritional shortfall.
‘ Famine/ feast dieting may affect the bowels and gastrointestinal health. You’re unlikely to get enough fibre during the week, which could result in constipation.
‘Then, an excess intake of fatty and sugary foods at the weekend can also cause bloating and gastrointestinal discomfort.’
Chloe Hepburn, 31, an events manager from East Sussex, believes a little bit of biliousness on a Monday morning is a small price to pay for a size 6 figure.
like Melissa, she swears her feast-famine lifestyle is the only way she can keep her weight — 7st 12lb — in check, while still enjoying the finer things in life.
The concept of moderation seven days a week is simply too boring to contemplate.
‘Friends often tell me they don’t know how I stay so slim,’ she says.
‘Well, there’s no big secret. I’m simply the model of abstinence during the week and let myself go wild at weekends.
‘It’s the only way I can maintain my figure, stay focused during my busy weeks and have an enjoyable social life.’
Chloe, a single mother-of-two, says she exists on virtually nothing during the week.
‘I never have time for breakfast — although I ensure my children eat theirs,’ she says.
‘At work, if I have time, I’ll grab a piece of fruit, but more often than not I just don’t bother. And I never eat lunch.
‘By the time I get home at 6.30, I’m hungry. I’ll cook the children a proper dinner, and then sit down and eat my first real meal of the day, usually pasta with fish and vegetables.
‘I never have pudding and I never drink alcohol. When I tot it up, sometimes it’s barely 800 calories, which seems a tiny amount. But I’m so used to it now that I don’t think I’d feel comfortable eating more.
‘ Weekends, however, are a different matter. Friday night, I always go out for a meal with some girlfriends.
‘Suddenly, because it’s Friday, the rules change. I’ll choose a starter, a main and a dessert, and I drink wine. I don’t think about calories or fat content.
‘Saturday, I will eat stodgy food during the day — lots of bread, pasta, pies and pastries — and if I’m on a night out with friends, I always insist on a takeaway on the way home. A portion
of cheesy chips and pitta bread is my favourite. I enjoy every single mouthful, and never feel guilty, despite the looks of pure envy from my friends.
‘After all that abstinence in the week, I feel I deserve it.
‘ Sunday morning breakfasts are epic, and the children and I adore endless rounds of toast, baked beans, scrambled eggs and bacon.
‘Then I’ll either make a roast at home, or we’ll go to a restaurant for one. I let myself drink wine on Sundays, too, and, again, I don’t worry at all about calories.
‘By evening, I’m starving again. I will sit and eat utter rubbish — junk food, crisps, bread with dips like hummus. At weekends, I eat about three times what I would eat on a weekday — around 3,000 calories a day.
‘By Monday, I feel dreadful. Lethargic and exhausted. I feel as if I’ve had a blood sugar slump from everything I ate at the weekend. But I simply resume my Monday to Friday diet and don’t eat a thing until dinner time.
‘By the evening I feel normal again — and looking forward to Friday.’
NuTrITIonscientist Helena Gibson-Moore, from the British nutrition Foundation, warns that diets like these make it very difficult to keep tabs on energy intake, and that, over time, bingers may actually find their weight creeping up.
‘It is recommended we limit the amount of foods high in fat and sugars,’ she says.
‘Also, eating excessively at the weekend may lead to an overall increase in calories over the week, and unless they’re burnt off through exercise, it’s likely to lead to weight gain.’
But Vanessa Powell, a 47-year- old receptionist from Surrey, says the weekend indulgence diet is the only one that has ever worked for her — and she’s tried them all.
Vanessa, who lives with her husband Stacey, an architect, and daughters Jessica, 13, and Violet, 11, says: ‘When I was younger, I was always a svelte 8 st and never had to worry about my weight. But as I got older and had children, I found it harder.
‘I started to put weight on and reached over 10st 7lb. I tried every diet going, from Atkins to an “egg diet”, to just eating pineapple. But the weight always came back on the moment I stopped dieting. It was also utterly miserable and I missed enjoying food, wine and a social life.’
She came across the weekend bingeing routine through a process of trial and error as she hit her 40s. now, she weighs 9st 7lb and wears a size 10 — the same as she did before having her children.
‘I limit enjoyment to just two days a week,’ she says. ‘Monday to Friday I have a tiny bowl of cereal for breakfast, a small roll filled with tuna or one slice of ham for lunch, or a medium roll cut in half, nothing all afternoon and then another half portion of dinner in the evening — which is usually chicken or rice.
‘While my husband and daughters tuck into full adult- size portions, I will nibble on a tiny amount because I know if I don’t I will gain weight. It’s difficult, but knowing it’s not for ever definitely helps.’
Vanessa says she never drinks wine on a week night and never eats anything after dinner until breakfast the following morning. ‘There are no snacks, no treats and no secret nibbles under my desk at work.’
But once Saturday arrives, the tables turn — with bacon sandwiches for breakfast, and proper ‘full portions’ of lunch and dinner.
Snacks are fine, too, so out come the crisps, chocolate bars and biscuits. on Sunday, there’s a big roast dinner, with wine.
‘I’d estimate from Monday to Friday I have around 1,000 calories a day,’ says Vanessa, ‘but at weekends it’s at least double that.
‘ By the time Monday rolls around, I feel lethargic and bloated. I sometimes feel guilty, but I know that it’s back to “reality” and my half portions again.
‘By midweek, any bloat is gone — and when I weigh myself, it’s a relief to see 9st 7lb flash up on the scales.
‘I’m a huge advocate of having famine weekdays and feasting weekends. I spend so much of my week hungry and denying myself things that the weekends are a treat and a time to indulge myself.
‘Where’s the harm in that?’