Weekly patterns, diet quality and energy balance
Abstract
Human behaviour is made up of many repeated patterns and habitual behaviours. Our day to day lives are punctuated by work, education, domestic chores, sleep and food. Changes in daily patterns such as not working in paid employment or attending school on the weekend contribute significantly to changes in dietary patterns of food consumption, patterns of physical activity and ultimately energy balance. The aim of this paper is to adopt a life-course perspective and explore the changes in dietary quality and physical activity patterns across the week from young children to elderly adults with a focus on Western cultures. Research literature indicates that the dietary quality is somewhat poorer on the weekends, characterised by higher fat intakes, higher alcohol intakes and consequently higher energy intakes. This increase in energy intake is not necessarily offset by an increase in activity, rather an increase in sedentary behaviours. Some research has observed an increase of more than 100 cal per day over the weekend in American adults. Over the course of one year, this can result in a significant increase in body mass. Some of the interventions in tackling obesity and diet related behaviours must focus on the changes in the weekend behaviour of consumers in terms of both food and activity. These efforts should also focus on increasing consumer awareness of the long term consequences of the short lived weekend excess as well as putting in place practical measures and interventions that are evidence based and targeted to consumer needs.
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People's eating patterns and daily routines vary over the week.
“Considering that people’s eating patterns and daily routines vary over the week [31,32], analyzing the temporal context of app usage may help identify the best times to start using an app that promotes lifestyle changes.”
From Factors related to sustained use of a free mobile app for dietary self-monitoring with photography and peer feedback: retrospective cohort study (2014) · cites this paper as [31]
Prior studies have found that diet quality is generally poorer during weekends than on weekdays and calorie intake is higher, especially in the form of fat and alcohol.
“Prior studies have found that diet quality is generally poorer during weekends than on weekdays and calorie intake is higher, especially in the form of fat and alcohol [31,32,35]”
From Factors related to sustained use of a free mobile app for dietary self-monitoring with photography and peer feedback: retrospective cohort study (2014) · cites this paper as [31]
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- Authors
- McCarthy, S.
- Affiliations
- Teagasc - The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (IE)
- Corresponding author
- McCarthy, Sinéad
- ORCID
- McCarthy, Sinéad
- Venue
- Physiology & Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-07
- Volume
- 134
- Pages
- 55-59
- ISSN
- 0031-9384 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2019344309
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 0.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Physiology & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
- Keywords
- weekly patterns, weekend effect, diet quality, energy balance, physical activity, sedentary behavior, energy intake, obesity, life course perspective, dietary intake, alcohol consumption, dietary fat intake, Western culture
- MeSH terms
- Aging, Diet, Eating, Energy Metabolism, Feeding Behavior, Health Promotion, Humans, Motor Activity
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