Push Through or Break?

srecupid

Getting a little burned out after doing this for about 7 months. Still have room for improvement but lack the motivation. Thinking of doing maintenance until may 1st and then seeing if I can lose the last 10 or so by June 1st through a different method like intermittent fasting to change things up. Did anyone decide to take a break late in their joueney? And how did it go?

SideSteel

srecupid wrote: »

Getting a little burned out after doing this for about 7 months. Still have room for improvement but lack the motivation. Thinking of doing maintenance until may 1st and then seeing if I can lose the last 10 or so by June 1st through a different method like intermittent fasting to change things up. Did anyone decide to take a break late in their joueney? And how did it go?

I tend to have my clients take a maintenance phase every 6 to 12 weeks depending on how lean they are, how food focused they are, etc.

If you've been losing weight or even attempting to lose weight for 7 months I would suggest taking two weeks at estimated maintenance.

MorganMoreaux

I took a break at the beginning of the year. I've been stuck at 120lbs, and figured I'm not going to deal with it for a while. I noticed that my cloths were getting loser and that I had lost three pounds, so I'm back and motivated to lose the rest.

I think I was spending too much time obsessing about it, which kept eating in my focus way too often, so I couldn't quite consistently lose. I would lose five pounds and then slowly gain it back. I couldn't seem to break 120. Right now I'm just logging, and trying to cut back on overly processed stuff, though it's been hit or miss. I caved last night out of exhaustion and got a pizza, but I only had three slices...unfortunately, they came out to 1040 calories. This time round I'm keeping myself much busier so I don't have the time to think about it as much. Also ramping up the exercise.

lorrpb

Taking a 3 day break is not much of a break, and trying to lose 10 lbs in 1 month is unrealistic. Your last 10 should take 10-20 weeks to lose at a healthy pace, so you lose only fat, not muscle.

I've not taken a break in 22+ months and am still losing, albeit slowly now, as it should be. It takes long enough without a break, I'm not interested in making it take longer. But there's nothing wrong with taking a break if that's what you prefer. It won't hurt anything, except that you won't lose weight during that time.

SideSteel

lorrpb wrote: »

Taking a 3 day break is not much of a break, and trying to lose 10 lbs in 1 month is unrealistic. Your last 10 should take 10-20 weeks to lose at a healthy pace, so you lose only fat, not muscle.

I've not taken a break in 22+ months and am still losing, albeit slowly now, as it should be. It takes long enough without a break, I'm not interested in making it take longer. But there's nothing wrong with taking a break if that's what you prefer. It won't hurt anything, except that you won't lose weight during that time.

Taking a break generally makes it go faster, not slower, for the vast majority of people.

MorganMoreaux

Didn't even catch the time frame to lose the 10 lbs. OP, you don't want to lose it that quick. You would virtually have to starve yourself, you'll feel like death, and I doubt you'll be happy with he result. Not to mention, at some point you'll have to quit starving yourself and you'll probably binge, and then gain all the weight back with more fat as you will have lost muscle in trying to lose the weight in the first place.