The Diet Break.

SideSteel
SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
edited November 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
So this isn't new information for some of you, but I find this is one of those things that people neglect to do even if they know about it.

Rather than go into detail about what a diet break is, I'll leave you with this article:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

Basically, this is a period of time where you're eating at maintenance. How often and how long you should break for will vary a bit, but if I were to make a general recommendation based on my own experiences with multiple people of different demographics, I'd say a maintenance phase of 1 to 2 weeks in length every 6 to 10 weeks of dieting.

Edit: Read the article for reasons WHY to diet break but the really short cliffs are this -- dieting sucks. Some hormones may become a bit disregulated, motivation will dwindle, gym performance can suffer, food focus increases, etc.

My preference with this is to very slightly under-estimate maintenance needs and bring calories up for about a week. If things are going well and especially if weight continues to drop, make another bump to calories for another week.

Surprisingly, I seldom see weight gain as a result of this. In fact, more often than not it's either weight maintenance or a slight reduction in weight. When calories are brought back down to pre-break levels we typically see additional losses even in cases where someone was previously stalled.

I'll note that this isn't necessarily indicative of metabolic benefits of the diet break although it's a possibility. It's also likely that long duration dieting impacts tracking accuracy and diet adherence and so near the tail end of a diet, the difference between what's eaten and what's logged is likely a bit larger (people are eating more than they log) wheres post break that gap is likely a bit smaller.

I will also add this -- I've never had someone I'm coaching take a diet break as planned, and regret the diet break later. I HAVE had people resist the recommendation, thinking they can just willpower through it, only to later regret not taking the diet break.

Anyway, the article I've linked will contain a lot of solid info that I'd suggest checking out. You can also let me know if you have any general questions about this strategy.

I'll note that I pretty much incorporate these as a standard practice in some capacity now, and I'm VERY glad I do.
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Replies

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Appreciate this. I'm familiar with the strategy- have a friend who continues to make substantial progress using it- and I think it's a good idea. I've been unwittingly *maintaining* for many months, and though I resigned myself to that for a while, I still have the mindset that I should be restricting. I've left my calories at a deficit, even though I clearly haven't been hitting them, and I realize that's been detrimental mentally. One thing I wonder, if I commit to more precision tracking, even at maintenance, will that contribute to the "diet fatigue"?
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    well I took several breaks over the last 4 years. this last break I took a month or so off(still logged but ate in maintenance). didnt help me out one bit,I lost 1.2 lbs,it took me 4 months to lose that much after dropping calories. all my blood tests came back normal as well. The only issue I have is a metabolic disorder and I should still be losing weight(CICO and all that). but nope.Im also not at a healthy weight. Im about 10lbs from the high end of a healthy weight/BMI.I only have about 25-30 lbs left to goal. rate Im going I will never get there.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    I always see a good amount of weight gain during my diet breaks, but that's because my diets are nearly carb-free, so it's all glyco/water that I put back on. It's a beautiful feeling to see the scale going up by four pounds per week, but vascularity and musculature popping all over the place while shoulder and chest measurements swell.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,262 Member
    I usually track calories during a diet break and do not see weight gain. When I was first losing weight I went 4 or 5 months before taking a break. After that it was every 2-3 months that year, but rather than pre-planning them I had one when I started feeling hungry all the time. Now I'm at a point where pre-planning is the better choice for me.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    I'm at the point where it's diet break time, and I think I'm going to gain. At my margins of calories because I'm short, and already eat low fat, and a decent amount of protein, I tend to add more carbs. Oh well. More glycogen will happen. No biggie.

    The thing is, I had my weight drop to 116, and this morning the scale bounced back up to 120 for no reason other than I lifted yesterday and had soy sauce and popcorn last night. I'm sick of this ridiculousness. My weight keeps gravitating to 120 no matter what I do and it's been doing that for, oh, I'd say six months.

    Do I log every bite? Nope, but I'm vaguely aware of the calories of what I'm not logging and I leave a hefty chunk of exercise calories on the table every day to cover for it.

    I'd love to lose some fat off my legs, because they are just chunky. I honestly don't know if I can at this point and it's frustrating.

    I know your struggle. Ive been trying to lose this weight for the last 4 years(i have to eat low fat due to a health issue). my weight will go down,then it goes right back up to a certain area no matter what I do.your weight will fluctuate hr by hr,day by day depending on a lot of factors,when you lift heavy you do retain water to help with muscle repair so that could be it along with the extra sodium.I need to lose some fat off my legs too but,its been very very slow
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    I have a planned break coming up from the second week of December. It coincides with me re-entering treatment of my health with meds so I'm hoping if what they prescribe is an appetite spiker I can mitigate the effects by naturally having more to eat than is currently usual due to be being at maintenance for a bit. I'll probably still log, if not all the time at least some of the time and keep a close eye on things (side effects permitting, psych med side effects are often brutal at first!).

    I properly started last April, took a break in December and May and had the odd week here or there that has been accidental maintenance this year.

    I never continue to lose and I have never had any "back to the deficit" whooshes but the psychological benefit is the big plus for me. Working out at maintenance also feels so much better!
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    I'm at the point where it's diet break time, and I think I'm going to gain. At my margins of calories because I'm short, and already eat low fat, and a decent amount of protein, I tend to add more carbs. Oh well. More glycogen will happen. No biggie.

    The thing is, I had my weight drop to 116, and this morning the scale bounced back up to 120 for no reason other than I lifted yesterday and had soy sauce and popcorn last night. I'm sick of this ridiculousness. My weight keeps gravitating to 120 no matter what I do and it's been doing that for, oh, I'd say six months.

    Do I log every bite? Nope, but I'm vaguely aware of the calories of what I'm not logging and I leave a hefty chunk of exercise calories on the table every day to cover for it.

    I'd love to lose some fat off my legs, because they are just chunky. I honestly don't know if I can at this point and it's frustrating.

    I know your struggle. Ive been trying to lose this weight for the last 4 years(i have to eat low fat due to a health issue). my weight will go down,then it goes right back up to a certain area no matter what I do.your weight will fluctuate hr by hr,day by day depending on a lot of factors,when you lift heavy you do retain water to help with muscle repair so that could be it along with the extra sodium.I need to lose some fat off my legs too but,its been very very slow

    Well, I lift as heavy as I can lift, but I doubt anyone else would call it heavy!
  • emilysusana
    emilysusana Posts: 416 Member
    I wonder if it might be time to do this. I've been going over my calories more often, or I'll neglect to log for the second half of the day. It's a stressful time of year in my world, so I'm sure that's part of it, but I wonder if trying a week or two of seeing what maintenance feels like might be the thing I need. Thanks for the post!