Taking time off

mhwitt74

I have been told that when you hit a plateau to maintain calories but take a week or so off from exercise. Does this rest period do anything to help kickstart weight loss again? I consistently log food and exercise but haven't lost anything in a month. In total so far I have lost 25 pounds of my 40 lb goal but can't seem to get any further. I know that the closer you get the harder it is to lose. I have went from 222 down to 197 with a goal of 180-185. I am 42 male and 5'11. Any advice?

LivingtheLeanDream

You could take a week and eat at maintenance and you could take a rest week, the change in your usual routine could more than likely help with your plateau. But its likely you've just been eating a bit more than you think and actually been eating closer to maintenance cals for the past month saying you haven't lost.
As we get closer to goal it takes being much tighter with calories, look at your portions sizes again and use a food scale.
For me the last 10 lbs was excruciatingly slow but I know that was because I wasn't being as regimented with accurately tracking my cals and was eating closer to my TDEE. I did find a change up in exercise helped, some high intensity training burns extra calories and helps create deficit.

Nony_Mouse

I'm a big believer in taking diet breaks, for both health and sanity. To read more about it, this is a great thread: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10481830/the-diet-break/p1

The idea isn't necessarily to take a break from exercise, rather to eat at maintenance for a bit. That can either be achieved by doing less exercise, if that's what makes up your deficit, or by eating more. Personally, I'd go with continuing with your usual exercise and eating more.

mhwitt74

I do weigh everything and always have a deficit at the end of the day. The more I read on here the more a diet break seems to be the right thing to do. Maybe I will eat at maintenance for a couple weeks and then start back at a losing deficit.