Of refeeds and diet breaks
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eponine1984 wrote: »I'm 3 days in to my diet break and I'm kinda panicking. I'm up slightly, which is to be expected. This just goes against so much ingrained diet "knowledge" that I've acquired over the years. I've finally started adding strength training into my routine and everything hurts, in a good way.
I've run my numbers to try to determine my maintenance and I'm not sure if I trust the numbers. I tend to want to make things harder than they have to be. When in doubt, is it better to go a bit over or a bit under for a diet break? I'm sure Thursday and Friday will be over, but not sure what I should attempt for the rest of the week.
I guess it all doesn't SUPER DUPER matter, once I'm back to my deficit things will work themselves out. I just need to remind myself I won't pack on 20 lbs in the next week.
It's a little heartening to see everything else is a little up this week as well, maybe the earths mass has suddenly increased which influences gravity which of course influences weight. At least I'm in good company.
The more reliable measurement of maintenance is to track your weight over a few days minimum up to a week, and take the running average. Calculators are fine for providing a rough estimate of what to aim for but individual response is always going to be the determining factor. Since we're not machines, weight is going to fluctuate up and down.
Just remember if you were on a hard cut/deficit prior to a diet break, maintenance calories might look something like 25 - 100% more than your current intake. Think of a bowl or glass of water filled halfway or a little over. That empty space represents your deficit. If you dropped some ice cubes in there, you'll see that the water will rise.. if you drop enough ice cubes in all at once to get the water up to level, you'll see some spill out because of displacement - this represents weight fluctuation. The water will settle eventually and be level with the rim of the bowl/glass - this will represent your maintenance.
So it's going to take at least a few days for your body to settle into the new caloric influx.. once it's at a settling point, you can fine tune the calories over a few more days to see if your weight stays at that range, if it's still fluctuating, then take the average of those ups and downs.
Sometimes maintenance is a more difficult concept to grasp, but try not to freak out about it is about the best way I can put it. Most of us have been on a deficit for a long time.. relieve yourself of deficit hell and enjoy (not binge) the relaxed increase in calories.7 -
Oh and driving to work was absolutely the right choice. Damn quad doesn't even want to let me walk properly.1
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Seems appropriate given the time of the month lol.. courtesy of Lyle. I haven't read it yet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8ox71dd806ygyj/Stachon.MenstrualChangesBodyCompositionFemaleAthlets.pdf?dl=03 -
Seems appropriate given the time of the month lol.. courtesy of Lyle. I haven't read it yet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8ox71dd806ygyj/Stachon.MenstrualChangesBodyCompositionFemaleAthlets.pdf?dl=0
He's done some podcasts on this and of course the book (come on with the book!) will detail it all too. He also drops snippets in his FB group. It's pretty fascinating.2 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Seems appropriate given the time of the month lol.. courtesy of Lyle. I haven't read it yet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8ox71dd806ygyj/Stachon.MenstrualChangesBodyCompositionFemaleAthlets.pdf?dl=0
He's done some podcasts on this and of course the book (come on with the book!) will detail it all too. He also drops snippets in his FB group. It's pretty fascinating.
That book is designated as a Christmas present to myself (I'll pretend it's from the cats), so it had better not be far away!!
Speaking of cats, my youngest fur child is now counting calories too, because he's turned into a wee butterball post officially joining the family and moving inside (indoor/outdoor). Are cats allowed MFP profiles?4 -
I thought I'd post something after stalking this post for a while. A couple of weeks ago I finished my first diet break after being in a deficit for about 4 months. Was planning on 2 weeks but cut it off after 10 days after having a huge binge... it freaked me out. Something I will need to work on before I am maintaining full time.
Anyways, after reading through this I decided to refeed on the weekends. I've been hanging out around 192-195 lbs for probably a month and a half. I am going to tighten up logging though and try to get to 185 lbs before vacation in mid January.
It's been great reading all the advice on here, I've learned quite a bit!11 -
Oh and P.S. I am an INFP as well. It's been a while since I took the test but I am pretty sure I was near 100% introverted which is accurate
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Welcome out of the woodwork @dancefit2015
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Nony_Mouse wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Seems appropriate given the time of the month lol.. courtesy of Lyle. I haven't read it yet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8ox71dd806ygyj/Stachon.MenstrualChangesBodyCompositionFemaleAthlets.pdf?dl=0
He's done some podcasts on this and of course the book (come on with the book!) will detail it all too. He also drops snippets in his FB group. It's pretty fascinating.
That book is designated as a Christmas present to myself (I'll pretend it's from the cats), so it had better not be far away!!
Speaking of cats, my youngest fur child is now counting calories too, because he's turned into a wee butterball post officially joining the family and moving inside (indoor/outdoor). Are cats allowed MFP profiles?
Good luck getting a solid time frame out of him lol. My cat is a large butterball.. I think he's embraced the HAES movement and has conceptualized "hangry" through nipping at my calves if food isn't in his bowl in a timely manner.
@VintageFeline - yup, I lurk in the group all day, but just in case whoever is still in request limbo may not be able to see some of the pertinent stuff. Other than that, I make odd comments here and there, but I have nothing substantial to add haha.2 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Seems appropriate given the time of the month lol.. courtesy of Lyle. I haven't read it yet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8ox71dd806ygyj/Stachon.MenstrualChangesBodyCompositionFemaleAthlets.pdf?dl=0
He's done some podcasts on this and of course the book (come on with the book!) will detail it all too. He also drops snippets in his FB group. It's pretty fascinating.
That book is designated as a Christmas present to myself (I'll pretend it's from the cats), so it had better not be far away!!
Speaking of cats, my youngest fur child is now counting calories too, because he's turned into a wee butterball post officially joining the family and moving inside (indoor/outdoor). Are cats allowed MFP profiles?
Good luck getting a solid time frame out of him lol. My cat is a large butterball.. I think he's embraced the HAES movement and has conceptualized "hangry" through nipping at my calves if food isn't in his bowl in a timely manner.
@VintageFeline - yup, I lurk in the group all day, but just in case whoever is still in request limbo may not be able to see some of the pertinent stuff. Other than that, I make odd comments here and there, but I have nothing substantial to add haha.
Yeah I mostly lurk too. And marvel at Sumi's legs. Lordy her legs.
As for cats. Chilli can join the butterballs. When Horatio arrived he was a voracious eater all day every day (we do have scheduled mealtimes but ya know, portion creep). The girls finally started to lose their not so healthy fluff but then he's slowed down but only in fits and starts. He'll have a growth spurt and be starving again. So it is tricky. And Chilli is such a moocher!
Surefeed dishes are on their wishlists, they're chip activated covered feeders. That way I can individually control their intakes but they're not especially cheap and when you have to buy three, well.2 -
VintageFeline wrote: »
Sorry, height, weight, incidental activity (steps per day/active job) and any exercise. If you do exercise do you eat any of those calories back?
5'0" 190# Desk job, I try to keep active after work, but I don't do traditional exercise yet because I have hip problems. I plan on adding exercise when my hip can handle it.[/quote]
@Leeg5656 What is your average weight loss per week when you eat 1200 calories/day?0 -
dancefit2015 wrote: »I thought I'd post something after stalking this post for a while. A couple of weeks ago I finished my first diet break after being in a deficit for about 4 months. Was planning on 2 weeks but cut it off after 10 days after having a huge binge... it freaked me out. Something I will need to work on before I am maintaining full time.
Anyways, after reading through this I decided to refeed on the weekends. I've been hanging out around 192-195 lbs for probably a month and a half. I am going to tighten up logging though and try to get to 185 lbs before vacation in mid January.
It's been great reading all the advice on here, I've learned quite a bit!
Welcome to the thread. While it's doable, potentially losing 10lbs in 6 weeks is subjectively ambitious, though as long as you're being mindful not to chronically slash calories for an extended period of time. The result of doing so may result in overshooting a refeed/diet break period as you've experienced. I'm just taking a swing at the possibility of your situation, but it's more common than not.
Keep in mind that a weekly average deficit is better than trying to divebomb food intake everyday, so however you decide to create that deficit (calorie/carb cycling, intermittent fasting, 2 days deficit 1 day with a free meal/maintenance, 5 day deficit 2 day refeed, etc.) do so with structure so you know you can adhere to it.
Another physiqonomics article that was released recently can also apply here as to not burden your future plans with things you can be mindful of now: http://physiqonomics.com/responsibility-debt/
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eponine1984 wrote: »I'm 3 days in to my diet break and I'm kinda panicking. I'm up slightly, which is to be expected. This just goes against so much ingrained diet "knowledge" that I've acquired over the years. I've finally started adding strength training into my routine and everything hurts, in a good way.
I've run my numbers to try to determine my maintenance and I'm not sure if I trust the numbers. I tend to want to make things harder than they have to be. When in doubt, is it better to go a bit over or a bit under for a diet break? I'm sure Thursday and Friday will be over, but not sure what I should attempt for the rest of the week.
I guess it all doesn't SUPER DUPER matter, once I'm back to my deficit things will work themselves out. I just need to remind myself I won't pack on 20 lbs in the next week.
It's a little heartening to see everything else is a little up this week as well, maybe the earths mass has suddenly increased which influences gravity which of course influences weight. At least I'm in good company.
I was a bit apprehensive at first too, @eponine1984. I did the same thing those first few days, alternating between being a bit nervous about how much I was eating and then reassuring myself that it was impossible for me to pack all the weight back on in two weeks. I'm on the last day of my diet break and my attitude is now like, whatevs, lol. (Can you tell I have teenagers at home?) I've really enjoyed all the extra food...nom, nom.
If it's any reassurance, my weight went up about a kilo in the first days, but has just bounced around that weight since then...a little over sometimes, a little under sometimes, but not gaining. I've been weighing daily and tracking in the Libra app. Interestingly, my weight has settled around the trend weight that was calculated by the Libra app before I went on the diet break. Libra is still calculating that as my trend weight today. Back to deficit tomorrow!
And hi @dancefit2015. Sounds like we're all a bunch of diet-breaking, refeeding introverts here, all being bossed around by our cats. I haven't done the personality test yet but now I feel I have to. If the results don't show introvert for me there's something wrong.2 -
dancefit2015 wrote: »I thought I'd post something after stalking this post for a while. A couple of weeks ago I finished my first diet break after being in a deficit for about 4 months. Was planning on 2 weeks but cut it off after 10 days after having a huge binge... it freaked me out. Something I will need to work on before I am maintaining full time.
Anyways, after reading through this I decided to refeed on the weekends. I've been hanging out around 192-195 lbs for probably a month and a half. I am going to tighten up logging though and try to get to 185 lbs before vacation in mid January.
It's been great reading all the advice on here, I've learned quite a bit!
Welcome to the thread. While it's doable, potentially losing 10lbs in 6 weeks is subjectively ambitious, though as long as you're being mindful not to chronically slash calories for an extended period of time. The result of doing so may result in overshooting a refeed/diet break period as you've experienced. I'm just taking a swing at the possibility of your situation, but it's more common than not.
Keep in mind that a weekly average deficit is better than trying to divebomb food intake everyday, so however you decide to create that deficit (calorie/carb cycling, intermittent fasting, 2 days deficit 1 day with a free meal/maintenance, 5 day deficit 2 day refeed, etc.) do so with structure so you know you can adhere to it.
Another physiqonomics article that was released recently can also apply here as to not burden your future plans with things you can be mindful of now: http://physiqonomics.com/responsibility-debt/
Thank you for your reply. I was 191.8 this morning and that's after refeeding this weekend so it'll be closer to 7 lbs in 7 weeks, or 1lbs/week which is my current goal. This will be harder for me to hit with the weekend refeeds, but I'm going to try.
I'll take a look at that article!2 -
That article was great
I'm in college so I tend to procrastinate, or give my future self "responsibility debt", with homework and my favorite way to procrastinate is to do something else productive. This makes me pretty good about going to the gym or staying within my cal goal but awful at time management when it comes to school. Either way that article was very relatable. 2 -
JoLightensUp wrote: »eponine1984 wrote: »I'm 3 days in to my diet break and I'm kinda panicking. I'm up slightly, which is to be expected. This just goes against so much ingrained diet "knowledge" that I've acquired over the years. I've finally started adding strength training into my routine and everything hurts, in a good way.
I've run my numbers to try to determine my maintenance and I'm not sure if I trust the numbers. I tend to want to make things harder than they have to be. When in doubt, is it better to go a bit over or a bit under for a diet break? I'm sure Thursday and Friday will be over, but not sure what I should attempt for the rest of the week.
I guess it all doesn't SUPER DUPER matter, once I'm back to my deficit things will work themselves out. I just need to remind myself I won't pack on 20 lbs in the next week.
It's a little heartening to see everything else is a little up this week as well, maybe the earths mass has suddenly increased which influences gravity which of course influences weight. At least I'm in good company.
I was a bit apprehensive at first too, @eponine1984. I did the same thing those first few days, alternating between being a bit nervous about how much I was eating and then reassuring myself that it was impossible for me to pack all the weight back on in two weeks. I'm on the last day of my diet break and my attitude is now like, whatevs, lol. (Can you tell I have teenagers at home?) I've really enjoyed all the extra food...nom, nom.
If it's any reassurance, my weight went up about a kilo in the first days, but has just bounced around that weight since then...a little over sometimes, a little under sometimes, but not gaining. I've been weighing daily and tracking in the Libra app. Interestingly, my weight has settled around the trend weight that was calculated by the Libra app before I went on the diet break. Libra is still calculating that as my trend weight today. Back to deficit tomorrow!
And hi @dancefit2015. Sounds like we're all a bunch of diet-breaking, refeeding introverts here, all being bossed around by our cats. I haven't done the personality test yet but now I feel I have to. If the results don't show introvert for me there's something wrong.
This made me laugh 2 -
dancefit2015 wrote: »That article was great I'm in college so I tend to procrastinate, or give my future self "responsibility debt", with homework and my favorite way to procrastinate is to do something else productive. This makes me pretty good about going to the gym or staying within my cal goal but awful at time management when it comes to school. Either way that article was very relatable.
You're welcome! And I'm one of the best procrastinators out there, so I feel your struggle lol.
Just as a suggestion since you have a definitive goal, assuming protein is kept consistent and appropriate for your lbm: just play with carbs and fat to either be at a deficit or maintenance. If protein is constant, you don't have to worry about whether you're losing so much muscle mass, it's filling, and it promotes better body composition even in an accidental surplus of protein.
If you do the standard 6-7 week deficit with days of maintenance thrown in, then your vacation becomes your diet break. Just be mindful of food choices but don't get crazy in either direction. And if you hit your vacation weight goal, calculated maintenance is for that weight.1 -
My butterball was slim seven months ago. And it's not like he wasn't well fed, or has the usual ex-stray excuse of 'omg must eat food because it's there', because I was feeding him for 2 1/2 years prior to that, he just refused to tame up enough to come inside and be a housecat. Then I moved and gave him no choice in the matter. I figured he'd slim off again once he decided to come out of the laundry (that took three months) and became more active, but nope. The twins have both slimmed down this year, at least in part because they're both more active with small town/country life, though Mario is also borderline hyper-t and starting to show symptoms (he started tapazole for that last night). 2
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Thanks for all the responses! I just tweaked my calories up a bit - it was what I had previous calculated to be my maintenance, but then I panicked and cosined when I should've tangented and reworked a new number. I'm traveling for the next week or so, so I won't have my scale and I won't be able to obsess over every little jump. Bad thing for the math nerd in me who wants all the numbers. Good thing for the obsessive in me who needs a week off from over analyzing everything.
I'll still log and enjoy and indulge. I'm not prone to binges, but my husbands family starts pouring wine with breakfast so I'll have to be vigilant about drunk snacking. I've found planet fitnesses in the cities we're visiting and we're signed up for a turkey trot so I should get some movement in.4
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