Diet Breaks

bmeadows380

This article on the portal front page is rather timely for me:

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/taking-break-from-diet-lose-more-weight/

It goes along with another thread that I've been following a few months:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

The refeed thread is very, very long - 191 pages and counting; but its got a ton of useful information and a couple of really knowledgeable folks posting there. They are more focused on body building, but they will be kind and answer questions for those of us who are starting at a much higher weight and focusing on weight loss.

The gist of it is that long term dieting and deficits can be countering diet expectations; basically put, taking occasional 2 week breaks from deficit to eat at maintenance can be helpful in keeping steady in your weight loss. Another benefit is that it helps you practice eating at maintenance so that when you hit your goal weight, it will be easier to make that transition (a lot of people will tell you that once you hit goal, maintenance eating can be very hard to adjust to!)

I think I'm going to give it a try. I had wanted to wait until I hit 260 lbs, but I've spent the last 2 months yo-yoing around 272 lbs and just not getting anywhere. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I find myself resenting my calorie limit - I'm not getting satiated on my limit, no matter what I try. So I had to take a firm stance with myself this weekend and to realize that my brain is just tired.

the problem is, since I'm struggling with water weight issues, I'm not exactly sure where my maintenance calories are. So I'm going to reset to 1800 from my current 1400 and force myself to tighten up my logging which had gotten very sloppy lately (which is hard to admit to myself!). I'll see where that takes me, and if its not maintenance, then I'll up a little more until I can find maintenance. I'm hoping the folks on the refeed thread will also give me some suggestions on what to do with the macros while I'm doing this.

then I can hit the deficit thing again the first of May, and hopefully I'll take off again. I really want to lose another 50 lbs this year and get down into a 18W by Christmas. I'm into a 22W now and flirting with a 20W, so I don't think that's too aggressive of a goal!

theowlbox

I've been reading a lot about this too. It's very heartening to hear that instead of going off, you can step to the side for a little and then get back on. I know youve been having a tough time lately., and I hope this helps you out! It's really tough on people to go so long adhering to a strict regimen. Hopefully this will do you some good. Report back on how it's working for you?

meldwel

I just saw that thread yesterday and read a little about it. I was a bit overwhelmed, like you said by so many entries. I’m just in the second month of my journey but I like to read what people have been through so I can prepare myself when I get to that point. Hope it works for you @bmeadows380 !!

MzCara148

I also read that. I am less than two months in also but I am wondering about taking regular, planned “maintenance” breaks. Definitely an intriguing concept.

crazykatlady820

I took a diet break a few weeks ago. After about 4 months in I was starting to feel ravenous and cranky quite a bit. I read about the diet break and thought I’d give it a go. I did it for just under 14 days and it was glorious! I’ve also been losing at a more rapid pace ever since I went back to my deficit and the weird thing about that is I decided to up my calories by about 250-300 after my diet break was over. The best part, though, is that I don’t feel ravenous or hangry anymore. I actually scheduled another diet break in my calendar.

Suffice it to say I’m a big fan of the diet break.

bmeadows380

Here's my update:

I had raised my calorie limit to 1800 two weeks ago, trying to get a feel for where my maintenance level was, but this weekend blew it for me and I'm still working on getting the water weight off. I asked around, and apparently, it can take as much as a week to lose the water weight gained from 1 day's binge, and I was off the tracks 2 days in a row, which doubles that time

The suggestion was made to me to go ahead and use calculated values and up to maintenance based upon those and hold that for however long I want with a minimum of 1 to 2 weeks, then go back to a deficit based on that number, monitor and adjust as needed.

MyFitnessPal gives me a maintenance of 2420 based on a sedentary lifestyle. Most people give a rule of thumb that your maintenance will be 12-14 x your body weight, but that gave me way too much calories and I was told that for larger people, that rule of thumb breaks down, and the formula has to be adjusted for %BF.

Lyle McDonald gives this:

BF%.....................__20%__|__25%__|__30%__|__35%__|__40%__|__45%__|__50%
RMR (cal/lb).......__10.0__|__9.5___|__9.0__|___8.5__|___8.0__|___7.5__|___7.0
RMR (cal/kg)......___22___|__21___|__20__|___19__|___17.5__|___16.5__|___15.5


So, if my body fat % (BF%) is 40%, then I'd multiply my current weight of 267 lbs by 8 to get my RMR of 2136; if its 45%, RMR would be 2002, and if its 50%, the RMR would be 1869. The RMR value is the value my body needs for basic function with absolutely no activity.

So this has to be modified by activity multipliers:

...Activity Level...|...............Description...............................|...RMR Multiplier
Sedentary.............| Sitting, talking, reading, watching TV...| 1.3-1.4
Light......................| Office work with moderate walking......| 1.4-1.5
Moderate..............| Busy lifestyle w/ lots of walking............| 1.6-1.7


Since I'm very sedentary with my office job and not working out regularly, I"m going to assume the 1.3 modifier. This gives me a maintenance range of:

50% (7.0 * 267 lbs) = 1869 RMR * 1.3 = 2430 calories maintenance

45% (7.5 * 267 lbs) = 2002 RMR * 1.3 = 2600 calories maintenance

40% (8.0 * 267 lbs) = 2136 RMR * 1.3 = 2777 calories maintenance


I really have absolutely no idea where my body fat % is, but I'm going to assume its still pretty high, even with the 100 lbs lost since I still have another 100 lbs to go and I don't work out regularly. So, I'm going to assume its somewhere between 45% and 50%, and use 2500 calories as my maintenance level.

I'm raising my calories to the 2500 today, and will stick with that for 2 weeks as a full diet break. Then I'll go back down to 2000 for another 2 weeks, then go on down to 1500 from there and see if my loss rate picks back up. I can hold to that for a while and then adjust as necessary to get the rate of loss I want. Its said that the safe weight loss rate should be 0.5 - 1% of your body weight, though if you have a lot of weight to lose, you can even go up to 1.5% (the really obese can safely go above that 2 lbs/wk recommendation). I'd still like to be losing the 2 lbs/wk at this point in my efforts, so hopefully by June, I'll have this figured out!

This plan would put me back into full deficit on May 3rd. I'd love to be down to around 240-245 lbs by August 24 - I see my doctor on that date, and I'd love to be at that level when I see her, though she's going to be ecstatic with where I'm at now. I think she's more excited about the amount of weight I've lost than I am! lol


wish me luck - and goodness gracious, 2500 calories is a LOT of food! lol