Diet break advice

RachsLosses

Hi All,

I have been dieting on a 1200 calorie intake and loosing 1lb on average per week since August last year.

I'm female, 23, currently 120lb and 5'5.

To get an idea of my diet at the moment I have had an average net cal intake of 1,050 over the last 30 days and I work out 4 or 5 times a week with an estimated burn of 300 cal a session, other than this I am mostly sedentary.

At the moment I am still loosing the 1lb a week, so I was wondering should I take a diet break (since i haven't plateaued) and if so, how long would be recommended, and do you have any experience?

I have a summer holiday where I would like to be in the same / better physical shape (aesthetically) in mid June.

So my plan was; Continuing with an intake of 1,200 - 1,300 daily calories (not net) and working out as normal, maybe cutting a few sessions here and there. I have a tattoo booked in on the 7th April which will take me out of action for a week from a workout perspective. Then come April 16 (2 months before my holiday) knuckling down and following a decent 8-week programme.

So my questions!

Does this sound reasonable?
Would you recommend it?
Should I just continue at my current effort levels since I am still loosing weight?
Realistically how much might I gain over the next ~3 weeks of being looser on the intake? (I know based on the numbers I've given this should be no gain at all but I'm in fear I will)
Have you taken a diet break before and what happened?

Any help is much appreciated, add my as a friend to take a look at my diary!

Francl27

Why would you even need to diet with your stats? Eat at maintenance. If you want more muscles, lift. At 1 lb loss a week with your stats, you're burning as much muscle mass than fat. Eat more.

RachsLosses

I was just looking at the post http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks and saw that body fat is a useful metric for the impact of a refeed/break. As of 11 March mine was 19.8%

RachsLosses

@Francl27 I want to diet as I want to get more prominent abs/muscles through reduction of body fat as opposed to muscle gain.

I just completed an 8 week performance enhancement course and my lifts (Squat and deadlifts) have increased (only by 10kg and 5kg respectively). Do you have any thoughts on how i am increasing in lifts but still loosing weight/in defecit?

This is something I too am struggling to understand.

JMcGee2018

A bf% of less than 20 on a woman puts her in the "athlete" category. If that's really your bf% (don't know how you calculated it), I'd stop dieting and start lifting to get a more defined look.

Francl27

RachsLosses wrote: »

@Francl27 I want to diet as I want to get more prominent abs/muscles through reduction of body fat as opposed to muscle gain.

I just completed an 8 week performance enhancement course and my lifts (Squat and deadlifts) have increased (only by 10kg and 5kg respectively). Do you have any thoughts on how i am increasing in lifts but still loosing weight/in defecit?

This is something I too am struggling to understand.

Strength is not the same as muscle growth. I know that I hit a barrier in my lifts when I was eating at a 500 calorie deficit after a while though.

Look at recomp instead of losing weight at this point.

mmapags

You are taking a far too aggressive approach and under eating. A diet break will help normalize your hormone and offset whatever adaptive thermogenesis has occured. I can't imagine why you would still think you need to lose weight as you are at a low normal BMI. That may well be your body fat at that weight, which is in a totally healthy range for a woman, but how did you measure it?

TavistockToad

RachsLosses wrote: »

@Francl27 I want to diet as I want to get more prominent abs/muscles through reduction of body fat as opposed to muscle gain.

I just completed an 8 week performance enhancement course and my lifts (Squat and deadlifts) have increased (only by 10kg and 5kg respectively). Do you have any thoughts on how i am increasing in lifts but still loosing weight/in defecit?

This is something I too am struggling to understand.

how much more are you planning on losing?

your deficit is too large, you risk losing muscle. a diet break is a good idea, and then reduce your deficit.

given your stats, do you think you have enough muscle mass for 'prominent abs' just by losing more weight?

RachsLosses

Thanks everyone so far! I measured by body fat using my scales at home (http://www.salterhousewares.co.uk/salter-9141-ultra-slim-body-analyser-scales.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImfLfhdeM2gIVRuAYCh39uA5VEAQYASABEgLV7_D_BwE)

I know body fat measurements on at-home scales are inacurate, the only info I have is that on a 10 Feb measurement I was 21.1% and then down to 19.8% on 11 March using these scales.

With regards to loosing @TavistockToad you are probably right, I guess I have the mindset that if I continue to strip body fat that will mean more defined muscles to the eye

mmapags

After looking at your profile pic, you are very thin and lacking in muscle mass. Your approach is flawed and unhealthy. You should be eating at or slightly above maintenance and weight training to regain lost muscle mass. If you want abs to show, you will need to develop them as well as more muscle mass in general before cutting body fat.

mmapags

RachsLosses wrote: »

@Francl27 I want to diet as I want to get more prominent abs/muscles through reduction of body fat as opposed to muscle gain.

I just completed an 8 week performance enhancement course and my lifts (Squat and deadlifts) have increased (only by 10kg and 5kg respectively). Do you have any thoughts on how i am increasing in lifts but still loosing weight/in defecit?

This is something I too am struggling to understand.

Neuro-muscular adaptation. They nerves and muscles are getting more efficient. This will level off and even go backwards if you stay on your current eating plan.