Maintenance breaks?

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thewalrus0
thewalrus0 Posts: 10 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Has anyone stopped part way through weight loss to maintain for a while and reset? Did it help you?

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  • Crafty_camper123
    Crafty_camper123 Posts: 1,440 Member
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    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks

    Check this thread out. Be sure to read the first few pages. It should answer your question. :)
  • walktalkdog
    walktalkdog Posts: 102 Member
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    I have several times, and it helped me tremendously psychologicially. Made me recommit to a calorie deficit more easily.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,437 Member
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    yes, I ate on maintenance from last November till recently. The benefits were I learned to eat on maintenance & learned I CAN eat this way always. I recently went back to deficit but only to lose lose .5 lb/wk.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    CarvedTones wrote: »
    I thought this was going to be asking about taking a break from maintenance...

    me too :smiley:
  • h1udd
    h1udd Posts: 623 Member
    edited May 2018
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    I also thought it was going to be taking a break from maintenance ... and thought, "what a stupid idea" .... then I thought harder about it and realised taking a break from maintanence is actually a a thing .. only its called "a holiday" or "vacation" and people generally come off maintanence for a week or two and gain several pounds for fun
  • fuzzylop72
    fuzzylop72 Posts: 651 Member
    edited May 2018
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    thewalrus0 wrote: »
    Has anyone stopped part way through weight loss to maintain for a while and reset? Did it help you?

    I've done 2 2-3 week diet breaks (usually when hunger levels are pretty high and stay that way for multiple weeks and i've been dieting for 6mo+). I feel like it helped a lot, and returned me to near normal. I do tend to eat on a very slight surplus when I diet break, though, so around 1.5lb of fat gain was expected but honestly in both cases, as soon as I returned to my deficit, I lost all the added weight pretty much immediately, suggesting that I didn't gain any fat.
  • Kathryn247
    Kathryn247 Posts: 570 Member
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    Evamutt wrote: »
    yes, I ate on maintenance from last November till recently. The benefits were I learned to eat on maintenance & learned I CAN eat this way always. I recently went back to deficit but only to lose lose .5 lb/wk.

    I did the same thing! It was great to see that I could maintain for 6 months, now I'm back at a deficit to lose the last 10 pounds. Losing weight is a major transformation, I think taking some time to check in with where you're at is beneficial.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
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    Part of the issue with losing weight is that we are in a caloric deficit. This - clearly - means that we are not eating as much food as we used to be eating. This affects us lots of ways.

    A big part of that is psychologically. If we implement re-feeds (studies indicate that two consecutive re-feed days seem to be most effective) there are tremendous benefits. Again, a big part of that is the psychological affect.

    Diets are hard....we are "going without" and "denying ourselves" and we sometimes hit the wall. If we have that re-feed then we know that we can push through for a day or two (or three) more and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    A re-feed is generally a day at Maintenance Caloric Intake with a higher Carbs load (that - Carbs - are generally what we increase to get to maintenance).

    Diet breaks are also a VERY useful tool - if implemented properly.

    Also, keep in mind as we diet down that our "maintenance number" changes. We were 230lbs....then 220lbs...then 190lbs...then 180 lbs.....the maintenance values for each changes. So, the other numbers (caloric surplus, caloric deficit) change as well. It is imperative to remember to keep that in mind! :-)

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