Diet break or reverse diet?

MyEvolvingJourney

I've been looking into a concept that is fairly new to me. I've been learning about the benefits of taking a diet break for your metabolism. But I'm also seeing information about reverse dieting. Which do you do or recommend?

beatyfamily1

Reverse dieting is for people who have been eating fewer calories than is really appropriate for their bodies for an extended period of time. If that sounds like you, then reverse dieting might be an option for you. Diet breaks are really just a maintenance period. A diet break isn’t necessary if you are losing fat at a slower rate. In my opinion, if you feel like you need a diet break then your current diet isn’t really sustainable for long term. It’s really up to you what you want to do. All you can do is give it a try and see how it works for you.

MyEvolvingJourney

Thank you @beatyfamily1!

AnnPT77

MyEvolvingJourney wrote: »

I've been looking into a concept that is fairly new to me. I've been learning about the benefits of taking a diet break for your metabolism. But I'm also seeing information about reverse dieting. Which do you do or recommend?

Have you looked at this thread? It would be a good place to ask questions, too.

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

A diet break has more potential benefits than just "a break from an unsustainable diet" as the first few pages of the above thread will make clear. Not everyone needs to take diet breaks, but they can be useful to some, for a variety of reasons.

I also think reverse dieting and diet breaks have different functions. Yes, reverse dieting can be a way to back slowly out of over-restriction in hopes of one's energy level improving, but it's also a method of coming out of any calorie deficit of more than trivial size (but still not over-restrictive) and going to maintenance calories once near goal weight. (It may be done a bit more rapidly in the regular maintenance scenario, but it's the same basic idea).

Personally, I didn't take diet breaks while losing (loss didn't slow beyond expected at any point), but did a bit of "reverse diet" method to get to maintenance a couple of years ago, and found it helpful in that context.