Diet break??

Calliope610

I have been a member of MFP since late 2012.

Just recently, I have started to see more and more references to a "diet break". Can someone explain this to me? I don't recall anything in the forums prior to the last 6-8months or so. Is this a new "thing", or just not so prevalent in the past?

Thanks,

cheryldumais

This link should take you to a huge long thread on this subject.

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

cwolfman13

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170918222235.htm

tcunbeliever

It's been a thing for a while, I did them every 6 weeks a few years ago...mostly just for my sanity...sticking with low calories all the time just plucks my nerves, so going to maintenance for a week after 6 weeks of deficit made the whole year of losing weight much more tolerable.

COGypsy

I've made liberal use of diet breaks while losing almost 60 pounds now. I didn't think of them in those specific terms, but I was benefiting from them in similar ways. My logic was that I was not too bad at losing weight, but I was horrible at keeping weight off. So every 15-20 pounds, I took a break from losing so that I could focus on maintaining that loss. Then once I was comfortable maintaining, I'd get back on the losing train and keep plugging along. Of course, this meant that I was taking longer than the 2 weeks usually recommended, but even so, taking that time was invaluable to my process. I sincerely think that having done the breaks, even if it slowed my overall progress, is what will ultimately make this go-round of weight loss sustainable.

BosFitlife

Diet break is good when you feel you needed one, nothing wrong with get off the tracking devices and put away your food scale away for a week then get back on track. the important about about diet break, cheat day, cheat meal is that don't go crazy, its not a field day for all you can eat, it's more enjoy life eat like a normal person, i usually recommend my clients to eye ball everything they eat, since you've been measuring food for a while, you should have a good idea on how much a cup of rice is, 5 oz of chicken, potato, etc so just estimate and be concision about what you're eating but not too worry about food choices.

try2again

BosFitlife wrote: »

Diet break is good when you feel you needed one, nothing wrong with get off the tracking devices and put away your food scale away for a week then get back on track. the important about about diet break, cheat day, cheat meal is that don't go crazy, its not a field day for all you can eat, it's more enjoy life eat like a normal person, i usually recommend my clients to eye ball everything they eat, since you've been measuring food for a while, you should have a good idea on how much a cup of rice is, 5 oz of chicken, potato, etc so just estimate and be concision about what you're eating but not too worry about food choices.

Those I am aware of who have used diet breaks successfully have continued to track carefully, just to maintenance level. A lot of damage could be done by eating the way many people consider "normal".

BosFitlife

try2again wrote: »

BosFitlife wrote: »

Diet break is good when you feel you needed one, nothing wrong with get off the tracking devices and put away your food scale away for a week then get back on track. the important about about diet break, cheat day, cheat meal is that don't go crazy, its not a field day for all you can eat, it's more enjoy life eat like a normal person, i usually recommend my clients to eye ball everything they eat, since you've been measuring food for a while, you should have a good idea on how much a cup of rice is, 5 oz of chicken, potato, etc so just estimate and be concision about what you're eating but not too worry about food choices.

Those I am aware of who have used diet breaks successfully have continued to track carefully, just to maintenance level. A lot of damage could be done by eating the way many people consider "normal".

haha guess the definition of normal is different from person to person.

jefamer2017

Lost 2lbs after coming off of a diet break. So it was good for me have another scheduled for August.

mmapags

jefamer2017 wrote: »

Lost 2lbs after coming off of a diet break. So it was good for me have another scheduled for August.

Lyle McDonald recommends every 12 weeks for men and every 8 weeks for women. The details and benefits are all in the link in the 2nd post. That is a long thread but most of the gold is in the first 2 pages.