Diet break??

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Calliope610
Calliope610 Posts: 3,771 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
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,

Replies

  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    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
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170918222235.htm
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    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
    COGypsy Posts: 1,174 Member
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    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
    BosFitlife Posts: 43 Member
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    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
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    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
    BosFitlife Posts: 43 Member
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    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
    jefamer2017 Posts: 416 Member
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    Lost 2lbs after coming off of a diet break. So it was good for me have another scheduled for August.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    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.

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