Do you need breaks from fat loss diets/ calorie deficit?

Guitarjon

Hey all. I’ve been using intermittent fasting for a while and calorie counting using MF for around 13 weeks. I’ve lost almost 3 stone. Still plenty more to go.

Earlier on during the week my stomach area felt a little tender and sick. I’d had a couple of low calorie days just from being so busy. I still ate, but know I didn’t have enough. I’m allowed 1980 a day but I usually do some form of exercise which boosts this number up. I only consumed 1300 for a number of days.

Later, I saw a video from and termite the faster who happens to be a personal fitnessness coach. In the video he suggested after a while of calorie deficit it was important to eat maintenance calories for a few weeks to give the chemicals in your body time to adjust.

I didn’t look any further into this but I got me thinking about my sick feeling, I’ve eaten much more in the last 4 days and feel better for it. However, I’ve put a couple of lbs back on.

What’s your experience on the subject of a temporary break/ maintenance?

Cahgetsfit

yes I think it is necessary. there is a lot of stuff for you to read about relating to this online. this guy Mark Carroll posted about it some time back https://www.cleanhealth.com.au/cheat-meals/

he's not the only one. And he's not just some tattoed instagrammer either. the Clean Health institute here in Australia is one of the top with top coaches and so on. I was trained by someone who used to be a coach there years ago and she would give me diet breaks too. This was a while back. Now I give myself diet breaks every so often.

Google it - there's heaps out there.

Personally I think it's great. And it won't kill your progress. I have actually continued to lose when on a proper break (not a crazy eat everything in sight and not log insane break, but a normal civilized break at maintenance)

kami3006

I think there are great benefits to it. Here is an excellent mfp thread on the topic:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

lynn_glenmont

While I agree there can be benefits from a refeed (hormonal recovery, as part of physical recovery, as a buffer against overwork injuries, and a variety of psychological/emotional/mental benefits), I'm not sure that there's a connection between being in a calorie deficit for three months and having your "stomach area" feel "tender and sick."

Could you clarify what you mean by that? Do you mean something along the lines of nausea? Do you mean the muscles in your abdomen were sore? Do you mean tender to the touch or (more concerning) painful after being touched (rebound tenderness)?

Or do you just mean your stomach felt empty because you weren't eating enough?

Guitarjon

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

While I agree there can be benefits from a refeed (hormonal recovery, as part of physical recovery, as a buffer against overwork injuries, and a variety of psychological/emotional/mental benefits), I'm not sure that there's a connection between being in a calorie deficit for three months and having your "stomach area" feel "tender and sick."

Could you clarify what you mean by that? Do you mean something along the lines of nausea? Do you mean the muscles in your abdomen were sore? Do you mean tender to the touch or (more concerning) painful after being touched (rebound tenderness)?

Or do you just mean your stomach felt empty because you weren't eating enough?

Hi lynn, I think I used the word tender wrongly. More along the lines of it just feeling a bit like belly ache. It was sore to touch.