Coach assigned Diet Break....

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leanjogreen18
leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
edited January 2019 in Health and Weight Loss
So my coach put me on a diet break yesterday. I was thinking about journaling here for those of you like me were/are trepidacious about starting a diet break.

I was swimming along perfect with my diet and losing average of 2lb per week for 115 or so days. I'm not suffering from diet fatigue, or having any issues with adherence. I have a flexible eating plan but I stick within my weekly deficit. So I was surprised that he suggested a diet break now. Especially when I'm litterally 3lbs away from my first milestone:) But I trust him and there is good evidence of the benefits so here we go.

I would like some feedback if ya'll think this is beneficial to others as well as for myself to read my diet break journey?

There is a wealth of information if one searches the forums so this maybe redundant. Thoughts?

Edit: link for diet break benefits...

https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

Edit 2: link to lengthy mfp discussion for additional information

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

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    I take a break once per month at my TOM, which is horrendous due to uterine fibroids, but if I didn't do that, sure, after 4 months sounds like a good time to take a break.

    How many more pounds do you need to lose to reach your goal weight?
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2019
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I take a break once per month at my TOM, which is horrendous due to uterine fibroids, but if I didn't do that, sure, after 4 months sounds like a good time to take a break.

    How many more pounds do you need to lose to reach your goal weight?

    57 for my 1st goal then we'll reacess after that.

    For clarity I agree with my coach on the diet break. I just wondered if it's beneficial to journal it here for others?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
    edited January 2019
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    I think the journal is a great idea. You may want to have this link from the long Refeed thread available if people start asking a lot of questions, most of which would be answered fully in the thread; unless you want that kind of interaction. Good luck with this! Enjoy your food(s) :)

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    I think the journal is a great idea. You may want to have this link from the long Refeed thread available if people start asking a lot of questions, most of which would be answered fully in the thread; unless you want that kind of interaction. Good luck with this! Enjoy your food(s) :)

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

    Thank you, that's a good idea. I added it to the OP
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited January 2019
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    I think it's a great idea to journal it here. I think it will be helpful for others to see the impact of the diet break on the scale and on your training, both during the break and afterwards.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    Just curious what kind of sport you are involved in, or do you mean more of a personal trainer?

    Looking forward to following your progress :)
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2019
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    Ok so I got a little feed back from a couple vetran posters here and I value their opinion so I've decided to go ahead.

    I'll start with yesterday which was Day 1.

    F52 5'4"
    SW 235ish
    (Hired my coach at 219 11.1.18)
    CW 202 (yesterday)
    GW 145ish (will reacess when I get there)

    My coach bumped me up from 1264 average to 1500 calories. I cycled my calories so 1500 was a normal Wednesday for me. I felt comfortable knowing how much food that was. My protien stayed at 100g, fat upped to 50g the rest Carbs. So basically 240ish of extra fat and carbs which is a ok with me:) If I continue to lose weight he will bump it up a bit more and I'm not sure how long I will be on this break. I will still count calories. I'm not weighing everything which I wasn't doing prior to hiring my coach and he is fine with that as long as the scale does what we think it should be doing.

    I'm an excellent dieter but horrible at maintaining so I lose regain. The diet break will be my first ever attempt to maintain while counting calories. I hope to gain the confidence that I can maintain my weight. I'm fully prepared for the scale to go up a little as I understand normal fluctuations.

    My weight loss has been going great since I started 9.20.18 with an average just under 2lb a week loss. I have a flexable diet but I stay determined to stay at my weekly calorie goal. I was doing swimmingly in weight loss before I hired Sidesteel but I knew I needed to add strength training and I liked his style. I was surprised when he mentioned taking a diet break. I thought that would come along when I was getting lax in my tracking or diet fatigue set in. He explained that sometimes catching it before needing to put a bandage on is better. So here we go.

    I will try to log here daily with my stats/feelings so we can see my progress which hopefully will be beneficial to me to journal and get feedback and to others who maybe thinking of taking a diet break.

    I will refer back to OP for links to explain better than I can why's of taking a diet break!

    I'm open to any and all questions/comments and I'll defer to vetrans here if I don't know the answer:).

    Edit: Yesterday lifting was normal no noticable difference but it was day 1 of higher calories:)
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    Just curious what kind of sport you are involved in, or do you mean more of a personal trainer?

    Looking forward to following your progress :)

    I hired a fitness coach for strength training and help with setting me up for maintenance.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    leanjogreen18 wrote: »
    Ok so I got a little feed back from a couple vetran posters here and I value their opinion so I've decided to go ahead.

    I'll start with yesterday which was Day 1.

    F52 5'4"
    SW 235ish
    (Hired my coach at 219 11.1.18)
    CW 202 (yesterday)
    GW 145ish (will reacess when I get there)

    My coach bumped me up from 1264 average to 1500 calories. I cycled my calories so 1500 was a normal Wednesday for me. I felt comfortable knowing how much food that was. My protien stayed at 100g, fat upped to 50g the rest Carbs. So basically 240ish of extra fat and carbs which is a ok with me:) If I continue to lose weight he will bump it up a bit more and I'm not sure how long I will be on this break. I will still count calories. I'm not weighing everything which I wasn't doing prior to hiring my coach and he is fine with that as long as the scale does what we think it should be doing.

    I'm an excellent dieter but horrible at maintaining so I lose regain. The diet break will be my first ever attempt to maintain while counting calories. I hope to gain the confidence that I can maintain my weight. I'm fully prepared for the scale to go up a little as I understand normal fluctuations.

    My weight loss has been going great since I started 9.20.18 with an average just under 2lb a week loss. I have a flexable diet but I stay determined to stay at my weekly calorie goal. I was doing swimmingly in weight loss before I hired Sidesteel but I knew I needed to add strength training and I liked his style. I was surprised when he mentioned taking a diet break. I thought that would come along when I was getting lax in my tracking or diet fatigue set in. He explained that sometimes catching it before needing to put a bandage on is better. So here we go.

    I will try to log here daily with my stats/feelings so we can see my progress which hopefully will be beneficial to me to journal and get feedback and to others who maybe thinking of taking a diet break.

    I will refer back to OP for links to explain better than I can why's of taking a diet break!

    I'm open to any and all questions/comments and I'll defer to vetrans here if I don't know the answer:).

    I just wanted to say congrats on your loss thus far and that it's fantastic that you hired Sidesteel. That man knows his business!
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    I do 4 weeks deficit/1 week maintenance, it just makes the deficit manageable.

    Since I have a ways to goal weight I'm wondering what schedule of diet breaks I will be on.

    I suspect he will put me on every 6-12 weeks but we haven't discussed it yet. I'm really ok with whatever:)

    Before I broke my foot in 2017 I was 6 months in a deficit and I felt like I could go on, actually I feel like I can continue in a defict now.

    I'm super interested to see what this break actually does in terms of adhearance, weight, training, hunger etc. even if it doesn't do as much as I think psychologically I do understand the physiological reason for it.
  • lalalacroix
    lalalacroix Posts: 834 Member
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    I'm very interested in following your break journal. I am also a terrific dieter but not super great at maintenance. I had decided when I started again to work in diet breaks as well but really haven't been sure how often to take them.
  • shrinkingletters
    shrinkingletters Posts: 1,008 Member
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    I only wanted to jump into say WOW you're doing great! I love your approach to this!
  • Talan79
    Talan79 Posts: 782 Member
    edited January 2019
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    First congratulations on your loss so far. I follow a few coaches that coach people to bodybuilding stage. I’ve seen diet breaks, a few days spent at maintenance or weekly refeeds. The idea is to get your hormone levels back up. In a calorie deficit, your hormone levels change, the idea is to get them back up. Consistently is key. Trust your coach & the process.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2019
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    Day 2 - 1493 Calories Protein 119g, Carbs 138g, Fat 52g

    DBSW 202 (SW from here on out will be from Day 1 of my diet Break)
    CW 201.6

    Interesting to see the scale go down. I thought it would go up just from volume but my weekly deficit ended up being 1300ish so that makes since. What it does over the next few days will dertermine what my coach does in terms of raising my calories or leaving them at 1500.

    I woke up very hungry which is unusual for me. I tend to get hungry around 10-10:30 after having a protien coffee around 7-8am. Today I had breakfast and my protein coffee and I clocked in a whoping 863 calories by 8am yikes.

    I had a protien bar around noon of 200 calories

    Early dinner was around 430 calories.

    I was surprised to see my protien go up since I was excited to eat just a bit more carbs (I normally eat plenty of carbs but I was excited to have more). It was cold and rainy out so my normal walk/hike (half my route is on trail other half a paved walkway) was put on hold. I don't know if it was the weather or just me but today was a very lazy day in terms of activity, also a rest day from lifting.

    I don't feel like I'm on a diet break. I'm still logging my calories and still thinking in terms of macros. I don't weigh all of my foods as my diet was progressing as it should so we haven't introduced that yet for everything. Had I not had a 1500 calorie Wednesday during my deficit I can see how this is very good for one to see what maintainance meals would look like and give one confidence and practice with a little more calories. I certainly see the benefits for me.

    I felt pretty full all day but also seemed to make room for more food when the time came:)

    It will be interesting to see what the scale does tomorrow after 2 days at 1500 calories.

    Edit: I will be walking a 5k on Friday.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited January 2019
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    I will join the others in the confusion. If you were losing an average of 2lbs per week you should be eating an extra 1000 calories per day during your break. Eating 250ish more may be a treat but it won't be a diet break.

    At your present weight you really need a proper diet break because 2lbs per week will be slightly aggressive very soon.

    ETA: Depending on how much more you have to lose it might be a little aggressive now but that is one of the reasons to take a break.

  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2019
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    I was thinking of this thread and something is confusing me. I know you don't weigh foods, so that likely figures some into SideSteel's calorie level rec for you, but... you've been losing two pounds a week. And you're eating 1500-1600 for maintenance? Something there is very off, unless we're using the term diet break in a different way. Then again, I don't think we are.

    I can't see how these numbers are adding up with you only having 240 extra calories while you've been losing 2 pounds a week. That amount of deficit would result in a half pound loss if everything was measured accurately.

    It's hard to know exactly what your numbers are.

    How long is this break for? I'm guessing that if it's two weeks or less, your loss pattern will continue if you're only adding very small amounts of food, and you're not actually on a real diet break. It's possible that SideSteel might want to recalibrate your calories.

    Just thinking out loud here, trying to make sense of things. I know he knows what he's doing!

    I think he’s watching the scale to see what it does to give him a better idea. I don’t weigh foods, I eat out a lot and cycle my calories. He left me alone in that I was successfully losing before he came on board and didn’t want to change too much.

    He mentioned 2 weeks to even a month and increasing my calories depending on the scale. He suspected I’d still lose a little.

    So you are correct this is probably the pre diet break and I guess I wasn’t thinking it through. I’ll stop journaling since it isn’t really a “diet break” yet so as not to confuse.


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