Should a diet break really be six months?

durhammfp

The mfp blog recently posted an article that states one should not lose more than about 5%-10% body weight before taking a diet break, and that the diet break should be six months long. Here is a link to that post for reference (under point 3):

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/5-ways-to-change-your-set-point-weight/

If six months really is needed for resetting leptin/ghrelin levels, then I suppose I don't have a problem with it. I mean, true maintenance is for life anyway so from that perspective six months is not that long. However, anything else I have read has suggested that two weeks is an adequate amount of time for a full and meaningful diet break. I did take a two week break last January after losing about 8% of my body weight and found it helpful. I also thought I was being pretty conservative at the time about it.

What do y'all think? Are six month breaks really necessary to prevent hormone-induced regain?

cwolfman13

No

sardelsa

I don't agree with that. In fact I wouldn't really pay much attention most of the articles posted on the blog as they contain quite a bit of false information.

I usually take a diet break for 1-2 weeks, every 8-12 weeks (more often when I am leaner)

This thread might help you out and contains useful links if you want more info

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

try2again

It's always been my understanding that 2 weeks is enough to reset hormone levels. Sadly, the MFP blog is about the least reliable source of info on here.

deannalfisher

so in my experience and working with the team i work with - they do short pinpoint fat loss cycles (28 days with a 2 week break 28 days) and they recommend repeating that cycle no more than twice a year (but it varies depending on how much you have to lose) - but on those 28 days they take you in a pretty hefty cut

for example i did one in November - i went from an avg of weight stable and 2800cal a day to 1500cal - and lost 8lbs in that initial 28days - which i didn't opt to do the second 28 days - i've maintained that weight loss; even though my calories are now back up at the 2800cal range

ahoy_m8

Set point theory is decades old, and, while biological mechanisms that seem to be in harmony with this idea do exist, they play a minimal role in determining a person's weight. Environment and self control dominate. I really would not spend much energy on the idea of set point theory. Diet breaks, however, are a great idea! 1-2 weeks every 8-13 weeks depending on how lean you are to start with (slower loss, more diet breaks with lower BF%, generally speaking).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990627/
"In a world of abundance, a prudent lifestyle and thus cognitive control are preconditions of effective biological control and a stable body weight. This idea also impacts future genetic research on body weight regulation. Searching for the genetic background of excess weight gain in a world of abundance is misleading since the possible biological control is widely overshadowed by the effect of the environment."

TanyaHooton

On MFP read the forums, not the blog.

kimny72

Unfortunately, the MFP blog is a poor source of information. However if it gets someone to ask the question here, I suppose all's well that ends well!

Check out the link in @sardelsa 's post, that thread is gold

MikePTY

A professional blog like MFPs blog relies on constant content. That means that the writers have to write a certain amount of articles per day, which leads to a lot of needing to fill content for content's sake. I'll just say that sometimes it doesn't always lead to the most carefully scientifically backed takes out there. While there is sometimes good stuff on the blog, I would get most of your info from these forums, where people tend to be a lot more careful with the info they are giving out.

pierinifitness

Discover for yourself while keeping a vigilant eye on daily weigh-in and continuing to log your food consumption. Study this information daily, it only takes a few minutes, then decide and act accordingly.

Then write your own article and maybe share it here.

Wishing you the best.

avlucia

I'm very interested in this theory though. Does anyone have any reliable sources on this topic? I tried googling site:.gov and site:.org for "diet break" but didn't find anything that really talked about what it does for your body, my conclusion from that would be: nothing that can be proven - but thought I'd ask anyway.

Fflpnari

I read that and thought it was a joke. I understand a week or 2 at maintenance for a break but any longer......

kimny72

avlucia wrote: »

I'm very interested in this theory though. Does anyone have any reliable sources on this topic? I tried googling site:.gov and site:.org for "diet break" but didn't find anything that really talked about what it does for your body, my conclusion from that would be: nothing that can be proven - but thought I'd ask anyway.

Check out the link in @sardelsa 's post. There is lots of science in that thread.

NovusDies

I am not going to read that because... well... mfp blog...

There are some scenarios where a prolonged diet break might be necessary but none that I know of have anything to do with normal healthy weight loss.