Efficacy of Diet Break for Weight Loss Plateau

Rayanne203

Hey guys!

5'7 female current weight 179-180. I have been eating in a calorie deficit since February and have lost 20 lbs. I am now in a plateau for the last month and my weight has not budged. I am tired and hungry all the time to the point where I have lost motivation to workout. I am allowed 1650 calories in my deficit to lose 1lb a week, but still finding it hard to stay within that. I am thinking of taking a diet break to "reset" my weight loss.

I have found this article https://www.student-aesthetics.com/articles/diet-breaks-to-keep-losing-fat-explained/ and I am wondering how true it is.

has anyone tried a diet break? was it successful? I don't want to lose my progress. I still plan on going to the gym and focusing less on cardio and more on strength as well.

MikePTY

I did a two week diet break and I'm very happy I did. I don't know about all of details of the science regarding hunger hormones, etc that are in article, but I know that it was a much needed mental and physical break for me. I came back feeling better physically and mentally. I gained a couple of pounds of water weight, but once I went back on my diet that all went away quick and I started losing more below even my lowest before the break.

If you are tired, hungry, and struggling to stay within your goals, a diet break sounds like a really good choice for you at the moment.

kimny72

This thread should help:

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

tcunbeliever

I'm on a diet break right now because I just suddenly lost all energy this week and the appetite has spiraled out of control!!!

For a diet break you eat at maintenance, so you aren't going to gain weight, if you gain weight you aren't eating at maintenance. If you keep losing weight, then you still aren't eating at maintenance, but you might be eating at a smaller deficit. All the calculators are based on averages, so diet breaks actually are good for helping you find your individual maintenance level of intake.

Plus, for me they improve long term adherence. I just can only fight off the hungries for so many days before I'm going to cave, so it's better to increase the calories and keep them away for a week in a controlled manner.

virtuallybookish

Hey Rayanne! Have you changed your calorie intake to adapt for a lower BMR from losing 20ilbs? Now that you weight less, you're going to be burning less calories doing nothing

If you have, you did mention that you're working out as well! It might be worth getting some scales that measure your body composition as you could possibly be burning fat while putting on muscle as well (and muscle weighs more than fat)

One important thing to remember though is that your body is ultimately a machine and works through energy-in energy-out, if you have a net-deficit of 500 calories a day, you should be losing 1ilb a week of fat! This is why I think a diet-break is unlikely to do anything that halt your weight loss for a week or two and make it even harder to get back into the diet once you're done (I always find it so difficult realising I have to stop eating all the delicious snacks I love!)

You mentioned you're finding it difficult to stay within your 1650 calories, I'd highly recommend taking a look at the food you eat and potentially replacing some carbs with protein, which will not only keep you feeling full for longer, but also help burn calories simply from being harder to absorb by your body!

Another thing to keep in mind is that the calories burned through exercise registered through this site are approximations only, so if you find yourself thinking "Oh, I ran 2 miles I guess I can eat an extra 300 calories" it's possible that you actually burnt a lot less than that

Good luck with the weight loss!

kimny72

virtuallybookish wrote: »

Hey Rayanne! Have you changed your calorie intake to adapt for a lower BMR from losing 20ilbs? Now that you weight less, you're going to be burning less calories doing nothing

If you have, you did mention that you're working out as well! It might be worth getting some scales that measure your body composition as you could possibly be burning fat while putting on muscle as well (and muscle weighs more than fat)

One important thing to remember though is that your body is ultimately a machine and works through energy-in energy-out, if you have a net-deficit of 500 calories a day, you should be losing 1ilb a week of fat! This is why I think a diet-break is unlikely to do anything that halt your weight loss for a week or two and make it even harder to get back into the diet once you're done (I always find it so difficult realising I have to stop eating all the delicious snacks I love!)

You mentioned you're finding it difficult to stay within your 1650 calories, I'd highly recommend taking a look at the food you eat and potentially replacing some carbs with protein, which will not only keep you feeling full for longer, but also help burn calories simply from being harder to absorb by your body!

Another thing to keep in mind is that the calories burned through exercise registered through this site are approximations only, so if you find yourself thinking "Oh, I ran 2 miles I guess I can eat an extra 300 calories" it's possible that you actually burnt a lot less than that

Good luck with the weight loss!

You should really read the link I posted. There is evidence that a specific diet break can balance hormones after a period of sustained calorie deficit, the stress of which can lower CO.

Also, a woman eating at a deficit isn't going to be able to build enough muscle to offset fat loss.

Having said that, it wouldn't hurt for OP to revisit her logging accuracy. 1650 should not be maintenance for her given her stats.

cheryldumais

I was stalled after a year of dieting for about 3 months and did a diet break. It definately made a difference. Once I finished a week at maintenance (I gained a couple pounds during the break) I went back to a deficit and started losing again. It definately helped. I will say however though that I was not able to go back to 1200 calories like I had been doing. I ended up at 1300 instead. Which may explain the slower rate of loss from there on.

I also vote for recalculating your calories after a substantial loss if you haven't done that yet. Good luck.

MikePTY

virtuallybookish wrote: »

Hey Rayanne! Have you changed your calorie intake to adapt for a lower BMR from losing 20ilbs? Now that you weight less, you're going to be burning less calories doing nothing

If you have, you did mention that you're working out as well! It might be worth getting some scales that measure your body composition as you could possibly be burning fat while putting on muscle as well (and muscle weighs more than fat)

One important thing to remember though is that your body is ultimately a machine and works through energy-in energy-out, if you have a net-deficit of 500 calories a day, you should be losing 1ilb a week of fat! This is why I think a diet-break is unlikely to do anything that halt your weight loss for a week or two and make it even harder to get back into the diet once you're done (I always find it so difficult realising I have to stop eating all the delicious snacks I love!)

You mentioned you're finding it difficult to stay within your 1650 calories, I'd highly recommend taking a look at the food you eat and potentially replacing some carbs with protein, which will not only keep you feeling full for longer, but also help burn calories simply from being harder to absorb by your body!

Another thing to keep in mind is that the calories burned through exercise registered through this site are approximations only, so if you find yourself thinking "Oh, I ran 2 miles I guess I can eat an extra 300 calories" it's possible that you actually burnt a lot less than that

Good luck with the weight loss!

There's a lot of inaccuracies in this. First, while it is true that weight affects BMR, for her current level of weight loss, it is less than 100 calories than her previous BMR. And if her BMR is lower, that means she would need to eat even less calories, and she is already struggling to hit her goal and feels tired and hungry while doing so. Lowering her calories in is not the answer to that.

Home body composition scales are notoriously unreliable. They are really for entertainment purposes only. You can't make any real observation about change in body composition. Muscle doesn't "weigh more" than fat, as a pound of muscle and a pound of fat both weigh, well, a pound. Muscle is denser than fat, so it means if a person added muscle they may look leaner, but it is very hard to add muscle in a calorie deficit. She may have gotten a few "beginner gains" when she first started, but it is unlikely she would be now, so that is not what is stalling her weight loss.

Macro composition can certainly have an effect on hunger. But macros affect different people in different ways, and carbs are not always to blame. I know I personally find carbs filling, and fats to not be filling. Protein doesn't burn more calories than carbs. There's a reason they are both 4 calories per gram.

The longer you are in a sustained deficit for, the more your body fights back, and one of the way it fights back is by increasing hunger hormones so that you will feed it more. A diet break can help reset those hunger hormones, so when you go back to eating at a deficit, you won't feel as hungry.

Rayanne203

Thank you all for your responses! I have set my calories on here for maintenance which allows me 2170 calories. I am gonna stay in maintenance for a week or two then go back into my deficit. Fingers crossed I can reset and start to see some results afterwards.

Rayanne203

kimny72 wrote: »

This thread should help:

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

Very helpful thank you!