Deficit Breaks
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ConfidentRaven wrote: »I thought I would do a check in and follow up on how things have gone post deficit. I had a little trouble getting fully back on track, very similar to what I experienced when I first started. I’m back fully on track and I’ve been eating at less of a deficit than before the break. However, I’m now losing at a healthier and more consistent pace, with far less binge moments.
I’ve set my calorie goals to lose a pound a week, but often eat to lose two a week. I’m enjoying having this flexibility and wish that I had done it this way from the start.
Good work! You are extremely wise to mine every new experience for ways to refine and adapt. You have proven that a period of struggle is not a reason to shut down it is an opportunity for growth.2 -
I have a question that doesn't really belong here but might kind of be relevant to this thread. I'm changing my routine and my "normal" foods to see how it affects my satiety and my weightloss. For example I've eaten 40g porridge every morning since forever. I eat at 6am and then have lunch at 1pm and porridge keeps me full for those 7 hours. I'm now trying a more protein-rich breakfast for the same calories, to see if anything changes. Have any of you made specific changes to your diet? Is anyone like me and eats the same breakfast and lunch most days? My dinners are widely varied because I love to cook and family appreciate my cooking, but the other meals are pretty much the same everyday. Does this impact on weightloss? Do our bodies become accustomed to certain foods? I'm also trying to increase my lunch calories and decrease my dinner calories to spread the distribution more evenly over the day. It's just an experiment to see if it has an impact but wondered what your experiences had been.2
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First off, 7 hours on 40g of porridge is impressive! I totally agree in trying to find satiating foods, and foods that your body feels good and functions well on in the long-term. As a creature of habit, I do eat the same foods regularly for weekday breakfast and lunch, and mix dinner and weekend meals up, however on a week to week basis the meals are pretty similar. I also try to eat more early in the day to allow my body a chance to finish processing the food at night, and to hopefully start using my excess fat as fuel. Some foods just keep calling my name and don’t ever seem to have a reasonable full signal for me. I have to really watch these foods, either through portion control or by eliminating them entirely. I prefer portion control, but sometimes things are just bad for me period.1
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maiomaio71 wrote: »I have a question that doesn't really belong here but might kind of be relevant to this thread. I'm changing my routine and my "normal" foods to see how it affects my satiety and my weightloss. For example I've eaten 40g porridge every morning since forever. I eat at 6am and then have lunch at 1pm and porridge keeps me full for those 7 hours. I'm now trying a more protein-rich breakfast for the same calories, to see if anything changes. Have any of you made specific changes to your diet? Is anyone like me and eats the same breakfast and lunch most days? My dinners are widely varied because I love to cook and family appreciate my cooking, but the other meals are pretty much the same everyday. Does this impact on weightloss? Do our bodies become accustomed to certain foods? I'm also trying to increase my lunch calories and decrease my dinner calories to spread the distribution more evenly over the day. It's just an experiment to see if it has an impact but wondered what your experiences had been.
I am a big advocate of experimentation. Figuring out the ins and outs of how to control your hunger is highly beneficial. Even when something doesn't work you learn. Comparing a new breakfast to your normal porridge should be really interesting.
I eat pretty similarly for 4 days a week and then it varies more on the other 3. It is not the same exact food each day but a close proximity. A typical variation is a huge salad vs a huge bowl of cooked vegetables.
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maiomaio71 wrote: »I have a question that doesn't really belong here but might kind of be relevant to this thread. I'm changing my routine and my "normal" foods to see how it affects my satiety and my weightloss. For example I've eaten 40g porridge every morning since forever. I eat at 6am and then have lunch at 1pm and porridge keeps me full for those 7 hours. I'm now trying a more protein-rich breakfast for the same calories, to see if anything changes. Have any of you made specific changes to your diet? Is anyone like me and eats the same breakfast and lunch most days? My dinners are widely varied because I love to cook and family appreciate my cooking, but the other meals are pretty much the same everyday. Does this impact on weightloss? Do our bodies become accustomed to certain foods? I'm also trying to increase my lunch calories and decrease my dinner calories to spread the distribution more evenly over the day. It's just an experiment to see if it has an impact but wondered what your experiences had been.
For me, one of the first changes I made back in March 2019 was to not eat a drive through breakfast burrito as my morning meal. At nearly 600 calories, a breakfast burrito was too big a hit for my daily calories and I was doing it five days a week. Now I eat my pre-measured baggie of cereal with 1% milk at my desk each morning. The cereal may vary but it is pretty much the same routine each work day.
Lunch is pretty much the same because I freeze left over dinner portions and just throw a frozen entrée into my lunch bag each morning. It helps with logging, too, because the items are already in my diary and are typically smaller portions.
Like you, @maiomaio71 , I love to cook and dinner is varied and unique. I intentionally cook for four even though it's just my husband and I so that I can get two frozen entrees for lunch put up.
Weekends are my biggest challenge and football season is a double whammy because on Sunday my intentional exercise can get thrown out the window if my team is playing.
On a related note, trying to improve my sleep duration I've learned that having a more narrow eating window, particularly around bedtime may help. So, I am trying to be sure that we are done eating by 18:00 each night.0 -
It's a lifestyle and not a diet. You can have less calories most days and use the extras for weekends and special occasions. I've learned that if you're at a standstill to eat more for a couple of days to get your metabolism going. On WW you can roll your extra calories over to the next day and you are given extra calories weekly to use or not use.2
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One of our new members @ConfidentRaven is considering taking a deficit break. I think it can be a very important tool so I thought we could discuss it.
I am no expert but it is a subject that interests me. I have taken one every 6 months except for recently when I postponed it for surgery.
What is a deficit break?
It is a period of at least 10 days or more of eating at maintenance or just slightly above it. During this period of time it is recommended that your total carbs meet or exceed 100 grams per day.
The purpose is physical and mental.
Physically many of your hormone levels are impacted by a prolonged calorie deficit. Your BMR also declines slightly while you are in a deficit. People with larger amount of fat stores have more protection against permanent metabolism decline so the frequency is optional. For people with far fewer fat stores a diet break every 3 months is recommended to protect against adaptive thermogenisis.
As I understand it, it takes 7 days for your hormone levels to reset and at least 3 more days to stabilize for awhile which is why there is a 10 day minimum. Most people just take a full 2 weeks.
Mentally the benefits vary from person to person. You would hope that it would be a period where you would relax and enjoy a little more food and get you mentally recharged and ready to resume. I think it would definitely help prevent someone from experiencing diet fatigue. Some people actually see the scale drop during the break and I believe it is because when their stress declines so does their cortisol which releases water weight.
I think the only drawback is for people who have been too aggressive and strict with themselves. They may not want to resume their course at the end of the break.
You would also need to understand that your scale will likely go up during and for 5ish days afterwards.
You would think that the delay in weight loss would be a drawback but I do not consider it one. I don't think it is all that mentally healthy if a person cannot even consider taking a break for that reason. I like knowing that I can do it.
Edited To Change from Diet Break to Deficit Break
This is a very good post that Novus wrote about diet breaks....lots of information!1 -
I've been thinking about going on a deficit break. Because I've just been hungry lately. Not bingey. Hungry. I'm on my third day in a row of maintenance/near maintenance and maybe I'll just continue? My birthday is toward the end of this month - so I was considering doing a 10 day break then. But. Maybe it is already happening now? lol. Not sure.
I was so determined to get things moving again after the holidays that I may have set my deficit higher than it should be. It also feels like it just gets harder the closer I get to my goal - whatever that will end up being. So maybe a deficit break now and a lower deficit afterwards - a more gentle approach to these last ??? 10/20 pounds would be a good idea. I just get so impatient!
hhmmm.....
And, this will sound odd...but parts of me have been feeling a bit too skinny lately! I've not used my arms/core muscles too much because I'm waiting for surgery and as a result I've lost a lot of muscle. It almost spooks me to see how thin my shoulders and upper torso have become. There is plenty of loose skin on my arms, and plenty of fat down below my ribcage and my thighs, but above is weirdly boney.
So maybe aiming for maintenance while I adjust to this kinda of mixed up body is a good plan?
Hopefull if I do this now, I can pull it off without going off track completely! I'm still going to carry on with my 7 daily goals. I've been having rice cakes lately - and they seem okay, so I've tweaked my previous "avoid refined carbs" goal to "avoiding wheat-based refined carbs". Hopefully if I stick to the goals, and just switch to maintenance calories 7 days of the week rather than 2, I can keep it together.
Wish me luck fellow losers!4 -
lauriekallis wrote: »I've been thinking about going on a deficit break. Because I've just been hungry lately. Not bingey. Hungry. I'm on my third day in a row of maintenance/near maintenance and maybe I'll just continue? My birthday is toward the end of this month - so I was considering doing a 10 day break then. But. Maybe it is already happening now? lol. Not sure.
I was so determined to get things moving again after the holidays that I may have set my deficit higher than it should be. It also feels like it just gets harder the closer I get to my goal - whatever that will end up being. So maybe a deficit break now and a lower deficit afterwards - a more gentle approach to these last ??? 10/20 pounds would be a good idea. I just get so impatient!
hhmmm.....
And, this will sound odd...but parts of me have been feeling a bit too skinny lately! I've not used my arms/core muscles too much because I'm waiting for surgery and as a result I've lost a lot of muscle. It almost spooks me to see how thin my shoulders and upper torso have become. There is plenty of loose skin on my arms, and plenty of fat down below my ribcage and my thighs, but above is weirdly boney.
So maybe aiming for maintenance while I adjust to this kinda of mixed up body is a good plan?
Hopefull if I do this now, I can pull it off without going off track completely! I'm still going to carry on with my 7 daily goals. I've been having rice cakes lately - and they seem okay, so I've tweaked my previous "avoid refined carbs" goal to "avoiding wheat-based refined carbs". Hopefully if I stick to the goals, and just switch to maintenance calories 7 days of the week rather than 2, I can keep it together.
Wish me luck fellow losers!
During recovery from surgery eating at maintenance is probably a better plan in terms of healing than trying to maintain a deficit, especially with the skin stuff .1 -
During recovery from surgery eating at maintenance is probably a better plan in terms of healing than trying to maintain a deficit, especially with the skin stuff .
I wish I was in recovery....still just waiting. My one of my bicep heads, and 3 of my rotator cuff muscles are no longer attached - tendons are ruptured. The bicep is a lost cause - but the plan is to insert "patches" for the rotator cuff part of this injury. When that day comes (oh soon please!!!!) I'll definitely do everything necessary to speed/increase the chances of a full recovery. It seems it is only a 50/50 deal at the best. In the meantime - I'm just kinda nursing things along so they don't get worse. My calories have been running at a deficit (until the past few weeks) but the nutrition has been the best of my life. I really kinda like my arm!
I have always been very muscular and strong because I worked physically - landscaping & construction - so this 110 pound weight loss blended with a year and a half of not working with my arms/torso has left a body that resembles ??? I don't know what....
The eating at maintenance is a challenge though! It is like "giving me enough rope to hang myself."
I've gotten it a bet more together yesterday and today. Hopefully that continues!
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lauriekallis wrote: »The eating at maintenance is a challenge though! It is like "giving me enough rope to hang myself."
I've gotten it a bet more together yesterday and today. Hopefully that continues!
Keeping things together a day at a time is excellent!
Eating at maintenance will eventually have to be practiced! You're just ahead of the curve!2 -
lauriekallis wrote: »The eating at maintenance is a challenge though! It is like "giving me enough rope to hang myself."
I've gotten it a bet more together yesterday and today. Hopefully that continues!
Keeping things together a day at a time is excellent!
Eating at maintenance will eventually have to be practiced! You're just ahead of the curve!
Thank you for the positive vibes! Yeah - I figure I'll have to figure it out sometime soon (with any luck/strength
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I kinda respect my body for going for it. It sees this as perhaps its golden window of opportunity.
Reminds me of my dog - who was a street dog for a long time. Now, whenever we walk, if she sees any scraps on the ground (and there is many in the part of town we live in) she is like a vacuum - just sucks them up. She has determined that she will never go hungry again!
I'm trying to reason with her - "no, that nasty soggy moldy bagel is not good for you."
I'm trying to reason with myself "no, those extra crackers and cheese and crackers and peanut butter are not good for you."
Neither one is listening yet.
But I'm determined. I'll figure out the best way to get the message through - to myself at least - dog might not ever believe it.
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Right now I am eating 1360 calories a day to supposedly lose 1.5 lbs a week…should I use the MFP recommendation of Maintenance calories on my planned Diet Break in a few weeks?…should I still exercise and eat back some of those burned calories?…will I gain weight or maintain?0
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Connie - I think it is a case of try and see.
Don't see why you shouldn't continue exercising (unless you really want a break)...and I imagine that you should be eating back at least a few of those calories. Maybe start off with MFP recommendation of Maintenance and eating 1/4 of your exercise calories? then after a few days build up to eating more calories if things stay stable?
I'm just figuring out how accurate the calories burned count is with Fitbit. I know trying to enter the correct activities into MFP was off. The fit bit isn't too bad...but it takes awhile for things to settle.
I'm trying to lose slowly but the only thing I'm certain of after a few weeks of this is that at the moment I'm successfully maintaining - and I might even be losing slowly. And I'm aiming for a 3200-4800 calorie deficit a week - using my Fitbit's calories burned numbers. It feels like a deficit break. It blows my mind at how many calories/how much food I'm eating. I'm learning how to do it though. And as you know this is really freakin' hard to do - it has taken me since January to find this place.
You are doing so well! I'm still looking ahead at my lowest weight - 107lbs down - not there yet, but I'm learning I can't think about that too much or I lose my rythm. It will come. I'm almost back to 100lbs down again. More importantly I'm learning how to eat sort of normally - and the little bit of weight that is coming off feels like real weight - I'm not experiencing that big water loss.
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I am still not losing the weight I should be losing for the amount of calories I am eating….plus my exercise is the same or more and I do not want to exercise to the point that I don’t enjoy it…I am still planning a two week maintenance break starting Wednesday and hope everything in my body does a reset….I am only down about 15 lbs since the end of Jan….I have had a few binges but nothing to account for not losing!….I have increased my fiber the last few weeks….nothing seems to be working…yet my clothes are looser and I look thinner….more toned if that is possible over 200 lbs lol….I am still getting stronger all the time…three or four of our neighbors have commented on my loss and can’t believe I have 40 or 50 more pounds to lose….I believe it….I am still overweight!…so hopefully after this break I will start losing again…if not, I will take what I got and be happy continuing eating right, exercising and getting stronger!…we shall see!4
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conniewilkins56 wrote: »….I am only down about 15 lbs since the end of Jan…
I feel your pain, Connie. I'm where I was at at the end of December. After losing 100 lbs last year this has been hard. The bouncing around is a bit maddening. But I'm trying to consider this as a time to learn more about me, how to adjust my eating habits and outsmart the "out of the blue" binges that really are not, what maintenance will look like, and how my "real" numbers look compared to what fitbit and MFP says. This will all give me a handle on weight management moving forward....I HOPE!
But I haven't been eating the low level of calories that you are. I know that would infuriate me so much more.
I know this is something that gets thrown around all the time - but from reading your posts I truly think it might just be true in your case - what do you think about the idea that you are gaining muscle from the progress you are making on the exercise front? Seems really likely that you are losing fat and building up some nice solid DENSE muscle? I love the phrase I've read here "Working on Body Composition" - maybe this is your time for that after such a significant loss?3 -
conniewilkins56 wrote: »I am still not losing the weight I should be losing for the amount of calories I am eating….plus my exercise is the same or more and I do not want to exercise to the point that I don’t enjoy it…I am still planning a two week maintenance break starting Wednesday and hope everything in my body does a reset….I am only down about 15 lbs since the end of Jan….I have had a few binges but nothing to account for not losing!….I have increased my fiber the last few weeks….nothing seems to be working…yet my clothes are looser and I look thinner….more toned if that is possible over 200 lbs lol….I am still getting stronger all the time…three or four of our neighbors have commented on my loss and can’t believe I have 40 or 50 more pounds to lose….I believe it….I am still overweight!…so hopefully after this break I will start losing again…if not, I will take what I got and be happy continuing eating right, exercising and getting stronger!…we shall see!
Connie don't fixate JUST on the scale number. Also, please please don't fixate on this is how much I SHOULD be losing. The scale number will go faster and slower. What you SHOULD be losing won't matter IF WHAT YOU'RE DOING IS LONG TERM SUSTAINABLE. And if you want to maintain your loss when you, eventually, stop "dieting", you WANT TO BE DOING LONG TERMS SUSTAINABLE.
So: increasing activity because you feel like being more active? GOOD. Very good. AWESOME. That's why the neighbours are eyeing the Connie babe in their midst!!!
Feeling stronger all the time WONDERFUL. So don't fixate on the speed. because the aim is not just loss. Its lose and not regain! So time limits don't exist. Find the groove! Stay in the groove or as close to it as possible. Make the groove something you can easily return to when *kitten* happens! ENJOY the freedom and strength. Isn't it just awesome how much better you're feeling and how much more you can do?!?!?!2 -
First of all, I am probably the youngest woman on our street so the competition for “ hotties “ is pretty slim!….I am happy to pass for younger than almost 70!…good genes I guess….
Laurie, I agree I am probably gaining muscle but I thought muscles were supposed to burn more calories!…my arms are so floppy the muscles are hard to see!…( I come from big strong German farmers who had big arms! )… I have lost in my legs but the extra skin that I have is easily concealed with pants….and I was at this weight ( 240 ish ) for many years and worked carrying this much weight….we owned grocery stores and it was hard work on cement floors and lots of hours….at age 39,
I got down to about 205 on Phen Phen diet pills….
PAV I think my body REALLY likes this weight I am at!…I agree it is sustainable long term but I want to LOSE more!….time limit does mean something to me because I am getting OLD and I want to enjoy a few years at maintenance before I croak!…and, YES it is awesome how much better I feel and how much stronger I am!….I love feeling powerful and in control…I love not looking like an old hag!….
I am putting a lot of thought into my break starting Wed….my doctor appointment is Wed. morning for my well check up and I know he will be thrilled with how far I have come…I have been playing around with the extra calories I will get and how I will use them…i want to use them wisely and nourish my body with extra good wholesome foods….and I want a few cookies!….any advice about my break from anyone is welcome…hopefully after I get my break over and regroup and refocus my body will
co-operate and I can shake some pounds loose!…I also have some questions for my doctor about how far I can push my body physically….maybe I need hormones!….I think mine are gone lol1 -
See: you confirmed your babe status (re: your local compound)... just watch it with the wolf whistles
My advice boils to concentrate doing things during weight loss the way you envision doing them in maintenance... perhaps the maintenance break will help you on this.
i.e.: I've found very little weight control success when I planned weight loss to be different from maintenance. Even when NOT planning it to be different... a couple of regular cookies (as opposed to fiber one) ---or in my case a couple of bags, but you get the drift-- it is EASY to regain weight and even if you don't plan changes a number of small cumulative ones amount to fairly large changes overall.
Eat out more often, cook a couple of meals less, have a normal cookie instead of fiber one and the calories can easily balloon.
And that's one thing that scares me a bit for you: I am getting a vibe that you MAY be viewing weight loss as separate from maintenance instead of thinking of it as a continuum with just a smaller and a larger budget.
There is a (more "athlete" focused) evidence based group called renaissance periodization (pay site) I looked at their eating plans once (for an MFP friend) and I can't say that I found them suitable for ME; but I did find what they were doing interesting.
Their "eating templates" between "cuts", "bulks" and "maintenance" are pretty much the exact same. What changes is the amount of FAT that is included (which of course changes the calories). The rest of the eating plan remains the same (please note I've only read through ONE of their templates passed on by a friend. so my sample size is small!)
The point I'm making is that they don't really change (drastically) what people eat... they just change the calories with "subtle" changes, such as the proverbial peanut butter tablespoon exchanged for a tablespoon of PB2!
Same as small changes, cumulatively, help us lose weight... watch the number of changes at maintenance!!! 1 -
conniewilkins56 wrote: »…( I come from big strong German farmers who had big arms! )…
Me too! lol Our bodies are made for survival. You gotta love them. But are they trainable? Are we trainable? Hope we are!
What if you change up what you eat a bit? I know we are all doing CICO - but maybe there is a difference if you eat the same thing all the time? Maybe it will make a change in our minds if not in our bodies science number?
Maybe I should start keeping my food separate and you should start letting yours mix ?!
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I really have a good mind set for my diet break this time!…I am excited about doing it like I plan on eating in my future when I HAVE lost more weight!….I realize maintenance is a continuation with slightly larger portions…I will still have to measure and count….still eat less than I did before I lost weight….if I find myself binging immediately I am going to stop the break before I let it get out of control…but I am definitely going to log all my food, measure and weigh foods and weigh myself daily….I want to maintain and not gain more than a little….
Laurie my maternal grandmother worked their farm along side my grampa for many years….the farm is still a working farm and I own half of it with my three cousins owning the other half….some of my best childhood memories are from spending time there in the summer with my cousins!…we are still very close though many miles apart…
I do plan on eating some different foods and shaking things up a little….skipping the fiber wraps for lunch and eating rye or pumpernickel….using full Greek Yogurt and some milk that I love but never have enough calories left for it!…some real cheese and more protein….I really think I can do this….
Still not going to let my food all mush together!3 -
WHAT?! You're not dunking pumpernickel in greek yogurt?!?!?! 3
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So they can TOUCH together!
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My second day of my break and I am enjoying it so much!….great workout in the pool today….burned a ton of calories and had lots of energy!5
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Day #7 of Maintenance break…so far so good but today was the hardest to resist lots of goodies….I did go to the gym and ride the bike 22 minutes ( started at 10 minutes a few weeks ago ) and swam for an hour…glad I did the exercise because I had the munchies and we ordered a REAL pizza for dinner…it was sto2
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Storming outside and the pizza was so hot and gooey….bliss!….took a nap afterwards…..I am actually looking forward to getting back on track next week…it is great to know that I really can do this !….I don’t want to get over confident because that is when I screw up!3
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conniewilkins56 wrote: »Storming outside and the pizza was so hot and gooey….bliss!….took a nap afterwards…..I am actually looking forward to getting back on track next week…it is great to know that I really can do this !….I don’t want to get over confident because that is when I screw up!
Your confidence is justified. You have put in the time and effort to be where you are. It is only when we get arrogant and plunge into something that we should take slowly that confidence can cause us problems. What we tell ourselves matters so don't listen to yourself on that last sentence.3 -
Sometimes it's necessary to step back and ask yourself what advice you would give a friend in a similar situation. I am trying to take my own advice with this.
With the combo of the doctor saying that my body is most likely just taking some time to adjust to my weight loss and the fact that I am 8 pounds ahead of my 2021 goal of losing 1 lb/week, I am going to eat at maintenance for the next few weeks - 2 months.
Even if I can just stay where I am now, I will be right on track if I start back in a deficit on Sept 1. There is no rush and this isn't a race. And I need to practice maintenance, as that's the plan for the rest of my life.
I am also going to back off running a bit and focus on walking, tracking, and doing some limited strength training.
The only "annoying" thing is that I am only 2 pounds away from hitting a nice round number of 100 pounds lost. I would tell myself that's dumb and it will come in its own sweet time anyway.3
