Feeling stuck in your weight loss or hit a plateau? Maybe a "diet break" is the answer.

Speakeasy76

Read this article today from Cori Lefkowith of Redefining Strength. I found it interesting and not an actual concept I've heard of before, but makes some sense...especially if we want to be successful long-term at weight loss. Also, this may explain why every time I've gone on vacation and eaten more/not followed my diet closely, I come lighter than before I left!

https://redefiningstrength.com/have-you-stopped-seeing-results-from-your-diet/?sl=email

wunderkindking

I was fortunate enough to hear about this EARLY on and get it included from go. One day a week, I eat at maintenance calories. The other days of week I 'zig-zag' my calorie amounts, while staying in a deficit - just how much of one alternates between 250 and 500 calories.

And every ten pounds I lose, I do maintenance calories for 1-2 weeks, at whatever my new maintenance at that weight is.

Do note diet break doesn't mean 'eat whatever you want for an extended time or frequently'. It is EAT TO MAINTAIN for that period.

Is it actually preventing/having any effect on metabolic adaptation? I don't know. I am probably losing more slowly than I might otherwise, but. My weight loss has stayed consistent (ish - like over a month, not day to day because that ain't how it works) and also it helps me build new habits/learn about things as I go and kept things pretty painless.

AnnPT77

There was quite a good thread a while back that went into this, with some good discussion.

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

(It's in the stickies for General Health, Fitness and Diet.)

Speakeasy76

Thank you for re-posting this. I wish someone had told me about this when I first started trying to lose weight, and am surprised I hadn't heard about it until now. I'm now in maintenance and have a normal BMI and body fat, but would like to be a bit leaner and stronger.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

There was quite a good thread a while back that went into this, with some good discussion.

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

(It's in the stickies for General Health, Fitness and Diet.)

AnnPT77

Speakeasy76 wrote: »

Thank you for re-posting this. I wish someone had told me about this when I first started trying to lose weight, and am surprised I hadn't heard about it until now. I'm now in maintenance and have a normal BMI and body fat, but would like to be a bit leaner and stronger.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

There was quite a good thread a while back that went into this, with some good discussion.

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

(It's in the stickies for General Health, Fitness and Diet.)

There's a lot of goodness in the stickies . . . I go scan the list every once in a while, sometimes spot some new useful thing (or old one I'd missed).

(P.S. to other readers who may be new to MFP: "The Stickies" are posts under the "Most Helpful Posts" heading within each forum topic. They were written by regular MFP users, nominated to stick around by other regular MFP users, rather than rolling off into history as they get older like most posts do.)

lgfrie

Good post. I took an extended maintenance break this summer after a year+ of dieting and it made ALL the difference. My calories had been creeping up, weight loss was slowing way down, and there were monstrous binge days starting to make their appearance now and then. For the maintenance break I even allowed myself a 3-5 lb weight gain so I could really loosen up the tracking for a while. Basically I Just needed a break from dieting on all levels - not just amount of food consumed, but intellectually and emotionally with the dieting. Needed to spend less time making spreadsheets, less time trying to triangulate the twenty different estimates of the calories in flank steak before I could sit down and eat dinner, less time reconfiguring some cool sounding recipe I found online so that it would have 150 calories less per serving - just the whole thing. The break gave me exactly what I was in need of, and though I didn't have a specific end date in mind, one day I knew I was ready to reengage, and I did and have been solid since then.

Going forward I am thinking of taking 1 maintenance week every 6 weeks.

I will note that I kept two diet behaviors in place throughout my diet vacation. I still got on the scale every morning. And I still did full cardio workouts, 1 hr +, 7 days/week. Those two behaviors are so central to my ability to either lose or maintain that I figure they could not be part of the whole "loosen up" strategy for the break. And it did help me to keep those two elements in place during the break.

Redordeadhead

Previous poster, stop posting this spam on every thread.

ninerbuff

Diet breaks are a good way to help with weight loss stalls (plateaus are actually rare) and help keep sanity in the journey.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition