Diet breaks and loosening the reigns

When I sit down with a client, one of the first things I establish is their eating trends - specifically, how many calories have they been eating over the passed 6 months or year. Although many people likely won't know the calories, they can state staple foods they eat daily over the course of that questioned period of time.

There was one particular lady who handed me a food journal which consisted of foods she chronically ate for over a year that totaled 700 calories. When asked to list foods she typically ate during college, in comparison, it came to approximately 2000 calories. Naturally, she insisted that she was meeting the energy needs of her body by consuming a meager 700 calories because she didn't feel hungry...

I find that many people, mainly women like the one I just recalled, end up engaging in calorie restriction even when they are not actively trying to lose weight. This is no surprise since a person's maintenance range will decrease as long as they continue at a deficit indefinitely thanks to certain endocrinological changes I'll mention later.

You have two general approaches of weight loss: a) cyclical periods of calorie/energy restriction vs near or at maintenance levels and b) persistence of chronic calorie/energy restriction.

Many posters here follow the latter strategy which explains their endocrinological and psychological alterations - ie depressed RMR and leptin concentration levels, perhaps coupled with a sharp rise in cortisol, and paranoia over weight regain when thinking about upping calories to levels which are still well below one's natural TDEE. Once the paranoia manifests, they are genuinely at risk of disordered eating if they continue this weight loss strategy.

For these individuals, the only way for them to continue reducing body weight - if they insist on sustaining calorie restriction indefinitely until they reach their goal weight - is to drop calories even lower which was demonstrated in the infamous Minnesota Semi-starvation Experiment. That is to say, each time they stall, they'll need to eat less than before to illicit further weight loss. The major downside to this, aside from greater degrees of the above mentioned alterations, is the loss of substantially more lean body mass vs fat mass as one continues to lower intake.

For these reasons, it's important for many people to take periodic breaks and return to at or near maintenance so [physically and psychologically] they can stay within normal parameters which will be adaptive to sustainable weight loss and favorable body composition.