Eating at TDEE/Refeed/"Diet break"

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brownvs
brownvs Posts: 40 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How long do you do it for (assuming you do it)? A week, a couple weeks, a month? Only a day?

I'm just curious what people do when they're not cutting calories (if they've made a conscious decision to not ALWAYS cut calories as part of their lifestyle choice).

Also, do you eat at your TDEE? TDEE+20%? Change your macros? Not log?

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Depends why you are doing it. Refeeding is different than maintaining, which is different from a "diet break"
  • brownvs
    brownvs Posts: 40 Member
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    Depends why you are doing it. Refeeding is different than maintaining, which is different from a "diet break"

    Fair enough, I admit I'm still pretty new to these terms.

    I guess it's a combination of things I'm feeling and want to accomplish. I'm at a weight I'm mostly happy with (although room for improvement eventually) and the next few weeks will be a bit more stressful on me (moving 1200 miles away, no gym access for a couple of weeks, not sure how much I'll be eating out). Somehow the last few days out of the blue I have been ravenous at all times for no apparent reason other than the impending stress (I'm eating more protein and fiber right now, if anything).

    I spent the last 97 or so days pretty happy with mostly 1450 (modest cut for my TDEE) and if I try to get started with NROL4W, I guess I'll increase calories even more.

    But right now I just feel like taking a break. I'm tired and stressed and I don't think cutting calories will make me feel better.

    ETA: I also generally live in constant fear of killing my metabolism and having to live on something like 1000 calories a day like my mom does - without losing weight. I guess her metabolism has just adjusted to it. It doesn't look fun to me. I want to make sure I eat enough to keep my metabolism strong.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    No reason you can't increase then to give yourself a mental break, especially with everything you've got going on. Increase up to TDEE, but not over. Keep a moderate deficit to give you a little leeway for bad days, or go right to TDEE if you want.

    Just make sure you aren't using all those things as an excuse to stop controlling your diet. Giving yourself a break is fine, but making up excuses to do whatever you want is bad. And it's not always as easy as you think to tell the two apart, so be careful.

    .
  • brownvs
    brownvs Posts: 40 Member
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    No reason you can't increase then to give yourself a mental break, especially with everything you've got going on. Increase up to TDEE, but not over. Keep a moderate deficit to give you a little leeway for bad days, or go right to TDEE if you want.

    Just make sure you aren't using all those things as an excuse to stop controlling your diet. Giving yourself a break is fine, but making up excuses to do whatever you want is bad. And it's not always as easy as you think to tell the two apart, so be careful.

    .

    Yeah, that's why I'm trying to give myself a mental limit - "I will eat at TDEE for X long". Trying to decide how long X should be.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    You're the only one that can really determine that. Eating at TDEE will cause you to hold your current weight, so you won't be losing any ground, but you won't be making any progress either (as far as weight goes). That can really be done for as long as you want, or at least until you become unhappy with the status quo.
  • marcvandenberg
    marcvandenberg Posts: 190 Member
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    Go to TDEE,

    And Theo look For a new cut number.
    You dont loose but also not gain weight.
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
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    I would just urge you to keep logging. I made the mistake of not logging and was eating way more than I thought I was. If you are on the road and don't have access to the internet, get a small pad you can fit in a pocket and write it down.
  • brownvs
    brownvs Posts: 40 Member
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    Bump for extra thoughts and stories - how long did you give yourself at TDEE before you resumed cutting? Basically, I want to make a conscious decision about what I'm doing and stick with it. I think it's going to be harder to go back to cutting calories than it was to start.
  • brownvs
    brownvs Posts: 40 Member
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    Extra bumpies?
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Extra bumpies?

    Not sure what more you're hoping for. You're asking for advice on how long to take a break. There's no right or wrong answer. Make your break as long or as short as you want. If it's really because your stressed, then plan to end the break when things settle back down. But in my experience, that never really happens... life just keeps coming.

    So I go back to what I said before... are you just looking for an excuse to eat more?
  • Siege_Tank
    Siege_Tank Posts: 781 Member
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    I re-fed from thanksgiving to mid April after losing 40 pounds, I just burnt out, maintained, and felt fantastic going back into my cut. If you're okay with where you are, there's no reason not to take a break, and let your body adjust to it's new size.

    Like Jack said, the choice is yours. There is no right or wrong answer.
  • brownvs
    brownvs Posts: 40 Member
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    Extra bumpies?

    Not sure what more you're hoping for. You're asking for advice on how long to take a break. There's no right or wrong answer. Make your break as long or as short as you want. If it's really because your stressed, then plan to end the break when things settle back down. But in my experience, that never really happens... life just keeps coming.

    So I go back to what I said before... are you just looking for an excuse to eat more?

    I really am stressed, and when I start my 80-hour-per week job 1200 miles away it probably WON'T get any better - at least not for the foreseeable 3 years.

    So. Yeah. Pretty much, I just want to know how long "I'm stressed" will last me. Cause I definitely needed some sort of break. I guess I can restart again on Sunday when things get less complicated.

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