Do you take diet breaks?

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  • cebiginalaska
    cebiginalaska Posts: 280 Member
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    LOL this is a cheat week. Way over calories because of alcohol drinking beer overkill 4 nights extra of 1500 calories :drinker: :cry: cost too much
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    I've basically been in maintenance mode for the past couple of weeks. After eight months of deficit, I just needed a break. Two weeks seems about the right amount of time. I'm ready to get back to business, but I think I'll schedule a week or two off every now and then.
  • reddaddie
    reddaddie Posts: 121 Member
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    What you are describing is just changing the parameters of your eating plan, that would not be altering your "lifestyle". I switched from 2 lbs a week to 1 lb a week with 10 lbs to go. You as long as you are conscious of what you are eating and pay attention to the results you will be ok.
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
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    I do. A week or two of eating above maintenance can sometimes be beneficial at rebalancing your hormone levels.
  • MuseofSong
    MuseofSong Posts: 322 Member
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    Eating TDEE/maintenance setting during a holiday event is a pretty darn nice way of coping, imo. You shouldn't gain any weight, so no damage done!

    My only hrmph is I do not know how to measure the calories of the food I'll be presented with at other people's houses. I use a kitchen scale for everything I make or look at the nutritional label or look up the info. :\ I can't do that when I'm at someone else's house, and I'm not sure what ingredients are in what. Ah well, I might have some inaccurate logging days, I guess. I'm definitely not going to beat myself up over it though.

    I think I will plan some 'zag' days and expect the holiday meals to be 'zigs'. I probably will not 'plan to lose' during holiday weeks.
  • Otterluv
    Otterluv Posts: 9,083 Member
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    I take a two week maintenance break every three months or so. That little break does wonders for my energy level and attitude. I have come a long way, and have a long way to go. If I didn't take an occasional break, it would be very difficult for me to adhere to my calorie goals for that long of a time period.
  • skadoosh33
    skadoosh33 Posts: 353 Member
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    I've been eating crappy about twice a week during this past 6 weeks. I try to burn enough to make up for it. The wife likes to go out to eat on our days off.
  • willdob3
    willdob3 Posts: 640 Member
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    I don't take breaks now (lol, finally did the lifestyle thing) but I used to take break between programs. for example, Body for Life (12 wks) and then a week off with no organized workouts or specific nutrition. I always ate pretty clean for the week though. After the week, another round of BFL or on to another program with lifting & nutrition combined. The week off was hard to do but many of us saw increased results during & after that week. Most people enjoyed eating off-plan in moderation, not 24/7 junk food fests.

    But, yep, I just eat healthy all the time now and I like it.
  • Cranquistador
    Cranquistador Posts: 39,744 Member
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    Yep.

    I take two weeks Christmas and New Years and two weeks in July at the shore.:smile:
  • Grace215lbs
    Grace215lbs Posts: 129 Member
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    Yes,Every 10 weeks i would maintain for 1 month.. and my weight loss would pick up when i started again. Suggested by my GP.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    I do. It has taken me three years to go from the mid 190s to the mid 150s. I'm not concerned with getting a bikini body by xyz day or month. I'm just now coming off of a month and a half break. It's taken me two weeks to get back to where I was before I took a break but I'm more concerned with the long term, over time weight loss. Whenever I did the "I will weight X by Y", I always failed. Maybe I'll be in the mid 140s by this time next year, maybe lower or a little higher. Oh well.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    I may have missed it OP but how lean are you and how close to goal weight? That and how long you've been in a deficit for are the main factors. As well as that, if you are getting relatively low calorie levels and are plateauing then a short diet break can work well.

    There is no way I want to be in calorie deficit forever :laugh:
  • Maureen214
    Maureen214 Posts: 40 Member
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    I understand what you're saying, but I think you have to be at a fairly "successful" plAce in our goals or close to maintenance. I've list and gained 20-40 pounds on and off sooo many times I the past 20 years, but this feels like my mist consistent start. I've list steadily 16 pounds in 6 weeks and have at least 60 more to go to get to my first possible goal and lowest weight since college. And I owe that success to weighing, measuring and logging EVERYTHING for 45 days straight. If I don't I don't think I have a realistic image of how much I'm truly eating. For example, for my husband's birthday, I allowed myself to eat the turkey breast, mashed potatoes , stuffing , and even ice cream cake. In my mind, even though I ate lighter throughout the day and knew it wasn't the end of the world if I went over my 1660 calories for the day by even a few hundred. But In my mind, I still thought I ate about 3,000 calories. But I measured, controlled portions , ate about 250-300 at breakfast and at lunch, so I still ended up the day at 1620 calories ... Actually UNDER. My point is my mind has been screwed up do many times before, that I could have said, oh I went over by thousands of calories and 16 pounds is nothing. And I would have binged the rest of the week and very quickly put on a pound or two a week and all of my efforts to lose 16 pounds would turn into a gain of 20 12 weeks later.
    So this whole line if thinking just really scares me.
    Am I a complete nut job?!? Or is there still hope?!? I'm mostly serious. Anyone else even close to this line of thinking??
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I may have missed it OP but how lean are you and how close to goal weight? That and how long you've been in a deficit for are the main factors. As well as that, if you are getting relatively low calorie levels and are plateauing then a short diet break can work well.

    There is no way I want to be in calorie deficit forever :laugh:

    I'm not lean (30%bf) not close to goal (30lbs from it) and I rarely eat less than 1850 calories. I've been in a deficit since March but I have had many high days a long the way. I guess this is going to be more of a psychological break vs a physiiological one because I don't think I'm at high risk for any metabolic slowdown.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I understand what you're saying, but I think you have to be at a fairly "successful" plAce in our goals or close to maintenance. I've list and gained 20-40 pounds on and off sooo many times I the past 20 years, but this feels like my mist consistent start. I've list steadily 16 pounds in 6 weeks and have at least 60 more to go to get to my first possible goal and lowest weight since college. And I owe that success to weighing, measuring and logging EVERYTHING for 45 days straight. If I don't I don't think I have a realistic image of how much I'm truly eating. For example, for my husband's birthday, I allowed myself to eat the turkey breast, mashed potatoes , stuffing , and even ice cream cake. In my mind, even though I ate lighter throughout the day and knew it wasn't the end of the world if I went over my 1660 calories for the day by even a few hundred. But In my mind, I still thought I ate about 3,000 calories. But I measured, controlled portions , ate about 250-300 at breakfast and at lunch, so I still ended up the day at 1620 calories ... Actually UNDER. My point is my mind has been screwed up do many times before, that I could have said, oh I went over by thousands of calories and 16 pounds is nothing. And I would have binged the rest of the week and very quickly put on a pound or two a week and all of my efforts to lose 16 pounds would turn into a gain of 20 12 weeks later.
    So this whole line if thinking just really scares me.
    Am I a complete nut job?!? Or is there still hope?!? I'm mostly serious. Anyone else even close to this line of thinking??

    I dont' think you understand what I'm actually saying. None of the things that have made me successful thus far would change. I would still log, weigh, work out... the ONLY thing that changes is I add maybe 400 calories to my day.
  • charmander89
    charmander89 Posts: 37 Member
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    I've taken one or two week breaks a few times. It's fun, but a lot harder to just get back into eating healthy afterwards. The water weight and small gains will set you back a bit too, so be warned :P
  • Faye_Anderson
    Faye_Anderson Posts: 1,495 Member
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    I don't think it would be a problem, you might even find you are still losing at maintenance. You seem to know what you are doing, I'd say go for it, gives you the opportunity to tweak things a bit :smile:
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
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    And before you say "it's not a diet it's a lifestyle" just get out of my thread tyvm.

    I've been in a deficit since March with some over days and some maintenance days here and there but I'm thinking ot taking a break from cutting to eat at maintenance over the holidays since it's been a long time, and it's the holidays. 2 birds I suppose. I've been reading some info on diet breaks (Alan Aragon and Lyle Macdonald) and it seems the diet break seems to benefit mostly lean people. I definitely don't qualify as I still have 10% bf to lose but I'm in no hurry to lose the lbs so I'm just thinking out loud, is a diet break worth it for fat people with respect to adaptive thermogenisis? Thoughts?

    I take breaks from logging foods from time to time, I only have about 15 more pounds to lose so, there's that. Along with the fact that I'm T2D, so I'm on a Ketogenic diet. Lots of fat keeps me satiated and carbs that only come from leafy greens and salads keep me on track even when I'm not logging.

    ETA: there are no cheat meals, no forbidden foods either, just foods that are not worth the time it takes me to re-gain the ground I'd lose if I let the habit take hold. It's not sexy or groundbreaking, but it works =)
  • bmqbonnie
    bmqbonnie Posts: 836 Member
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    If I'm on vacation or something I really don't want to worry about it. Last summer we took a month long road trip and while I tried not to go totally nuts, I enjoyed myself and didn't log a thing. In the end I gained 5 lbs. Oh well. Next summer will be similar- we'll be making a similar drive, getting married, and going on a honeymoon. So not worrying about calories!

    I would probably take a similar approach for holidays and such. Other people had a good idea with temporarily going into maintenance. Shorter term I don't really do cheat days exactly, but about once a week we go out. I try to eat light most of that day, work out, and then eat whatever I want for that meal. It's not usually a big deal.
  • kayei
    kayei Posts: 6
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    Right now I only have 1 cheat day a week, usually on the weekends. But that's because I've only been dieting for 2 weeks so far. Besides my 1 cheat day a week, I'm planing on taking halloween off, and thanksgiving. My birthday is exactly 1 week before Christmas, so I'll probably use my first maintenance week on my birthday-new years eve.

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