Do you take diet breaks?
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elga_thres wrote: »Hi, everyone! I just read an article about how to avoid or fix metabolic damage (here's the link: http://www.burnthefat.com/metabolic_damage.html). There is one thing that makes me even more curious:
"Take Diet breaks: Avoid prolonged periods in aggressive caloric deficits. If you have a lot of fat to lose and it’s going to take more than 3 months to hit your long term fat loss goal, don’t do it all in one stretch. Take a week at maintenance calories after 12 weeks of restricted dieting. This – raising your calories - is the most counter-intuitive of all the metabolism-rebuilding strategies but it’s one of the most important. Even better: the bodybuilder's method of cycling fat loss phases with muscle building phases, ensures that not only are you not in constant deficit, you spend significant time in calorie surplus."
What do you think? Do you take diet breaks? I'm really worried about overestimating my maintenance level and the calories burned when I workout. I really appreciate your help. ☺
P.S. I think "diet" here means eating calorie deficit, not our eating habit.
I have been on maintenance for about a year and a half now. When I was dieting, I pretty much stuck tot he program and stayed in my deficit 99 percent of the time. It took about 8 or 9 months to lose 40 pounds, then the rest came off over a few months while I was adjusting to maintenance.
During maintenance, I have experimented more. I plan out a lot. If I know I will eat over, I will adjust my weekly calorie count to compensate. I might eat 1700 net on a few days just to have those extra 600 to play with on the weekend. So far I've been staying within maintenance and holding my weight within normal fluctuations. That's what I want.
As for the site above, that place is a spam site, and they're trying to sell their product. That damned pop-up box prompting me to download their free fat blah blah blah report is really annoying too.0 -
Thank you for sharing your experiences! ☺I don't do breaks. I do "idgaf" (I don't give a f) days. I get one day a month and I don't allow myself to avoid it or delay it. It's usually a weekend day, so I can munch with hubby or friends. I do it, whether I think I should or not. I will occasionally add another, especially if I'm ill. On these days, I eat right, but I don't freak if my protein is low or my carbs are a little high. I don't stress over my calories or my fluid intake.
I eat acceptable amounts. It's not a break and it's not cheating. It's just eating and accepting that being human, I might not be able to eat like a machine every day of my life.
When I've hit a plateau, I go into plateau eating mode. That means I up my carbs a little, keep exercise the same, allow my calories to go an additional 200 per day (which still puts me at a deficit), and wait until the plateau passes. That's not a break either; that's giving my body time to adjust to the lower weight and accept it's not going to die of starvation, then we'll go back to busting it. This is just practicing patience.LunaInverse wrote: »I don't do breaks, I do caloric cycling. Like 3 or 4 days a week I'll eat 1400, and then 1800 the other 3 days. It works for me because I also do low carb, so those 3 high calorie days are awesome for me! And I can basically eat whatever I want on the high calorie days, so long as I stay withing my daily goal. It's worked great for me so far
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I am not on a restrictive diet so I don't need to break.0
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i take logging breaks, not necessarily diet breaks. Every once in awhile i find it helps me refocus. For example, this month i am focusing on being more consistent at the gym and am taking a logging break.0
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I spent the last 6 months training for a marathon and restricting calories to drop 20lbs. after the marathon in mid june I started eating at maintanence until ust last week. I also took 4 weeks off of running and working out and just enjoyed vacationing with family. It was a well needed break and i was able to not gain during that month or so. Last week i started restricting down again and went back to working out in order to lose another 15 before november when I hit the beaches in Hawaii for another vacation. then i will probably eat at maintanence again over the holidays and see where I am come the new year.
I have never been in a hurry to lose the weight (70 pounds over 2.5 years) and i enjoy eating out and celebrating with food. I found that taking so called "breaks" allows me to feel very much in control of what I eat, and keeps my mind happy0 -
I was very tightly weighing and logging my food for about three-ish weeks then I went on vacation to DC for a week. While I was there, I didn't log or weigh anything. It made me so uncomfortable all the time!
I depend on my calorie count and logging to tell me when I'm done eating. I can't just wing it and gorging myself just makes me uncomfortable and uneasy.
I might take breaks when I have been doing this for a while and I feel comfortable that I can "eyeball" portions better without eating way too much. But I don't want my inexperience to take away from all that I've done for myself.0 -
elga_thres wrote: »Did you gain weight during the long break?After a long, long time of losing (about 2 years), I hit a plateau and took a long break. Six months. When I went back to it, I began losing again.
The break did my body good and it did my mind good, too. I was SO SICK of weighing every little but of food, logging food...all the obsessiveness of calorie counting and weight loss. Especially when I wasn't losing!
I didn't change what I ate. I didn't really even eat bigger portions. I just ate more bread, think. I didn't think about food as it applies to weight. I just ate. It was nice!
I'm a big fan of the break.
I was three or four pounds up when I got back on the scale. But I kind of fluctuate with the same three pounds all the time (I'm up two from yesterday with no overeating), so it's not a huge deal. Honestly, though, I wasn't even trying to maintain. I truly didn't care. I was OVER it in a big way. I knew I'd go back to it, though, and that was key. Had there been a chance that I'd pig out or never go back, it would've been a different story.
I was still eating well. I ate my fruits, veggies, whole grains, no-fat dairy and lean, white meats. I just didn't pay any attention to weight or food as it related to weight. These foods aren't something I'm going to stop eating later. This is what I eat now. I expect to eat it for life.
...and I made ciabatta and focaccia breads a few times. I did go overboard on breads a bit. I knew I was doing it and chose to do it.
It worked out very well for me, but may not be the right thing for everyone.
If I hit another plateau, I will totally do it again.0 -
I understood what you meant as a break from eating at a deficit.
I started losing in late January 2014, and took a break in December 2014 (I'd lost about 85 lbs). I was getting close to maintenance, ready for a break, and besides December is tough (my birthday is then too), so I decided it would be a good time to practice maintenance. After that I lost again in January and February and then started a lengthy break (partly deciding if I wanted to lose more) and only recently restarted trying to lose/eating at a deficit. During the lengthy deficit it was partly mental and partly getting comfortable with maintenance, trying out logging and not, focusing on exercise, a variety of things.
I am generally in favor of the concept. I especially think it takes some time to get used to weight loss and can be helpful to practice maintenance.
I don't eat differently in terms of food choice when I'm losing and when I'm not, but of course you have more calories at maintenance.0 -
I haven't taken a break, but I've also never had an aggressive deficit. I've only created a 250 calorie deficit so there's really no need for a break. I could totally see how someone with a 1000 calorie deficit may want to lower that amount.0
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Pretty much naturally every month with PMS because I'm starving anyway. But honestly? That NEVER happened before I went on vacations and took a diet break for a week. I was doing just fine with my deficit and lost consistently. It's been a year now and I haven't lost a pound since (I had 2 to go to meet my goal).
So yeah... I really don't recommend it, personally.0 -
All the experts I respect agree that diet breaks are necessary in calorie restriction. Note to those above, a diet calling for -250-1000 calorie deficits is a restrictive diet.
I did after 3.5 months (roughly 10 days over Christmas--maintained weight). I did for two weeks about 2.5 months later when my energy began to flag. (Lost 4 pounds while eating at MFP-prescribed maintenance.) I've been eating at maintenance some days and eating at a deficit others for the last few months, and this is what my weight loss looks like:
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well i take a break from calorie restriction every 3 months and maintain for a month or 2 then go backelga_thres wrote: »Hi, everyone! I just read an article about how to avoid or fix metabolic damage (here's the link: http://www.burnthefat.com/metabolic_damage.html). There is one thing that makes me even more curious:
"Take Diet breaks: Avoid prolonged periods in aggressive caloric deficits. If you have a lot of fat to lose and it’s going to take more than 3 months to hit your long term fat loss goal, don’t do it all in one stretch. Take a week at maintenance calories after 12 weeks of restricted dieting. This – raising your calories - is the most counter-intuitive of all the metabolism-rebuilding strategies but it’s one of the most important. Even better: the bodybuilder's method of cycling fat loss phases with muscle building phases, ensures that not only are you not in constant deficit, you spend significant time in calorie surplus."
What do you think? Do you take diet breaks? I'm really worried about overestimating my maintenance level and the calories burned when I workout. I really appreciate your help. ☺
P.S. I think "diet" here means eating calorie deficit, not our eating habit.
to making deficits after that time period is over0 -
Yes, I do. I took one when we went on vacation, another for a long weekend family reunion, pretty much the entire period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the week my son and his family was visiting. A deficit every week doesn't fit my lifestyle.0
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No, I don't "take diet breaks", because I'm not on a diet.
I've made permanent changes in how / what I eat, so I can maintain health & lower weight.
I eat what I want, in reasonable quantities, all the time.
(Except oreos... those I can't eat in reasonable quantities.)
below your BMR to damage your metabolism. Think concentration camp
victims, famine in Africa, anorexia.
This is the definition of diet "d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight <going on a diet". Its great that you have made permanent changes to how you eat but according to Webster you are on a diet.
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barbecuesauce wrote: »All the experts I respect agree that diet breaks are necessary in calorie restriction. Note to those above, a diet calling for -250-1000 calorie deficits is a restrictive diet.
I did after 3.5 months (roughly 10 days over Christmas--maintained weight). I did for two weeks about 2.5 months later when my energy began to flag. (Lost 4 pounds while eating at MFP-prescribed maintenance.) I've been eating at maintenance some days and eating at a deficit others for the last few months, and this is what my weight loss looks like:
I have news for you: maintenance is also a restrictive diet0 -
I guess technically I took a break during vacation this summer because I didn't stick to a 250 calorie deficit....but I still logged and still ate at or below maintenance. So maybe not really a break. I will probably eat about the same way on my vacation at the end of the month. I don't know. 250 calories isn't that aggressive. If a break means completely ignoring the facts then I'm probably not going to do it. That doesn't mean someone else shouldn't. It's all very personal.0
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elkhunter7x6 wrote: »No, I don't "take diet breaks", because I'm not on a diet.
I've made permanent changes in how / what I eat, so I can maintain health & lower weight.
I eat what I want, in reasonable quantities, all the time.
(Except oreos... those I can't eat in reasonable quantities.)
below your BMR to damage your metabolism. Think concentration camp
victims, famine in Africa, anorexia.
This is the definition of diet "d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight <going on a diet". Its great that you have made permanent changes to how you eat but according to Webster you are on a diet.
Some people don't like to say they're on a diet. They prefer to say that they are eating at a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. You get used to it. Whatever works and helps people lose weight! Most of it is mental, so if "eating at a calorie deficit in order to lose weight" sounds better to them than "on a diet", that is what they should be saying!!
I go either way. Here, I can do the calorie deficit thing if someone prefers that and out in the world, I'll say I'm dieting. Both options suck equally for me.
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barbecuesauce wrote: »All the experts I respect agree that diet breaks are necessary in calorie restriction. Note to those above, a diet calling for -250-1000 calorie deficits is a restrictive diet.
I did after 3.5 months (roughly 10 days over Christmas--maintained weight). I did for two weeks about 2.5 months later when my energy began to flag. (Lost 4 pounds while eating at MFP-prescribed maintenance.) I've been eating at maintenance some days and eating at a deficit others for the last few months, and this is what my weight loss looks like:
I have news for you: maintenance is also a restrictive diet
Explain what you think "restrictive" means, because I do not see eating roughly as much as you burn as restrictive at all.0 -
"Diet break" is shorter than "break from my deficit where I eat at maintenance," so it works for me. I don't think it's that confusing. ;-)0
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I do have Doctor recommendations in my diet to treat conditions and I do not take a break from those but I recently took a short break in logging. I followed this with an adjustment week and now I feel like I am back on the deficit track of 1% of body weight per week. I did not gain during my break and lost at a slower rate on my adjustment week as expected. I didn't do it with the intent of changing my metabolism but just so I could enjoy my vacation.0
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