How long should a diet last?

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dave_in_ni
dave_in_ni Posts: 533 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can you diet until you get to where you want to be or should you only do it for X amount of months. I'm 5 months at the moment, Big losses and fed up but still not where I want to be.

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  • sanfromny
    sanfromny Posts: 770 Member
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    Instead of it being a diet, consider it a lifestyle change. there's no cap to wanting to be healthy for life!
  • kmbrooks15
    kmbrooks15 Posts: 941 Member
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    If you want to keep it off, you can't just go back to what you were doing before. I'm not in maintenance mode yet, but some have said maintaining is harder than losing it.
  • dave_in_ni
    dave_in_ni Posts: 533 Member
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    sanfromny wrote: »
    Instead of it being a diet, consider it a lifestyle change. there's no cap to wanting to be healthy for life!

    When your eating 1500 cals per day there is no doubt its a diet. I can't go on at this rate forever without screwing up my metabolism.
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
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    There are schools of thought that diet breaks help with long-term adherence, both mentally and with letting your body adjust to a lower maintenance calorie intake. If you're sick of being in a deficit, eat at maintenance. You could set a time limit on it - say, a month - or just stay there until you're ready to lose again. Keep logging throughout maintenance, and continue to make nutritious choices.
  • chimaerandi
    chimaerandi Posts: 153 Member
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    Just take a maintenance break if you're tired--I did midway, for like a year.
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    dave_in_ni wrote: »
    sanfromny wrote: »
    Instead of it being a diet, consider it a lifestyle change. there's no cap to wanting to be healthy for life!

    When your eating 1500 cals per day there is no doubt its a diet. I can't go on at this rate forever without screwing up my metabolism.

    2 week diet break eating at maintenance is the general recommendation. I'm overdue, but waiting until June.

    Set your account to maintain instead of lose and you're off.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,001 Member
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    sanfromny wrote: »
    Instead of it being a diet, consider it a lifestyle change. there's no cap to wanting to be healthy for life!

    This. I am not on a diet. I changed my eating habits. I will not always eat at a deficit, but I will always be mindful of what I eat and watch my portion sizes. If you are struggling then you can eat at maintenance (no deficit) or eat at a smaller deficit.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    chimaerandi wrote: »
    Just take a maintenance break if you're tired--I did midway, for like a year.

    This^

    I've lost a re-gained a couple times. This time I'm taking maintenance breaks, just to figure out how far I want to go.

    OP - Set MFP to maintenance.....or google TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and find your future maintenance. Eat at that level for several weeks. Future maintenance will give you a good idea on how you will be eating forever.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    Take a maintenance break and when you start losing again up your calories. You will lose more slowly but will be more satiated.
    1500 is the minimum for men and like 1200 for women the lowest MFP goes it is suitable mainly for shorter, lighter, or older people.

    Cheers, h.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    Your diet should last the rest of your life. If what you are doing isn't sustainable, then you will regain the weight once you stop doing it. You need to learn how to eat in such a way that allows you to achieve your goals, and teaches you how to maintain your loss. If 1500 per day is too low for you, why are you doing that? Yes, two lbs (or more) per week is nice and all, but losing at a slower rate, especially when you don't have a lot to lose, will preserve muscle, allow for better adherence (you won't be hungry all the time and tempted to cheat), and will actually show you what your maintenance is going to look like.

    You can take a break by eating at maintanence for a couple weeks, then when you start up again shoot for a more gradual, sustainable loss.
  • Kavazya
    Kavazya Posts: 22 Member
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    Lifestyle change is definitely the way to go -- and obviously the goal is for that to last for life ;)

    But let's be honest, sometimes we lose our footing with our diet goals. When this has happened, I've done cleanse-like diets that are no sugar and no processed foods in order to extinguish cravings (a hard-reset, if you will). In the case of this, I find 3 weeks is long enough to stop craving sugar and junk foods. Then back to the lifestyle change philosophy.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    At an aggressive deficit (which we've established in previous threads that this is) you cannot go on indefinitely. I would say that 5 months is already too long.

    Find maintenance figure, eat at that value for a few weeks to a month and then gradually drop the calories until the loss starts again. This will:
    • Give you a psychological break
    • Allow leptin levels to return to somewhere near normal
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    With a small deficit you can go on and on - but you aren't in a small deficit.

    As you are "fed up" take a break at maintenance. It's not just about the physical benefits of a break, let the stress of dieting go as well for a couple of weeks to a month.

    It's not a race and it's good to practice maintenance anyway.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    How about you stop dieting and just start maintaining your goal weight. This will cause you to lose a little bit extra before it slows to crawl. This way, you will no longer be "dieting" and would truly be living like you would for good.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
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    Forever. You can't go back to the way it used to be, as your fat will follow suit!

    Diets don't work, lifestyle changes do.

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