Sometimes your body just needs a break

While I completely agree that a break is a good thing, I would also ask you if you had done any calorie-intake adjustment when you started getting tired and craving more food. One of the biggest mistakes (IMO) is to start off with 100 pounds to lose and stick with that calorie goal forever.

When I got to a certain point (like within 30 pounds of goal) I had to start eating more. It just was exhausting to be me on such low calories - which had worked well for the first 30 pounds.

Just remember to adjust your calorie goals as you go along. When approaching a goal weight, more food is often warranted. Like you said, listen to your body! If you're too hungry, um...eat!

I've been contemplating this actually. I started in January on a 1200 calorie diet, and I was doing fine until May.

The whole month of May was exhausting to stick to my diet -- so many cheat days!! I lost 5 pounds still, but the rest of my months I was averaging 8-10. This month I have a feeling I'm going to lose even less.. I really just want a break. If you feel like it worked for you, I may try it myself. Thank you for posting this.

I've just started my second two-week "maintenance break" today. I try not to think of this as "a diet", and I wasn't severely restricting or cutting out whole categories of food nor was I starting to get tired. I do find myself slacking off a bit after a few weeks and getting a bit sloppier in my logging, though, so I chose to take a short break every 8-10 weeks or so. After the first one, I found that I was able to get back to a lower calorie intake with renewed enthusiasm! This has to be a long-term process for me, and I could see myself not making it to my goal weight due to getting burned out on the whole thing so this really helps.

This thread by SideSteel was the thing that spurred me to start doing this... other people may find it interesting too!