How often should a person take a diet break

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KWlosingit
KWlosingit Posts: 122 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
If a person has a lot of weight to lose, so it going to be dieting for over a year, how often should they take a diet break? Is it always necessary to take a break or if a dieter has periods say when they go on vacation and don't totally stay in their deficit is that enough of a break?

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  • GHarbisher89
    GHarbisher89 Posts: 6 Member
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    When I go on vacations I don't calorie count, life is also for living. My advice based on what worked for me, if you manage your calories well you rarely feel like you're dieting. If you need a break take one, if you don't, then even better.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Take a diet break whenever you feel you need to do so. Unless you're under the impression that your total weight loss has to take X amount of time, then you have all the time in the world. Slower weight loss is probably best anyway if you're not in a hurry. It'd certainly be easier on the appetite and may in fact reduce the amount of loose skin you end up with. Having said that.. when you take a break, unless you want to undo all of your hard work, be diligent and log everything and stay at your maintenance calories. If you take a two week or 30 day break and go back to the way you used to eat before, you may derail most of your efforts.

    Some people take diet breaks because they believe their bodies get used to the deficit and stall on weight loss. In fact, it usually is something they are doing wrong that causes the stall. For instance, in an app or device that calculates calories burned for exercise you should enter your height, weight, age, etc. for a more accurate estimate. Every time you lose 5 lbs or more you should update that weight in your app so that the calculations can be corrected and stay accurate. Some people enter their starting weight then never touch the settings again and find after they've lost 20, 30, or 50 lbs their weight loss stops. They are likely having their exercise calories over estimated at that point because of incorrect settings. I always re-ran the MFP wizard or re-rolled my macros every time I lost 5 lbs to make sure things stayed accurate. In doing so, I never hit a stall of more than a week or two during my entire year of dieting.
  • walkdmc
    walkdmc Posts: 529 Member
    edited November 2016
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    I think there's some value in taking breaks to maintain weight, before cutting calories to lose. I attended a conference 2 years ago where the speaker (an MD who works with bariatric surgery and weight loss patients) recommended a 10% drop in weight then maintenance for 6-12 months, then another 10% drop and repeat as needed. That slow, stepwise approach to weight loss allows the bodies satiety and weight regulating hormones a chance to stabilize at the new weight.

    There's a New England Journal article out there that covered this change in hormone levels with weight loss, specifically how it takes the body a long time to regulate (years).

    The key is, remain mindful of your intake, just increase calories to a maintenance level. You'll be surprised at how much food and how many holiday treats you can enjoy eating at maintenance!
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Guidance: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
  • KWlosingit
    KWlosingit Posts: 122 Member
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    I was sort of thinking that maybe with the holidays coming up I should eat at maintenance for two weeks right around Christmas. I have been dieting since April 28th and have lost almost 40 lbs but still have a little over 70 to go.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,873 Member
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    For me, it worked out that I took a diet break every 16 weeks. That also coincided with my holidays. :)
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
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    KWlosingit wrote: »
    I was sort of thinking that maybe with the holidays coming up I should eat at maintenance for two weeks right around Christmas. I have been dieting since April 28th and have lost almost 40 lbs but still have a little over 70 to go.

    Eating at maintenance for a few weeks around the holidays is a good idea, providing you don't go crazy and that you continue to log throughout. ;)

    After the holiday, decrease your deficit over a few weeks to get back into the swing of things.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    Mike Matthews recommends only being in a caloric deficit for a span of 10-12 weeks, then take a diet break and eat at maintenance for 2-3 weeks, then you can go into a deficit for 10-12 weeks again, break again, etc

    This is a good article:

    https://www.muscleforlife.com/the-quickest-way-to-lose-weight/
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    But some people say don't take a break until you hit a plateau.
  • NancyYale
    NancyYale Posts: 171 Member
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    I don't consider it a break, but I don't count on major holidays and relax a little on vacation.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    I take a week off every three months or so
  • Mavrick_RN
    Mavrick_RN Posts: 439 Member
    edited November 2016
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    Depends on your definition of "diet". For some people, their diet is what they eat, so if course they don't completely stop eating for any period of time worth measuring.

    Most of the successful people here have changed their lifestyle/way of eating so that they don't go "on" of "off" it. They make modifications such as eating at maintenance for a while but continue to observe the other changes of lifestyle like logging what they eat or continuing to regularly exercise.

    So, no, you don't need a break or any other excuse to go nutso about eating.
  • janekana
    janekana Posts: 151 Member
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    I'm taking a break right now because I'll be going back home overseas this Saturday, though trying as hard as I can to still stay within calorie goals. I know I'll be eating ice cream + cookie tomorrow so I just need to accept that I'll be at least 300 calories over, but that's just tomorrow.

    I'll also be going to Japan for a vacation for about a week. I probably won't be logging anything (mostly because I probably won't know what's in it anyways) and I do want to enjoy Japanese food, which would probably involve a lot of sweet treats too. After that, it'll be back to calorie deficits for me :)
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    Guidance: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

    This is the bible.
  • Derpy_Hooves
    Derpy_Hooves Posts: 234 Member
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    I take logging breaks every now and then. I would still at least eyeball my portion sizes though and generally stay within my calories, just not as strict as usual.
  • VixxyLiss
    VixxyLiss Posts: 44 Member
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    Mavrick_RN wrote: »
    Depends on your definition of "diet". For some people, their diet is what they eat, so if course they don't completely stop eating for any period of time worth measuring.

    Most of the successful people here have changed their lifestyle/way of eating so that they don't go "on" of "off" it. They make modifications such as eating at maintenance for a while but continue to observe the other changes of lifestyle like logging what they eat or continuing to regularly exercise.

    So, no, you don't need a break or any other excuse to go nutso about eating.

    This^^

    I'm not on "a diet" because for me diet equals what I normally do, its not about deprivation, rigid rules or feeling that I can't have or I've cheated. Therefore if I choose to have something a bit extra then I can do so, but equally I may choose not to. I don't need a diet break because I'm not on a diet, all I've done is to change the way I used to eat and this way is for life not for a quick fix.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited November 2016
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    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    But some people say don't take a break until you hit a plateau.

    Psychological reasons for taking a break are just as important as physical ones. And Christmas/New Year's is a good example of a time to consider doing maintenance for a bit if trying to maintain a deficit over this time period would be stressful and less than joyous. :)
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
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    KWlosingit wrote: »
    I was sort of thinking that maybe with the holidays coming up I should eat at maintenance for two weeks right around Christmas. I have been dieting since April 28th and have lost almost 40 lbs but still have a little over 70 to go.

    This is what I did when I was in my weight loss phase, ended up losing a bit of weight still :) Good for you for thinking ahead and coming up with a plan of action!
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    Guidance: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

    I'll give this a 3rd...

    Also I'll add - understand what a "break" really is. It isn't a chance to go back to your old ways, gorge on holiday foods, and think all is well. It is just a short break to relax mentally a little, raise calories to maintenance, and eat more carbs than usual if you are on a low carb diet.
    The idea of a full diet break, in short, is that it’s a period, typically 10-14 days where explicit dieting is stopped. Calories should be raised to roughly maintenance (I often recommend adjusting estimated maintenance down by about 10% to account for metabolic slowdown and such; here’s How to Estimate Maintenance Caloric Requirements) with carbohydrates in the 100-150 gram/day range as a minimum. I’ll explain some of the rationale behind these recommendations in a second.

    In my experience, that is not going to help you a WHOLE lot over the holidays because of the amounts of high fat, high simple sugar foods.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Do whatever makes it possible for you to stick to a calorie deficit for the time it takes you to lose the excess weight, and not regain after you've lost the desired weight.

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