The Diet Break.
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I have been eating at maintenance for quite some time but recently in the last few months ramped up my running and didn't really tweak my calories to match the running. I ate a little more here and there, but I am sure my body needed more because my workouts started to suffer along with my mood & sleep. I started increasing cals more to see if it would help my workouts but I still was not seeing improvement. I went to the doc and they tested my hormones and my testosterone was at a 7! My estrogen was good but my progesterone was low as well. Pretty much did a number on my body. So as of now I am eating a little above maintenance and enjoying easy walks for exercise. Sounds wonderful, but for somebody who loves high intensity workouts this is killer for me.0
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This is a great thread and am giving it a bump for anyone who hasn't read it.
I coincidentally just finished my first diet break. I loved the break. I ate about 500 calories over my current deficit amount and weighed/logged my intake. At the end of the break the scale showed a loss of .02 lb. I am happily back on my deficit.10 -
Sue, you have done fabulously with this method. I think the key is that during the "diet breaks" you ate at maintenance and your body had time to readjust to the weight drop in increments. Now it seems you have gotten down nicely and are continuing to keep the weight off. Thank you for sharing. Forgive me if you mentioned already-- what is your final goal?
Thank you, Deb - I definitely feel like I learn something new with each break, and I like having the practice at maintenance in preparation for the future!
My final goal is a bit uncertain - at the moment I'm aiming for 150lbs as an initial goal, which will put me within a healthy BMI range (I'm 5'6") and is a weight I haven't seen for about 25 years. It's a few pounds heavier than I was when I got married, though, and one of my other goals is to fit into my wedding dress again!
I know that my body shape has changed over the years and I carry a lot more weight around my middle than I used to, so I'm not sure how I'm going to look and feel when I reach that first goal. I plan to reassess when I get there, and decide if I want to try for 140lbs. (I'm not sure I'd want to go lower than that, but again I'd wait and see how I felt when I got there!) I might even take a few months at maintenance to decide on that, depending on how hard it was to get to 150.
When I first started, I'd set my goal at 160lbs because I really thought I would struggle to get even that far! But I've gained a lot of confidence in myself and my ability to do this, and I feel like I can achieve my new goals now. It's taking longer than I would have preferred, but I'm very lazy so if I want to lose faster it's within my power to do it - I just have to get off my butt more often!
Funny - I've had a similar experience. My initial goal was 140 which was just under the line for normal BMI, but with some gained confidence as I lost weight I'm looking at 130-135 as a new goal even though I'm bouncing around the mid-150s and have a bit left to go
I love diet breaks. I've been on and off MFP and found that two things have led me to be more successful: (1) diet breaks. I don't plan them in advance but can feel when I'm "burning out" a bit on having a deficit and then decide to take a break until I feel ready to have a deficit again; (2) dropped myself to 0.5lb/week after I lost my initial 20lbs because I actually lost faster than having it at 1lb/week and overeating and then feeling bad about myself. Now I lose at a bit over 0.5lb/week but under 1lb/week and any movement downward is celebrated I always heard people talk about taking your time, and I understood it in my head - but I didn't really "feel" it and truly understand it with experience until the past year and feel like things just fell into place.5 -
lulalacroix wrote: »This is a great thread and am giving it a bump for anyone who hasn't read it.
I coincidentally just finished my first diet break. I loved the break. I ate about 500 calories over my current deficit amount and weighed/logged my intake. At the end of the break the scale showed a loss of .02 lb. I am happily back on my deficit.
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@Sidesteel Me again.
I'm going on a break. Started last Friday with me not feeling well, which spiked my appetite. So I ate a bit under maintenance over the weekend and gained ~5 lbs. Pizza and Chinese food, so I know it's water. But I've been feeling foggy since then and I'm not sure if I'm fighting the flu (wife was down with it all weekend) or what, so I'm going to continue to eat at maintenance. Also, I could not finish my normal run yesterday and today stayed in bed.
I guess the question is, 1 week, 2 weeks, until I feel better? Is there a way to tell?
Thanks.0 -
Here is Lyle McDonald's write-up on diet breaks.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I did some reading yesterday on diet breaks and most of what I read recommend around 2 weeks.
Here is another site that I read...
https://rippedbody.com/diet-break/2 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »@Sidesteel Me again.
I'm going on a break. Started last Friday with me not feeling well, which spiked my appetite. So I ate a bit under maintenance over the weekend and gained ~5 lbs. Pizza and Chinese food, so I know it's water. But I've been feeling foggy since then and I'm not sure if I'm fighting the flu (wife was down with it all weekend) or what, so I'm going to continue to eat at maintenance. Also, I could not finish my normal run yesterday and today stayed in bed.
I guess the question is, 1 week, 2 weeks, until I feel better? Is there a way to tell?
Thanks.
I was in exactly the same quandry a couple of weeks back, I get a crazy appetite when I'm ill so upped myself to maintenance until I felt better (abuot 10 days) , then was away travelling for the weekend so kept it there. I went up about a kilo with the water weight and started coming back down about 3/4 days later. I'm back on normal deficit now and it's showing in my weigh ins. I would say listen to your body when you're feeling ill and up your water intake so you don't feel as lousy.1 -
I have enjoyed reading this thread, I thought I would share my experience as well in case it helps anyone.
I started at about 340 lbs, and was terrified of taking a break. A couple of times in the first year or so of dieting I ate more (once was during a super bowl party, the other I think a birthday party) and I gained something like 4 or 5 pounds on the scale the next day. I was extremely ignorant to the ideas of glycogen, water weight and the incredible amount of weight my body could fluctuate in what was basically just water weight (or at least the vast majority of it).
Both of those experiences left me thinking I had set myself back weeks with one day of eating more. I also didn’t have any trouble with adherence and lost 2 lbs a week like clockwork for about a year, with no breaks at all aside from the those two days I described.
After that I slowed my deficit to about 1 lb / week, but was still pretty afraid to “break” from my deficit and lost 1 lb a week very consistently until I got down to about 230 lbs. At that point I decided to try to maintain for a couple of weeks, and I gained about 10 lbs on the scale over the course of that time. I also struggled to maintain and was actually eating a bit of a surplus.
Then I went straight back to the deficit and started to learn more about water weight, glycogen and weight fluctuation, and I became less afraid of taking a diet break. None the less I stuck to my deficit very closely until I got down to about 197 (my goal had been 200 when I started dieting back at 340). Then I decided to try maintaining for a month, and it actually worked.
I even decided at that time to bulk for a couple of months as well and gained more weight than I meant to and followed that up with a vacation where I ate a lot too much (a cruise), and my weight had gone up quite a bit. I probably gained something like 13 real pounds over the course of four months of bulking/vacationing, which was too much, but I was/am still learning what I’m doing.
I found out a few things about myself during that time. I found that my weight fluctuates very large amounts between deficit and non-deficit eating, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 lbs. When I diet break now over about 2-3 weeks my weight will go up 10 lbs (if I am maintaining, much faster if over maintenance). The weight generally comes off a little faster (maybe 1-2 weeks) when I go back into a deficit.
I also learned that I need not fear maintaining, or even large weight fluctuations. Mentally it would crack me when I saw the weight on the scale go up in the past, now I can see it go up and not freak out, and I know it can come back off without too much effort if I am planning to lose more weight. I’m also no longer afraid of bulking, and am trying to plan to do a slower bulk that allows me to gain some muscle without gaining too much fat, but I am still just trying to learn how to do this and am not very good at it yet.
I attached my weight graph in case it helps to see the weight fluctuations visually. I started tracking it daily online when I weighed about 250, though if I had the previous year or so you would see almost a straight line downward at about 2lbs / week. You will see my first maintain at about 230 in Oct '15 (the 2 week one). Then the 5 or so months of maintenance and then bulk, then another 4 month or so slower deficit to lose what I had gained, and then a true successful diet break (or maintenance phase if you prefer since it lasted two months) in June/July of this year and then deficit again to get down to about 195 and I am currently doing another maintenance phase now and plan to begin that slower bulk I mentioned soon.
So if you decide to take a diet break and see weight gain, it may not be because you are eating too much or gaining any fat, your body may respond how mine does.
I hope this helps.
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I'm trying to plan ahead for April, as I've been on a 12-week challenge that will end on Easter Sunday.
I want to try the diet break as an intentional, intuitive tool. That being said, I'll be starting another 12-week challenge on May 7th, so my inclination is to take a 5-week break. Is there anything potentially hazardous about this, other than the possibility of "getting comfortable?" (Highly doubt it will be an issue for me -- maybe so in another 30-ish pounds.) Also, just to clarify that I have the right understanding, it's OK to go "cold turkey" to maintenance calories?
I'm thinking this would be a great opportunity to build a bit of muscle. I am familiar with the Scooby tool and plan to use the "most accurate calculator" to get my starting point on "gain muscle, lose fat" (net zero). I've started SL 5x5, though modified to avoid over-the shoulder reaches due to injury, and would like to see some progress there. I've also started to move about more on land (was horridly difficult to do until recently) and am interested in trying C25k seriously (I've gotten pretty far in the water, but that's totally different), and figure this might be a good opportunity to build a bit of endurance as well. I'm tired of feeling like a slug.
I've had great gains in feeling better(ish), but when a person starts from almost nothing, it's not that hard to get a great increase in "feeling." I've been taking InBody tests (yes, I know they're not super-accurate, but it's the best I've got available) and they indicate I've had [very] modest improvements as I've lost a fair bit of my weight (guesstimating I'm just over 60% to where I'll land). Most of the better feelings are likely attributable to the fact that I've maintained muscle while losing fat, I'm guessing. I want more than that.
I know this overreaches the topic at hand a bit (or more), but I'm hoping, with some vets having chimed in on this thread, that I might be able to get some insight. Thanks in advance to anyone who can chime in!0 -
I ended up taking a break of three months or so last summer - it wasn't meant to last that long originally but I did, as you mentioned, "get comfortable"! When I eventually decided to get back to a deficit I managed to stick to it reasonably well until my holiday break over Christmas and New Year.
I've found it harder to stay in a deficit since that break, although that might have something to do with the cold weather and just feeling tired, grumpy and chilly all the time! I'm hoping that once the weather improves I'll feel like being more active rather than wanting to hibernate, and I should be able to lose the last few pounds I'd like to. At least I'm maintaining well!
And yeah, as far as I know you should be fine with just increasing to maintenance calorie levels right away, although you may see a temporary bounce in weight when you do. That said, it might depend on the size of your current deficit - I've never been more than 500 cals down, so I don't know if increasing your allowance from a larger deficit would have a more noticeable effect.
Good luck, and enjoy your break!1 -
I ended up taking a break of three months or so last summer - it wasn't meant to last that long originally but I did, as you mentioned, "get comfortable"! When I eventually decided to get back to a deficit I managed to stick to it reasonably well until my holiday break over Christmas and New Year.
I've found it harder to stay in a deficit since that break, although that might have something to do with the cold weather and just feeling tired, grumpy and chilly all the time! I'm hoping that once the weather improves I'll feel like being more active rather than wanting to hibernate, and I should be able to lose the last few pounds I'd like to. At least I'm maintaining well!
And yeah, as far as I know you should be fine with just increasing to maintenance calorie levels right away, although you may see a temporary bounce in weight when you do. That said, it might depend on the size of your current deficit - I've never been more than 500 cals down, so I don't know if increasing your allowance from a larger deficit would have a more noticeable effect.
Good luck, and enjoy your break!
Thank you for your fast response! So good to hear from someone who has gone through it. With being committed to another challenge, I think the group accountability will be able to kick me back into gear even if I get comfortable. It is new territory for me, as I'm currently at about my lowest adult weight (don't have a definitive number, but believe it was in the current set of 10s that I'm in). Either way, the clothes supply only continues because I have some awesome friends and family who are letting me borrow .
Anyway, back on topic, do you think a "step up system" over the first week (adding back 15% of calorie deficit per day) would alleviate the bounce? I think it could potentially be more of an issue for me, as I've been at around a 750-1000 kcal/day deficit between eating and exercise.
Also, when you went back into deficit, you jumped right in to your 500 kcals right away?
Thanks again for your insight!0 -
I lost 1-1.5lbs/week for about 8 weeks and then plateaued hard. I was super frustrated. I decided to step back and eat at maintenance for a week, then went back to what I was eating before. After my one week at maintenance, I dropped 5+ lbs in 3 weeks! I also felt refreshed and was actually excited to get back to calorie restricting and (accurately) logging. I will never go without another diet break!1
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So this isn't new information for some of you, but I find this is one of those things that people neglect to do even if they know about it.
Rather than go into detail about what a diet break is, I'll leave you with this article:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
Basically, this is a period of time where you're eating at maintenance. How often and how long you should break for will vary a bit, but if I were to make a general recommendation based on my own experiences with multiple people of different demographics, I'd say a maintenance phase of 1 to 2 weeks in length every 6 to 10 weeks of dieting.
Edit: Read the article for reasons WHY to diet break but the really short cliffs are this -- dieting sucks. Some hormones may become a bit disregulated, motivation will dwindle, gym performance can suffer, food focus increases, etc.
My preference with this is to very slightly under-estimate maintenance needs and bring calories up for about a week. If things are going well and especially if weight continues to drop, make another bump to calories for another week.
Surprisingly, I seldom see weight gain as a result of this. In fact, more often than not it's either weight maintenance or a slight reduction in weight. When calories are brought back down to pre-break levels we typically see additional losses even in cases where someone was previously stalled.
I'll note that this isn't necessarily indicative of metabolic benefits of the diet break although it's a possibility. It's also likely that long duration dieting impacts tracking accuracy and diet adherence and so near the tail end of a diet, the difference between what's eaten and what's logged is likely a bit larger (people are eating more than they log) wheres post break that gap is likely a bit smaller.
I will also add this -- I've never had someone I'm coaching take a diet break as planned, and regret the diet break later. I HAVE had people resist the recommendation, thinking they can just willpower through it, only to later regret not taking the diet break.
Anyway, the article I've linked will contain a lot of solid info that I'd suggest checking out. You can also let me know if you have any general questions about this strategy.
I'll note that I pretty much incorporate these as a standard practice in some capacity now, and I'm VERY glad I do.
On my last cutting phase, I didn't do any diet breaks, but I learned my lesson when my weight had stalled and did a reverse diet to maintenance. I experienced more weight loss (probably because I was retaining too much water) which made me think about diet breaks and I made research on it. I will definitely incorporate it next time I go on a cut. I will take one every 2-3 months when I feel my body is slowly adapting to my calories.0 -
I’m getting ready to do a diet break, first time I’ve done one. I’ve been restricting since the beginning of Jan, have lost around 10kg (about 22lb I think?) and haven’t had any issues- it’s been going well. The reason for the break for me is that I’m going on camp as a leader for 5 days, and camp food is baaaaaad.
I’m planning on taking some of my own food to keep in a cooler, but don’t have access to cooking facilities so it has to be grab and go stuff. So with eating partly camp food and partly my own stuff, and making sure I get in a walk every day, maintenance should be easy. I was planning on doing a week, but might consider 10 days instead.
Feeling a little nervous!1 -
MelodiousMermaid wrote: »Anyway, back on topic, do you think a "step up system" over the first week (adding back 15% of calorie deficit per day) would alleviate the bounce? I think it could potentially be more of an issue for me, as I've been at around a 750-1000 kcal/day deficit between eating and exercise.
You could certainly do that, if it would make you feel more comfortable about increasing your calories! I think everyone just has to experiment and find what works best for them as an individual, really.Also, when you went back into deficit, you jumped right in to your 500 kcals right away?
I've taken several breaks over the couple of years I've been at this lark, and I usually go right back to the deficit I had before the break without easing into it. I do find, though, that because I've "reset" it, I usually lose a few extra calories (about 50-60 each time, depending on how much I'd lost since my last reset).
I was only on the 500-cal deficit for the first year - in January 2017 I went back to that but my allowance was down to slightly more than 1200 by then as I'm sedentary. I struggled to stick to it for a few weeks, and finally decided it wasn't worth the anguish! I changed my goal to lose 1/2lb a week instead of 1lb, and it was much easier to deal with.Leannep2201 wrote: »Feeling a little nervous!
Understandable! The very first break I took, I found it very stressful. I think it was because I knew I had a buffer in my deficit while trying to lose, which would absorb any logging errors or overindulging, and when that was taken away I was suddenly terrified that I'd gain back all my lost pounds if I went over my limit!
It took me a little while to convince myself that I'd have to go over it regularly before I'd start regaining, but after I came to terms with that my subsequent breaks have been enjoyable.1
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