Coach assigned Diet Break....
Options
Replies
-
I think it would still be interesting to read about how you are transitioning into the diet break.1
-
leanjogreen18 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »I was thinking of this thread and something is confusing me. I know you don't weigh foods, so that likely figures some into SideSteel's calorie level rec for you, but... you've been losing two pounds a week. And you're eating 1500-1600 for maintenance? Something there is very off, unless we're using the term diet break in a different way. Then again, I don't think we are.
I can't see how these numbers are adding up with you only having 240 extra calories while you've been losing 2 pounds a week. That amount of deficit would result in a half pound loss if everything was measured accurately.
It's hard to know exactly what your numbers are.
How long is this break for? I'm guessing that if it's two weeks or less, your loss pattern will continue if you're only adding very small amounts of food, and you're not actually on a real diet break. It's possible that SideSteel might want to recalibrate your calories.
Just thinking out loud here, trying to make sense of things. I know he knows what he's doing!
I think he’s watching the scale to see what it does to give him a better idea. I don’t weigh foods, I eat out a lot and cycle my calories. He left me alone in that I was successfully losing before he came on board and didn’t want to change too much.
He mentioned 2 weeks to even a month and increasing my calories depending on the scale. He suspected I’d still lose a little.
So you are correct this is probably the pre diet break and I guess I wasn’t thinking it through. I’ll stop journaling since it isn’t really a “diet break” yet so as not to confuse.
No, please keep journaling! This is exactly what I suspected SideSteel was doing, especially because you're approaching a point in your loss (and possibly approaching a point in your training) where losing a pound a week is a better idea than two pounds.
There are people on these boards who find that measuring food out to the last gram isn't for them who could find this really instructive and validating.5 -
leanjogreen18 wrote: »
Keep in mind that the diet break might also just be to see if you have immediate response in workout performance. It's easy to get used to the lower energy levels you have when you eat at a deficit, because you often don't notice until a hard workout. But when you push for more, longer, heavier, etc the extra calories often get you through it easier.
Other than that, you said you trust your coach. My advice would be to keep trusting them, and if you are curious as to the why of the diet break, just ask.
2 -
Day 4
DBSW 202
CW 202.2
I had an unremarkable day. Nothing really exciting my walk/hike was short and it is a strength training rest day. I did adjust my calores today to compensate for going over yesterday so that my weekly would average approx 1500 a day.
I'm traveling tomorrow so more salty restraunt foods I"m sure. My 5k is Friday evening. I've given up hope to make it under an hour as my left foot (broke in 2017) is still giving me some problems. I used to cycle and I have a bike so I may have to switch to cycling however I really enjoy hiking:(
Over the last 4 days the scale has stayed right within 1lb. Too soon to tell what will happen over the next 2 weeks though.
3 -
Thanks for the update, and sorry about your foot. I broke my ankle quite some time ago and it took a long time before it really felt right.
How do you gauge your portions for logging? Do you use measuring cups? Eyeball? Gauge by a metric like your palm, fistful, thumb? I think this info especially will be helpful for people who find very detailed logging challenging but would still like to see progress like yours.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Thanks for the update, and sorry about your foot. I broke my ankle quite some time ago and it took a long time before it really felt right.
How do you gauge your portions for logging? Do you use measuring cups? Eyeball? Gauge by a metric like your palm, fistful, thumb? I think this info especially will be helpful for people who find very detailed logging challenging but would still like to see progress like yours.
Eyeball what I think is a cup, 1/2 etc. over the last few months I pull out the scales to recalibrate my eyeballing. For example my pinch of shredded cheese is a little under 28g but I check it maybe once a month.
Eating out unless it’s something i eat often I only eat half and I round up 100 calories from higest mfp database entry just in case. I almost always measure cashews because they are so high.
Edit: I eat approx the same 20ish meals and weight daily to make sure everything stays on track.1 -
Take the diet break! I thought I was chugging along good with my 2lbs a week goal, even when MFP threw 1200 cals at me after I saw good loss. And then I went on a diet break due to a vacation and I realized I wasn't doing as well as I thought. I was paranoid for a while of maintaining and even losing a a verrrrrrrrry slow rate that I was actually gaining and that the scale was lying. I had to start measuring myself more often to convince myself I wasn't gaining. My hairdresser commented on me having a lot of baby hairs a few months into my extended diet break. Due to the length of the hair and my knowledge of how fast my hair grows, I would say I has some hairfall at the end of my first deficit run and it started growing back a bit into my break.
I'm back on a deficit again and I'm set to 1.5 lbs a week and I have two week diet breaks scheduled in on my calendar for every 12 weeks. I will evaluate to see if I need to do them more often as I lose more...I'm ready to be in onehundredland already!4 -
Day 5-8
Long weekend mini vacation over. I had a great strength training day Friday then we flew to our destination and walked the 5k that night. My GPS was sketchy so I don't know my official time but it was right around an hour so not bad. I felt strong and my pace was pretty good even the bad foot didn't protest too much with airport walking, standing around at the start of the race etc.!
Food choices on vacation were of the yummy kind. I ordered banana cream pie and shared it, I ordered a second beer one night, a third glass of wine one night, a couple of pinapple fruity drinks one day, french fries & pizza slices, all foods I normally eat but not night after night:) I usually reserve those for maybe a once a week thing.
I went over my 1500 calories, in fact after a full week (Mon-Sun) my average intake was approx 1700. I tracked and knew I was going over but we celebrated my first 5k after the broken foot and I enjoyed every minute of it:) I felt in control. I was totally prepared for the scale to go up when I returned home from extra volume, salty foods from eating out and I wan't disappointed I went up to 205 on Monday morning. I'm down to 203 today so really only a 1lb difference from the start of my "diet break".
I'm beginning week 2 strong with Monday clocking in at 1495 calories. Even if this isn't a real diet break the increased calories have really given me increased confidence in maintaining my eventual goal weight. I haven't flucuiated more than 3lbs this last week even going over my calorie goal by a lot.
I will stay I can't wait to get back into a larger defict because I'm like most of us impatient and want to get another big chuck of weight off:) but this has been really, really good for my confidence in expectation of maintainance.
4 -
Thank you for posting this. It's interesting to read others' experiences.2
-
One thing I did notice is that my appitite seems increased.
Is it my hormones returning to normal (usually takes 2 weeks I believe from Lyle Mcdonalds blog, see OP for link). Is it because I was eating breakfast on my mini vacation which usually makes me ravenous the rest of the day? Was it increased alcohol intake? My choices of food? Or the thoughts of "I'm on vacation" and "I'm celebrating"?
I honestly think it might be all of the above. Because individually I know those have had an effect when in my larger deficit, add them all together and it could have been disastrous. I'll be keeping this in mind in the future because when not logging I don't pay attention to these things. Maybe logging helped me to see it?0 -
Day 9 Calories 1516
DBSW 202
CW 201.8
So two days back from my mini vacation (4 days) of eating 1800-2000 calories back down to 1500 and I'm back where I started on the scale 9 days ago. I know it's too soon to tell but at the very least I feel like this is what maintainance will be like.
Lesson learned that eating for 4 days controlled higher calorie days didn't ruin my progress, I was able to get right back on 1500 and going over ones calorie goal once in a while shouldn't raise one's stress levels:).
Since I started this "diet" I have approached the last 17 weeks in a very laid back, flexible way. I don't stress if I go over my calorie goal, if I do I try to make up for it over the week. I don't restrict any foods just moderate them differently depending on the food. I haven't stressed over the scale becasue I've seen it go up a lb when sticking strictly to my calorie goal then go down when I ate 200 calories over, I've decided it can say what it wants to say and I just record it and go about my day. This is how I hoped it would go so far and how I hope maintance will go:)
4 -
Day 10
DBSW 202
CW 201.6
Nothing new to report except my "diet break" will end on Tuesday. I have felt a return of hunger (should I say more hunger) eating on some days 1800-2000 so maybe this is a sign that my hormones have returned to normal? Or is it just confirmation that for me when I eat more I want to eat more? So many questions that may never be fully answered it seems:).
I think I messed up in the since that I ate breakfast (not a normal thing for me) and I didn't strictly adhere to the 1500 calories last week (average 1700). I need to get this dialed in for my eventual maintenance. I don't want to do one thing while "dieting" and then another thing while maintaining. I know the scale isn't showing anything different but I do wonder if this had gone on months what the scale would show? I did log my calories daily, weigh daily and try to adjust when I went over the best I could after my mini vacation so that is progress. In the past maintainance would be stopping everything I did while cutting and get mad my pants were getting tighter:(
I'm ready to get back into my larger defict and get down since I'm teetering on being below 200. I don't know physiologiclly what's happening but psychologically I feel ready to get back to a larger deficit continue to strengthen and work on my milage/pace. It was both confidence boosting and a bummer to see the scale stay the same for these last 10 days. I now have confirmation that I can maintain and yet I was used to the scale going in a downward trend:) Impatience is not my strong point:) but I hear slow and steady wins the race:).
4 -
Yesterday was day 14
DBSW 202
CW 203
Partial diet break over. I'm back on cycling my calories with an average of 1260 calories starting today.
Things I learned...
1. Continue to eat the same way while in a defict when maintaining. I ate breakfast a little more because of vacation and boy did it make me hungrier the rest of the day:(
2. Weigh daily to see if the flucuation is larger than a few lbs. In the past once out of a defict I stopped weighing:(
3. Eating at maintainance or near maintaince calories really does work:) I've flucuated only 3 lbs in two weeks eating approx 1750 calories average. The big swings were 2000 calorie days and super easy to see the upswing on the scale the next day (and it went back down almost immediatly the next day).
4. Going from near maintainance calories back to a deficit has been easier than I thought. I'm on point today feel ready to tackle another 12 weeks or however long until my next diet break.
5. Even though I continued to log I was lose with my calories in that I knew that I could go up to an average of 1700 without gaining.
6. Knowing my approx numbers to maintain has been empowering. Although I know it may go down some as I lose my the next 50ish lbs I have left for my first weight goal.
I hope this helps anyone who maybe thinking of taking a diet break, worried about eating maintainance, estimating their calories for whatever reason because they can't weight their food.
I wasn't keen on it at first as I get caught up once in awhile with the thought process as I'm doing great why stop the weight loss now kinda thing. I'm glad I did as it gave me confidence in the approx numbers, confidence in that I can approximate my calories and maintain. I will pull out my scale if this ever stops working, I'm not resistant to the food scale I know I need to adjust when things stop working:)
Best of luck to everyone!
4 -
I've had a few people message me and ask how I was doing after the diet break so I thought I would do a 1 month update:
SW 235ish
DBSW 202
Diet Break Ending weight 203
Current weight 198
February was a little slow on the weight loss for me but 5lbs in one month I'll take it:). I had 2 months that my weekly average calories was up a bit so that explains the slower weight loss. Also I injured my knee so my walking and hiking was put on hold which my NEAT was reduced. But I hit the trails this week and was able to complete a 2 mile 500' elevation change trail and my big win was no knee pain:).
I really killed it in my strenth training, I can feel myself getting stronger and it's really boosted my confidence which has been a nice surprise. I keep doing flex Friday but I'm not seeing anything yet lol. I will start my 3rd program with Patrick next week so we'll see what that brings. I've noticed I can walk up stairs without having to hold on to the rails which is also a big win, the calf raises has strengthend my foot I broke in 2017. I still have issues but not feeling 90 going up stairs when I'm only 52 is a nice feeling again. I guess I'm saying I'm a firm believer in strength training now:)
If anyone has any tips on self talk about lifting I'd appreciate it. I enjoy strength training when I'm actually doing it but I don't wake up and say YAY today is strength training like I do on hiking days. I sit around drink coffee and do a lot of "just do it" "get up now" type of self talk:)
I just read about keeping focus on the process and not so much the goal so that has been my current strategy.
As always I hope this has been helpful.1 -
leanjogreen18 wrote: »I've had a few people message me and ask how I was doing after the diet break so I thought I would do a 1 month update:
SW 235ish
DBSW 202
Diet Break Ending weight 203
Current weight 198
February was a little slow on the weight loss for me but 5lbs in one month I'll take it:). I had 2 months that my weekly average calories was up a bit so that explains the slower weight loss. Also I injured my knee so my walking and hiking was put on hold which my NEAT was reduced. But I hit the trails this week and was able to complete a 2 mile 500' elevation change trail and my big win was no knee pain:).
I really killed it in my strenth training, I can feel myself getting stronger and it's really boosted my confidence which has been a nice surprise. I keep doing flex Friday but I'm not seeing anything yet lol. I will start my 3rd program with Patrick next week so we'll see what that brings. I've noticed I can walk up stairs without having to hold on to the rails which is also a big win, the calf raises has strengthend my foot I broke in 2017. I still have issues but not feeling 90 going up stairs when I'm only 52 is a nice feeling again. I guess I'm saying I'm a firm believer in strength training now:)
If anyone has any tips on self talk about lifting I'd appreciate it. I enjoy strength training when I'm actually doing it but I don't wake up and say YAY today is strength training like I do on hiking days. I sit around drink coffee and do a lot of "just do it" "get up now" type of self talk:)
I just read about keeping focus on the process and not so much the goal so that has been my current strategy.
As always I hope this has been helpful.
I don’t really do any self-talk relating to lifting, but I DO focus on how I feel AFTER a gym session. I can’t say I love lifting, but I do love how it makes me feel. That feeling (energized, proud, the feeling of physical exertion) is what gets me out the door and to the gym.
Great post and thanks for the update!2 -
leanjogreen18 wrote: »I've had a few people message me and ask how I was doing after the diet break so I thought I would do a 1 month update:
SW 235ish
DBSW 202
Diet Break Ending weight 203
Current weight 198
February was a little slow on the weight loss for me but 5lbs in one month I'll take it:). I had 2 months that my weekly average calories was up a bit so that explains the slower weight loss. Also I injured my knee so my walking and hiking was put on hold which my NEAT was reduced. But I hit the trails this week and was able to complete a 2 mile 500' elevation change trail and my big win was no knee pain:).
I really killed it in my strenth training, I can feel myself getting stronger and it's really boosted my confidence which has been a nice surprise. I keep doing flex Friday but I'm not seeing anything yet lol. I will start my 3rd program with Patrick next week so we'll see what that brings. I've noticed I can walk up stairs without having to hold on to the rails which is also a big win, the calf raises has strengthend my foot I broke in 2017. I still have issues but not feeling 90 going up stairs when I'm only 52 is a nice feeling again. I guess I'm saying I'm a firm believer in strength training now:)
If anyone has any tips on self talk about lifting I'd appreciate it. I enjoy strength training when I'm actually doing it but I don't wake up and say YAY today is strength training like I do on hiking days. I sit around drink coffee and do a lot of "just do it" "get up now" type of self talk:)
I just read about keeping focus on the process and not so much the goal so that has been my current strategy.
As always I hope this has been helpful.
I don’t really do any self-talk relating to lifting, but I DO focus on how I feel AFTER a gym session. I can’t say I love lifting, but I do love how it makes me feel. That feeling (energized, proud, the feeling of physical exertion) is what gets me out the door and to the gym.
Great post and thanks for the update!
Thank you! Maybe I need to focus on that because I definitely love the benefits. My confidence level alone has improved drastically. I just don't understand why I procrastinate:(1 -
leanjogreen18 wrote: »leanjogreen18 wrote: »I've had a few people message me and ask how I was doing after the diet break so I thought I would do a 1 month update:
SW 235ish
DBSW 202
Diet Break Ending weight 203
Current weight 198
February was a little slow on the weight loss for me but 5lbs in one month I'll take it:). I had 2 months that my weekly average calories was up a bit so that explains the slower weight loss. Also I injured my knee so my walking and hiking was put on hold which my NEAT was reduced. But I hit the trails this week and was able to complete a 2 mile 500' elevation change trail and my big win was no knee pain:).
I really killed it in my strenth training, I can feel myself getting stronger and it's really boosted my confidence which has been a nice surprise. I keep doing flex Friday but I'm not seeing anything yet lol. I will start my 3rd program with Patrick next week so we'll see what that brings. I've noticed I can walk up stairs without having to hold on to the rails which is also a big win, the calf raises has strengthend my foot I broke in 2017. I still have issues but not feeling 90 going up stairs when I'm only 52 is a nice feeling again. I guess I'm saying I'm a firm believer in strength training now:)
If anyone has any tips on self talk about lifting I'd appreciate it. I enjoy strength training when I'm actually doing it but I don't wake up and say YAY today is strength training like I do on hiking days. I sit around drink coffee and do a lot of "just do it" "get up now" type of self talk:)
I just read about keeping focus on the process and not so much the goal so that has been my current strategy.
As always I hope this has been helpful.
I don’t really do any self-talk relating to lifting, but I DO focus on how I feel AFTER a gym session. I can’t say I love lifting, but I do love how it makes me feel. That feeling (energized, proud, the feeling of physical exertion) is what gets me out the door and to the gym.
Great post and thanks for the update!
Thank you! Maybe I need to focus on that because I definitely love the benefits. My confidence level alone has improved drastically. I just don't understand why I procrastinate:(
I totally get the procrastination.
But. My posture has improved, my skin looks better, I sleep better, and the chronic lower back pain I had is gone. All those on addition to the confidence. Fitting the gym is a pain when you’re busy, and it took
me a long time to get over the intimidation factor of a weight room, but I’m always glad afterward. I hope this helps.
I also have a quote on my lock screen that says, “It’s easier to get up every morning and work out than it is to look in the mirror each day and not like what you see.”
It’s a good reminder for me.1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 391 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 926 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions