Was this diet break a good idea?

localgrr
localgrr Posts: 99 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was fumbling my weight loss a bit so a few people on here suggested a diet break. I'm coming up to a week on maintenance, and basically it allowed me extra chocolate and other treats each day. How am I going to give them up now!? I wish I didn't have such a sweet tooth!

Thanks

Replies

  • ChrysalisCove
    ChrysalisCove Posts: 975 Member
    I find I do much better allowing small treats daily. Hershey’s Kisses, Ghiradelli Quares, popsicles or ice cream bars (rather than tubs), and holiday “mini” sizes are a great way to allow a little something sweet each day.
  • smolmaus
    smolmaus Posts: 442 Member
    The "extra" calories you get in maintenance can be made up of anything. Same for the calories you cut to get back to a deficit.

    I would rather cut pasta or bread portions or reduce my alcohol than not be able to have the occasional crunchie after dinner. Make whatever choice is easiest for you personally.
  • hypocacculus
    hypocacculus Posts: 68 Member
    I have exactly the same problem with sweet things. So many people seem to manage with small daily treats - if I eat them, I just want more. Chocolate I can take or leave, but I'd eat my own weight in Gummi Bears given the chance. My personal solution for sugar, and alcohol for that matter, is cold turkey. I crave for a couple of days, then it goes away.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I hear ya! My diet break brought my daily allowance up a bit because I couldn't face 1200 again but I did reach goal and am maintaining. I think the responses you've gotten so far are excellent. Remember this isn't a diet you do for a while then go back to the way it used to be. You have to find a way to manage maintenance for life. If anything you have had a glimpse of how easy it will be once you reach goal. Hang in there and you will do fine.
  • Dgil1975
    Dgil1975 Posts: 110 Member
    hypocacculus wrote: »
    I have exactly the same problem with sweet things. So many people seem to manage with small daily treats - if I eat them, I just want more. Chocolate I can take or leave, but I'd eat my own weight in Gummi Bears given the chance. My personal solution for sugar, and alcohol for that matter, is cold turkey. I crave for a couple of days, then it goes away.

    Same here, I envy people that can do the moderation thing. But sweets are my weakness, I know that allowing myself small amounts of chocolate will lead to big amounts of chocolate, so I just leave them out of my eating plan. I think you have to be honest with yourself and know which category you fall in.

    One comment to the OP, would be that having a diet break probably shouldn’t mean eating extra sweets all week. I think this could lead to issues when you hit your goal weight and are in maintenance, and it could be a slippery slope back to gaining weight by falling back into the poor eating habits that made all of us overweight to begin with.
  • rosiorama
    rosiorama Posts: 300 Member
    Just echoing Panini911 and ithers who have already posted:

    I would never be able to keep counting calories and losing weight without allowing myself small treats! I have a little today, and KNOW that I can have some more tomorrow.

    I used to eat way more bread (oh, buttery toast!) but I can’t have it all! I have cut down on buttery toast, peanut butter toast and toast with jam so that I can some candy OR cake OR chocolate every day. Or, if I’m really craving the toast, I don’t have the chocolate.

    If you want to keep up with the healthy weight loss and healthy maintenance weight, you have to figure out how to add in treats. Depriving yourself of treats over the longterm will catch up to you eventually in the form of a binge. At least it used to for me.

    Ha. And I clicked on this threat because I ate at maintneance a several days last week - and the leveling off of my weight loss trend has been freaking me out (it did exactly as expected). My weight has also gone UP a bit. Trying to be calm about it because I also noticed that my workouts felt better this last week. I basically came here to say that you’re not alone in your struggles - a lot of us struggle... the details of our struggles may just differ a bit.

Categories