I ate more and lost weight.

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oliverwnc
oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I wanted to share this experience because I think it will give others confidence to break out of fruitless, long-term diets that are no longer helping you.

I was in a deficit for months and found my weight stalled. I was active, lifting weights and eating well below maintenance. So I kept cutting calories.

My mood and energy levels dropped. I was tired. I ached. My concentration was worse. My productivity was worse. My relationship with food was awful.

A few weeks ago, my calories were so low that I was in really bad way. I had heart palpitations, I was freezing cold and I constantly felt like my skin was crawling. My relationship with food was well into eating disorder territory.

So I knew I had to stop. I told myself enough was enough and I started eating intuitively. For a week, I didn't track food or weigh myself (though I've retrospectively entered my calories to see where I ended up).

I felt infinitely better. My mood, energy, relationship with food and general wellbeing increased massively, immediately.

My workouts and cardio stayed the same but felt better.

When I looked again a week later, I'd dropped 2lbs. Entering my calories, I found I was consuming 300-400kcal more per day, and yet even over the next few days my weight stayed down at this new low.

I now believe without a doubt that diet breaks can help you to overcome a plateau. Nothing else changed. It just lifted my metabolism, got my body firing again, and brought me back to something like normality.

I really recommend it. Even if it doesn't work, it's worth a try for just a week or two. It's a helpful reset and you can always go back into a deficit if you feel the need.

So, has anyone else had the same experience? Really interested to hear.

O

Replies

  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
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    Can you share what your starting calorie count was & where you ended up at when you kept cutting back before your diet break.
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    Can you share what your starting calorie count was & where you ended up at when you kept cutting back before your diet break.

    Sure - I should've been hitting around 2000kcal (for my deficit) but actually ended up bringing that down to around 1600-1700kcal per day on average. I'm active, work out frequently and I'm a 6'0 26-year-old guy, so this is fairly low.

    I brought it up to about 2100kcal (which is where I ended up when eating more intuitively) and this is where my weight started to drop.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
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    Oh okay so you ended up eating slightly over your deficit calories instead of under. Thanks for clarifying.
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    Oh okay so you ended up eating slightly over your deficit calories instead of under. Thanks for clarifying.

    I suppose so, though to be clear - in a sense those low calories (1700) had effectively become my new maintenance. I had stalled for weeks at the same weight on those calories.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
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    Oh ok kind of like shaking up ur calories to speed up ur metabolism. I had a friend who was a trainer That told me something similar when I was in a plateau before. But he had suggested increased calorie days 2 days a week. Im in a plateau now and in eating about 300 cal below my deficit Thanks for sharing.
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    Oh ok kind of like shaking up ur calories to speed up ur metabolism. I had a friend who was a trainer That told me something similar when I was in a plateau before. But he had suggested increased calorie days 2 days a week. Im in a plateau now and in eating about 300 cal below my deficit Thanks for sharing.

    I'm not sure about doing this weekly, but I think there's something to be said for a proper diet break when you hit a plateau!
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    One if the reasons to not eat at too large of a deficit is lack of energy. If you are at too aggressive a deficit you get sluggish and fatigued and subtley are less active and put less effort into exercise, reducing your NEAT and TDEE simply by being less active without even realizing it

    Undereating over an extended period of time can also cause hormonal imbalances that can also affect calories burnt.

    Just a couple of reasons why fueling your body during weight loss rather than forcing yourself into an overly aggressive deficit is so important. When it comes to weight loss, faster is rarely better. :smile:

    Thanks, Kim - I think you're right. Although my activity still seemed about the same, I'm sure you're right that my NEAT and TDEE increased. As someone else mentioned, the fact I was no longer cold all the time seems like evidence of that. I also was able to walk faster without feeling tired and probably to workout harder.

    I'm interested in your comments about hormonal imbalances. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this played a role, given my mood and other side effects that I had which might've indicated my hormones were out of balance.

    I definitely slipped into an excessive deficit, and I know better now. It doesn't work.
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Yes, between fatigue, true adaptive thermogenesis**, and the tendency to hold water weight when under stress (either physical or emotional), that can happen, IMO.

    ** Your mentioning things like being constantly cold makes me think that was part of it.

    I think in reality it's not entirely and literally "metabolism", but I do think diet breaks can work, and that for some/most people there's a sweet spot for calorie intake where energy stays high, but decent loss still happens. "Lowest possible calories" isn't necessarily "fastest steady, sustainable loss".

    No, I'm not saying this is "starvation mode" where "your body holds onto fat and stores all you eat". That's unscientific nonsense.

    Congratulations on figuring out what would work for you . . . and on feeling better.

    Thank you for this, Ann. I agree with all of this - and I hope I've learnt from my own mistakes here!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,221 Member
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    oliverwnc wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    One if the reasons to not eat at too large of a deficit is lack of energy. If you are at too aggressive a deficit you get sluggish and fatigued and subtley are less active and put less effort into exercise, reducing your NEAT and TDEE simply by being less active without even realizing it

    Undereating over an extended period of time can also cause hormonal imbalances that can also affect calories burnt.

    Just a couple of reasons why fueling your body during weight loss rather than forcing yourself into an overly aggressive deficit is so important. When it comes to weight loss, faster is rarely better. :smile:

    Thanks, Kim - I think you're right. Although my activity still seemed about the same, I'm sure you're right that my NEAT and TDEE increased. As someone else mentioned, the fact I was no longer cold all the time seems like evidence of that. I also was able to walk faster without feeling tired and probably to workout harder.

    I'm interested in your comments about hormonal imbalances. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this played a role, given my mood and other side effects that I had which might've indicated my hormones were out of balance.

    I definitely slipped into an excessive deficit, and I know better now. It doesn't work.

    Have you read the "Refeeds and Diet Breaks" thread (link below)?

    If you're interested in the hormonal side of this, there's a lot of interesting - more technical and detailed - info there.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,221 Member
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    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    Oh ok kind of like shaking up ur calories to speed up ur metabolism. I had a friend who was a trainer That told me something similar when I was in a plateau before. But he had suggested increased calorie days 2 days a week. Im in a plateau now and in eating about 300 cal below my deficit Thanks for sharing.

    Well, not exactly. "Shaking up your calories" doesn't strictly speaking "speed up your metabolism".

    Increasing calories a couple of days a week is a possible strategy that helps some people, for a variety of reasons, but that isn't exactly why, in my understanding. If you want to learn more about it, the same thread might be interesting and useful to you:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
  • oliverwnc
    oliverwnc Posts: 69 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    Oh ok kind of like shaking up ur calories to speed up ur metabolism. I had a friend who was a trainer That told me something similar when I was in a plateau before. But he had suggested increased calorie days 2 days a week. Im in a plateau now and in eating about 300 cal below my deficit Thanks for sharing.

    Well, not exactly. "Shaking up your calories" doesn't strictly speaking "speed up your metabolism".

    Increasing calories a couple of days a week is a possible strategy that helps some people, for a variety of reasons, but that isn't exactly why, in my understanding. If you want to learn more about it, the same thread might be interesting and useful to you:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

    Thanks a lot, Ann - really appreciate the insight.

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