I distinctly remember distilling this down before somewhere, but can't find the post. So I'll make its own thread this time!

the main sticky thread on diet breaks can be found here:

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

There has been a LOT of response to the thread, but don't panic when you see the number of pages: the relevant information is in the first post and the linked podcast.



The basics of the thread are this:

Deficits are hard on the body, and the less fat you have to lose, the harder it is. This is why the 1% rule is highly encouraged (lose no more than 1% of your current body weight) and truthfully, that is often even too much. Its usually suggested that if you have more than 50 lbs to lose, 2 lbs/wk should be sustainable; less than that, and you should be regulating downward to 1.5 lbs/wk, then 1 lb/wk, and finally, for the last 10-20 lbs, 0.5 lbs/wk. Also highly encourage is the less you have to lose, the more diet breaks you need so that you aren't stressing your body to the point of damaging your health - losing hair, being constantly fatigued, or worse, losing or damaging muscle (and remember - your heart is muscle!)

As you lose weight, your body adapts to the new body weight, meaning the lighter you are, the fewer calories you need to survive daily, so your BMR goes down. In addition to this, there can be some adaptive thermogenesis going on - your NEAT goes down because you become less active, etc. NOTE: You CANNOT BREAK YOUR METABOLISM! Broken Metabolism = dead. Starvation mode is a myth; there is no point where eating too few calories will cause you to gain weight. Eating too few calories will be a strain on your body and can cause water retention, bloating, etc, that LOOKS like weight gain, but trust me - you are losing fat when you are literally starving yourself. Think about it: if starvation mode really happened, how would anyone die of starvation?

The body DOES however have some affects. Metabolism can down regulate to a point - but we're talking a small amount - maybe 100 calories? I don't remember the exact number.

One thing the body does is to down regulate certain hormones in the body as it adapts to your new lower weight, including Leptin, which is the hormone that is part of the saity signaling network. Less Leptin in the body means its harder for you to feel full and satisfied. This also means that there will be an increase in ghrelin, the hunger hormone which, as it says, makes you feel hungry. The body does this 1) because losing weight does have a general affect on your body's processes, and 2) the deficit is stressful and this is the body's way of responding to stress and trying to get out of the stressful state. Deficit eating is eating less than your body needs in energy levels to power through the day, so its going to try to stimulate you to eat more to get rid of that deficit.

Aggressive dieting or striving to lose weight as fast as possible or pushing to lose faster than what is healthy for your current weight is detrimental to your health and simply not sustainable. The goal in weight loss is to do it in a healthy way that is easiest on your body and something that you can sustain long term, which means patience is an absolute must.

This is where diet breaks come in. From a physiological stand point, diet breaks, or eating at maintenance or slightly above maintenance, can result in the body resuming normal hormonal production, including leptin, which in turn will make it easier to continue the deficit after the break - things get reset. From a mental standpoint, diet breaks give you a mental break as well from trying to constantly maintain that deficit. It also works as practice for maintenance which we all eventually want to get to.

The more fat you have to lose, the more stores your body has to pull from, and the longer you can go without a diet break, but the maximum I've seen recommended is 12 - 16 weeks and the less you have to lose the more often they should occur. Diet breaks are for everyone, whether you have 10 lbs to lose or 200.

female/male BMI length of time between diet breaks
28 and higher/30 and higher should be between 12 - 16 weeks
21 - 28/ 24 - 30 should be between 6 - 12 weeks
20 and under/23 and under should between 4 - 6 weeks



Note that the maintenance you should be using should be calculated at the current weight.

Also, you need at least a week of maintenance for the hormonal benefits, and the recommendation often given is push that to 2 weeks to make sure you get those benefits.

also note that while in a diet break, you need to eat at maintenance every day of the break in order to get the hormonal benefits.



If you have any questions, put it into the diet breaks thread; folks there are pretty quick to answer!

I also admit that I have not watched the podcast, but I have read a few articles on Lyle McDonald's website that were linked.


Edited title: Last time this discussion appeared here a few people did not like the idea of taking a break from a diet because they did not consider themselves on a diet. Since then I have tried to refer to them as diet/deficit breaks. -ND