Most people have two ways of thinking when it comes to eating.
1. On a diet
2. Off a diet
On a diet means a variety of things and usually related to Shape magazine or the latest guru email. Off a diet, usually means what you see, is what you eat. Think about it, if everyone ate what they should off their diet, eventually they should obtain their goal weight. Think about this for a moment with your own habits. If you find you are not losing fat (or gaining) over a period of time, you are not managing your diet break. It is likely you are not managing your diet at all.
When to break
There is no hard fast formula for when to break on a diet. General rule of thumb is 12 weeks after the starting point of the diet. This can vary depending on body fat levels, hormonal responsiveness and psychological factors. For example, a man who is 28% body fat can ride out the whole twelve weeks in a deficit while a woman who is 19% body fat will not. A woman at 19% with likely want to include cycling in her diet with a 12 week full break.
Diet breaks aren’t only relevant to body fat percentage. Several studies [1,2,3,4] have shown differences in how fast the body regulates downwards when a deficit begins. The take home point is no matter what size you are, a complete diet break is needed.
How to break
How you break, is almost as powerful as how you diet. The break depends on the deficit and the person. You can over simplify it and say, “Take a deficit break. Eat at maintenance for 2 weeks and then go back to dieting if need.” This can work in theory but people often need more direct instruction.
Rather than boil things down to an elementary answer I am providing two break methods. These methods vary enough to provide for a variety of dieters. Multiple methods can work but I find the right ones make a difference. These can also be a jumping point for your own design.
Fundamentals of a Break
Before I give a format there are a few fundamentals you want to keep in mind.
- Caloric intake needs to be at present maintenance or slightly above. Current maintenance is what your caloric needs are at the time of diet break, not from the start of the diet. If you wish to learn more about this feel free to check out the Fat Loss Troubleshoot Package.
- Caloric intake should not be excessive and it is not an excuse to be a glutton.
- Always assess the role training plays in your break and recovery.
- If you intend to diet down again after the break, do not try to make up for lost time by gaining fat back. Planning to lose it again doesn’t make it OK.
- Expect to gain weight. It can take 1-2 weeks to get back to pre-break weight.
2 Plans For Diet Breaks
1 – Mo’ Food, No problem
Who is it for?
This break is for those who don’t have a problem controlling their break. You understand you need to refeed to offset the down regulation of your metabolic activity. You don’t have problems with binges and you stick to your dieting plans.
What should you do?
Days 1 – 14 – Eat at of your estimated daily caloric burn. Take in at least 150g (female)/200g (male) of carbohydrates. Make sure to include starch based carbohydrates. Meaning if you are carbohydrate-phobic of anything which isn’t a veggie you may want to rethink your diet attitude. Recently people have used the Bulking Cookbook for dieting break ideas to grow in their starch based carbohydrates.
While you should lightly monitor caloric intake, you don’t need to be extremely structured unless you notice a excessive increase in weight. Remember, from this article I discuss how much weight you should expect to gain in maintenance.
2 – The 3-Week Ease in
Who is it for?
This break is for those who have a problem controlling their break. This can be for a variety of reasons ranging from emotions to post-dieting hypoglycemic reactions. On an extra note, those who usually find themselves in this condition should strongly consider a cycle model diet/training program. Future programs I write will cover this. Currently, OPT Remix is a cycle model program.
What should you do?
First you should extend your break for 3 weeks to include a 7 day re-entry to maintenance.
Days 1 – 7 – Increase your caloric intake by 10% of your current deficit every day (or until you hit assumed maintenance). If you were eating roughly 1300 calories daily you should increase it to 1430 calories and so on.
1300x.10=130
1300+130=1430
This allows you to ease into higher calories and see clearly how calories feel as you increase. It may arise when you reach the 7th day you begin to feel intensely stuffed and uncomfortable. This could be a sign intake is too high for caloric need. If you feel this several days in a row, it may be a sign you need to reduce calories.
Lastly, while I don’t subscribe to popular multiple meal dogma, I do find increasing meal intake for this style of dieter helps with binging and carb hunger. If this is the case try to increase meal amounts to 4-5 a day. Also for larger men/women you, may find intake more comfortable this way. I personally eat fewer meals when dieting down, but more in maintenance.
Days 8 – 22 – Eat at of your estimated daily caloric burn. Take in at least 150g (female) /200g (male) of carbohydrates. Make sure to include starch based carbohydrates. Meaning if you are carbohydrate-phobic of anything which isn’t a veggie you may need to rethink your diet attitude.
Try and monitor your caloric intake and watch for signs of being too full for repeated days. A few times are not uncommon when coming out of a deficit but repeatedly means you are gaining fat. Looks for signs like extremely oily skin, excessive energy, pains in your back while sleeping, excessive bloating and shortness of breath.
Closing
No matter what method you select, remember the break is as powerful as the diet. From a psychological and hormone standpoint dieting down can affect our bodies in numerous ways. The only way to combat it is to rest and eat.
The next segment will discuss the emotional side of diet breaks and how to carry a correct view of your goals.
–
1. “Role of adaptive thermogenesis in unsuccessful weight-loss intervention.” Angelo Tremblay †, Geneviève Major , Éric Doucet , Paul Trayhurn 2007
2. “Clinical significance of adaptive thermogenesis.” Major GC, Doucet E, Trayhurn P, Astrup A, Tremblay A. 2007
3. “Evidence for the existence of adaptive thermogenesis during weight loss.” Doucet, et al 2001.
4. “Adaptive reduction in basal metabolic rate in response to food deprivation in humans: a role for feedback signals from fat stores.” Dulloo, Jaquet 1998
Leigh this is one of your best posts ever thank you! I was trying so hard to figure out what to do on a break. Without a plan I was eating everything in site.
I wanted to let you know this comment section do not work for me in IE8 unless I use the compability mode. Just to give you a heads up.
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t use IE and often forget to check out compatibility issues.
Thanks for this post Leigh – I never realized that this was an okay thing to do! I find I need a break for my mind more than anything else! After this 12 week challenge, I will definitely be taking a planned break!
A lot of people don’t realize it’s importance. Keep a look out for more discussion as to why.
Thank you for your help in structuring this. This makes complete sense and should be easy to follow. YOU ROCK!
Very welcome. There is always the simple method but I think some people feel more comfortable see something written out in detail.
Leigh what if you are doing a cheat day style program? Do you still need to take a break that long?
If your diet is a weight loss plan (and weight loss is occurring) then you need to still break even if cycling and doing refeeds. Most cheat plans have a cheat day or a few days here or there and aren’t optimal as it is, let alone to be considered a break.
There is something to be said for a steady stream of caloric intake for maintenance.
An excellent, very very helpful post. Thank you. Love the citations included, too.
Thanks Anna.
Love the matrix egg Leigh
this is really helpful! I have never been successful at diet breaks…I am definitely going to try the three week plan after the challenge is up!
I don’t know it felt more like “Korn – Freak on a Leash” to me
Thanks Leigh – this post was something I’ve wanted to hear about for some time. I definitely did this wrong last summer and I overate with pre-diet estimate in mind – it was pretty upsetting and it scared me away from taking a break again until Christmas.
I like how you point out the importance of how feeling too full can mean you’re eating too much and this can lead to fat gain. May seem obvious to many people, but then again, the basic principles of fat loss are also “obvious” once the various guru hype is pushed aside.
What about training on a diet break? I know you say in FLTS not to use breaks as an excuse to go crazy (over train), but are there any other issues you can speak to?
Sometimes dieting goes hand in hand with training. Meaning people start the programs at the same time. It is good to time a training break to work in conjunction with your diet break. What I like most is to take a deload the week before the break and then start back up during the high calories kick in.
Okay, so cheat days aren’t enough. What about an “alternate day diet” strategy, where one goes into deficit one day, eats more the next day, repeat. Or a “window” strategy, where one goes into deficit for the part of the day, and eats more for a few hours. The periods of calorie deficit aren’t very long (one day or less,) so I’m wondering if there needs to be as much of a compensation.
Over time if you are losing weight at a noticeable rate you are going to need to break.
Ah, I see. It’s about the weight loss, not the calorie deficit. Gotcha. So, basically, if one loses weight, one will eventually run into problems no matter what. Well that sucks! lol. What a downer. Oh well. On the bright side, I have roughly 70 pounds to lose, and I’m male, so I doubt I’ll run into any problems for quite a while. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway….
“you begin to feel intensely stuffed and uncomfortable. This could be a sign intake is too high for caloric need”
OK, I have what may be a dumb question. Does feeling full/stuffed ALWAYS mean you have had too many calories, even if you are within your supposed calories for the day? For me, I have been doing the “OBM” for a while now – sort of IF, but not exactly. I don’t eat all day until about 4:30 or 5 and then I eat until about 9 or 10. I usually eat around 1500 to 1900 cals. So for me, I eat these calories within this short amount of time and this works for me because due to my hx of ED, I have no satiety index and eating lots of food but not going over my calories helps me “feel” full. But last night, I was pretty stuffed but was still allowed to have eaten more because I still had a “calorie savings” in my “calorie bank” for withdrawal
. So I did eat 2 oranges, but was really full. I just thought it was due to eating my days worth of food within the short time; but now, I am worried I shouldn’t be eating that much and it is too many calories. My weight has been basically maintaining, but I haven’t weighed in a week or more. Guess I need to do that 
. So my basic concern is that because I feel full (which is odd for me, the bottomless pit never feel full lady) I am now freaked b/c I have probably been overeating and am scared to get on scale.
*sigh*. This may have made zero sense. Not wise to type when tired and in freak out mode.
Are you talking about eating a full days worth of calories in one sitting, meaning one meal at once?
Yes for the most part, I pretty much eat all my calories between 4:30 and 9 or 10, but I don’t eat it all at one meal. And I like being able to eat a lot at one time but I do feel really full and after I read what you wrote about feeling full/stuffed = too many calories, I became concerned.
Leigh,
Thanks for a great post.
I am a confused as to what you mean when you state, “Eat at of your estimated daily caloric burn”. This instruction in written in Plan #1 under Day 1-14, and in Plan #2 under Day 8-22.
Also, how do you determine maintenance calories while in a deficit that combines both diet and exercise? Perhaps I should look for this in my FLTS?
Thanks!
Every day you burn a different amount of calories. Intake needs to be at a estimated amount of that assumed burn for that period of time. Maintenance in a deficit can decrease by varied amount for different people in different diets. A safe estimate can be 5-15%. It could also be you burn more calories when dieting down if it is the only time you put any effort to movement, which can be the case for some.
Activity , Exercise and the food you eat makes all of this up. Do the best you can to use your activity calculator and make adjustments based on your rate of loss. If still losing at a steady rate and increase seems to be going well you should be fine. Don’t over think to much. As always start low if nervous and increase as needed.
This is so helpful! Thanks for giving us a bit more information on diet breaks. I know that they scare a lot of us, so it’s great of you to kind of hold our hands throughout the process.
I think I’m going to end up taking my diet break during the challenge before the 12 weeks is up. I know it will hurt my numbers for the challenge, but there’s this little thing in Austin called SXSW in March… And a music festival held in hundreds of bars is not a place to be in a deficit.
Hate I am not going myself when I vowed last year I would be going.
Oh, Leigh. You have to do it one of these days. If not this year, do it next year for sure!
I’m looking forward to the day I’ve been in a deficit long enough to need a break
Now that needs to be a quote for a lot of people
Leigh,
Thanks for the great article.
I’ve done two 2-week diet breaks so far. I notice that the first week I am fine at eating between 1700-2000 cal daily. But by the second week the carbs have gotten a hold on me, as has the extra allowed meals, and I have a very hard time the second week. Do you have any suggestions for the affect of increased carb on my system? It’s the same on the weekend days of my carb-cycling, by Sunday I want more more more, but at least Monday comes and I jump right back on the 900cal high protein/vegie path…
So I’m okay about getting right back into the deficit. But I think I do damage that second week, both by extra calories, and also more processed carbs, more desires, unrest.
Also, I don’t know how “clean” the food needs to be; ie, eating more quantity and more bananas, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal is a lot different than eating Indian food, Chinese food, Italian food.. going to the restaurant. I look forward to this during the diet break or the carb-up day, but I wonder at the affect of the more processed foods of restaurants? Or is it only calories eaten vs calories burned, the deficit whatever I eat?
thanks, Etana
How exactly do you feel when you refeed?
Leigh Peele says: How exactly do you feel when you refeed?
How I feel: second week: extra calories, more simple processed carbs like bread or pasta: more desires, unrest. addicted, craving, looking for love/I mean food, Or is it only calories eaten vs calories burned, the deficit whatever I eat? looking hunting wanting … look for something and end up in front of the fridge… I don’t feel this way with a protein meal.
Also, I don’t know how “clean” the food needs to be; ie, eating more quantity and more bananas, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal is a lot different than eating Indian food, Chinese food, Italian food.. going to the restaurant…. or is it just the amount of calories…not exceeding maintenance by more than 1-200 cal…?
thanks, Etana
This sounds like a good approach to keep you in line.
Terry
Hi Leigh.
After how long should someone consider taking a break? Should we wait for the weight loss to plateau – or would that be already too late? If weight loss has been going on nicely for 1 month and a half, should I consider taking a break soon just to “prevent”?
Thanks a lot for the article &, I hope
, the answer!