“WHAT THE HELL !?!?”
You’re doing everything right –
– Tracking macros
– Getting your lifting sessions in
– Accounting for every single calorie that passes your lips
You’re even doing the dreaded “C” word … cardio.
But that scale weight doesn’t budge, your measurements don’t change, and you’re seeing little to no progress in your progress pictures.
What’s the solution?
Cut calories, drop into an even bigger deficit, add exercise … or take a diet break?
A diet break is one of those “does what it says on the tin” jobs.
You simply have a little downtime from your dieting, loosen your guidelines a little, and stop thinking about fat loss for a time.
It’s important to note that this isn’t a free for all.
It’s not a binge, an excuse to go completely off the rails and eat everything in sight, start shovelling down cheat meals, or even stop tracking macros.
Rather, it’s a structured increase in calories (possibly combined with a decrease in activity intensity) designed to reduce stress on your body, reset your system, and give you a break from the rigours of dieting.
This is as much mental as physical.
Too often, folk see one week of no progress as a cue to take a diet break.
This is the wrong way to go about things.
Likewise, guys and girls who are a 20 to 30 pounds overweight, right at the start of their weight loss journey, or just looking for an excuse to stop tracking don’t need one either.
There definitely is a time and a place when diet breaks are needed, but this is not when you’re just looking for an excuse to avoid cutting calories.
Dieting isn’t supposed to be a piece of cake – if it was, the entire population would be contest lean year-round.
While we can make it flexible, and enjoyable for the most part, it does require hard work, dedication, commitment, and a level of suffering that’s dependant on your goals.
9 times out of 10, your best solution to a lack of progress is to drop your calories (by cutting carbs and/ or fat) or increase your activity levels.
See here
==> 5 WAYS TO BUST THROUGH ANY STUBBORN FAT LOSS PLATEAU
The other 10% of the time though, you could need a diet break.
Not sure when to take a diet break?
Here are the 6 times when a diet break is better than cutting calories:
Binge eating and un-tracked meals are surprisingly common within the world of physique and fitness dieting.
It’s not uncommon for someone to consume low macros of, say, 100 grams of carbs and 30 grams of fat per day, 6 days per week, then letting themselves have a little lenience once a week, and going to town by consuming five to six times this.
In fact, I’ve seen unregulated binges as big as 10,000-12,000 calories in a day.
This can seriously hamper fat loss.
In fact, a cheat meal can often not only eradicate a week’s deficit, but push someone into a surplus.
CHEAT MEA;S: THE ROCK(Y) ROAD TO A CRAPPY PHYSIQUE
Therefore, if you feel like your macros are so restrictive that you’re liable to binge any day, give yourself some freedom with a diet break, and allow yourself a higher calorie intake for a week or two.
There will be times when you’re dieting that you don’t feel all sunshine and roses, and eating for fat loss does suck.
That said, for the most part, you should be dieting not just to look better, but to feel happier too.
If you’re down in the dumps, and feeling so restricted with your diet that it’s affecting your quality of life, instead of jacking it all in, take a diet break.
This does come down to your goals too.
Want to get on stage in 5 or 6 weeks?
Then you may just have to put up with being grumpy.
Dieting for general fat loss and health?
Feeling like crap isn’t worth it – give yourself a bit longer to achieve your goal and step off the dieting gas for a moment.
Contest prep guys and girls aside, if your strength levels are bombing, and you care about training, put the diet on hold for a while.
Dieting to make a lower weight class for a powerlifting meet is all well and good, but if you feel like crap in training, you’re not going to do too well on the platform.
Care about your physique?
Then you should care about muscle mass too.
Muscle loss can be minimised when dieting by keeping protein high, and keeping carbs in your diet and around training to ensure productive sessions, but if you’re dropping weight in a deficit, some of that weight will end up being muscle.
This is why giving yourself plenty of time to diet is crucial.
Fast diets with severely low calorie intake are more likely to result in muscle loss.
If you “think” you can get into the condition you want in 8 weeks, give yourself 12 to 16, and take a diet break around 6 to 8 weeks in.
Don’t look at JUST weight, measurements or body fat analysis tests – look at everything to determine whether you’re progressing, as well as taking pictures to assess.
If, after 3 to 4 weeks, there’s genuinely been no progress, it might be time for a diet break.
Despite being in a theoretical deficit, sometimes you’re not in a real world deficit.
The longer you diet and the more weight you lose, the more your body down regulates certain metabolic hormones, and your subconscious levels of NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) decrease. You’ll notice you fidget less, and don’t move around as much.
Aside from cutting calories much lower, a diet break can often “re-set” your metabolism and give your hormones a bit of a boost, as well as increasing thermogenesis.
Off on holiday or vacation and want to have some fun without wrecking your progress?
Then a diet break is perfect.
You stay accountable and on track, but don’t feel nearly as much like you’re on a diet, giving you more leeway and freedom to enjoy your time off.
(Caveat: If actually, you’d rather say screw it, and not follow any kind of plan or accountability when you’re away, that’s cool – just bear in mind your goals, and whether a full week or two of going overboard will help you reach your target in time.)
My personal preference for planning a client’s diet break is to take them back up to a theoretical maintenance intake.
To find your maintenance calorie intake, see here
http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/eating-at-maintenance-the-un-sexy-but-happy-medium/
That said, as you diet, your “maintenance” changes, and you may actually be well below, or even slightly above this, as calculations can only get you so far. Therefore, basing it on what you’re currently doing is a better bet.
Up your carbs and fats by 10-30%, and see how you fare.
That would mean if you were currently eating 150 grams of carbs and 40 grams of fat, you’d go to around 165 to 195 grams of carbs and 45 to 55 grams of fat. (Calculations are rough here, but that’s the beauty of a diet break – you don’t need to be as stringent as you would be on a contest prep cut.)
Alternatively, you could just increase total calories by 10-30%.
How long you break for is kind of up to you.
Obviously if you have a deadline, and are taking a break more for the supposed thermogenesis and NEAT benefits, your break shouldn’t be that long, and the increase not too high, else you do risk some fat gain.
For general dieting purposes though, it can be a little longer.
You can carry on training as per usual on a diet break, but I like clients to take a bit of a breather here too.
Schedule a deload, where you lift at 50-70% of your usual intensity or volume, and scale back your cardio, so you either replace HIIT with steady state, or just go for a few long walks instead.
Read more about deloads here:
http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/deloading-101-what-is-a-deload-and-how-do-you-do-it
Working out when to take a diet break is tough, but be honest with yourself:
Do you really need one, or are you just a bit bored of dieting?
If it’s the latter, you need http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/5-proven-ways-to-bust-through-any-stubborn-fat-loss-plateau/
If, however, you genuinely feel like you’re about to binge, like your metabolism is in the toilet, and you just feel downright crap from dieting, and there’s no real end in sight …
You my friend, could benefit from taking a break.
Tags: contest prep, diet break, flexible dieting, how to track macros, maintenanceSign up to the newsletter for regular updates
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