My experience with taking a diet break

[71Avido]

A little background:
I’ve been on a cut since February and didn’t know enough about what I was doing when I started.
I ate far too little for far too long before I knew otherwise.

Doing this I stalled out for several weeks. When I got “smart” I started at 2400 cal, then dropped to 2000, then 1750. People here were constantly stating that I was eating too much, even at 1750 cal/day.
Every drop in calories resulted in feeling worse but the scale didn’t move. I beat myself up for every lb gained and food became a necessary evil, I was earning an eating disorder.
When I finally dropped to 1750 for a couple weeks, the scale actually showed a 2lb increase. The psychological blow that those weeks of stalled weight loss dealt was consuming my life. The 2lb increase was the last nail in the coffin.

So I did some reading and heard about taking a diet break. I figured what the heck, I was ready to give up and bulk anyway.

For 2 weeks I ate whatever I wanted and in larger quantities, I didn’t even count macros but I knew I was hitting protein/fats.

The benefit of not counting cals/macros was immediate, I felt MUCH better both physically and mentally, I continued to lift hard and heavy during this time.
Over those 2 weeks I managed to pack on 20 lbs, it was glorious.
The Monday I went back on the wagon I weighed in at 228. I set my calorie target at a reasonable 2400 cal and counted everything.
By Friday that week I was down to 215, mostly water of course.

By the end of the second week I was down to 212.8. It was a thing of beauty; I was back to losing weight again.

Since that whole experiment I have continued to lose weight at a steady rate. Best of all I have learned to be more flexible with what I’m doing and to try different things to see what works.

Knowing the impact that this diet break had on me, I would not hesitate to do it again. In fact, I plan a 2 week break for every 8 weeks of cutting for the reasons I’ve mentioned above.

I’m not suggesting that taking a diet break is right for everybody. For those individuals that are stuck at wits end, who know they’re counting everything correctly and STILL not getting results, a break may be a better option than giving up.
I just wanted to share my personal experience with it.

[sharpieblet]

congrats on getting back into the swing of things...

but...

i wanna know wtf on these boards told YOU eating 1750 was too much?

[cnh57811]

Somebody probably assumed he was counting incorrectly and told him to drop calories.

Great work getting back on the losing track, op.

[71Avido]

i wanna know wtf on these boards told YOU eating 1750 was too much?

I don't want to derail this thread and I will not use names because the poster here does offer sound advice but this is the question I had asked:

My question is, where would one draw the line on cutting calories?

If the diet is supposedly already deficient in calories but OP isn't losing weight, is it even advisable to keep cutting calories until weight loss is achieved?

This is the response I got:

Absolutely. There is no circumstance where a caloric deficit will halt weight loss. If there was, people would not starve to death.

While the response doesn't come right out and address the 1750 cal diet I was on, the assertation is that if you're not losing, you're eating too much and to keep cutting intake until you start to lose.

Like I had said, that is done and over, no sense restarting that topic of conversation.


Has anyone else tried taking a break for a while? If so, what was your experience?

[Thewix]

Cool story Bro. Seriously. Breaks in dieting keep me sane.

[DarthInvadeHer]

Good story. You mentioned that every 8 weeks you're going to do a diet break...I think it's kind of unnecessary especially because 8 weeks isn't even that long for cutting, also if you're going to eat "everything and in big quantities" for 2 weeks, I think that's a huge mistake.

[csb5731]

also if you're going to eat "everything and in big quantities" for 2 weeks, I think that's a huge mistake.

Agree. I've had great results from 2 week to 2-month diet breaks, but they were more of the targeting-around-maintenance-calories variety. I ended up as lean after the diet break vs. when I started, and (generally) eager to get back to getting leaner.