On the Connection Call, we will take a look at what’s going well and what is not. If you would like support and accountability on your fat loss journey, and you want it to be sustainable for the long haul, consider booking a STRONGER You Connection. You’ll mind, body, and soul will be better for it. So, I hope this blog helps you and you take the advice.
You can’t just keep lowering your calories lower and lower, or spending year after year chasing fat loss. And, when you’re in a caloric deficit, be patient, be consistent, and lastly get in out of the deficit, don’t stay in deficit without breaks, and move into muscle building phases. You’ll lose more fat overall, and it will be sustainable for the long haul. The number 1 way to lose fat and keep it off is to lose it slowly – then it will be sustainable. If you like to do that, you should start a Reverse Diet.Īnother option if you aren’t tracking your macros, you can increase your portions sizes.Īfter the maintenance period that you decide on, you can return back to a fat loss phase and repeat the cycle until you have reached your goal, or until you’re ready to move into a reverse diet/building phase! Final thoughts… Don’t go back to your original maintenance calories when you started your deficit. Take your current body weight and multiply by 15. You always want to be cutting (calorie deficit) on as many calories as possible while losing fat! Where should my calories be during the diet break:ĭuring the diet break, you’re gonna want to raise your calories to maintenance levels. Hang out there once you get to a high amount of calories to cut from. No Bueno! There are complications to that, as I mentioned above!įurthermore, if you have to go that low with your calories, then that is a true sign to get out of a fat loss phase and raise your calories to an ample amount. Again, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be living on poverty macros forever – and don’t ever start your fat loss phase on the lowest calories. Your maintenance phase can be determined by how long and how big of a caloric deficit you were in. As often as you need to keep adherence high and to keep the weight off for the long haul.Īnother factor is to consider how long you have been dieting overall.It just depends on what works best for you and how long you have been freaking dieting!.Another option is after a 3-month stint of a calorie deficit you can take 1-3 months diet break.You can also take a 1-week break every 2 weeks or a 1-week break every 4 weeks.A great place to start is to take a 1-2 week break every 3-6 weeks.Please note dieting is a form of stress to the body!įor how long/how often, that kinda depends too:.High-stress times in your life – like life happening (COVID, divorce a layoff, financial troubles, an illness, injury, to name a few).Some other reasons to consider taking a break from a caloric deficit: All your thoughts are about food and when you can eat next. Hunger & Cravings are high! You may frequently be overeating or binging.You don’t feel like training, and you love it! Performance in the gym and life is sucking! Your strength and fitness are low. Low energy – you’re very exhausted all the time.Not sleeping well, and your libido is off.A few days here and there with periods of overeating, then returning back to the deficit over and over again. Lack of compliance! You can’t seem to stick with it.Your calories are already too low to drop them any further. You can’t remember a time when you weren’t on a diet.Here are a few signs that tend to pop up when it’s time to take a break: Fitness, health, and nutrition is a journey, not a destination. There is no finish line – I know this might seem like a long route, but it’s the sustainable route. So, STRONG friend, take a break! There is no rush. This is not what you want, because I don’t know about you, I don’t want to live on low calories. When you diet for very long periods of time, your metabolism down-regulates and adjusts to the low calories that you are dieting on, in doing so, the body recognizes this as our new maintenance calories. It helps to minimize metabolism adaptations, such as the slowing down of your metabolism, maintaining more muscle mass, improves adherence & training performance, and it will give you a psychological break from being in a caloric deficit (restriction). Taking a break from dieting and eating at a maintenance calorie level for a period of time. So, a STRONG friend asked, “How often/when should you take a break? For how long?
Hey, STRONG friends, popping in with a Beauty of Strength fam bam question that came through on my weekly Weight Room Wednesday Q&A.