A diet break is a temporary break in your diet where you’re no longer restricting calories. Diet breaks are typically practiced for 1-2 weeks before the previous calorie deficit is resumed. During this time, diet restrictions are loosened and you are allowed more calories.
A variation of a diet break is to maintain a daily deficit during the week and consume maintenance calories on the weekend when people tend to eat more due to social events and lifestyle.
The main purpose of a diet break is to alleviate cravings, hunger and any mental fatigue associated with restricting calories.
Here are some telling situations in which you may need a diet break:
- You can’t recall a time when you weren’t dieting
- Your weight loss has slowed or stopped completely
- You feel deprived and feel you can’t decrease your calories any further
- You’re having trouble sticking to your diet plan
- You’re starving and find yourself overeating or binge eating
- You can’t stop thinking about food or what meal to eat next
- You’re lacking energy, are moody, or mentally drained
If any of these symptoms are occurring regularly, it may be time to consider a diet break.
The general recommendation is to take a 1-2 week diet break every 1-3 months. Some people like to take shorter diet breaks every 3-4 weeks, while others take longer breaks every 3 months. And some choose to maintain a caloric deficit during the week and increase calories to maintenance levels on the weekend.
The most important factor to know about diet breaks is listening to your body and monitoring your results. If you feel deprived or your weight loss has slowed, you may want to incorporate diet breaks.
Potential Benefits of Diet Breaks
There are numerous potential benefits to diet breaks. Here are some of them:
- Alleviates the stress of dieting
- Reduces feelings of deprivation
- May increase weight loss
- Improves sustainability of any diet plan
- May increase muscle endurance
If you ever struggled to stick with a diet plan, taking a diet break can give you a much-needed “break” from restricting your calories. If you’re wondering how to actually perform a diet break, read on.
How to Schedule a Diet Break
A diet break doesn’t mean that you go ahead and eat whatever you want. There are a few simples rules in order to ensure it’s done right:
- Increase calories to your new maintenance levels. If you’ve already lost weight, your maintenance calories likely decreased, so you’ll want to use that new maintenance level as your target during a diet break.
- Schedule a diet break every 1-3 months depending on how severe your calorie deficit is. A more restrictive diet requires more frequent diet breaks. Eat at maintenance calories for at least 1-2 weeks, or longer if needed.
Continue to focus on primarily healthy, whole foods during diet breaks.
Downsides of Diet Breaks
There are a few potential negatives to taking diet breaks to be aware of:
- There is a risk of overeating and weight gain if you’re not careful. If you’ve been restricting and now are giving yourself free rein to eat what you want, it can be easy to overdo it. Remember to gradually increase your calories and stick to maintenance calories to prevent weight gain.
- The weight loss process may seem longer to account for the diet break periods. If you’re looking to lose weight fast, you may get frustrated with the amount of time required to incorporate diet breaks. If your goal is quick weight loss, it’s important to remember that quick weight loss often means quick weight gain as well.
- You’ll have to practice patience throughout the process. Remember that weight loss is more like a marathon than a race. Once you come to terms with this, you’ll find the process a lot easier and more enjoyable.
Summary
If you’re on the hunt for an easier way to lose weight, you may want to give diet breaks a try. They may help curb hunger and cravings.
While diet breaks can be helpful, they’re not necessarily the end all be all. Another way to make sticking to a calorie deficit easier long-term is by incorporating a satiating meal replacement shake and a fat loss supplement into your routine.
By including high-quality products and listening to your body, you’ll be on your way to achieving lasting results and will stay satisfied throughout the process!
