A Look At Diet Breaks

#DietBreaks #Nutrition #Biolayne

Diet breaks are a relatively new tool in the toolbox of many coaches and dieters. They involve periods of eating at maintenance in order to improve weight loss efficiency, lean body mass retention, fat loss, and retention of basal metabolic rate during dieting.

Many people are confused about how diet breaks work and how to implement them. In this video I break down practical recommendations for diet breaks.

[fopeezy]

I had never even heard of diet breaks before this. But apparently, I've been doing them for years w/o knowing.

[pa]

I’ve been using this method my self and with a few clients recently, seems to be working really well, we’ve also noticed a larger drop in body fat when returning back to a deficit after the diet break week ... thanks for all your great content !

[XTheSpartanX]

That 2:1 ratio of cut to diet break is awesome. I've done this during the holidays, sometimes it turned into a 2:2 of cut to diet break, however, it didn't derail my progress. Once I am at my desired bodyfat I will reverse diet out of it. Thanks Dr. Layne.

[cencil]

I've found having a high calorie cheat night once a week is enough to keep my metabolism cranked to reach new record weigh ins every week, even when approaching the end of my cutting phase. I've tried the whole diet break at maintenance for 1-2 weeks approach and it just slows down the cut significantly in comparison to one *evening* (not an entire cheat day) a week that's much higher calories than maintenance, with the other 6 days being in a good deficit.

[YamatoForever]

Thing that people who have been dieting for awhile need to understand...your maintenance is probably what your at now. I lost 30 pounds in 6 month and haven't lost any weight in 6 months on the same calories. I've taken some 3 day cheat periods but I've been at about a 500 calorie deficit (per online calculators) for 90%+ of my days on the diet. My metabolism has adapted to my caloric intake. If I go back to my maintenance calories I'll gain a good bit of weight. I just started doing a reverse diet (which Layne has many videos for) and it's going to take about 6 months to a year to work up to where I can eat my maintenance calories and not gain. Then I can start dieting again. Best advice is take diet breaks from the start. The longer your metabolism can stay as is the more weight you'll lose.

[jeffreycastillo]

I wanted to share something from my experience. I dieted a few years ago, and at the time i followed my calories and macros to a T. I did moderately low carb, and low calorie. I am experienced in the gym and went 5 times a week and did more low rest workouts, as a type of cardio. I went from 210 to 200lbs, with a very noticeable increase in muscle, over the course of about 3 months. Towards the end of it i hit a plateau and couldnt lose weight, and i even tried a few extended fasts. Then i went on vacation and even though i tried to stay on track, i couldnt. After that 10 day vacation, i came back and weighed at 195lbs. Was that because of a "diet break"? I absolutely believe so. It made no sense whatsover at the beginning and it could have been an error in my weight tracking, but i still believe it was due to NO diet break, and low calorie over a period, followed by a diet break.

[gerainthorton]

About 10-15 years ago I'd work on 12 weeks cycles. After the first 6 weeks I'd take a weekend off, after the second 12 weeks I'd have a week where I'd ease up on my diet. I'd probably go more overboard on the weekend off. The week off might of been a few take out meals.
To me it helped mentally as I had some time off prepping meals etc.

[sn]

That video gave me the most clarity around this topic ever. Just makes me feel less anxious about if & when "I'm doing it right." Keep the videos coming

[theironforce]

Wonderful breakdown, even for those not using the app .
A Simplistic overview without any technical science wankery.
Many of my clients would appreciate this.
Thanks Layne ✊

[adolfosilva]

I'm currently trying to lose weight (36 kgs / ~80 lbs) and this last week I had my first diet break. I'm not totally sure it can be called a diet break since I only increased my caloric intake by 200 calories. The first few days, I had to force myself to eat a bit since I was already full, then I got some ice cream and used it to get to the surplus calories. I lost around 1.3 kg, and it was the second highest loss week I've had until now (5 weeks total). Right now, I'm on my 6th week, a non-maintenance week, and my weight loss seems to be stalling (probably because of poor sleep) and even went a bit high today, in any way, I'm going to keep going and stick with my plan. In the future, I think I will increase my calories on a maintenance week, since I probably didn't reach maintenance calories at all.

P.S.: Thanks for your videos Layle. You're doing an incredible valuable service to the world.

[kamo]

It makes sense only when someone tells you about it. its like training, ramp up your training, scale it back down, rinse and repeat until you hit that peak at a meet/setting new prs. why wouldnt the same hold true for nutrition?
currently ive just started taking my nutrition into my own hands, by tracking what i eat in a week to see how many calories i do eat on average (and i know that i eat just above maintenance since i didnt gain a lot of weight quickly, but gradually) so eventually ill be able to use this technique.
great video as always layne

[kigolnijhov]

Off-topic. Sir Layne, your hair looks really cool 😍

[jd]

I think the word like refeed day or diet break have such a misconception about them. Why not just call it a maintenance day or maintenance phase. Or a recovery day or recovery phase. I find the more time you spend practicing to track calories the better. Like even after your reverse diet most people should track there calories for at least 3 months to build a lifestyle around their new maintenance calories or just go into a slow lean bulk phase of a 5% surplus to motivate you to track your calories.

[indy]

That was really helpful. I go from consistent exercise levels to extreme in conditions where not consuming enough calories can be dangerous. Usually climbing and snowboarding volcanoes around WA state.

[machrs]

Layne, can you go into some detail on the hormonal effects of diet breaks (ie thyroid, cortisol, etc) after a long diet phase? 
Also do you think it's important to have the increase in calories primarily from carbohydrates, or is a split of carbs and fats okay?

[lipsticklover]

Thanks for the ratio advice! I do find that I get tired from cooking and counting calories after about 3+ weeks and all I want to do is order food for a week. The interesting thing is I don't track so firmly, but I try to keep the protein up and my weight doesn't go up too much somehow.

[preslove]

I went from 195 --> 145 and ~13+% body fat with maybe too much cardio. No breaks, but I was feeling like crap by the end of it. If I wanted to get leaner, I'd def need periodic breaks. Now I'm on a permanent break, eating to maintenance to build muscle. I have a lot more energy and better lifting recovery

[patrickwendling]

Love your videos and thank you for your knowledge 💪🏽💪🏽

[GAMMMMMMMES]

What if I’m in a deficit but I forgot my maintenance calories what should I do? How many calories should I add?

[jaybanerjee]

Hey BioLayne- great videos please keep it up. What brand are those glasses btw? I have a similar head type so want to look cool too.