Is Now The Time For You To Lose Weight?

I often meet with clients who tell me that they have been trying to lose weight for years and simply cannot do it no matter how hard they try. After we speak, I’m usually able to identify two or three changes that most people can start out with that lead to fairly immediate weight loss. Other situations are a bit more complicated and require more education before any real weight loss can be expected. I also see clients who appear to be doing everything right but still cannot lose. In those instances, a bit more detective work often reveals that these clients, usually women, require a diet break.

A diet break? What is that?! Put simply, many of us diet too hard and/or for too long. It fatigues our bodies and our minds, and we need a break to recover both physically and psychologically. Our bodies are amazing, and will adapt to virtually anything we put them through. That includes caloric restriction. If we do it long enough and hard enough, our bodies try to compensate for it by reducing our metabolism and altering hormone production. Neither of these is good for long term weight loss. Thus, the need for diet breaks.

During a diet break, the goal is to increase your caloric intake to a more normal level. This gives you a mental and physical break, and allows you to begin a new dieting phase with more calories from which a deficit can be created. For example, if you stop losing weight and end a diet phase at 1500 calories, you’d likely need to start the next diet phase below 1500 calories to lose weight. Alternatively, if you start introducing more calories back into your diet on a gradual basis, your body can acclimate to it without gaining back all of the weight you just lost, and then you can start a new diet phase at 1800 or even 1900 calories.

When do I use diet breaks with my clients? First, I use them with clients who have been in deficits without any real progress for considerable periods of time. I usually have them take a break for a couple of months. That doesn’t mean eat everything in sight; it just means eating at a level commensurate with their needs at a maintenance level, and being more relaxed about what they are eating and when. Second, for clients who want to lose more than five to ten percent of their bodyweight, I use them between dieting phases. I find my clients have greater success dieting for a maximum of three months, then taking a break for a couple of months before embarking on a new dieting phase. They lose weight more effectively and keep it off for longer than if they try to lose it all at once.

If you have been dieting forever and don’t seem to be making any progress, maybe a diet break is what you need. We’d love to help!