Why You Must Take Diet Breaks To See Success With Weight Loss

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making – especially women – with their weight loss diet program is never taking a diet break. They go on a low calorie diet and hold themselves to those calories for month and months on end.

They may have the odd slip-up and overindulge on something (aka – a pantry raid), but that doesn’t happen very often since they are very adamant that one slip-up and their diet is ruined.

Now, it’s great to be strict with yourself so you’re staying on your diet as much as possible, but it’s also very important that you realize that this could be working against you.

If you haven’t lost any weight lately and are wondering why, ask yourself when the last time you took a diet break was. That could be your answer.

Here are the main reasons why you must take diet breaks on your weight loss diet program.

Metabolic Rate

The first reason why it’s a ‘must’ to take a diet break regularly is because when you don’t, eventually your metabolism is going to plummet.

While you may have had a basal metabolic rate of 1500 calories a day before starting the diet. Three months later that could be down to 1350. While this doesn’t seem like much, 150 calories times 30 days in a month translates to a pound and a half more fat you could have lost.

Big difference.

The longer you stay on a diet – and the lower calorie that diet is, the more this issue will become prevalent.

Muscle Glycogen Levels

The second reason why a diet break is a good idea is because it will help to fully restore muscle glycogen. Most of us – if not all of us, will be reducing carbohydrates on a fat loss diet. Some more than others depending on the exact weight loss diet program you’re using.

Now, a regular carbohydrate intake is what is necessary to provide a constant supply of energy to the working muscle tissues. When carbohydrates are eaten, the body converts these carbohydrates to a storage form called muscle glycogen, and uses this to fuel the high intensity exercise.

As time goes on and you’re performing exercise but not eating enough carbohydrates, these muscle glycogen levels begin to drop.

The result?

You know that nagging feeling of fatigue that you might be experiencing during your workouts (either all the time or once in a while at this point).

That’s the result.

By taking a diet break and eating more carbs again, you help to restore these levels so you can give more to each and every workout you do.

Psychological Benefit

Obviously there is also going to be a big psychological benefit to taking a diet break. Feelings of restriction and eliminating certain foods from your diet for long periods of time can really cause you to have a negative relationship with food and this is something that’s critical to avoid.

By taking a diet break, you’ll remind yourself that those ‘bad’ foods aren’t going to make you blow-up in a day helping you to remain sensible about the whole food-bodyweight issue.

Thyroid Regulations

The third reason you must take a diet break in order to see success with your weight loss program is because it helps to restore the thyroid gland back to where it needs to be. This works along the same principle as the first point regarding the metabolism.

After so long of dieting, the thyroid hormones will begin to down regulate, and it’s these thyroid hormones that are responsible for controlling your metabolic rate. The way to ‘reset’ them again is to eat a higher calorie diet, especially when it comes to carbohydrates.

In order to get maximum benefits from your diet break, make sure you are consuming 150 grams of carbohydrates a day. For most people this shouldn’t be a problem following a maintenance diet intake.

Increased Food Adherence

Finally, the last reason you should take a diet break to see success with your workout program is because it will help out with food adherence.

When you know you have a diet break on the way, the chances that you stick with a given program will be higher due to the fact that it’s only so much longer before you can eat the foods you’re craving once again.

This doesn’t mean your diet break is a free-for-all food buffet, but you can include some of the higher calorie foods that you may have cut out during the actual diet itself.

So be sure you keep these points in mind. Taking a break from your diet every 2-4 months is a very smart move as far as continued progress goes and for making sure you can stick with the diet for a good period of time to come.

Share and Enjoy: