The simple diet breaks manual

Losing weight can seem as confusing as Alice's journey in Wonderland.

Many of the weight-loss claims promoted every year tend to have a grain of truth.

Most diets focus on the law of negative energy balance, or a calorie deficit. So, you can see positive results with almost any promoted diet method. 

Yet, the majority of people who lose weight end up regaining it months or years later. 

You can see this more often now with the rise of weight loss drugs. Many people experience rebound weight gain within a year after stopping these medications. 

What if there were a method to lose weight sustainably and keep it off more easily? You could achieve this without using external medications.

What if this method helped the leanest people in the world lose body fat, keep muscle, and prevent weight regain after getting very lean?

Let's talk about diet breaks.

What are diet breaks

Diet breaks are a fancy way of saying you come back up to maintenance calories.

In other words, you stop eating in a deficit and stop dieting.

Lyle MacDonald was one of the first researchers to discuss diet breaks. He covered this topic in his 2005 book, 'A Guide to Flexible Dieting.'

His book seems inspired by a 2003 study by Wing and Jeffrey. They explored the impact of diet breaks on maintaining long-term weight loss.

Their study aimed to see if planned diet breaks could disrupt a steady weight-loss phase. There wasn't much research on this topic at the time.

Again, a diet break is simple: you break your diet and come back up to maintenance calories.

Let's use the following example.

Let's say your maintenance calories are 2,000 calories.

To drop an estimated 1 pound of body fat per week, you need to consume about 3,500 fewer calories over the week. A sustainable fat loss rate is between 0.5% and 0.75% of your body weight.

Since 1 pound of body fat contains around 3,500 k/cal, this can be a helpful guideline.

Continuing with this example, let's say you've been eating at 1,500 k/cal per day for 4 months.

(500 k/cal less per day = 3,500 deficit per week)

You can certainly keep pushing forward with your diet, especially if you have more fat tissue to lose. However, there are several benefits to taking a break from dieting at this stage.

• Downward regulation: As you diet more, your body slows processes like metabolism. Think of this as your body turning on the 'energy saver' mode to help keep things going. You are slowly starving yourself of energy (food) to use your fat stores.

• Physiological and psychological fatigue: The more you diet, the more tired you will feel. While the first few months of dieting aren't too rough, the deeper you get into your diet, the more fatigue you'll build up. Eventually, there will be a breaking point.

Diet breaks help interrupt the ongoing slowdown of key body processes. They also reduce the fatigue that builds up the longer you stay on a diet.

All helpful things, especially if you have bigger weight loss goals.

Here’s why diet breaks are important.

Why are diet breaks important

Since you're reading this, you’ve likely heard of the idea of taking a break from your diet before.

You might have read that diet breaks are a magical tool for faster weight loss.

It's not. And it doesn't.

But there can be significant value from them when done correctly.

In the MATADOR study done in 2017 by Byrne et al, the findings were even more astonishing.

Two groups of obese men, ages 25 to 54, were studied over several months. They followed two different dieting plans.

• Continuous

• Intermittent

The continuous dieting group dieted throughout.

The intermittent dieting group (aka 'diet breaks' group) took breaks from their diet every 2 weeks.

This study aimed to find a new way to prevent weight rebound after dieting. Researchers tested this hypothesis by using the diet breaks technique.

The results were impressive. After the study, the INT (intermittent) group with diet breaks lost 50% more body weight and body fat. They also had only half the drop in REE (resting energy expenditure).

After 6 months, the results were even more surprising. The continuous group had more body fat than the intermittent group.

The intermittent group kept 80-90% of their weight and fat loss. They also had only 1/3 of the drop in resting energy expenditure compared to the continuous group.

So using diet breaks can be a powerful tactic when used correctly.

Nutrition periodization is another way to think of diet breaks. In the strength world, periodization is a commonly used tactic for athletes with multi-month goals.

For nutrition, it's the same.

Diet breaks help you manage your nutrition better. They prevent binge eating, which can happen if you diet for too long.

However, there's a caveat.

It takes longer to diet and reach your fat-loss goals.

So if you're trying to lose a moderate to large amount of body fat, you'll need to give yourself enough time.

Trying to drop 20 pounds of body fat in 1 month would be the antithesis of diet breaks.

Another advantage of diet breaks is their potential to reduce the risk of weight rebound after you finish dieting.

This is huge in itself because most people forget about weight maintenance in their quest to just drop weight.

Maintaining your new ideal body weight and body composition should be the main goal. Not just dropping the weight as fast as possible.

So if you're going to use diet breaks, give yourself enough time. As you'll learn from this guide, the benefits are worth it.

There are also some benefits to using diet breaks to help reduce the adaptive effects of dieting. In other words, it makes dieting feel less worse.

When you start with your end goal in mind, diet breaks become the bridge to help you get there.

Should you use diet breaks

The 2 primary fitness goals outside of sports performance and general health are:

• Fat loss (weight loss)

• Muscle building (gaining weight)

For the vast majority of people reading this, fat loss will probably be your primary aim (at least first).

If you're dieting (in a deficit) for longer than 3 months, I've found that using diet breaks can be tremendously helpful.

In fact, there's even a useful mental framework I've adopted over the years (credit to Andy Morgan) to help me pace a client's dietary breaks.

The 4:2 diet-break ratio is a model to help you plan for diet breaks in advance, but it should still be customized for each individual.

Here's how it works:

That's it.

However, like all things, this ratio comes with a caveat: it should be tailored to each person.

For example, diet breaks have worked best for my online coaching clients after 12 weeks or more of dieting.

For some clients, after three months of dieting, willpower may fade. They might feel tired and struggle to stick with the plan. So, taking a break from dieting sooner could be a good idea.

For others, we can push it out further, closer to 4-5 months of dieting.

Individual traits like commitment, diet adherence, focus, willpower, discipline, and temperament all play a role.

Some people are just able to take on more stress (dieting and training, plus life in general) and handle more than others.

So the 4:2 ratio can be a helpful guideline, but don't take this too literally.

Diet breaks are a science, but it's more of an art, especially the more experienced you become with them.

For muscle-building and weight gain, diet breaks matter less. This is mainly because you won’t stress about 'falling off your diet.' You'll be eating a slight caloric surplus.

With that said, diet breaks can still be a helpful tool for minimizing fat gain during muscle-building phases ('bulks').

When you build muscle, you also gain some fat, so returning to maintenance calories and reducing your surplus can help offset any extra fat gain. It can also help your body adjust to the higher gastrointestinal load as you eat a bit more.

You can apply the same guidelines for muscle building with the 4:2 ratio. Four months is ideal. You don’t want to cut your bulk short, as building muscle takes longer than losing body fat.

I suggest being flexible with the 4:2 ratio. If you feel too full, extend your diet break for 2-4 weeks during muscle-building phases. This can give your stomach rest.

So again, it's more of an art than a science.

The value of diet breaks becomes more visible the bigger your fitness goal is.

How often to take diet breaks

As mentioned before, taking diet breaks comes down to self-observation and data monitoring.

While the 4-month-to-2-week ratio is a helpful tool, don't take it as a strict rule.

Pay attention to how you feel as you continue dieting (or bulking). Being that 95% of people reading this will use diet breaks for weight loss, be mindful once you pass your first 3 months of dieting and notice how you feel.

You can extend the effects of dieting and a caloric deficit with strategies like chronobiology, leangains, or my favorite, chronoshred. But eventually, the impact of dieting will catch up to you.

It's not a matter of if, but rather when.

Metabolic adaptation is also a real threat to your fat-loss progress.

As hormone levels, metabolism, organ function, and other key markers decrease, diet breaks grow more important each day of dieting.

But you don't need to obsess over them.

2 well-designed training blocks (8 weeks each) equals 4 months.

So, for every 2 training blocks, keeping a pulse on your weight-loss progress can be another helpful sign of whether a diet break makes sense.

Stressing about diet breaks will probably add to your overall stress, which doesn't make sense.

That's why I prefer to start with the end in mind first.

If someone has a goal bigger than dropping 10 pounds, planning for diet breaks from the start avoids the extra headache and stress later on.

To keep it simple, I'll add a client note in my online tracker. It will include auto-populated dates to remind me when each client's potential diet break is approaching.

I also created columns to remind me to do the same for training cycles and other important health habits.

Training and nutrition periodization aren't necessary to see decent fitness progress.

But if you want to elevate your results from 'decent' to 'whoa, what are you doing', periodization (done simply) can work wonders.

But as always, don't put the cart before the horse.

Nail the fundamentals with consistency by hitting your nutrition targets and lifting weights.

Only once you've proven to yourself your own consistency does it make sense to layer on more nuance.

For most of us, more nuance means more distractions.

Focus on what matters first, then get more technical.

How to do diet breaks

Diet breaks are relatively simple to use.

One thing I didn't mention above is that you can vary the length of your diet break depending on the circumstances.

For example, the leaner someone is, the shorter the diet break can become (to help minimize fat gain at low levels of leanness).

On the flip side, the leaner you are, the more frequently you should take a diet break.

2 diet break rules:

• The leaner you are, the more frequent diet breaks come into play.

• The leaner you are, the shorter your diet break becomes (7-14 days vs 14+ days)

For men with body fat above 15% and women above 23%, taking a 2-week diet break can be effective.

Below those body fat percentages, you can take about 7-14 days, while diet breaks occur about every 6-8 weeks, depending on the individual.

Again, this is all variable from person to person, since each of us responds uniquely to exercise and nutrition protocols.

With that said, nutritional responses are more straightforward than exercise responses. This is because there are fewer variables at play (a caloric-deficit response vs. 20 different exercises per week).

But let's not major in the minors.

There's 2 ways you can do a diet break:

1. Relaxed diet break (non-calorie tracking)

2. Focused diet break (limited calorie tracking)

A relaxed diet break is straightforward: eat to fullness for a couple of weeks and don't track your calories.

Our bodies are amazing. When we eat a variety of whole foods and pay attention to our hunger signals, we can maintain a healthy weight.

The body wants to remain in balance (homeostasis), so this is the simplest path to diet breaks.

If you're aiming for a photoshoot-ready look, have been dieting for a while, or deal with eating disorders, a focused diet break might be helpful.

I've also found my type A perfectionist clients (which is over 90% of the clients we coach) tend to fall into this category as well.

In that case, a focused diet break can make more sense.

Here's a focused diet break framework:

• Add 500-700 calories per day during a diet break (you can take your current rate of weight loss in pounds, multiply by 500, then add 100-150 kcal to account for metabolic adaptation).

• While on a diet break, you can still track calories (you don't need to), but removing macro tracking can help simplify things. Aim to hit your caloric goal within 100 k/cal.

• Keep your normal mealtimes and training.

If you need help calculating your macros, you can use our free macros calculator.

Another important thing to be aware of with diet breaks is the potential for weight regain.

Many people freak out during a fat loss phase, especially in the later stages. This is when they can become addicted to seeing the number on the scale drop lower and lower. So, proper expectations are necessary here to manage emotions.

So let's start with the right mental frame:

To do that in 1 day would require some very serious overeating.

Even doing that in 1 week would require some diligent effort on your part.

Being that you're in a fat loss phase, my guess is you want to continue to drop body fat, not gain it.

So while it's harder to gain body fat easily in 1 day or even 1 week, it is very possible that you'll gain several pounds of weight over a diet break.

This is due to:

• Higher gut content. You're eating more, so there's more food inside you.

• Refilling muscle glycogen storage. The longer you're in a dieting phase, the more 'depleted' your muscles become. This leads to the 'flatter' look you'll see in dieters who've dieted for months on end without giving themselves a... diet break.

• Higher salt intake. This can impact water retention.

• Higher carbohydrate intake. Everyone blames carbs for everything. But carbs (especially whole foods) are our primary source of energy. However, for every 1 gram of carbs, we can restore 3-4 grams of water. So water weight is common during diet breaks.

So during a diet break, it's not uncommon to gain 3-7 pounds.

Mentally, this can trip you up if you're not prepared. Which is why knowing this beforehand can do wonders, especially if you're doing this by yourself.

So, prepare for success, and things get 10x easier.

What happens post-diet break

After your diet break, you can prepare to return to your fat-loss phase.

It’s actually pretty straightforward once you're done with your break from dieting.

Most people overcomplicate and overthink this part.

It doesn’t need to be that way.

Here’s a simple checklist you can use:

1. If you were already seeing the rate of progress you wanted to see before your diet break, come back to similar calories and macros.

2. If you weren't seeing the rate of progress you wanted to see before your diet break, for every 0.2 pounds you weren't seeing come off, subtract 100 k/cal for every 0.2 pounds.

3. If your stress was over 5/10, sleep was bad, steps were low, and training or nutrition were inconsistent, you might notice water retention. You may just need to follow your exercise and nutrition plans more closely for a better assessment. Keep the same calories.

Metabolically, while there's some potential upside from doing diet breaks, it's unlikely you'll shake off the full effects of being in a dieting phase from a couple of weeks of a diet break.

In fact, for women in particular, it can take over a year to fully release the residual effects of dieting on metabolism and hormones.

So while diet breaks are great, the impact on hormonal functioning and metabolism won't disappear with each break from dieting.

What will most likely happen is you'll start to feel more reenergized. Your training will probably benefit, and you'll be able to push more weight. You'll feel stronger.

You won't feel as fatigued or lethargic.

You might even notice slight muscle definition, especially with the extra carbs coming in to help define your hard-earned muscles even more.

I experienced this back in 2020-21 when I was dropping 30 pounds of body fat to prepare for my NPC men's physique show.

I took a diet break around Thanksgiving and a longer one over the holidays, which helped relieve the extra fatigue I had accumulated over the past few months.

The break was terrific.

Sure, I gained a few pounds of water weight, but I felt more energized, my lifts (and mood) improved, and I felt confident I could finish off my shred strong.

It worked well for me.

There is a difference between diet breaks and refeeds, though.

A diet break is a formal, planned break from your diet.

A refeed is a temporary 1-2-day break from dieting.

While there's some benefit from refeed days, don't confuse them with diet breaks.

I also used high-calorie days and low-calorie days during my training 5 years ago, since I was using the Leangains method. Looking back, I could’ve made it simple and kept the calories the same for all 7 days.

Humans struggle with nuance, especially when you give them more actions, so simpler options tend to work better.

I would recommend refeed days for birthdays, holidays, celebrations, or when you feel called to use high or low-calorie days.

They're like mini diet breaks, but they won't have the same effect as a full one because they're so short.

But they can be helpful, especially for staying on track long-term during extended fat-loss phases.

As a side note, it's even possible to drop a bit of body fat during diet breaks.

While not always likely, we all respond uniquely to exercise and nutrition protocols.

It's part of what fascinates me about exercise and nutrition science.

Your body and mind are a workshop.

The tools are the exercise and nutrition instruments you use.

Diet breaks are just another tool in your fitness toolkit. They've served our clients and me well over the years.

Regardless of whether you use them as a tactic, focus on consistency first. Then, layer on more advanced tactics.

Start with the end in mind, then work your way backward.

That’s how you’ll make sustainable progress in your fitness.