Taking breaks from losing weight

[lavabelle]

I am coming up to having lost 10% of my body weight and I am debating whether to take a break from restricting calories and going up to maintenance for a bit to give my body and mind a break from losing. What are your thoughts on taking breaks, have you or anyone you know successfully achieved their weight loss goal by taking breaks and maintaining? Would you recommend this?

Part of me just wants to get this part of the journey over with...get to my goal weight then train for a half-marathon...I'm really itching to run, but I find it extremely hard when I am restricting calories. My best runs are on days after I have eaten my maintenance allocation of calories...like yesterday, ate at maintenance all weekend because of wedding and visiting with family, and I had so much energy for my run...I'm kind of thinking of taking a break...I miss running. I am currently walking/hiking with some light running.

My starting weight was 194, I am now 178 5"6' and 43 female

[Baltoscott]

You've probably already seen the video that @Dominique usually posts on this issue, and I am sure he will add his thoughts to the thread.

Personally, I think it depends a little on how restrictive you've been to lose the weight.  A lot of bodybuilders will cut calories by 20-25% in order to lose weight at a weekly rate of around 1% of their body weight.  Most conventional diets aim to go faster than that because dieters ALWAYS think it is better to just get the weight loss process over as fast as possible and then deal with maintenance when they get there.  If you fall into either of those situations, I think a pause is a great idea in part because I think you need to practice maintenance while you are losing in order to get it right in the long run.  And it may well be necessary to keep you metabolism from getting all wacky.  The recommended length of a pause is about the same amount of time you spent losing the weight.

If you are losing weight a little more slowly, say you only cut your calories by around 10% or so, and you are losing 0.5% of your body weight each week, AND you are eating the way you plan to eat on maintenance, (same basic meal schedule, and macro balance), and you don't feel like you are starving yourself, I would just keep on going. If you wind up at a plateau going forward, add back a few hundred calories for a month or so, and then restart cutting.

[Dominique]

I’m 100% in favour of the phasic approach (alternating phases of weight loss and maintenance), especially if/when needing/wanting to lose a lot of weight. So I’d suggest you go down another 4 pounds (to 174, which would be the 10% mark), maintain at that level for as long as you feel like it, and then go for the next weight loss phase (e.g. down 156, which would be another 10%). At that level (BMI 25.1), you would be almost in the normal range, huge achievement from your starting weight (BMI 31.3). Taking breaks does slow things down, but makes it much more likely the loss will stick instead of rebounding.

[lavabelle]

Very helpful @Baltoscott I have not seen this video you speak of, but i'd love to if @Dominique would kindly repost here that would be awesome! 

I am cutting calories by a lot...some days I am at a 1500 calories deficit, and then some days 250 deficit...I am aiming for 1000 caloric deficit daily, but this makes it very difficult to run at. I can comfortably walk and hike and lightly run, nothing more. My maintenance is approximately 2200-2600 as I am very active. So I aim to eat 1300-1700 calories a day, and if I am not pushing myself too hard with exercise, I am comfortable eating about 1500-1700. If I push myself, I find I need to eat closer to 2000. I've been losing about 2-3 lbs a week for the last few weeks since starting to track my food...but surely I can't sustain this weight loss for much longer, as I get smaller, my maintenance and metabolism will slow down, and my body will need less calories...

I guess I am feeling I need a break because I don't feel I have enough energy to sustain my running...but also just want to get to my goal weight as fast as possible. Maybe cutting less would work better for me...

Thanks for your response and giving me something to think about.

[lavabelle]

@Dominique super helpful! Thanks for contributing, you guys are awesome 🙂

[Dominique]

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@lavabelle wrote:

I guess I am feeling I need a break because I don't feel I have enough energy to sustain my running...but also just want to get to my goal weight as fast as possible. Maybe cutting less would work better for me...

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Based on personal experience, I find it easier to cut aggressively for a shorter time than to drag it for longer at a slower pace.

As to the video I keep referring to, here it is: Losing All Your Weight At Once. 

[Baltoscott]

When I lost 40+ lbs last year I did not take a diet break. My Fitbit calculated burn was between 3500 and 4000 calories/day when I was around 200 lbs, but that overstated things by about 500 calories or more.  Looking at another calorie calculators for someone  my size who sits at a desk for work, but otherwise moves a lot (bike commute, weight lifting lots of walks yadda yadda ...) my burn was probably closer to 3K, maybe 3.5K some days.  For about month I cut down to  eating 1500 calories, but by the second month I was eating around 2K/day and was closer to 2.5K/day as I approach 160 lbs — which was 14 lbs lower than my initial goal.  I think I lost 2.5 lbs one week, but usually it was between 1 and 1.5 lbs.  So at the beginning it was pretty close to 1% a week, but that slowed some over time.  

I think the main reason I didn’t take a break is because I felt I was in a groove and because I knew I would continue the same eating patterns once I got in the goal range.  

For the most part I did not change the amount or timing of calories I ate much even on heavier workout days because I felt like it was easier to establish the habit of a regular eating pattern with similar amounts of food every day, rather than constantly trying to change things all the time.  

Your situation seems a little different to me though in that your loss has been faster.  I think a diet break makes more sense in that context because your body is under more stress as you try to quickly drive it from its old set point.

[lavabelle]

My device says I burn 2500-3200 calories and I eat about 1500-2200 on average...which makes me think my device is actually pretty accurate on my daily burn...I still have not settled on a fixed amount of calories to diet at as I only have been tracking for a few weeks, and I am so used to eating until I am satisfied. I tend to overeat when I am stressed or not exercising enough, I need to exercise to keep my mood stable and curb emotional eating...I noticed I definitely feel better when I am eating around 2200 calories and able to sustain my desire to run more, eating at the lower range (1500) is really tough, but totally doable if I eat tons of veggies, which I don't mind, I just notice that at 1500 calories I don't have much energy for my workouts.

I am thinking to go down to 170 lbs which would be about a 12% cut and take a maintenance break then, but much can change in the next few weeks it would take me to make this cut. 

I really appreciate you sharing your story, it's really helpful, thank you. You guys are giving me some great things to think about and research.

[bikerhiker]

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@lavabelle wrote:

I am coming up to having lost 10% of my body weight and I am debating whether to take a break from restricting calories and going up to maintenance for a bit to give my body and mind a break from losing. What are your thoughts on taking breaks, have you or anyone you know successfully achieved their weight loss goal by taking breaks and maintaining? Would you recommend this?

Part of me just wants to get this part of the journey over with...get to my goal weight then train for a half-marathon...I'm really itching to run, but I find it extremely hard when I am restricting calories. My best runs are on days after I have eaten my maintenance allocation of calories...like yesterday, ate at maintenance all weekend because of wedding and visiting with family, and I had so much energy for my run...I'm kind of thinking of taking a break...I miss running. I am currently walking/hiking with some light running.

My starting weight was 194, I am now 178 5"6' and 43 female

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As a person who had ran multiple half marathons, full marathons and ultramarathons, ultra-distance cycling and swimming as well as a former running coach, I can tell you that you will need to be taking in more calories because running half marathons require a little bit more calories than you consume now.  Having said that, running long distances will consume a lot of calories and fat, so you will and can loose perhaps a little bit more than you have now.  Diet and exercise (at least cardio exercise more than 30 minutes) had always been the standard way of loosing weight.  

If you do plan to run a half marathon, I would recommend that you train in a way that would lessen joint damage.  Perhaps cross train on off days with something like swimming. 5 in 1 or 10 in 1 are very popular with beginners and running at Zone 2 heart rate, which is where most of the fat burn occurs ensures that you can extend hitting the wall before the race ends.

Hope this helps.

[lavabelle]

@bikerhiker I definitely cannot train while at a calorie deficit...I just don't have the energy. I tried last year. I was training for a half and totally ran out of energy at 14 km in my training...and got so worn out...I was also sick and needed an operation which has all been taken care of. I am definitely gonna wait until I'm done with losing weight and eating at maintenance to train. But I still run...I can't help it...it's in my bones 🙂 I also bike and hike and walk. I am actually thinking about going the triathlon route which would mean I need to take some swimming lessons in there...I total agree with cross-training...I've learned that the hard way and not to train while losing weight...experience sometimes really is the best teacher 🙂

[bikerhiker]

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@lavabelle wrote:

@bikerhiker I definitely cannot train while at a calorie deficit...I just don't have the energy. I tried last year. I was training for a half and totally ran out of energy at 14 km in my training...and got so worn out...I was also sick and needed an operation which has all been taken care of. I am definitely gonna wait until I'm done with losing weight and eating at maintenance to train. But I still run...I can't help it...it's in my bones 🙂 I also bike and hike and walk. I am actually thinking about going the triathlon route which would mean I need to take some swimming lessons in there...I total agree with cross-training...I've learned that the hard way and not to train while losing weight...experience sometimes really is the best teacher 🙂

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That's what I figured.  You're not the first that ran out of energy at 14km; that's what they called hitting the wall.  Most people I had trained running in the past had lost weight; some more than others.  The key to loosing weight is to burn fat at a steady state, which means you burn a higher proportion of fat than carbohydrates.  And you train your metabolism to rely on burning fat more; which also means running slower than you think you are running now.  Most people run way too fast, thus burning more carbohydrates than fat and hitting the wall too soon!

That of course does not mean you can't run faster moving forward.  It just means that once you train your system to burn more fat efficiently and you get more fitter, your heart rate zone will rise, thus you will be in a new zone, where you still burn predominantly more fat than carbohydrates, but running at a much faster rate.

[lavabelle]

@bikerhiker that's great info thanks. I try to keep my heart rate between 110-130 when I run, which I think is the fat burning zone. If I go above 140...I walk until my heart rate is back in the120-130's. Once I go back to training, I'll add hill repeats and fartlek or high intensity repeats to get faster, but right now it's all slow running 🙂

I've been doing hill repeats lately while walking because I can't get my heart rate into the fat burning zone by walking only anymore... good problem to have 😉 makes me happy, but running I'm keeping slow for now.

I can't imagine pushing myself in the 150's as in when I'm training hard...it's just not sustainable on low calorie diet.

[bikerhiker]

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@lavabelle wrote:

@bikerhiker that's great info thanks. I try to keep my heart rate between 110-130 when I run, which I think is the fat burning zone. If I go above 140...I walk until my heart rate is back in the120-130's. Once I go back to training, I'll add hill repeats and fartlek or high intensity repeats to get faster, but right now it's all slow running 🙂

I've been doing hill repeats lately while walking because I can't get my heart rate into the fat burning zone by walking only anymore... good problem to have 😉 makes me happy, but running I'm keeping slow for now.

I can't imagine pushing myself in the 150's as in when I'm training hard...it's just not sustainable on low calorie diet.

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Oh noohhh!  Don't need to push yourself in the 150's right now.  Be patient as it takes time to train your system to run slow and burn fat well.  That's why I recommend beginners to do 10 in 1 or 5 in 1 to control their HR to be in the fat burn zone when racing.  Running slower is not only a prudent training method, it is the training used by the top elites like the Kenyans and Ethiopians.  My running performance improved when I ran slower for a year.  I mean, it was so slow I was constantly tripping myself and that's from a person who had ran a 35-38min best PR 10km.  LOL!!

[lavabelle]

@bikerhiker you are actually encouraging me quite a bit here...I was worried I was losing my running fitness by not being able to have intensity in my running, but maybe I can just build a nice solid base of lots of slow miles and once I am at my goal weight pick up the training 🙂

Thanks for sharing, it's really encouraging!

[bikerhiker]

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@lavabelle wrote:

@bikerhiker you are actually encouraging me quite a bit here...I was worried I was losing my running fitness by not being able to have intensity in my running, but maybe I can just build a nice solid base of lots of slow miles and once I am at my goal weight pick up the training 🙂

Thanks for sharing, it's really encouraging!

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Anytime..  Building a solid base with lots of slow miles is key to running success.  Just 2 years ago,  I helped trained a doctor to run a half marathon and basically got her to build solid miles up to 13.1 miles.  It was a long period of time, but once she was comfortable with that, I got her to do hills then intervals.  She ran the half and got a fast time; 12 minutes faster than she hoped for because she was doing this for charity and she needed to finish a certain time.  She was shocked, but conceded that my training helped her.  She was a feisty lady; kept telling me this ain't gonna work and that.  I just smiled when she got the PR.  🙂