We’ve all felt it. The rumbling in our stomachs that happen a few weeks to a month into our diet. Just long enough for us to start seeing some results, but still close enough to our old habits that our urge is to return to greasy foods.
Instead of dropping your diet all together, you should try turning to something called a diet break. A diet break is exactly what it sounds like — a hard earned but planned and purposeful break from dieting that can last from one day up to two weeks.
Why Take a Diet Break?
If you ask someone what a diet break is, you’ll usually get a confused look and questions about why someone would do something so foolish as to break from their diet. This is bred from a few cultural quirks in American society. Things like wanting to be ripped right now or even good old fashion Puritan work ethic can drive someone to thinking they have to be as miserable as possible to reach their fitness goals.
Thinking like this is counter intuative, though, and can lead to quick burn outs, and the idea of you just tossing the diet to the wayside entirely becomes more and more alluring every day. A simple diet break can help curb such thoughts, and lead to more stable long term gains in the future.
When to Diet Break?
Most people don’t realize, or want to realize, that they’re going to have to take a step back to take two steps forward at some point on their fitness journey.
A short period of regular eating has the potential to reverse some of the metabolic adaptations to a caloric deficit, giving the hormones time to recover to normal levels. This means that you’ll be less hungry and pissed off all the time, have more energy, fewer cravings, and potentially you’ll be able to eat more than you otherwise would have and still progress with your diet.
How to Diet Break
Outside of athletes cutting for competition, you should probably do a full diet break, which is basically taking a break from counting your intake entirely. Even if it scares you a bit, you should make sure to eat to your hunger and ignore your macros, keep your regular meal times, and keep training. The influx of calories will probably help you make some quality strength gains while you’re at it.
Implementing a diet break may fog your dreams of being lean right now, but you’ll find in the long run they help your motivation. Additionally, the function of your body provided by such a break will help you stick to your guns and reap greater rewards in the long run when it comes to fitness.
