Do you need a diet break?

When you lose a good amount of body fat, your body adapts by promoting a decrease in energy expenditure and an increase in caloric intake [1]. You’ll generally find that you become more hungry and have less “energy” the deeper you are in a fat loss phase. As a result, your calorie deficit decreases and fat loss slows down. A diet break helps with managing these effects.
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With a diet break, you purposely go out of a calorie deficit and eat around maintenance calories. This provides a mental break from restricting calories. Since you eat at maintenance, a diet break is also useful for practicing how you can maintain your fat loss. This is valuable since people oftentimes struggle with weight regain after dieting [2].
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Next to psychological benefits, a diet break also has physiological effects. For one, a diet break likely helps with preventing excessive “metabolic slowdown” while dieting [3]. A recent pilot study led by Dr. Bill Campbell (@billcampbellphd) found that shorter diet breaks, in the form of 2 refeed days per week, help increase muscle maintenance while dieting [4].
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All in all, planned breaks during your fat loss phase are worth a try. When you swipe left 3x, you can see a simple example of how I apply diet breaks with many of my clients.