Recommended time in calorie deficit

[Gobuckeyes0122]

I can't remember where I read it, but it said not to stay in a deficit longer than 12 weeks at a time bc your body adapts it and that then becomes the norm. That every 10-12 weeks, go back to eating at maintenance or a little above for a week. Then go back to a deficit.

Just seeing if anybody else has ever heard this, or if there is truth to it. Bc I'm coming to the 10 week mark of my cut, but I only cut m-f and eat at maintenance on the weekend or a little above and was wondering if it was still a good idea to go back to maintenance for a week.

 

[sin]

I can't remember where I read it, but it said not to stay in a deficit longer than 12 weeks at a time bc your body adapts it and that then becomes the norm. That every 10-12 weeks, go back to eating at maintenance or a little above for a week. Then go back to a deficit.

Just seeing if anybody else has ever heard this, or if there is truth to it. Bc I'm coming to the 10 week mark of my cut, but I only cut m-f and eat at maintenance on the weekend or a little above and was wondering if it was still a good idea to go back to maintenance for a week.

There is some metabolic down regulation when you've been dieting, but the decrease in total daily energy expenditure is largely due to the decrease in mass as opposed to an actual effect on the metabolic processes going on in your body. Your body will try to be more efficient with calories as you decrease your intake but that can be countered by further decreasing calories/increasing caloric expenditure.

That being said, I personally like to take a week off from a deficit after about 10 or 12 weeks because with the amount of stress in my non lifting life, dieting really takes a toll on my psyche and the week at maintenance or slightly below really restores my spirit to continue on with dieting. Be careful as your tdee after 12 weeks will be lower than when you started so be conservative when it comes to eating at maintenance or slightly above. It is easy to reverse a third of what you've done over the last 12 weeks within a single week.

 

[Gobuckeyes0122]

There is some metabolic down regulation when you've been dieting, but the decrease in total daily energy expenditure is largely due to the decrease in mass as opposed to an actual effect on the metabolic processes going on in your body. Your body will try to be more efficient with calories as you decrease your intake but that can be countered by further decreasing calories/increasing caloric expenditure.

That being said, I personally like to take a week off from a deficit after about 10 or 12 weeks because with the amount of stress in my non lifting life, dieting really takes a toll on my psyche and the week at maintenance or slightly below really restores my spirit to continue on with dieting. Be careful as your tdee after 12 weeks will be lower than when you started so be conservative when it comes to eating at maintenance or slightly above. It is easy to reverse a third of what you've done over the last 12 weeks within a single week.

Yea I'm seeing that this week. I've already gained 3-4 pounds back just bc I'm not paying attention to what I eat this week. I not even eating a lot like I used to but I weigh almost 25 pounds lighter than I used to also

 

[sin]

Yea I'm seeing that this week. I've already gained 3-4 pounds back just bc I'm not paying attention to what I eat this week. I not even eating a lot like I used to but I weigh almost 25 pounds lighter than I used to also

Yeah, well that could also just be water weight depending on what your carb intake was before and what it is now so don't get too discouraged with the weight gain. It will come back off either way. Good luck bro.

 

[AnTabolic73]

I think you can go as long as you want, as long as you through in a refeed, especially as you get leaner.

2 consecutive days of increased calories, every week, 2 weeks or a month depending on how lean you are is enough for the refeed, you don't need any longer breaks.

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I just made it 13 days this time and that was enough, lol. I spent like 2/3 of last year in one though.

 

[Gobuckeyes0122]

I did a nice refeed all week long last week lol.

 

[RodgerThat]

Dieting times vary person to person but there are several factors that can make your time during your diet more efficient. You should build up a matoblism during your "week off/refeed week" it's not as simple as just eating more or whatever you like cause that just throws you off the ultimate goal. Depending on total amount of weight to be dropped you may go through 2-4 cycles of weight loss before you hit the target weight but the inbetween time of diets should be used to maximize your matobolism and take advantage of how the anabolic state your body gets into when coming off of a diet.

Honestly if you aren't 100% on your nutritional info or if you simply just have too much other things going on to study the papers and stuff just pay the 10$ a month for avatarnutrition from layne norton and friends, it's really an incredible program and calculates everything for you and all you need to do is track and plug in numbers