When you are trying to lose weight, you definitely need to be in a caloric deficit, which, in simple terms, means consuming fewer calories than you burn.
To explain this, simply assume that to maintain your current weight, you need to consume 3000 calories daily. Maintenance calories are the calories you need to consume to maintain the current weight. If you eat more than the maintenance weight, you will gain weight, and if you eat less than the maintenance weight, you will lose weight.
Do not worry; you do not need to cut down food very low. You can cut down on some calories from food, and the rest of the deficit can be created by exercising. It takes 3500 calories deficit to burn one pound of fat. So, if you create a 500-calorie deficit each day, you will lose one pound of fat each week. Lower your calories by 200/300 and burn the remaining portion by exercising.
Now, let’s jump to this article’s main focal point: refeeds and diet breaks. When you are going on a deficit diet, you can optimally do it in 3 ways:
Continuous Deficit Dieting
What is continuous deficit dieting?
In simple terms, it is basically lowering your calorie intake until you lose weight
In this way, you will continue to eat lower than your maintenance calorie over weeks or months until you reach your desired weight.
Suppose your maintenance calories are 2500, and you start eating a 2000-calorie diet over months and decide until you reach “x” weight, you will continue eating fewer calories than the maintenance. In this approach, there are usually no cheat meals as it can surpass your daily calorie-consuming goals.
Advantages of deficit dieting
- If you stick to it, you will lose fat.
- Strict guidelines will help you to track progress and make adjustments accordingly.
Disadvantages of deficit dieting
- It is hard to stick as you will feel hungry most often.
- You may need to cut out foods you like if they contain large amounts of calories.
- Not optimal approach for muscle retention.
Refeeds
What is refeed?
Refeeds can be considered as cheat meals or cheat days. In a refeed approach, you stick to a strict diet for 5/6 days of a week and then take a refeed day where you eat to your maintenance level or slightly over that.
Suppose you eat a 2000-calorie diet for five days a week and then eat to your maintaining level or slightly over that for the remaining two days.
Dr. Bill Campbell conducted refeed research in 2020 on two groups. One group followed a continuous deficit of 25% deficit, and the other had a 5-day 35% deficit with two refeed days.
The result was that both groups almost lost the same level of fat, but the group that received refeeds maintained more muscle mass.
Advantages of refeed
- It can increase your metabolic rate.
- If you take a refeed day before any hard training session, the extra glycogen will help you push harder during those sessions.
- It helps in reducing diet fatigue.
Disadvantages of refeed
- If you cannot measure calories moderately, you are likely to eat so much that it offsets the weekly deficit.
Diet Breaks
What is a diet break?
In the diet break approach, you stay in a continuous deficit for 3 to 4 weeks; then, for two weeks or sometimes more, you go on to a maintenance phase.
Suppose you continue eating 1800 calories every day for four weeks, then go on a maintenance phase, where you eat to your maintenance level.
A study conducted in 2021 involved two groups undergoing a test. One group was in a continuous deficit for 12 weeks, and the other group had diet breaks in between. The result was that there was no significant difference in muscle retention, metabolic rate, or fat loss. Both groups had the same result.
Advantages od diet breaks
- Diet breaks can maintain a lower hunger level.
- The diet satisfaction is much higher as your body is not continuously deprived of food.
- You will adapt to eating at maintenance so that when you cut down calories, the difference will not be very much; you will consume 300 to 500 calories less.
- Obese people can easily stick to this diet.
Disadvantages of diet breaks
- Cheating in meals is a very common problem if you take diet breaks over two weeks.
- Everyone cannot count calories correctly. So, even if people think they are eating at maintenance, there is a high chance they are overeating.
Diet Breaks or Refeed?
The takeaway from this article is that each method can work, but I would suggest you follow refeed or diet break approaches. You will not need to eliminate your favorite foods completely from your diet, which can be a great motivation to keep on the diet.
Refeeds may work best for trained individuals who want to get lean while retaining their muscles. This approach is more scientific, and with good baseline knowledge, it can be managed nicely.
It usually takes 48 hours for our glycogen level to get refilled, so I suggest you take two moderate refeed days rather than one big refeed day, as the glycogen refilling will occur more efficiently.
Diet breaks can work better for overweight people as they learn to control their hunger. If they use the refeed method, there will be a higher chance of overeating. If obese people cut down on calories and then slightly increase their calorie intake in diet breaks, it will make them more satisfied and prevent them from cheating on their diets.
What method do you follow or want to follow from now on? Let me know in the comments.