This past weekend I went out with friends, had a few beers and ate some greasy bar food. The weekend before, I ate pizza at work because my supervisor thought enough of me to buy lunch. For mothers day, I took my mom out for a fantastic dinner in which I ate even more greasy, waist expanding foods. Oh yea, maybe I should mention I am on a diet and still getting leaner each week.
No BS Please
I am not about to tell you all of the secrets about how cheating on your diet is going to magically make you lose weight. I am not trying to sell you a sleazy product or give you false promises that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want and still maintain that chiseled physique.
However I am going to shed some light on the beauty of living a little and keeping your sanity while sticking to a diet. Since I am all about my no BS approach to looking great naked, I will share with you exactly how I go about living a normal life when I am on a diet.
Oh Boy, Here We Go
Many confuse being on a diet with 12 weeks of super strict meal timing and eating alone, no going out or consuming anything that is not on your diet for fear of not making progress. That is just crazy! I used to believe all of that too, just a few years ago in fact.
There are two main ideas I wish to present today. If you are on a diet you must know about them but more importantly, you must apply them once you understand the concepts. First I will cover free meals, then I will cover diet breaks.
- Free Meals -
What a free meal is: A free meal is a time in which you take a break from meticulously counting and measuring everything. You simply sit down to enjoy a certain food that you like. It’s usually a bit more tasty than your normal diet menu and makes the dieting process much more bearable.
A free meal can be your favorite home cooked breakfast or a dish at your favorite Thai restaurant. The whole point is to enjoy it and take a break from counting every last calorie. This is essential to your success on any diet, not to mention what it can do for long term adherence once you return to maintenance.
What a free meal is NOT: It’s not an excuse to binge, a reason to pig out or a free pass to tear up the dessert area at the Golden Corral. Can one free meal completely ruin your diet? It can but it probably will not. Can a free meal that turned into a free day ruin your diet for the week? Definitely. I know of many who deprived themselves for weeks of anything remotely tasty and by the time they decided to have a free meal they absolutely fell off their rocker. Their free meal turned into an all out free day, stuffing themselves with anything and everything they got their meat hooks on.
It’s easy to undo a weeks worth of dieting when you eat 10,000 calories worth of cookies, cake and ice cream at Ryan’s(speaking from personal experience).
How Does A Free Meal Help You Stick With Your Diet?
It gives you peace of mind just knowing that a pleasant meal is just around the corner. No longer waiting 12 weeks before you can enjoy yourself. It’s also beneficial mentally because it helps you develop a more relaxed approach when dieting. You aren’t going to be perfect every freaking day during the process in which you become sexy. Things come up. Corporate luncheons, your friends have birthdays and you may just decide you need a beer after work.
So, is your diet really worth missing out on good food and good company? Is one meal really going to mess you up? I think not.
The easy part comes in the morning. Back to your old routine and on with the diet. You are back to fat loss and back on track to looking great naked. In fact, Lyle McDonald wrote a great book all about this concept of being flexible called A Guide To Flexible Dieting. He also wrote a great article about rigid vs. flexible dieting.
- Diet Breaks -
A diet break is an extended period of time that you break your diet. Yes, I said it. You actually take a break from dieting. You may be thinking something along the lines of “but that will hinder my fat loss and I wont meet my goal on time.” While this may seem true at first, a 1-2 week break is not going to ruin it for you. It will more than likely help your efforts.
Why You Need One
After many weeks on a diet your body’s metabolism may slow down a bit to compensate for the lack of calories and reduced body weight. Depending on how lean you are and how long you have been dieting, your hormones may take a nosedive as well, leaving you feeling crappy and lethargic. When you break your diet you should do so with a carbohydrate refeed that can last anywhere from 5 hours to 2-3 days depending on how you want to do it.
About This Refeed
The refeed will need to be over your maintenance considerably to bump those suppressed hormones. Do not fear fat gain as most of the carbohydrates will go towards filling muscle glycogen and supplying your energy needs. You will definitely gain some weight but it will be stored glycogen and water. I like to utilize the very large refeed that Lyle discusses in his popular diet Ultimate Diet 2.0.
After the controlled stuffing of your face, you will basically eat at maintenance for a period of 1-2 weeks which usually allows enough time for your hormones and metabolism to stabilize before you resume your diet. By taking this break, you may actually realize your fat loss goal sooner than if you were to grind through the diet without a break.
When I am dieting, I usually refeed* every other week depending on how large a deficit I am in, how I feel or how long I have been dieting. I also take a full blown diet break every 5-6 weeks as well.
*These are what I would call mini-refeeds. They are for one day only and anywhere from 500-600+ kcals over maintenance with most of the extra kcals coming from carbs. I only do a full blown UD2 style refeed when I am about to begin a diet break.
Maintaining Some Sanity
I follow both of these principles to a tee and they have served me very well. I no longer struggle with dieting because I allow myself to enjoy the food I like. By following these principles I now have a better relationship with food and my social life has improved. I no longer skip the late night dinner and a movie with friends in fear of breaking my diet. The time I spend with them is more important than being perfect on my diet anyhow. It’s also not too smooth when you tell your date that you can’t split a dessert with her because you are watching what you eat.
So how about you? Is it time to change your approach or have you already crossed over? Tell me about it.
I definitately have snacks and meals that don’t seem to be very “diety”, but I’m not organized about it at all. It happens when I feel like it, or when it’s prudent for social reasons, and I don’t usually feel too much remorse. Possibly I could lose weight faster if I was more organized or rigid about it, but as long as I’m still losing, I’m not concerned.
I’m the same. If a friend is having a gathering, I will definitely go off of a diet to enjoy the food and company.
It’s funny when those “breaks” are needed while bulking. Good article
No doubt. I can remember days where I was so short on time and only had a small window to get all of my kcals in. Talk about being miserable!
love the phrase “controlled stuffing of your face” … Which I will be doing Tomorrow night @ YAMA sushi
haha, it’s going to be the title of my first book.
Ok, so when I first read the title and saw the picture of the food, I wanted slap you around, kick you, and cuss you out for trying to sabotage me.
But, ahhhh. You make perfect sense. I should’ve known better. You’re da man! Thanks for breaking this all down.
So, my headline did indeed work!
I firmly believe in indulgences. For me, that usually involves chocolate and peanut butter. In ice cream form. Big.
I also think it’s wise to know your trouble areas. For me, an indulgence in ice cream is not likely to lead to a week-long free for all, or make me miserable longing for more the next day. If I had a piece of chocolate cake however, well, that’s different for some mysterious reason. One piece of cake is not satisfying, and I’d be miserable wanting more for days. So I will usually choose my indulgences carefully. Some things are just more trouble than they’re worth.
That’s a really good strategy, Dawn. I was conversing with this wonderful lady a few weeks back who did something similar. However she would allow just a small treat every other day or so. Her trigger was night time eating and she would completely cut off eating at like 4:30 when she got home from work. This did wonders for her bingeing and it also helped her mentally as she wasn’t waking up every morning regretting how she lost control with food the night before.
Excellent article! One lesson I’ve learned is that I am never, ever going to try and diet down without refeeds. It’s amazing how much they help to keep me sane.
No doubt. Me either. I made the mistake before of NEVER refeeding. How miserable I was.