By: Tony Gentilcore, CSCS, CPT

We have all heard the saying that “nothing lasts forever.” And it’s true…kind of. Vacations always come to an end, summer flings come to an end before they even get started, and unfortunately for millions of us out there, the last Harry Potter book will be released in a few short weeks. Yeah that’s right, I read Harry Potter.

That being said, there tends to be ONE thing that never seems to end for most people; their diets. In my experience people tend to diet for way too long. There are some people out there who haven’t eaten at their maintenance caloric intake since Ben Affleck was in a good movie (Read: a looooooong time), and it’s absurd.

When you “diet” (restrict calories) for too long, the body will try it’s best to counteract that stress by down-regulating all the hormones involved with metabolic rate (T3, T4, leptin, etc) to adjust to the new caloric intake and up-regulating all the hormones involved in appetite (gherlin, neuropeptide YY, etc). In short: progress (fat loss) will eventually come to a screeching halt, you’re hungry as hell, and no one wants to hang out with you cause you’re a miserable S.O.B.

One of the best things you can do for LONG TERM success and to make your diet work better for you is to take more dieting breaks. Lyle McDonald has long advocated that people take full dieting breaks every so often to allow the body to “reboot” and to help rekindle that fat loss flame. Matter of fact he wrote an entire book on the topic, “ A Guide to Flexible Dieting.” When and how often an individual should take a full dieting break depends on a few factors such as starting body fat percentage and activity level. But it stands to reason that most (if not all) would benefit immensely by not being so restrictive with their caloric intake ALL the time.

I know it sound counterintuitive to take a week or ten days to go OFF your diet, but trust me when I say this: it will only help you in the long run.