Fact: 80% of individuals regain the majority of weight lost during a diet.
Pretty depressing, right?
There are a plethora of possible reasons why maintaining your results is so hard. These include physiological reasons, psychological reasons, environmental reasons, UberEats, cheesecake, ramen, fried chicken...
But perhaps one of the less talked about, but just as prevalent reasons people fail is…
Following a diet that doesn't match up with their personal preferences, goals and lifestyle.
They're trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. When realistically, they should be trying to find a flexible hole that moulds to their peg...(did shit just get weird?)
So where do you start when it comes to tailoring your personal approach?
Well, for any diet to result in fat loss, we need to create a calorie deficit. Fat loss is a function of expending more calories than you ingest over time.
Just like there are many ways to enjoy a G&T, there are plenty of ways in which we can create a calorie deficit. One clear finding from nutrition science is just how flexible the methods can be when it comes to creating a deficit.
And that's good news for you!
It allows you a much greater degree of flexibility when it comes to dieting.
So with that in mind, let's talk shop.
When most people think about creating a calorie deficit (if they do), they automatically turn to the plain Jane, vanilla daily deficit. They (or someone else) calculate their estimated energy expenditure, reduce a certain amount of calories and then proceed to try stick to that calorie "budget" every day.
Now, this can and will get you results, provided you can stick to it. It's how the majority of diets are set up: many popular programs just apply an aggressive deficit (1,200 calories, anyone?) and say "stick to this for life" with a pat on the back. Needless to say, this approach tends to fail.
Why? Because at the end of the day, it all comes down to what you can sustain over the long term - a way of creating a calorie deficit that suits your lifestyle, goals, and preferences.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to create an energy deficit every single day.
"Wait...what?"
Let's say I start a diet.
I'm a simple man who likes simple numbers, so I decide to aim for a 500 calorie deficit per day to lose roughly half a kilo of fat per week or two kilograms of fat per month. Cool?
Cool.
If we then expand that, we're looking at a 3,500 calorie deficit per week and a 14,000 calorie deficit per month.
That's the only requirement for the desired fat loss. We must create a 14,000 calorie deficit (give or take) to hit the two kilograms of fat loss.
How we go about fulfilling that requirement is where we have flexibility.
Let's have a look at some of your options:
Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF)
Even within the 24-hour time frame, there are a few ways in which we can approach creating a deficit.
TRF typically includes restricting your daily eating "window" to 4-8 hours and fasting for the other 14 to 20 hours.
Studies have shown that restricting your feeding window within a day can effectively reduce your calorie intake and lead to fat loss. No surprises there really, as it means less time available to eat. These methods have shown to at least be as effective as non-TRF methods for losing fat.
Anecdotally, I've found that pushing breakfast back a couple of hours to reduce the "eating window" can be an easy way to help manage hunger on a diet.
Weekly Deficit Strategies
Rather than shifting meal times within a day, some studies have investigated the effects of adjusting the days in which calories are consumed. These protocols often encourage people to have anywhere from 1-4 "fasting" days per week in which they either consume 25% of their usual energy intake, as is the case in 5:2, or skip out on eating altogether.
Again, it appears that while intermittent fasting protocols do result in fat and weight loss, there is no inherent benefit over continuous energy restriction on fat loss.
“Refeeds” and "Cheat" meals
Structured refeeds and non-structured cheat meals are also popular strategies, often used by physique athletes during fat loss phases. This involves one or more higher calorie days, usually with an emphasis on increasing carbohydrate. The benefits of this may include increased muscle glycogen levels and offering a break from the restraint that's part of dieting.
While coaches often talk of "refeeds" increasing leptin and thyroid levels, thereby increasing energy expenditure, the increase that comes from 1-2 days of overfeeding is unlikely to make a big difference.
Unless you have specific performance-based goals, I've also found just setting calories and protein targets on "refeeds" (as opposed to fixed targets for fats and carbs) to be a more flexible option for clients with fat loss specific goals. This allows a bit more freedom in terms of food choices.
Fortnightly Strategies
Anecdotally, I've utilised fortnightly calorie cycling strategies with several clients, and myself, successfully. For example, I've had multiple clients apply an 11-day deficit followed by three days of maintenance intake. I've found that this tends to be a good balance between being diligent on a diet, which requires increased effort and resources, and then a decent sized break. The three days offer a mental reprieve from the diet, a chance to refill glycogen stores, and potentially include some social meals with friends/partners.
Ash utilised this protocol throughout her 16-week diet last year, losing 9 kilos while regularly enjoying date nights and Ben & Jerry's sundaes on her maintenance days.
Steph started her contest prep on the same protocol with great results, only changing in the last third.
A study in 2014 by researchers in Iran followed a very similar protocol. In this study, the group with three-day "refeeds" kept their resting energy expenditure a little bit higher than the continuous calorie restriction group, and lost slightly more weight, despite averaging higher daily caloric intake throughout the study.
Another eight-week study compared continuous energy restriction with an intermittent protocol that had subjects alternate between one week of energy restriction and one week of unrestricted eating. While the continuous group did lose slightly more weight (non-significant), they also spent twice as much time in an energy deficit! So it could be viewed that the intermittent protocol offered similar benefits while allowing the dieter to enjoy breaks every other week.
Monthly Calorie Cycling
This is where things get exciting, and where I believe there is real utility for personal approaches to dieting.
While there have been few studies looking at calorie cycling over a month or more extended period, the few that have, provide intriguing food for thought.
Perhaps the most well known is the MATADOR study. Byrne and colleagues investigated the effects of two weeks of dieting followed by two weeks of eating at maintenance compared to a continuous diet group. Now that's an important point because most of the other studies just allowed subjects to eat as much as they liked during their "break". In comparison, the researchers were careful to make sure that participants ate at their "maintenance intake" on their two weeks off.
To make the comparison fair, the intermittent group dieted for 30 weeks, while the continuous group dieted for 16. This way, both groups spent 16 weeks in a caloric deficit. Results showed that the intermittent group lost more fat (12.3kg versus 8.0kg). They also showed that the continuous group experienced a significantly larger drop in resting energy expenditure than the intermittent group.
So, where to from here?
Hopefully, you've now got an understanding as to the flexibility in which a calorie deficit and therefore fat loss diet can be applied.
The question you should be considering is...
"What's the easiest way for me to create a calorie deficit over time?"
The emphasis here should be on the "me". Rather than following a diet based on what has worked for someone else, the power is truly in your hands to mould the diet to your lifestyle.
Consider those who travel a lot for work. Instead of trying to follow a diet while attending seminars, staying at hotels or going out for work dinners, you can plan to eat at maintenance on those days without feeling like you're sabotaging your progress and then return to a deficit when you're in an environment that offers more control.
What about "floating" diet breaks? Having the ability to decide to eat at maintenance intake for a few days or a week when shit hits the fan, or you know that life's going to get crazy.
What about if you're a female who suffers from increased hunger or cravings during your period? You could create your diet to allow more food during that week, providing more calories to enjoy some of those craved foods.
Have a weekend away coming up? Increase your calories to maintenance and enjoy a bit more flexibility.
The reality is that there are so many ways in which you can construct your diet to create a given energy deficit. As long as that deficit is the same over a given period, it appears that fat loss is similar. The key is in making sure that it fits with your lifestyle. When that happens, adherence increases and results follow suit.
I genuinely think this is the best way forward and an effective way to make dieting easier and more successful in the long term. Is it going to solve all our overweight and obesity problems?
Of course not.
But if it can increase adherence and sustainability even by a small amount, then it's worth it.