Why You Should Stop Dieting
Sometimes the best thing you can ever do to breakthrough a fat loss plateau is to stop trying to lose fat. Sounds paradoxical but let me explain. I often see a scenario where someone will be determined to get to a low body fat percentage. They make great progress up to a certain point and then they’re stuck. They keep trying to keep their calories low but the fat just won’t come off. Furthermore, they’re likely finding it harder than ever to stick to a lower calorie intake. They can’t help but overshoot their calorie intake and because of this they try to compensate by going really low in calories the next day while doing lots of exercise.
This is an absolute nightmare for your hormones, specifically testosterone and leptin. The longer that you try to hold that low calorie level, unsuccessfully I may add, the harder you’re making it on yourself. You’re beating up your body both physiologically and psychologically.
In this of the Road to Ripped Podcast:
Chris and I discuss exactly why many of you should stop dieting. Why going to maintenance for a couple of weeks will reset your body and make subsequent dieting efforts much more effective. We also discuss the best ways to go about doing this and how conventional cutting may not be the answer for you. Why alternating short periods of cutting for 2-3 weeks with short periods of maintenance for 1-2 weeks may be the most effective and enjoyable strategy for you. Allowing you to lean down while building muscle, maintaining higher testosterone levels and slowly adjusting your body to a lower body fat.
Listen to the Episode on itunes.com
Ps. Contrary to popular belief, eating at maintenance is not a no holds barred, all you can eat freak fest. Most people that try to eat at maintenance end up being way to relaxed and overeat. Chris and I discuss the best ways to go about eating at maintenance without gaining fat.
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Hi greg,
I would like to know your opinion about eat stop eat protocol from brad pilon?
Thanks
Great book but I’m not much of a fan of 24 hour fasts. I just don’t find them enjoyable at all. On the other hand, skipping breakfast and fasting each day until lunch is awesome. Plus I can eat big meals while getting leaner than ever. This is definitely my preferred approach.
Hey Greg,
I like the article and the podcast, so i am going to go to maintenance for a 3-4 weeks. Do you suggest that i keep the doing the workout from your Warrior Shredding Program or go back to something from the muscle building course. Also should i still be doing cardio on the days I’m not lifting?
If you want to build some more muscle then you can do a higher volume workout routine from my muscle building course. That will work really well!
Hey Greg if doing cardio after weights. Should the 15- 20 mins be steady state or sprints? And how big do you recommend your meal size be after a 24 hour fast. eg 50% of daily cals Thanks
Steady state. If you’re doing a 24 hour fast, yah you can do 50% of daily cals. I wouldn’t go higher than that if your’e fasting for 24 hours otherwise you’re just compensating a long fast with lots of eating, which defeats the purpose.
Hey man after watching the RTR podcast w/ Mike Matthews on the golden ratio, i’m a bit confused.
I think he said something about how beginners shouldn’t train in the 6-8 or 10-12 rep range and would benefit more from the 4-6 rep range. What do you think about this? I know your muscle building program goes into all the rep ranges and basically says that you can work in any rep range and as long as your getting stronger you’ll build muscle. But from a beginner’s stand point, what rep range should beginners work in for best and fastest muscle growth.
Jason, Do you have the exact quote. I don’t remember him saying that exactly. I think he mentioned that he found the 4-6 rep range to be the most effective for most muscle groups.
With RPT you can work within a wider rep range. This is because you’re training completely fresh and going max effort. This allows you to get more reps than you usually would with the same weight. As well, the heavy set primes your nervous system so that you use more muscle fibers on your subsequent lighter sets.
Sorry, what I meant was that he said something like beginners would “benefit more” from training in the 4-6 rep range. Then he started talking about experienced lifters like you and himself and how you guys could benefit from training in higher rep ranges.
I also have a follow up question:
So for building strength and muscle could someone perform the workout you listed in your warrior shredding program? Or is that specifically for cutting? The volume was a bit lower (i.e. 2 sets instead of 3 or 4) and I prefer working w/ a lower volume workout while maintaining intensity.
Thank you! Sorry for the confusion
Oh! Basically what he was saying is that experienced lifters who have built up a lot of strength would get good muscle gains from doing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy style training for a couple months. This is because we’ve built up the contractual filaments of our muscle tissue so we have more room to add sarcoplasm.
Great article and great point!
I have tried the “getting there fast” approach and it worked for a while but then it became the absolute disaster. I came to conclusion that people should only be a calorie restricted diet for only a few weeks and then you should stop for a few weeks and go back to your maintenance level. Otherwise people can get your hormones out of balance and even develop physiological eating disorder due to denying yourself everything.
So what I decided to do is to incorporate two things:
1. I alternate eating at the maintenance for a couple of weeks with eating at deficit for 4-6 weeks. Consider that as a metabolic recovery period.
2. I incorporate “physiological recovery” meals, when I allow myself to eat anything I want for one meal that will put me in the calorie surplus for this day, which I will follow with 24 hours fasting period. I usually have this “cheat” meal on Friday night when I ask my wife to cook something delicious like great tasting apple pie or banana bread with almonds, or even home-made pizza.
Another technique I utilize is I eat carbs, proteins, and fats at 50%/25%/25% proportion on strength training days when I train in the evenings and then eat low carb on the days when I do cardio workouts in the morning. This allows me to combine my favorite meals from both high carbs and low carb diets and also helps eliminate strange cravings because I know that if I want something I can eat it on Friday. So I don’t have to deny myself these treat – I just have to postpone it for only a few days.