What Is a Diet Break? How to Use One to Break a Plateau

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabes? Hey everybody, Nikkiey here, and welcome to our Sunday WarriorBabe Revolution rally call. I am excited to be here with you all. It is Sunday, August 9, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and we will get started in just a few minutes on the topic of tonight's rally call. So just go into the Facebook group and leave a comment to let the other WarriorBabes know we're getting started. We're going to talk strategy today. That's not the name of the topic, but it has to do with strategy.

So welcome to all of the new WarriorBabes. If you're new and this is your first rally call, I'm stoked that you're here. These rally calls cover the topic of the week, and it usually has to do with mindset tactics, macro knowledge or some workout terminology. Whatever it may be, it's filled with golden nuggets, and it can either inspire you with some educational tidbits or motivate you into a new week moving forward. So these rally calls are really key to immerse yourself in every single Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, because I get you guys fired up, and if not, I get some light bulbs firing in your brains on the educational pieces I'm talking about.

So go leave a comment inside the Facebook group to let the other WarriorBabes know we're getting started. To all of my new WarriorBabes, I am excited and stoked that you are part of this community of thousands of women who are getting toned and becoming stronger, more confident versions of themselves. You're part of a community of thousands of women who are supportive, inspiring and motivating. It's so cool to see our community, to see your posts, to see you put in the work and other babes commenting and showing their love and support. It's rad. Our community is pretty dope. I love it. So welcome to all the new WarriorBabes. I'm stoked that you're here.

Before we dive deeper into today's topic, which again, go let the other babes know this is something they don't want to miss. It's going to light up some light bulbs, and it's a strategy that I employ inside of my Blueprint program and possibly could be a strategy for you to understand here.

Before we dive into it, though, if you're new, don't ignore the WarriorBabe Revolution blast-off emails. They are so important. They're coming to you for the first 14 days inside the program. I like to think of them as a transition into the WarriorBabe lifestyle. You're going to go through some mindset tactics, erasing any negative thought processes or negative words around you or your body, and you're going to turn them into a positive and set yourself off on a strong foot moving forward. Get your mindset in check, understand this is a journey and not another quick fix, and learn habits and skills that are going to serve you for the rest of your life. So the 14-day blast-off email sequence is going to get you started: find out your goals, learn where your macros should be, what workouts to follow, all that kind of jazz. So don't ignore that. That's where you want to go when you're first starting and transitioning into the WarriorBabe lifestyle.

And one more thing before we dive into this topic: if you are new, don't be the person who asks questions that can be easily answered inside the application. Take the time to search inside the application and listen to everything that I am sharing with you. If the question you're seeking can be answered inside the app, click on the home screen and go to the FAQs, or click on need help to go to the FAQs resource page. It's literally an entire platform that we have built, and my team is updating it every single month. It's an easy access tool for you to search questions around all the different arenas, all the different programs, all that kind of stuff. So head to the FAQs page, but if your questions can't be answered there or inside the app, then head to the Facebook group. Don't come in and start flooding the community with questions that can be easily found inside your application. Take the time to search it. There are tons of golden nuggets inside the app. You can ask the Facebook group if you can't find the answer, or you can use the Q&As every single Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

All right, let's dive into today's topic. I'm really stoked and really passionate to talk about this with you. It's a strategy you can use if you find yourself in this situation right now, and it's a strategy that I employ inside the Blueprint program. If you want to learn more about the Blueprint program, you can go to warriorbabe.com and check out the Blueprint coaching in the top right corner, or you can go to warriorbabeblueprint.com and check out a free training I put together on what's inside the program and how to personalize it to you even more.

So again, this is a strategy I employ. The topic is diet breaks. I don't know if you've ever heard of diet breaks, but it's what I like to do whenever anybody experiences a plateau. So let's first talk about why plateaus even happen. What we're going to talk about is a strategy for breaking through a plateau, and that strategy is diet breaks. We're going to cover the what, the why, the how and the when of these diet breaks.

So why do plateaus happen? Commonly, over time, your body will adapt to the strategy that has gotten you to where you are in your journey. What you started off with first, what got you to lose that weight, may, actually not may, it will always need to be changed. The method needs to be changed, because your body will adapt to the strategy that's gotten you to where you are in your journey, and your body will actually defend itself against any further loss. So if you stay at the same calorie intake for far too long, your body will adapt to that, and a side effect of that is a slower metabolism. Your metabolism slows down and tries to accommodate that intake, which creates a loss in results. And a slower metabolism can also cause muscle loss, which is completely counterproductive to the goal of getting lean and toned. Sorry, my allergies, I apologize.

So plateaus happen when you stay at the same calorie intake for far too long, like eight months, nine months. And there are people who literally sit at like 1,400 calories for years, and they're doing all this work inside the gym, and they're like, well, why am I not seeing results? Well, you're plateauing. Your body is so adapted to this lower intake that it's not going to give you the results you want, because your metabolism is now slower and accommodating to that intake. When your metabolism is slow and sluggish, I can promise you the results are just not going to show.

And then at that point, with your metabolism slow and sluggish, your body is going to look for energy elsewhere, and it's going to turn to your muscle stores for energy. Like I've talked about before, your muscles are active tissue, and they're filled up with glycogen. Carbs break down into glycogen, and they're the first source of supplying your muscles with energy. Well, if your metabolism is sluggish, your body is going to go to the muscle stores to find more energy, which is completely counterproductive to the results you're looking for.

So when I say you need to eat more, you really need to eat more. And when people experience eating more after eating so little, that's where they're like, oh my God, I can't believe I haven't been eating this much in so long. Well, yeah, you need to eat food, especially if your goal is to build muscle and get toned. Food is so extremely important. And the women I coach, you come into the program eating so low, but you're killing yourself in the workouts, and you're like, oh, I am doing so much work. Yeah, but the food, the recovery, everything like that just isn't there.

So this is why plateaus happen. This is what a lot of people experience. They see fast results in the first couple of months, and then it just stops. Your body is smart, so smart, and it will adapt to that lower intake.

So let's talk about the strategy I use inside the Blueprint program that I call a diet break. Let's first talk about the what and the why of diet breaks. So what are diet breaks, Nikkiey? It's a periodization of your fat loss where I would increase your calories and decrease your cardio. I would completely cut your cardio in half, and you would reach your estimated maintenance levels. What I mean by increasing calories is I would find your maintenance calories. You can even go into the calculator, click on maintain and build, and find what your maintenance calories should be. And I would have you follow those maintenance calories for a week or so and drastically decrease your cardio.

One of the biggest mistakes I see when babes are in fat loss is staying in a caloric deficit for months or even years without ever giving their body a break. Why I employ these diet breaks is because taking a break does have benefits on your overall ability to hit your end goal and see better results, compared to staying in a caloric deficit without any break. When you have been in a cut for an extended period of time and you've dropped too low in calories but still have quite a bit of time left to go with your cut, this is where a diet break comes into play, to extend that cutting process so you're not bottoming out too fast.

Taking a break from a deficit, it's been proven, and I've seen it happen because I employ this strategy all the time, improves your overall ability to hit your end goal and see better results compared to staying in a caloric deficit without a break. It's one of the biggest mistakes I see: people stay in these deficits for months, years, two years, three years, eight months, far too long, and their body is completely adapted at that point.

Another added benefit is that these breaks create a psychological break. It's time to incorporate more food. And I've noticed that it even makes going back into fat loss, going back into your cut, easier. And I'm only talking about a week here. You all stress out when I say eat more food. You really stress out, and I get it, because it's been hardwired into your brain from all the things you've done over the past years, decades even, of eating less, because eating less creates fat loss. Well, listen, from my perspective, I've been in this for five years. I've been in your shoes. I know that food is so important, and if I'm eating less than I'm supposed to, I experience it. I'm tired, I have no energy, my lifts are terrible the next day. I know that I have to eat. So saying that you need to do a diet break and increase your calories and macros for one week is absolutely nothing. It is a strategy that can blow you out of the water with the results you want to experience from being in a cut. So that's the what and the why of diet breaks.

Now let's talk about the when of diet breaks. Now listen to me, this is really important. I like to use these strategies when you actually have an extra set of eyes on you, and that's why I employ this inside my Blueprint and my VIP programs. So listen to this loud and clear. A diet break isn't, oh my God, Nikkiey said to do this, I'm going to go do this right now. Oh my God, it's Halloween, I'm going to eat all this candy. You're not going to treat this diet break like candy. No. If results are happening and you're seeing results, keep going. Just because Nikkiey talked about this diet break doesn't mean you need to do it.

Understand that it's very, very, very case sensitive to the individual. It should not be used for quick fixes, and it should not be used frequently. I recommend having that extra set of eyes. If you want to learn more about the Blueprint program, check out warriorbabeblueprint.com. I use these in the Blueprint and the VIPs, with me being the extra eyes on you to see what's going on.

So typically, the when of diet breaks, again, is very case sensitive. I'm going to drill this into your brain, because I really don't want you getting off this call thinking, I'm going to go do a diet break, because I know how you operate. What you typically want to look for, and how you know you need to employ this, is consistent hunger throughout the day. Not just subtle hunger, like, okay, I'm hungry, it's right before my next meal. Awesome. No, it's consistent hunger throughout the day where you feel like you're going to chew your hand off. That's something I look out for.

Another thing is a decreased ability to hit your overall daily macro goals without being tempted to go over. And no, I don't mean you're bored and stress eating. I mean you're really focusing, you're really in it, you're disciplined, and you're having a decreased ability to hit your daily macro goals without being extremely tempted to go over. Listen to me, it's not about stress eating. It's not about, oh, but I just want to eat this. If you're really disciplined and you're really having a decreased ability, then this is something you might want to employ. Or if you feel like you're gnawing off your hands, and it's not just a little bit of hunger. Be real and honest with yourself.

The Blueprint is an educational program, but it puts you in the center of it because it personalizes everything to you. But one main thing you have to do is be real and brutally honest with yourself. Is it stress-induced hunger? Or is it just plain, I want more food? Or is it, oh, I'm really hungry, and I'm really disciplined, I'm pretty good at this, but I have a decreased ability to hit my goals during the day and sometimes go over?

Another thing I look out for is consistency. If you are somebody who is consistent across the board, hitting your numbers plus or minus five, but you're experiencing a plateau in your progress even after weeks of consistency, this is where I would employ this. I would also employ it when you're mentally done in a deficit, when you're just like, I can't do this, I cannot do this right now. And I'm not talking about weak-minded people, I'm talking about my strong-minded people. It's like, I just can't do this, I just need a break. Then I would employ a diet break.

So that's the when. Listen loud and clear: again, it's very case sensitive, and you really have to be honest with yourself in figuring out whether you should employ this kind of strategy.

The next thing I want to talk about is the how of diet breaks, how we do them. I talked about what they are a little bit ago, but how we do them is we increase your calories to maintenance and we decrease your cardio pretty dramatically for one full week. One full week. And with one full week, you can see how your body responds. When I say decrease cardio by half, I mean literally half of what you're doing right now. For example, if you're doing six days, drop it to three. If you're doing five, drop it to three. If you're doing three to four, drop it to one. What this does is allow your body to heal. It takes the stress off your body, it decreases cortisol levels, and it literally just refeeds your body for one entire week.

So once you've employed this for an entire week, then what, Nikkiey? What do you do afterwards? You kick-start the results again. Coming out of a diet break, how your body responds will determine the next steps. I'm going to tell you what I would do, so if you're not in my Blueprint or VIP programs, you'll know what you can do. But I'm telling you, an extra set of eyes from somebody who knows what they're doing is really key here.

What goes into determining your next steps is asking yourself these questions. Did you gain weight, did you lose weight, or did you stay the same? Did your stress, your sleep and your recovery improve? How low in calories were you before you implemented this diet break? How much more do you have to lose, or want to lose? How high was your cardio before you implemented this diet break? All of those go into determining the next steps.

Then there are two outcomes, depending on how your body responds, whether you've dropped weight or stayed the same, and how you're feeling with sleep, stress and recovery, if those have all improved. These are the two things I will do. I will either drop you back down in calories and macros to halfway between where you are with this diet break and where you were before. For example, if you were at 165 in carbs before starting this, and now you're up to 250 in carbs with the maintenance diet break, then I would find the happy medium in between, so that's about 210. It's an 85 total increase, so about 40 either way, 210. Or what I would do is drop you back to where you were at the start of this, back to your previous macros, and keep your cardio insanely low.

These are strategies where you're probably like, oh my God, Nikkiey, what? Yes, but these can make drastic differences in your results, how you feel, your energy and your forward progress.

So that's everything I just talked about: a strategy called a diet break. What they are, why they're done, when to do them and how to do them, and then what to do afterwards to kick-start results once you're done with a diet break. I talked about those two outcomes.

Again, this is a strategy I use inside the Blueprint program. I employ it for people. If you trust yourself to do it yourself, go for it. If not, I would definitely recommend checking out the Blueprint program at warriorbabeblueprint.com, or even VIP, though my VIP is on a wait list right now, just so you have that extra set of eyes. The Blueprint program is completely educational, but it puts you in the center of it and personalizes everything to you, with expert coaching calls each week where you're able to chat with me. So if you go through this and share your pictures inside the community, you treat those calls like a check-in with me, and the meeting would be like, okay, great, this is where you're at, this is where the results are, this is what I'd recommend for you to do next. Or if you trust yourself to employ this strategy right now, you can do it for yourself as well, if you experience what I talked about earlier.

Don't just throw these around like candy. Don't do them just because I said you can. Don't do them at a frequent interval. Listen to this rally call again and really figure out whether you are in this particular situation.

So that concludes the rally call. That's what I wanted to talk with you about today. I'm really passionate about this stuff, I love it, and I hope you gained a lot of knowledge and some golden nuggets from this rally call. Let me know what you thought inside the community by giving me some feedback, and I will see you on Wednesday's live Q&A at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Everybody have a good start to your week. Start the new week strong. All right, bye everybody.