30 Seconds Summary
New study: Do diet breaks help preserve muscle mass and your metabolism?

  • A new study by Jackson Peos, Eric Helms, and James Krieger examines diet breaks during a 12-week fat loss program.
  • Participants either followed a continuous diet or a diet with 1-week breaks every 3 weeks, both groups showed similar results in muscle mass, strength, and metabolism.
  • No significant hormonal changes were observed between the groups, including levels of leptin, testosterone, IGF-1, thyroid hormone T3, and ghrelin.
  • Psychological aspects such as sleep quality, irritability, and overall mood were also unaffected by diet breaks.
  • Diet breaks provided a slight improvement in hunger and desire to eat, but didn’t significantly affect actual energy intake or diet adherence.
  • The study suggests diet breaks and maintenance phases may be unnecessary and extending diet duration for them might not yield substantial benefits.
  • Authors recommend considering slower, more consistent dieting approaches over intermittent dieting with breaks.
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