Are you along your weight loss journey? Have you asked yourself this question yet?
While it may seem like common sense to establish a goal, some people struggle with weight loss and end up dieting for a long time. I've come across clients who have said they've been dieting for "7-8 years". Obviously they mean they've been trying to lose weight and get the body they want for that long but, in that time frame it means they've been (or hopefully been) in a caloric deficit.
When someone is in a dieting phase I’ll know it’s time to pull back and go into a maintenance phase for a number of reasons. But first, you need to I’d like to say that in my experience working with clients as a nutrition coach it’s IMPERATIVE to develop good communication skills with them. Listen more than you speak, ask tons of questions, genuinely care about their situation, dig deeper in conversations, keep records and constantly assess along the way. This allows you to have an in depth perspective of what they’re going through and make sure you’re guiding them the best you can.
Starting off with the basics like to set a goal, set step-stone goals to reach that bigger goal (and celebrate each little win), constantly assess, get feedback, develop great communication skills, and see when it’s appropriate to change direction are things that will help you a TON! Along your way you will run into obstacles and to name a few reasons on when it may be time to stop trying to lose weight along your journey:
Reaching their goal and wanting to focus on maintenance
Adherence is lacking
Seeing disordered eating habits developing
Stress or suffering is too high
Their time in that phase has ended & it's appropriate to maintain & start a reverse diet to set up their next dieting phase
Making too many sacrifices for little results
When dieting it comes with a need to understand that there will be compromise, there will also be a need for lots of patience and consistency, too. Depending on the person, going in a diet phase for “X” amount of weeks with refeed days may be the best for that person then again, scheduling diet breaks or maintenance phases periodically throughout their journey may be the best for another person. This is all individually based and why you build a relationship with that person to see when and where to move.
While there are certainly benefits to maintaining a “healthier” bodyweight and body fat percentage, there are also benefits to stop dieting like less food obsession, more flexibility to enjoy life, lowered likelihood of disordered eating behaviors, more likelihood for progress in the gym, etc.. With my clients I implement maintenance phases where we don't push forward but take a step back and stay around their maintenance calories to ease off the gas and hopefully let the adaptations of dieting simmer down a bit before moving forward again.
Each can take up a certain amount of time in your life to ultimately help you get results in the long-term. That's what we’re going for, lasting and progressive results.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
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I hope this gives you some insight on when and if, enough is enough.
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