Ep. #1057: Menno Henselmans on Reasons to Stop Taking Diet Breaks

2023-04-19

Diet breaks have become more popular in the evidence-based community over the past few years. The strategy is purported not just to improve your results during a cut, but actually make dieting easier. But is the science so clear-cut? In this interview, Menno Henselmans and I discuss the scientific literature on diet breaks, including a new study in which he was involved. Menno has been on my podcast many times, but in case you’re not familiar with him, he’s a former business consultant turned international public spea...

Diet breaks have become more popular in the evidence-based community over the past few years.

The strategy is purported not just to improve your results during a cut, but actually make dieting easier.

But is the science so clear-cut?

In this interview, Menno Henselmans and I discuss the scientific literature on diet breaks, including a new study in which he was involved.

Menno has been on my podcast many times, but in case you’re not familiar with him, he’s a former business consultant turned international public speaker, educator, writer, published scientist, and physique coach who’s passionate about helping serious athletes attain their ideal physiques.

In this interview, Menno and I chat about . . .

Why diet breaks have become so popular in the evidence-based space in recent years
How his new diet break study was designed and conducted and its results
The reasons why adding maintenance periods to a cut probably won’t “trick” your body and mitigate the negative side effects of a calorie deficit
Why diet breaks are probably a waste of time, just make your diets take longer, and what you should do instead
Protein-sparing modified fasts and when they’re useful and who might benefit from them
How to add in extremely low-calorie days to a cut (the opposite of refeeds) and why you might want to
Why very short bulks don’t work (but mini-cuts do)
And more . . .