The 5 Phases of Dieting

I have always found that as my bodyweight drops I will have to adjust my food intake down if I want to continue to lose weight.  A smaller,lighter weight body just burns up less calories I would think.. So to continue to lose you must adjust down!

that's not always the case as this will eventually have some start to have their metabolism going into the gutter!

That's a big reason that refeeds are built into the equation!

Agree about the refeeds. Very necessary! Still I think your overal caloric intake will need to be reduced at some point if you want to continue to lose weight.

You are correct, Sam, on two levels.  The first issue is the Transition Phase - just explaining the gap between the amount of food you need to keep from losing weight....keeping yourself solidly UP at a certain level, even it it's a moderate body weight.  It assumes glycogen levels are full.  When dieting, you've worked through glycogen levels plus you stay in a calorie deficit - that calorie gap is larger than people think.

Then, as you do keep losing, you are correct Sam that you're simply lighter, more efficient, and need less calories. 

Craig, what you're describing is the overall general truth that you should do everything you can to keep your metabolism as high as you can, but it will still fall through dieting.

Joe, do you think he slowed down because he was reaching his metabolic set point, or does inflated levels of offseason food lead to an almost superficial metabolism that quickly adjusts when you drop calories? Or was it just the initial drop of glycogen/water?

Edit: Oops, looks like we responded at the same time.

Right I know there will be a point where some of the losses will become even slower than normal but the  ball must keep rolling so little things must be manipulated to continue to get more fat to drop off. just like when you start something and everything is cruising along until the old diminshing returns rears it's ugly head as you close in on those single digit body fat %'s!

Certain increases in fats and/or carbs like we know about with the refeeds will help to give those fat burning hormones from falling to sleep and also try and keep cortisol at bay as well. Insulin has to be kept at a nice steady pace except around workouts where it's beneficial to have insulin spikes. Insulin=storage!

workout intensity and weights being used should stay moderate to heavy to continue to retain muscle as best as one can hope to do, don't do  the old school switch and start hitting the high reps and add more cardio with these style workouts.

Higher-carb meals and higher-carb days have their place (is that what you guys refer to as "refeeds"?  Re = again; feed = eat.....eat again?  Isn't that what we do every few hours?  No mention of volume increase?)  Anyway, how often you increase carbs and how much you consume, needs to be thought of in relationship to your body type, body comp, baseline food intake, amount of time until your goal date, and how much you have to lose - as well as how close you are to your metabolic set point. 

The original point being that the metabolism will fall even with proper dieting and dieting has to be done in stages with different approaches for each stage to minimize it.

I thought this was a good question by a client:

How often do you have to change your diet for your body not to adapt?

My reply:

For most people, if you're in a good groove with what your body needs, you don't have to change your nutrition as much as you think.  Every day your activity level is different, meal times and foods are different much of the time, and your body doesn't "remember" anything; it just reacts to what's there.  Protein is amino acids in the blood stream.  Carbs are glucose in the blood stream.  So, if it's working, don't fix it.  But, there are certainly times to change course, look for ways to get even more progress, experiment a little, etc.