After what I’ve learned about our bodies, it makes sense to me that the slower and more gradually you try to change something about yourself, the better. Our bodies really don’t like to change, so the more we can get them to believe that nothing dramatic is happening, the more likely we are to succeed!

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how much time it must’ve took to put this together? Super high quality content !!

I can't believe information like this is for free. Thank you Jeff, you're really an asset to the fitness community.

I love diet breaks on prep but I never refer to days/meals etc as "cheat" days - sets people up for a negative relationship with food I find. Love this video as always Jeff!

Jeff lookin like my dad getting ready to lecture me when I sneak back into the house at 2 am

This is really high quality content, must have took a long time to put this video together

I’ve been trying to lose weight. I started January 23. I was pretty much cutting way too aggressively. I was at 270 pounds. I plateaued at 240 pounds. I had been at a deficit for the last five months. So I gave myself a week break to where I would eat how I normally eat. No junk food. But I eat more. I was actually full after my meals. That ended up going on for two weeks. Then I got back on my deficit. I got through the plateau. Surprisingly, even though I ate more the last two weeks. I felt better, I had more energy. And now I’m starting to drop in weight again. Then I see this video? It kind of makes sense

I lost 85 lbs since March last year and I basically unknowingly did diet breaks. I was very disciplined for 2-3 weeks and then naturally ate around maintenance for 1-2 weeks never more than 2 or else I found myself falling back into old habits. Everyone asks how I’ve been able to keep it off/keep losing and it’s bc it really doesn’t feel like much of a restriction to me anymore but more of a lifestyle. Whatever you do, consistency is key!

This is incredibly relevant to me rn thanks big daddy nippard

This video made my cutting wayyyyy more easy this year, last cut I couldn’t stick to my strict diet for much (doing the same amount of calories everyday). With the 2 days refeeds I’m having better workouts and preserving my fatfree mass. Thanks a lot jeff 🙏

can you do a video about how the body holds water? carbs, sodium, salt, creatine even alchol and illness? I think we're all used to looking at the weight on the scale and see it moving about a lot, I certainly do and know now that a lot of it is to do with water it would be great to have a better understanding of this so that people are more educated when they're starting a diet. Thanks!

Im just trying to figure out if i can drink this milkshake or not

This is pretty much what Dr. Mike Israetel has been saying about dieting. Makes perfect sense to me. Diet for a while. Then eat at maintenance and let your body get adjusted to your new weight. Then diet again if you still to need to lose more weight.

My cheat meals are just including one or two things that are a bit extra every few days. Not that many extra calories but regularly keeps cravings away. Way better than going super over the top periodically.

yeah I literally just finished a 6 month cut doing exactly plan C, doing 4 week sprints of restriction giving a 2 week maintenance break with amazing results. I have never been able to lose so much fat and retain full muscle. Highly recommend and now the science backs it up!

Here's what I've experienced: A few years back, I started making some dietary changes. Not with the goal of losing weight, but I started going to school, and had gotten into the bad habit of fueling myself on sugar and caffeine throughout the day, and it was affecting my moods really bad. My first change was to make myself eat oatmeal in the morning, instead of a muffin, or pastry (i don't have an appetite in the morning.) Suddenly, I started losing weight. Long story short, I cut out regular sugar, white flour, the carbs I eat are low-glycemic, and I lost 50 lbs in about 9 months time. HOWEVER, I hit certain plateaus along the way where it seemed like I wasn't losing weight, even though I was sticking strictly to "the diet." Also, since I wasn't exactly making a huge deal about losing weight, there were times I went off the diet, carbed up, and ate refined sugars...then noticed the plateau busted, and the weight start coming off again. At first, I thought I was imagining things, and there must be something else going on inside my body that I didn't know about. THEN, at some point I saw a video by Dr. Berg where he said that a low carb/low glycemic diet CAN help a person lose weight, "...IN THE CONTEXT OF A HIGH CARBOHYDRATE DIET." He pointed out that after a period of carbohydrate deprivation, our bodies will eventually have the same insulin responses to fats and proteins as it does carbohydrates. That seemed to explain what I was experiencing.

13:50 smh 😂😂😂

Appreciate you Coach! Def helped me achieve levels I thought I would never reach! :) P.S. That ENDING LOL

In my experience, refeed days and workout breaks both work wonders to break plateaus and to keep the body moving and burning fat. So it is a great physiological tool, not just a psychological one. I was forced to stop training and dieting for 3 days, basically junk food all that time, and the week I got back was the one I noticed the most drastic and accelerated fat reduction during the cutting, I got much leaner than I was before the break, vascularity increased crazily.

As someone who just graduated with his physical therapy degree, I have a great appreciation for how much science you involve into your videos. It makes it more enjoyable to watch and lends weight to your conclusions. Keep up the great work!

Just re-watching this. It would be really interesting to know how the menstrual cycle plays in to this. Apparently women's daily energy and nutritional requirements change depending on which part of the cycle we're on - so understanding that may also help with adherance/practicality... Thanks Jeff - I love your videos! These days if I have a muscle gain/fat loss / weight training question - first thing I do is search to see if you've done a vid on it!!

This is probably the best news I've ever heard since starting my recomp. I've been pretty lazy on my diet the past 2 weeks and eating at maintenance or slightly above maintenance (after 1 month of caloric deficit). But I guess if I go back to a deficit now and continue this cycle then I should have an even better body comp than if I had stayed on my diet lol

As someone currently on a diet break, I fully support this approach. I'm happy to have finally found what works best for me. 6 week aggressive cuts with 4 week breaks at maintenance cals in between. The cut phase will continue until I reach my goal.. of which I'm currently less than 10 lbs from! I'm not in a rush though. I feel really good and strong.

Man, I appreciate the amount of work that goes into these videos! Everything from the script, the way you talk and how these are edited makes them so valueable and easy to learn from! 👏

Can you do a science based video on Heart/cardiovascular health, heart strength and endurance?

This is exactly what I needed in my life this week after six months of a deficit and a plateau.

Life is definitely too short to eat clean food every day, and some diets can take a toll on your mind and body. I couldn't agree more on this video, Jeff. I mean, you could eat exclusively clean food, but no longer than a month or two months max. You simply get bored and tired... Diet has to be flexible if you want it to be sustainable long-term. I'm currently following a fat loss meal plan from Dietarize (you could thank me later 😀😀). They allow choosing the food you actually enjoy eating and even make some space for cheat meals. Results are great so far!!

Came across this cause I'm experimenting with eating every other day (36:4? IF) Really interesting. Great breakdown.

Jeff your huge calf is staring at me and making me insecure :(

I really appreciate all the hard work you and Stephanie put into your informational videos. So much good content. There is so much data and conflicting or irrelevant data out there, so thank you for sifting through it all and parsing it down! I think I needed this for my own sanity 😂

A, B and C would be identical triplets not twins Your graphics game is really on point in this video though, you've really upped the game and it shows.

Life is definitely too short to eat raw chicken breast and broccoli every day. I couldn't agree more on this video, Jeff. I mean, you can eat exclusively clean food, but no longer than a month or two months may. You simply get bored and exhausted of that undelicious food. Diet has to be flexible if you want it to be sustainable long-term. I'm currently following a fat loss meal plan from Dietarize... Good thing is that they allow you to choose food you actually enjoy eating and even make some space for cheat meals. Results are great so far, I lost 6lbs in 4 weeks!!

Considering how I'm crazy hungry for the two weeks leading up to my period, the two weeks on, two weeks off approach looks like it makes more sense for me.

I love being in a set of 3 identical twins 😂

Jeff coming at it again with these videos LEGIT LOVE. Ive read these studies before but the way these graphics are laid out makes everything 10x easier to understand and apply.

Jeff- I was on a cut for 2 months and was starting to get to the point of feeling fatigued physically and mentally and extremely hungry! I lost 10 pounds which was awesome, but My appetite I know was much bigger than 1500 cals. I decided to just take a week diet break at approx 1900 calories a day, and it helped immensely! My appetite went back down to normal and I’m ready to do the second half of my cut, 10 more pounds. Then of course, settle for maintenance calories. Also would like to tell you I completed your upper/lower hypertrophy 8 week program and see awesome results but am going to run through another cycle of it until my cut is over. Then onto your power building program 💪🏻👍🏻 Thanks for all of your advice!!

Dang you really put a ton of work into this video. Thank you!

I am from future and I can already see Coach GREG making a video on this.

Right on time with this. I’m feeling so depleted right now and contemplating a refeed 🤩

Honestly this is probably my favorite video that you've ever done. Really appreciate the time and effort you put into your content!

Bro i think it would be very very interesting to get a similar video on the best way to do a proper lean bulk. Comparing if it is better to have continuous surplus or more moderate, even with some days with deficit day and one day or two with a big surplus.

I personally love my refeed days. Psychologically, it helps me look forward to spending the day with my kids and wife because we eat junk together. It’s also something I look forward too during the week. Thanks for the video!

I've been working out for about a year now and at first I tried to keep a very strict diet only cooking at home and eating clean, a year later I've learn that the more you restrict yourself the more you'll fall back into a binge eat, so now I eat clean on the weekdays which is when I workout and during the weekend I let myself eat a bit of everything I please with moderation but I still enjoy stuff that I used too and it's been helping me more than just eating clean all the time.

Throughout my life I've done continuous crash diets, even complete two week water-only fasts. I've struggled to keep weight off my whole life. Lately I've been making more healthy eating choices and I feel like I've finally gotten to a good, sustainable place. Research like this puts so much of my past experience into perspective - I was really crashing my metabolism, following by binge eating, which is the worst possible thing I could have done. Now instead of trying to hit a certain amount of weight loss "by my birthday" or some other ambitious metric, I'm just trying to change my weight slowly and permanently. Thank you for these evidence-based videos, they've been of huge value to me.

We NEED the same video but for weight gaining !

When I was dieting to lose weight I 'd have cheat days from time to time, usually 1 cheat day every few weeks and I would just eat whatever I wanted. I'm sure these cheat days would have slowed down the weight loss process but the reality was that cheat days helped me to achieve my goal because being on a calorie restrictive diet for a long period of time can be very hard and cheat days were a great way to stop me from going insane from dieting. After a cheat day I felt refreshed and refocused.

36 years old, first time trying to get healthier, stronger and leaner. I only watch your videos because you are one of the only health youtuber who goes the extra mile to cite peer reviewed studies and science to back up everything you say. No gimmicks, click baits, biased hearsays, sales pitches, unfunny sketches, or toxic masculinity; just real science broken down to laymen's terms explained in calm and well produced videos. Thank you!

Just found your channel a few days ago. My gf and I decided to sign up for a gym for the first time and have been taking it very seriously for a couple months now. We're not sports people, but we do hike A LOT. One thing we've noticed recently is how our fat isn't quite going away at the rate we thought it would. We know nutrition and diet is very key to this, but its hard to hear people tell you about a diet they use and say "Trust me"... We much prefer taking our workouts and diet from a scientific perspective. So watching your videos has helped us realize some things we've been doing wrong, and some we're doing right. Thank for making these videos.

I'm just here looking for an excuse to eat a mcspicy burger 😆 on my cut

This was an amazing video. And perfectly well timed. I am in the process of losing my last 20 to 25 pounds right now and was thinking about the best approach. I am not in a hurry so I think it will be diet breaks for me

really love seeing a science based fitness channel getting over a million views, people want this type of content! Well researched, beautifully visualized and masterfully summarized. This channel is gold!

This is absolutely incredible. I’m doing my first cut in 5 years mostly based off info from your videos and for the first time seeing the progress I want all with the comfort of knowing the mechanics are scientifically backed. 10/10 channel dude

Everyone doing how to cut fast videos. Jeff Nippards comes in saying, guess what, you should've started 10 weeks ago. The real truth stays the same. Slower and longer, the better.

I've been dieting 3 weeks on, one week off and refeeding a bit above maintenance on weekends while training the whole time. I've lost a ton of weight and build a good amount of muscle and feel healthier than I've felt in years.

I love how technical you get in every video, it's really interesting to see what studies have been done and the different benefits we can take away from them!

This needs be on television. Amazing presentation with editing and stuff. Very professional and intact.

Coach Greg is going to react to this harder than last time

*screaming voice saying buy my freaking cookbook heard in the distance* All the greg fans know he’s 100% making a vid about this

After working out and eating well for almost 12 months, as great as all the physical stuff is. I've learnt that you absolutely must take your mental health into account and not be too harsh on yourself. Unless it's your job or for competition, allow yourself to make mistakes when dieting and plan for times where you can eat more of the foods you want to, not the foods you have to.

jeff always answers the questions in my head throughout the video. everything he does is perfectly laid out

How the hell is Jimmy Fallon still hosting a show. He is the epitome of awkward

I can feel we are going to get some video from our favorite doctor.

So when on a diet break, should we calculate our maintenance every time, keeping in mind our lost weight during the process ? If yes, should we lower the deficit after the diet break, according to the new maintenance calculated?

Cheat days to a lot of people is eat 5,000 calories of junk. I don't have cheat days, I'll just add snacks in my week. Or go out to dinner, but eating junk all day just makes me go back into old habits.

Yay! Coach Greg has another video to make a video about 😂

I feel like one of the reasons why that one study showed such a big difference is because it was done on obese, non-trained men, who probably lost some fat even when on maintainance calories, in form of a recomp, which then lead to the increase in total fat loss.

great video. Really glad you touched upon the Matador Study. One thing to mentions that in that study, even the ''diet break'', since it was at maintenance, must have been a challenge since most individuals, let alone obese ones, are seldom at maintenance.

When I first started I crash dieted like a silly person, not knowing what I was doing so my progress stalled out(made me tired, irritable, felt weaker) so I took 2 months to restabilize, now I'm loosing weight again without feeling like crap at a much smaller deficit.

Real masterclass. Much thanks, Jeff!

The infos, the editing, the time spent to summarize everything in a less than 15min video... Comments: coach Greg reaction something + lol cookbook. We humans are weird haha

as a woman who has been on a weightloss journey i realized i’ve sort of unintentionally been following the on off on off long term diet schedule because of how my hormone cycle effects my appetite. i’ve had so much more success losing weight in the last 6 months and i think it’s because i finally stopped fighting my body’s natural rhythms with appetite and started working with them instead

Diet breaks can also help with breaking through a plateau when you're leaning down (cutting). A diet break increases your metabolic rate again after a period of dieting. This means that once you start dieting again after the diet break, your diet will be effective enough again to break through the plateau.

So basically it’s what you like best and can stick to the longest?

Bro I would really like to see a technique Tuesday or something on posing. Like just running through the mandatory poses and giving techniques and tips. Idk, felt like a decent idea for a video

Please don't stop making videos ever we never have been exposed to such an enormous amount of information before I lost 32 kilos learning from you thank you very much all the love from saudi Arabia ❤❤

Thank you god for this video. This is exactly what I have been struggling with myself since I began.

I would love to see a video about the other side of the coin: how to gain weight and diet options that don't make you look like a balloon after a few months. Great work, Jeff! Keep it up!

Is there any research about the inverse of this? Effects of Variable calorie Intake on a bulking cycle?

I feel this video should come with a certificate at the end 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

6 days of strict diet and 1 day of eating however I want, including pizza, donuts, etc, has worked for me. Sometimes I go longer strict, a few weeks or even 1-2 months-but having a diet break definetly works long term if you do have the capacity and discipline to stay consistent with a diet.

Sweet, I was doing diet breaks already due to my poor self control. Still seeing results, though!

Can already sense the «buy my friggin’ cookbook» and «calories in, calories out» from a mile away Love ya coach!

Jeff … Hands Down is the GOAT of You Tube Science Based Fitness. Please take your crown 👑

This video was GREAT! Honestly such a great video with great animations, charts, and visuals. Thank you for the effort and amazing information.

Greg: “Or you can eat from my FREAKING cookbook and never need a cheat meal again!”

you are my go 2 for nutrition/ fitness info love that you use studies an actual science in your opinions... I've lost around 115 lbs in the last two years thanks my dude!

i lost 13 pounds in the last 2 months and Jeff is why. Once I understood the science behind caloric deficits as well as increasing protein, carbs, and other beneficial foods and decreasing processed foods high in fat or sugar (if not completely ridding my diet of them altogether). Jeff made it easy for me to understand what I needed to do and helped provide the motivation to actually get it done. I wish he was my trainer but definitely couldn't afford that..anyways thank you Mr. Nippard!

As someone who is in a plateau in the weight loss journey this was really helpful, thanks!

Another quality vid Jeff, appreciate it🤝

hey man love your channel "Jeff Nippard " a lot , uploading an intresting content every video. well done!!!

Appreciate you collecting this information and putting in such an easy to suggest format!

I’ve been giving this some thought for a month or so now. Thanks, you’ve helped me make an informed decision today that I don’t need to feel guilty (within myself), about.

The science says The Rock is on an ASTROnomical level of HGH and Test lol...

we love jeff, always find myself coming back your vids to refresh, as a coach myself im always learning from the best. ❤

Research scientist here, two studies is super thin evidence. Even if both had been done completely perfectly, random variance is real and can lead to diverging results. So never treat a handful of single studies as irrefutable evidence for anything.

Instead of watching this video I am just going to assume that you are giving me a direct order in it to eat a Big Mac meal and a pint of Hagen Daz tonight. To that I say: Sir, YES Sir!

I was actually looking up this topic last night..... You have read my mind Jeff 😂

Good to know that I can relax a little when I go on vacation later this month. It will be nicer just making sure I hit my protein macro and don't go overboard with alcohol and sweets.

I wish people present research papers in other fields the same way Jeff does here! We should start calling you professor Jeff

Perfect timing Jeff! Coming out of a 16 week, 25% continuous deficit and am feeling fatigued and down, despite losing 50 pounds. Was wondering where I should go next and it seems like I might take a slightly longer diet break at maintenance and then continue on using the 48 hour refresh plan. The video was super helpful man. Amazing content as usual!