Deload periods are short, so there's no need to make any major adjustments to your diet. But Stafford says that if you have been eating surplus calories in order to gain muscle, it’s probably a good idea to eat fewer calories and aim to maintain your current weight while deloading.
“You wouldn’t want to suddenly go zero carb or anything like that because that’s going to impact your ability to recover,” says Stafford, adding that it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough nutrients during a deload week, including protein.
Try to avoid treating this week as a “cheat” period just because you’re not training as hard as usual.