diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 56503a951d..f0328c3352 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -122,6 +122,10 @@ Current
 
 ### Changed:
 
+- [Lift required override on deprecated method in MetricLoader](https://github.com/yahoo/fili/pull/609)
+    * Add default implementation to deprecated `loadMetricDictionary` in `MetricLoader` so that downstream projects are
+      able to implement the new version without worrying about the deprecated version.
+
 - [Added DataApiRequestFactory layer](https://github.com/yahoo/fili/issues/603)
     * Replaced static construction of DataApiRequest with an injectableFactory
     * Create an additional constructor for DataApiRequestImpl which unpacks the config resources bundle to make it easier to override dictionaries.
diff --git a/fili-core/src/main/java/com/yahoo/bard/webservice/data/config/metric/MetricLoader.java b/fili-core/src/main/java/com/yahoo/bard/webservice/data/config/metric/MetricLoader.java
index fb98bf86fd..ff36a3146a 100644
--- a/fili-core/src/main/java/com/yahoo/bard/webservice/data/config/metric/MetricLoader.java
+++ b/fili-core/src/main/java/com/yahoo/bard/webservice/data/config/metric/MetricLoader.java
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 import com.yahoo.bard.webservice.data.dimension.DimensionDictionary;
 import com.yahoo.bard.webservice.data.metric.MetricDictionary;
 
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
 /**
  * Defines the core interactions for loading metrics into a metric dictionary.
  */
@@ -18,7 +20,12 @@ public interface MetricLoader {
      * @deprecated in favor of loadMetricDictionary(MetricDictionary, DimensionDictionary)
      */
     @Deprecated
-    void loadMetricDictionary(MetricDictionary metricDictionary);
+    default void loadMetricDictionary(MetricDictionary metricDictionary) {
+        String message = "loadMetricDictionary(MetricDictionary) is not implemented. It has been deprecated. " +
+                "Implement and use loadMetricDictionary(MetricDictionary, DimensionDictionary) instead.";
+        LoggerFactory.getLogger(MetricLoader.class).error(message);
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException(message);
+    }
 
     /**
      * Load metrics and populate the metric dictionary with dimension dictionary for dimension dependent metrics.