Reverse Dieting – The Solution to Weight Regain & Metabolic Adaptation?
A comprehensive guide on how to reverse diet, when you should be reverse dieting and what to expect
Should you be reverse dieting?
Two indicators that you may benefit from a reverse diet are:
1. You have just completed a successful fat loss phase and want to maintain your results while eating more.
OR
2. Your current calorie intake feels too low and unsustainable long-term e.g. you are experiencing high levels of hunger, fatigue and/or decreased training performance.
What is reverse dieting?
After extended periods of weight loss or rapid weight loss, our body adapts to “protect” us from more weight loss. We call this phenomenon “metabolic adaptation” or “adaptative thermogenesis.” If you really struggle to maintain weight loss, this may be one of the reasons.
This is the reason why you might have started your diet on 2000 calories but now you’re maintaining on only 1600 calories and every training session feels like an uphill battle.
Your basal metabolic rate (how much energy you burn at rest) drastically decreases and your hunger levels increase.
This leads us to drop our calorie intake very low to maintain our progress.
You can read more about how & why it happens in our metabolic adaptation article (coming next week!)
What is the purpose of a reverse diet?
The purpose of the reverse diet is to minimise fat gain while increasing calorie intake. The aim is to have maintained a similar body composition at the end of the reverse diet, with more energy and less fatigue.
The truth is: a little fat gain is inevitable. A reverse diet, however, can help prevent an uncontrolled episode of overeating that can undo all your hard work and progress.
This out of control feeling often occurs at the end of a difficult fat loss phase. This is due to metabolic changes that ramp up your appetite & acts upon areas of your brain to make you more sensitive to reward-based & pleasurable eating. Adding in some structure in the critical time after a dedicated weight loss phase can help prevent rapid weight regain.
IF you need some structure, support and accountability to maintain or further improve your body composition, you can book in a consultation here.
How to reverse diet?
Reverse dieting involves gradually increasing calorie intake and monitoring weight. In addition, any factors that may be affecting weight can be monitored including macronutrient intake, fibre, water intake, training difficulty, and sleep.
Determine WHY you are reverse dieting. What is the end goal?
- Improved training performance
- Better energy levels
- Reduced hunger levels
- Enhanced clarity and concentration
- Better mood
- Improved libido
- More social flexibility and enjoyment
Choose an acceptable weekly weight gain range OR maximum weight
E.g. you may be willing to gain 250-500g per week until you reach 4-5kg heavier.
Choose desired calorie intake (be realistic)
E.g. You may want to be eating 300-400 calories higher each day.
Track the important variables – calorie intake and weight are useful. Additional information such as sleep quality and activity levels can also help
Reverse dieting can be a slow and difficult process. Alongside having the right support, knowing your WHY will help you achieve your goals and be patient with the process. If you really value social flexibility while maintaining your body composition, a reverse diet is often worth the wait and effort!
Conservative vs Moderate Approach to Reverse Dieting
The rate of the reverse diet balances between on an individual’s tolerance of fat gain and how fast they want to return to improved energy, sleep, mood and training.
A very conservative approach can be more reassuring and suitable for individuals who would like to hang on to as much of their leanness as possible for as long as possible. It is a period of slow adjustment to more food which can also aid with minimising gut discomfort and bloating (which often occurs when fibre intake increases alongside total calorie intake.
On the other hand, a slightly more rapid approach allows a faster return to improved training performance and recovery and can increase individuals’ capacity for higher volume and intensity.
Conservative Reverse Dieting Method
- Start by increasing current calories by 5% and continue to increase by 5% of starting calories each week. For example, starting on 1500 calories, increase by 75 calories each week until desired goal is reached (calorie intake, improved energy levels, mood, hunger levels).
- While this slow process may provide a sense of security for some, it may be extremely stressful for others as it requires food intake to be closely tracked. An extra 75 calories is the equivalent of 20g of rolled oats or 1 large egg.
A situation in which a more moderate approach may be justified is:
- If you had just competed in a local powerlifting competition (that you had to do an extended dieting phase to make weight) and then had a state or national event within 2 months.
- Many would be tempted to stay on very low calories until the next competition to ensure they make weight again, potential interfering with the recovery and peaking process.
- Using a conservative reverse dieting approach would allow you to better fuel your training and recovery while keeping the weight within your weight class. You will likely have a threshold where you will stop the reverse diet and remain on the same calories until competition.
Sample of A Conservative Reverse Diet Approach. By: Valentina Duong (APD)
Moderate Reverse Dieting Method
Start by increasing current calories by 15% and continue to increase by 5% of starting calories each week. For example, starting on 1500 calories, increase by 225 calories on the first week and by 100 calories until desired goal is reached.
The rationale behind starting with a bigger initial jump is it allows you to increase the energy availability faster and jump back into training and helps dive back into a sense of normalcy faster -especially if it was a very difficult diet previously.
While a 15% jump may seem big for the first week, a 250-500 calorie increase is still significantly lower than most post-diet scenarios where individuals splurge and eat 800+ calories more the next day and desperately jump back into a deficit. This approach allows for calorie targets to be reached faster.
A situation here this would be appropriate is following a fat loss phase where an athlete is:
- feeling more fatigued from training
- performing poorly (feeling more fatigued during training sessions despite lower volume)
- struggling to recover and it is impacting their next training session
- experiencing high levels of hunger
A well-timed and planned reversed diet can prevent burn-out and a major blow out.
*Please note: these are two sample methods and not the only effective methods. Please consult a dietitian to find he best method for you.
Struggling to recover from your training sessions? It may be a sign of low energy availability and you may benefit from a more rapid reverse diet.
What to expect?
Reverse dieting is no easy task. Many individuals overshoot their calories and gain weight faster than planned.
Others are too scared to regain weight that they end up dieting again in the middle of a reverse diet, pushing their bodies back into a low energy availability state and therefore extending the reverse diet.
While you can achieve success with eye-balling portion sizes or not tracking at all during a dieting phase, slowly increasing your calories in a reverse diet does require careful planning and tracking.
Having an objective view on the best course of action is extremely important especially when you are fatigued, hungry and very ready for this diet phase to end. Book in for individualised support and take the guesswork out of nutrition.
References
1. Rosenbaum, M., & Leibel, R. L. (2010). Adaptive thermogenesis in humans. International journal of obesity (2005), 34 Suppl 1(0 1), S47–S55. https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.184
2. Hall K. D. (2018). Metabolic Adaptations to Weight Loss. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 26(5), 790–791. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22189
3. Lilian de J. Could Slow Reintroduction of Calories after Weight Loss Prevent Metabolic Adaptation after Weight Loss?. Curre Res Diabetes & Obes J. 2018; 5(5): 555675. DOI: 10.19080/CRDOJ.2018.05.555675.
4. Wasserfurth, P., Palmowski, J., Hahn, A., & Krüger, K. (2020). Reasons for and Consequences of Low Energy Availability in Female and Male Athletes: Social Environment, Adaptations, and Prevention. Sports medicine - open, 6(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-020-00275-6
