Reverse dieting is a strategic approach to eating that involves gradually increasing your calorie intake over a period of weeks or months after you've been on a calorie-restricted diet. It's often described as "the diet after the diet." This method aims to boost your metabolism and help your body burn more calories throughout the day, making it a popular choice among bodybuilders and competitive athletes looking to increase their energy levels while maintaining weight loss and body composition.
Understanding Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting is an eating plan that involves gradually increasing your calorie intake over a period of several weeks or months to boost metabolism and help your body burn more calories throughout the day. It's particularly popular among bodybuilders and competitive athletes looking to increase their energy levels while maintaining weight loss and body composition. Reverse dieting works by increasing calories to rev up your metabolism. It’s often used by bodybuilders after a low calorie regimen. It’s thought to create more energy, help reduce hunger, and break through weight loss barriers.
The Basics of Calorie Restriction and Metabolic Adaptation
Most diets involve decreasing calorie intake to create a calorie deficit, meaning that you’re consuming fewer calories than you’re burning. Over time, your body starts to adapt, slowing down your metabolism in an effort to conserve energy. This can become problematic when you’re ready to return to a normal diet but want to maintain your weight - or when you hit a weight loss plateau and are unable to further cut calories. The idea of reverse dieting is based on adaptive thermogenesis (metabolic adaptation), which is a protective process that alters the body’s metabolism to increase energy intake and decrease energy output in efforts to slow down weight loss.
The body does this through a few mechanisms:
- Hormone changes: The body releases or suppresses various hormones (e.g., ghrelin, insulin, leptin, peptide YY) to increase hunger to push you to eat more.
- Decrease in resting metabolic rate (RMR): Your body will focus its energy on vital organs to keep you alive. Less energy is dedicated to “non-essential” functions, such as hair and nail growth.
- Decrease in exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT): You may feel like you have less energy to exercise or see a notable decrease in performance, meaning you’ll burn fewer calories during a workout.
- Decrease in non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): NEAT includes any energy used for daily tasks, such as walking, fidgeting, and general movement. For example, you may subconsciously choose to park your car closer to your destination to reduce walking, perform fewer household chores, or avoid random movements like pacing while talking on the phone.
- Slowed digestion: During periods of calorie restriction, the body may slow down digestion to absorb as many nutrients and calories as possible. Plus, the thermic effect of food (TEF) decreases, since less food is being consumed.
The Goal of Reverse Dieting
The goal of reverse dieting is to slowly reintroduce more calories to your diet after you complete a low-calorie diet. Reverse dieting is a strategic eating plan that involves gradually increasing your calorie intake over a few weeks or months to allow you to eat more food after a diet while also increasing your metabolism and preventing fat (re)gain. The premise of reverse dieting is slowly bumping up your calorie intake over some time, generally for weeks, to see how your body responds to eating more calories. Reverse dieting can be an approach utilized after time being in a calorie deficit. The idea was that doing it slowly would help them gradually restore their metabolic rates, allowing them to eat more while minimizing fat gain. This allows their metabolism to adjust upward over time. The good news is that studies suggest metabolic adaptation likely isn’t permanent, and your metabolism can gradually increase as your calorie intake increases. In fact, it’s thought that most weight regain after a diet is the result of excessive calorie intake. By gradually increasing your calorie intake in a slow and thoughtful manner, you can support your body in restoring its metabolic rate, manage your hunger levels better, and potentially reduce rapid weight regain. It can also be helpful in other areas, as it's also a way to determine how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight and to provide for its functions and needs: "maintenance calories." It's like gently nudging your body back to balance and getting a clearer picture of what keeps it chugging along nicely.
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How to Execute a Reverse Diet
Reverse dieting typically involves increasing calorie intake by 50-150 calories per week above your baseline, which is the number of calories you’re currently consuming to maintain your weight. Reverse diets generally last anywhere from four to eight weeks.
Determining Your Approach
To begin, you’ll first want to decide whether you want to take a conservative or more aggressive approach. A conservative approach will take you longer to reach your calorie goal, but it may help reduce weight regain and digestive discomfort, since you’re giving your body more time to adapt. You may increase your calorie intake by around 5% each week. A more aggressive approach may be more suitable for those who want to return to a highly active lifestyle and restore their energy levels quickly. You might increase caloric intake by around 15% right away and then increase further by 5% each week for the remaining time. If you’re less concerned about a bit of weight regain, then you may wish to increase your calories more rapidly (e.g., 15-20% increase from starting).
Example of a Reverse Diet Plan
For example, let’s say you’re currently eating an extremely restrictive 1,200-calorie diet and want to increase your intake to 2,000 calories over 12 weeks. This is what your reverse diet may look like:
| Week | Conservative | Moderately Aggressive |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1,200 calories | 1,200 calories |
| 1 | 1,200 + 60 calories (5% of 1,200) = 1,260 calories | 1,200 + 180 (15% of 1,200) = 1,380 calories |
| 2 | 1,260 + 60 calories = 1,320 calories | 1,380 calories + 70 calories (5% of 1,380) = 1,450 calories |
| 3 | 1,320 + 60 = 1,380 calories | 1,450 + 70 = 1,520 calories |
| 4 | 1,380 + 60 = 1,440 calories | 1,520 + 70 = 1,590 calories |
| 5 | 1,440 + 60 = 1,500 calories | 1,590 + 70 = 1,660 calories |
| 6 | 1,500 + 60 = 1,560 calories | 1,660 + 70 = 1,730 calories |
| 7 | 1,560 + 60 = 1,620 calories | 1,730 + 70 = 1,800 calories |
| 8 | 1,620 + 60 = 1,680 calories | 1,800 + 70 = 1,870 calories |
| 9 | 1,680 + 60 = 1,740 calories | 1,870 + 70 = 1,940 calories |
| 10 | 1,740 + 60 = 1,800 calories | 1,940 + 70 = 2,010 calories (roughly 2,000) |
| 11 | 1,800 + 60 = 1,860 calories | 2,000 calories |
| 12 | 1,860 + 60 = 1,920 calories | 2,000 calories |
| 13 | 1920 + 60-80 = 1,980-2,000 calories | 2,000 calories |
Your reverse diet will look different depending on your starting calories, your desired approach, and your goal calorie intake.
Macronutrient Considerations
Because protein needs are typically calculated for body weight rather than calorie consumption, your protein intake can remain the same throughout the diet. As for carbohydrates and fats, the balance between the two isn’t so important. A higher protein diet seems to maximize muscle protein synthesis and minimize protein breakdown, which should lead to more muscle gain. In the chart, you’ll probably notice that each calorie bump comes from either carbs or fats.
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Monitoring Progress
To determine whether a reverse diet is doing what you want it to do, track key metrics along the way. Weigh yourself daily or weekly. Some people may find they’re able to up their intake every week without gaining much fat. Your goal-what you hope to achieve by reverse dieting-determines how many calories you add each time you increase your intake. And how often you do add calories will depend on the metrics you track.
Potential Benefits of Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting is claimed to reduce the risk of binge eating, a common issue among bodybuilders and those on highly restrictive diets. Theoretically, it works by easing your transition back to a normal diet.
Allows You to Eat More
One of the main reasons that people start reverse dieting is because it allows them to eat more food throughout the day. This is especially enjoyable for those who have been dieting for weeks or months at a time because it allows for a wider range of healthy meals. Gradually increasing your calorie intake can help you maintain the healthy habits you've developed during your calorie deficit phase. Plus, it enables you to avoid abandoning all those mindfulness habits and routines around food just because your deficit period is over. And in the end, it will result in slightly larger meals and more flexibility.
Increased Energy Levels
Overly restrictive diets are often accompanied by symptoms like mood disturbances, difficulty concentrating, and decreased energy levels. Because reverse dieting focuses on slowly increasing your calorie intake, it could resolve several downsides related to restricted dieting. Strict dieting often leads to low energy levels due to low-calorie intake. Slowly reintroducing calories into your diet allows you to increase your energy. That extra energy boosts your mood and helps you concentrate.
Reduced Hunger
Cutting calories can alter the levels of several hormones that influence hunger and appetite. Slowly increasing calorie intake may balance levels of these hormones and reduce hunger levels. By eating at maintenance, we can maintain our progress and provide our bodies with adequate energy.
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Potential Drawbacks of Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting may have several drawbacks.
Difficulty in Execution
Although many tools can estimate your prime calorie range, it can be very difficult to calculate precise needs. It can be even more challenging to increase your intake by small increments of 50-150 calories each week, as reverse dieting recommends. Measuring your portions incorrectly or even adding an extra snack to your diet may end up hindering your progress while reverse dieting. What’s more, this plan can be time-consuming, as it requires you to meticulously track your daily calorie intake.
There’s no way to be 100 percent sure of your calorie intake outside of a lab. That’s because reverse dieting requires very small changes in calorie intake over time. Often as few as 50 to 100 calories a day. It’s basically impossible to hit those numbers exactly.
Focus on Calories
One issue with reverse dieting is that it focuses solely on calorie intake without taking other factors into consideration. Weight loss is incredibly complex, with many components playing a role. Not only do various nutrients impact metabolism, hunger, and appetite differently, but factors like sleep, stress, and hormone fluctuations also affect body weight and need to be taken into consideration.
Lack of Research
All in all, very little research supports reverse dieting. As case reports and anecdotal evidence are all that exists, it’s unclear if reverse dieting works - or whether it’s effective for the general population or just specific groups, such as bodybuilders or competitive athletes. Therefore, until further research is conducted, reverse dieting cannot be considered an effective tool for weight management. Reverse dieting is only grounded in anecdotal evidence, and no research focuses specifically on reverse dieting.
Who Might Benefit from Reverse Dieting?
While a reverse diet isn't a miracle solution, it can be a valuable tool for troubleshooting as you work towards your goals, particularly if you've been focused on weight loss for an extended period. Here are some signs you may benefit from reverse dieting:
- If you've reached a plateau or are finding it difficult to continue losing weight despite being in a calorie deficit.
- If you're experiencing fatigue, decreased energy levels, or difficulty concentrating.
- If you're looking to transition to a more feasible and sustainable eating pattern while still maintaining weight.
- If you've been eating in a calorie deficit for an extended time, especially if it's been a substantial calorie deficit.
- If your medical provider has indicated there may be issues with your hormones, thyroid, or inconsistent or loss of period.
- If you're noticing a loss of muscle/strength because your body is breaking down muscle to use for energy, as opposed to fat.
- If you're noticing an obsession with food, feeling deprived or guilty based on your food choices.
- If you want to shift the focus from fat loss to building muscle, athletic performance, or increased energy.
- If you're experiencing persistent and consistent fatigue, struggling with workout recovery or increased consistent soreness and joint achiness, and noticing a decrease in daily movement.
- If you are noticing big mood swings or are having a more difficult time being patient or managing emotions.
- If your sex drive or frequency in initiating sex has decreased.
Tips for a Successful Reverse Diet
- Be patient: Reverse dieting is a slow process, and it takes time for your body to adjust to eating more calories.
- Be consistent: Stick to your calorie goals as closely as possible, and don't get discouraged if you have a few setbacks along the way.
- Listen to your body: Pay attention to how you feel, and adjust your calorie intake accordingly.
- Focus on whole, unprocessed foods: These foods will help you feel full and satisfied, and they're also packed with nutrients.
- Get enough protein: Protein helps you build and maintain muscle mass, which is important for boosting your metabolism.
- Don't be afraid to experiment: There's no one-size-fits-all approach to reverse dieting, so don't be afraid to experiment to find what works best for you.
Alternative Approaches to Weight Management
If you can avoid dieting in the first place, you’re setting yourself up for more success over time. Instead, it’s ideal to focus on adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors that you can successfully and happily do long-term, such as:
- limiting sugary beverages and drinking mostly water or other low calorie drinks (e.g., tea, coffee)
- eating more vegetables and fruit
- eating more fiber, protein, and healthy fats
- limiting eating out and/or processed foods
- engaging in physical activity daily
- incorporating strength training into your workout routine
- getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night
- managing stress and finding positive coping mechanisms (e.g., meditation, therapy, journaling)