The holy grail of fitness. The all-time dream everyone seeks after, to be able to gain muscle while simultaneously lose fat along the way. How wonderful that would be huh?
Not so fast, it isn’t as simple as you think and to be frank it doesn’t apply to everyone. Reverse dieting is what I am alluding to. The intention of this article is to:
A. Explain what reverse dieting is
B. Is reverse dieting for everyone?
C. Can you get fat when reverse dieting?
D. How to reverse diet
What is reverse dieting?
In its simplest form, reverse dieting is slowly increasing your calories back to your diet over-time without worrying about adding excess fat to your frame. The concept is still relatively new and lacks evidence-based research as proof of work. Personal experience and anecdotes from others are all we can go with for now. Nevertheless, reverse dieting is effective, and it works.
Reverse dieting isn’t that black and white. If your assumption is to eat whatever you want within calorie range and to expect to gain muscle while losing fat along the way, you’ll be highly disappointed. That’s not how it works.
Is reverse dieting for everyone?
The straight cut throat answer is NO. This is one man’s point of view by the way. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, then reverse dieting doesn’t make sense for you. You’re better off being in a calorie deficit first because it will be difficult to stay motivated when your scale weight and measurements are very slow to come down. However, to those who’s weight has plateaued for a significant period of time or to those who are already relatively lean, but are scared to over-eat because they fear gaining fat along the way, then reverse dieting maybe ideal.
To the weight plateaurs:
- I am well aware that word is not in the dictionary… doesn’t matter… my article… my word choice.
- If you are already relatively lean and have decreased caloric intake even more while simultaneously increasing your activity level for the sole purpose of getting even leaner, then I need you STOP right now. Keep reading, you’ll understand why in a moment.
On the surface it makes complete sense to lower caloric intake and increase activity levels and expect the scale weight to continually go down. However, our body’s response to that is completely different. You may not like it, but this is what happens:
A. Our body elicits a response called adaptive thermogenesis also known as metabolic adaptation, which causes our metabolism to slow down to prevent our body from going into “starvation mode,” as a by-product of that, as less calories (energy) come in, our body’s metabolism starts adapting to that by efficiently preventing us from expending too much energy.
B. If you recall the law of thermodynamics “calories in – calories out = weight gain/loss.” The breakdown of that is, when we reduce calories too much (calories in) our body equally reduces how much calories we expend (calories out) via neat (non-exercise effect of thermogenesis), basal metabolic rate, thermic effect of activity and thermic effect of food. A reduction in energy expenditure (calories out) is a way of our body to preserve as much energy as possible in order to efficiently use that to keep us alive. What ends up happening is, the body no longer responds to weight loss progress and often not, you begin to actually stall or gain weight in reverse.
A study done Here further exemplifies my overall point.
If you find yourself in such a predicament, I need you to focus on these instead:
- Place yourself in a reasonable calorie deficit
- Slowly add back calories to your diet (reverse dieting)
- Don’t force any additional exercises in your day to day unless you enjoy them
Can you get fat reverse dieting?
NOPE!!!
When reverse dieting, you’re more likely to be still in a calorie deficit as you attempt to slowly add calories back to your diet. Instead of gaining fat, you have the potential of actually gaining muscle instead.
How?
Well, to gain muscle, one must be in a calorie surplus. The intention of slowly adding back calories overtime not only slowly increases your metabolic response rate, but it also ignites muscle gain as your body goes from a deficit to maintenance to lean bulking. It’s a long process that doesn’t happen overnight, but done right, you’re sure to see amazing progress.
A few reads into this article and you find yourself convinced that reverse dieting is for you. You decide to take me up on it and start. A few weeks into the journey and you decide to step on the scale. I mean why not, your curiosity is getting the best of you, even-though you are well aware that progress may not show. You don’t care.
You look down….
You start freaking out…
Your weight has just gone up several pounds. I then get a furious email from you:
Telling me how wrong I was about reverse dieting
Telling me to stop misinforming people
Telling me I should completely stop writing altogether
My initial response to your email is to curse you out. I decide that wouldn’t be the appropriate course of action, so instead, I go out for a brief walk to calm myself down and collect my thoughts together before responding. This is what I write back:
“Hey _____ I can understand why you’re freaking out. Your goal is to gain muscle while losing fat along the way. I can certainly understand why seeing a few pounds increase on the scale can scare you. I assure you this is temporary water weight. Give it a couple of days and your weight should be back to normal. Prior to you starting reverse dieting, you were in a calorie deficit for a long period of time and as a byproduct of that, your carb intake was much lower than it is now. Because you’ve increased carb intake from reverse dieting, your body is currently retaining water. Your increase in weight is not a result of gaining fat, it’s just water weight. If you don’t believe me, we can test this, by checking monthly waist measurements. Waist measurements are a direct correlation to either fat gain or fat loss despite what the scales says.
I hope this helps.
FYI, if you read my article in its entirety you would’ve known that. Nevertheless, have a great day ______.
I held up my part of the bargain by not cursing, however, I couldn’t help myself. I still needed to give you a friendly nudge at the end.
How to reverse diet?
Alright let’s get real and practical, I mean that’s why you’re here right?
Before we can set-up your reverse diet plan, we need to know several things first:
A. How much calories are you currently eating at?
B. How does your macro distribution look like?
C. Do you still want to continue tracking calories?
D. Do you have patience?
How much calories are you currently eating at?
The assumption is that you know how much you’re consuming on a day to day, it’s one the reasons why you were able to lose weight to begin with. Nevertheless, I am sure you still want me to give out a sample, so here it is:
Sally at 5’5 used to weigh 160lbs. her current weight is now 130. She’s beyond happy on her progress and loves her new physique. Sally is now stuck. She reached her goal, but now wants to start eating more, but stay lean.
What to do… what to do?
Sally is currently eating at 1400 calories. We can now slowly increase her caloric intake weekly anywhere between 50 to 100 calories depending what she is comfortable with.
Side note: As we assess her progress through measurements, progress pictures and clothes fitting to give us a better data set. We can change weekly caloric intake depending on whether Sally starts adding too much fat to her frame or not.
Sally’s reverse dieting will look something like this:
Week 1: 1400 cal
Week 2: 1450 cal
Week 3: 1500 cal
Week 4: 1550 cal
You get the point…
If 50 calories are too small of an increase, play around with it and add more if you would like. Find your sweet spot and stick with it.
How does your macro distribution look like?
When reverse dieting it’s still important to know what macro nutrients are consuming a major part of your every-day meal (fats, carbs & protein). Here is how it’s done:
A. Keep your protein intake relatively the same. There is no need to worry about increasing it. Your current protein intake is more than enough to maintain or gain muscle mass.
B. Increase your carb intake. In Why the Scale Weight Isn’t Everything, highlights the storage of carbohydrate in our muscle and liver to be later used as energy. By increasing carbohydrate, you prevent the body from storing it as fat.
C. Keep fats at a minimum. The remaining calories can make up your fat count.
Calorie Tracking
More than not, you will still need to continue tracking your calories as you undergo reverse dieting. You can’t simply just eye ball it. Tracking caloric intake prevents you from going over maintenance. Don’t forget, your goal is to gain muscle while losing fat along the way. You’re not going to do that by not tracking. Period. End of story.
Patience
Alongside calorie tracking, an immense amount of patience is going to be needed to adhere to your goal long-term. As I’ve alluded to earlier in this article, reverse dieting is a long process that wouldn’t happen overnight. Done correctly, you’ll be sure to see amazing progress.
Conclusion
If you’re happy with your current physique, but want to eat more while keeping fat gain at a minimum, then reverse dieting is for you.
If you have a lot of weight to lose at first, you’re better off being in a calorie deficit first. Reverse dieting isn’t right for you at the moment.
If your intention is to eat back within a caloric range to maintain your current weight without overshooting it, then reverse dieting is for you. Expect a range of about 1 to 2 months.
If your intention is to increase metabolic rate and to build muscle along the way, then reverse dieting is for you. Expect a range of about 4 to 9 months.
I hope this helped. Leave a comment down below or DM me at any of my social handles for any other questions that may cross your mind. I’ll be sure to reply.