Reverse Dieting.

You've heard the term but what does it mean? (And if you haven't heard the term then prepare for a whole heap of knowledge!) First let's start with a general meaning.

Reverse dieting = dieting in reverse. Instead of decreasing the amount you are eating over time you do the opposite - increase the amount you are eating over time. Now let's pick that apart.

So you've dieted. You have been successful, lost the weight you wanted and are looking amazing after reaching your goals. But what now? You've reduced your calories, your body has got used to eating this amount and won't lose much more weight from here out.

So what's the next move?

After a long period of strict dieting the next move for most people is to do the opposite. Instead of lowering calories to lose weight, they build their calories up in order to gain muscle. This means that instead of being in a deficit (aka eating less calories than their body is burning) they are in a surplus of calories (aka eating MORE calories than their body burns.) This means there is an excess of calories so the excess food fuel can be used to build muscle and ensure protein synthesis and glycogen replenishment occurs to full capacity, therefore maximising muscle growth.

So, how do you even start this?

The most common way to do this is by slowly increasing calories by anywhere from 20-100 calories per week. (This amount will differ depending on each persons goals and metabolism.) The aim of doing this by such a small amount is to minimise the amount of fat gained, and in the process optimise the amount of muscle gained. This is why the process is slow and requires a person to weigh them self each week. Typically calories will increase if the persons weight is stable or increases by less than 250g. As weight is stable or only slightly increased, calories will continue to increase until the person is no longer in a caloric deficit.

Now this will differ of course with each person. Some people have high metabolisms and will be able to increase calories by a lot each week while others bodies may take a bit longer to catch up and therefore have a smaller increase each week. Remember, there is no right or wrong way for this to occur. Everyone must go at their own pace and do what is right for their body and their goals. Similarly some people may reach maintenance calories at 1800 while others will be over 2000. Nothing is right or wrong! Remember that height, weight, gender, activity and metabolism all play a role. Now for the more important details.

How do you do this with the numbers?

Let's use these as an example, and say someone ended their diet on 1300 calories

with 300 calories from fat = 33g of fat

480 calories from carbs = 120g of carbs

520 calories from protein = 130g of protein

This is a total of 1300 calories. Now they want to increase this - so what's the first step? Firstly, protein does not need to change. It should be between 0.7-1.3 x your body weight in pounds. So, as long as it is within this amount there is no need to change this. Therefore we focus on carbs and fats. Now let's remember that carbs have 4 calories per gram and fats have 9 calories per gram. What that means is that fats are more caloric dense, and if you want to increase your calories by, for example, 50 calories your first week of reversing, this will look different depending on whether you choose to increase fats or carbs. 50 calories = 5.5g of fat OR 50 calories = 12.5g of carbs. So say this person chooses to increase their carbs the first week, they will now be consuming

130g protein

33g fats

113g carbs

1350 calories in total.

They will eat this amount instead, with the extra 50 calories each day, then weigh themselves at the end of the first week. If their weight is maintained or increases minimally, calories will increase again the next week. If this time they choose to increase calories by 50 and out this towards fats, their total for the next week would be

130g protein

39g fat

113g carbs

1400 calories.

Now it is not definite and very unlikely that you will be able to increase calories each week. Some weeks the increase may be 70 calories, some weeks 10 and some weeks none. Sometimes weight may increase more than you would like and you may have to stick with your increased calories for 1-3 weeks before your body gets used to the extra food and your weight stabilises. Either way that is the process. Slowly increasing your caloric intake, keeping check on your weight and doing so until you notice you have gained enough muscle or are ready to cut again. It is a general belief that to do this slowly enough to restore metabolism and build muscle you should spend double the amount of time reversing as you did dieting. So if you spent 12 weeks dieting you should spend at least 24 weeks reversing to ensure metabolism has the best chance of building. The important thing is to be honest with yourself and your coach if you have one. Make use of your calorie tracking apps to help you out and enjoy the process of eating more food!

For more info or coaching enquiries I can always be contacted at spapalaskaris@gmail.com