You Don't Need to Reverse Diet. Here's Why.

We all know how this feels. The struggle to not only lose weight, but also to keep it off. Both scenarios can be tough. But, according to the trustworthy world of the internet, there’s one popular strategy that makes both much easier. It’s called “reverse dieting. ” But, does it actually work? Well, let’s dig in a bit more and find out. When I first heard about reverse dieting, I had the same thought as everyone else. But believe or not, it actually has nothing to do with UNO. In the most basic sense, reverse dieting is a gradual and controlled increase of calorie intake after weight loss. For instance, if you were eating 2,000 calories at the end of your diet, instead of quickly bumping up your calories right after, you start with a small one to two hundred calorie increase, and then add another hundred or so every week. 2,200, 2,300, and so on. At the same time, you’re paying super close attention to your weight. When you stop losing or even add a bit of weight, you now established your new maintenance calories. What you do next is up to you. But, what’s exactly the point of all this? Well, by “reversing” your calories this way, you’re also supposedly reversing potential physiological “damages” caused by prolonged calorie deficits. Thing is, long period of deficits and weight loss do tend to lead to fewer and fewer calories burned. And this partially has to do with the scientifically observed effect known as metabolic adaptation. With fewer calories coming in, our metabolism can potentially slow down in order to conserve energy. Additionally, leptin hormone levels decrease, which further impacts metabolism along with mood and sensations related to nutrition satisfaction. In other words, you feel more hangry. We may even see changes in other hormones, like thyroids, testosterone, ghrelin, and cortisol. All of this together, aka metabolic adaptation, can make weight loss or even maintenance pretty tough. But, again, reverse dieting can supposedly “fix” this. What’s interesting is that the mechanisms in play do scientifically check out. Increasing calories have shown to reverse many deficit-induced hormonal changes, especially with leptin. It has shown to elevate resting metabolic rates close to and sometimes even above baseline. In other words, increasing calories might very well “fix” metabolic adaptation. And many in the fitness world, especially in bodybuilding, adamantly attest to this. So does that mean that reverse dieting is indeed this great magical A strategy? Yes. Great? Eh, it depends. M agical? Well, just like asking if kale is delicious, the answer is no. First, let’s immediately point out that there is essentially zero research specifically on reverse dieting. Basically, all the claims of its supposed benefits hinge entirely on those mechanistic data. But the thing is, hormonal changes and metabolic adaptation are pretty natural, intended effects in response to our nutrition. There’s really no “fixing” needed ‘cause nothing’s really broken. But, more importantly, just as things can move in one direction, it can also easily move in the opposite direction. In this case, to reverse metabolic adaptation caused by a deficit, we just have to not be in a deficit. Whether that’s done immediately or gradually, like with reverse dieting, doesn’t seem to matter. We know this thanks to studies on refeed and diet breaks, which are also the studies referenced by supporters claiming reverse dieting works. These studies show that it’s really all about eating above a deficit, which we do during diet breaks. Unfortunately, reverse dieting supporters forgot the part where these studies also suggested that refeeds and diet breaks have no “magical” powers. We can say the same for reverse dieting. In the end, we just need to continue adhering to the foundational concept of energy balance. Now, with all this said, how would I then personally rate reverse dieting, and what does it mean for you? Ultimately, reverse dieting gets 2. 5 out of 5 PicFit points. Again, there’s no metabolic magic happening here. But it does get some extra points for potentially helping in other ways. Reverse dieting can help establish a bit more “control” and planning over your diet, which can help with avoiding overeating after weight loss and give you a sense of direction to reach maintenance. Some also claim that reverse dieting specifically helped improve their mood and hunger levels. It’s all subjective, but these can be extremely useful factors in keeping people invested and consistent with their goals. And that’s pretty huge. Because of that, instead of ignoring it entirely, I think it’s fair to take a more “try-and-see” approach with reverse dieting. Just keep your expectations in check. Or, you can just increase calories at any rate for the same effect. Or, use more proven weight loss strategies, like eating smaller deficits, exercising more, and, of course, getting more protein. Now, if you’re still on the fence, then I definitely recommend reading the reverse dieting article written by the well-respected fitness expert Eric Trexler

that covers this much more. I’ll leave a link below. Finally, I’d love to hear from all of you that tried reverse dieting before. Please lemme know in the comments. Other than that, if you enjoyed this video, then please give it a double reverse thumbs up and share it with your diet-loving friends. Subscribe for more and let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your protein!