When we’re talking about losing weight, eating less and training more is the mantra by which many people lead their lives. Truth be told, it can do wonders, but it definitely works forever. That’s why during our coaching programs we try to keep cardio for times where cutting calories becomes too hard. This way we can use it in our favor and provide a little more flexibility to our clients’ caloric intake. But, when you cut any further, you have to turn the process around! That’s where reverse dieting comes in!

What is reverse dieting?

Just as the name says, it’s a diet process that will revert the metabolism after a restriction period. To lose weight, it’s known that the whole process has to do with an energetic balance of the calories that we ingest and burn throughout the day. So, when our body is in a caloric deficit, it tends to, after a while, lower it’s metabolism since it has less energy available.

Many people, after they do a cutting phase, they restart a bulk. Consequently, they gain fat, because they go in a very abrupt way from a caloric deficit into a caloric overload. If, during a bulk they gain more than 5% fat, then something is wrong.

Reverse dieting will benefit you very much in this phase, since with gradual increases in your caloric intake, you will allow your metabolism to better adapt, managing the energy it has available in a more efficient way, not accumulating as much excess fat.

Normally these increments vary between 80-100kcal per week.

Key points to reverse dieting:

1. Calculating calories and macros in an initial phase;
2. Define caloric increments while bearing caloric and macro nutrient goals in mind;
3. Monitor your weight throughout the weeks to control your weight increase.

Advantages of reverse dieting:

• It allows you to progressively eat more, easing your mind out of a caloric deficit;
• It’ll give you more energy, since the caloric intake will increase, giving you better workouts and more strength;
• It will allow you to prolong your cutting phase and maintain good physical condition long term.

Just like we have said on other occasions, we include the best strategies for your success and especially, use them in the most intelligent way. This way we can grant better results with less effort.