What is Reverse Dieting?

Have you ever thought about how restricting calories could be a stimulus for the body? The simple act of dieting causes the body to make adaptations so it can handle fewer calories better. This is partially why we end up losing weight and our appetite changes when we diet.

This is also why when the diet stops, many of us find ourselves back at our original weight. This week we take a look at how calorie restrictive diets are affecting us on a biological level, and how a concept known as reverse dieting could help us avoid ever dieting again.

Why prolonged calorie deficit is bad

Our bodies have an incredible way of keeping us alive. There are systems and processes built into our biology that protect us from dying without us even realizing. The immune system is an obvious example of this. Our fight or flight response is another great example of how the body will do whatever it takes to help us survive.

Dieting, more often than not, refers to the restriction of calories. Restricting our bodies from the one thing that gives us the energy to complete many of these survival functions forces the metabolism to adapt accordingly.

If we feed it less energy, the metabolism slows down – make it work less because we are consuming less. This is all well and good when we are following the diet.

Ever heard of The Biggest Loser? This famous show took obese individuals, brought them to The Biggest Loser Ranch, and put them through a 30-week weight loss program with regular, televised weigh-ins, nutrition challenges, and incredibly difficult workouts. The finale was always really impressive, juxtaposing the contestants current bodies against an old, much larger pair of pants.

Retrieved from the New York Times Article: “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight”

After the show was over and the coaches were gone and the contestants were brought back to their normal lives, they would gain most, if not all, of the weight back. A team of researchers recently looked into The Biggest Loser and its season 8 contestants and discovered a few possible explanations for this.

What they found was that the resting metabolic rate (the calories required to sit on a couch and stay alive) of the contestants slowed way down at the 30th week of the program on the show. This makes sense as they usually restricted their calories to about 1200 kcals per day.

After 6 years the contestant’s resting metabolic rate did climb, but not to the rate it was prior to the show. So although many of them returned to their previous weight, they now were burning fewer calories throughout the day.

Researchers also found that the leptin levels, a hormone that signals satiety and is linked to fat mass, did return to “normal” levels after the show. Although the leptin returned, the participant’s likely, and potentially unconsciously, returned to old eating habits. Although their leptin levels rose in unison with their fat mass, their resting metabolic rate was still less than before. This could be one of the explanations for their weight gain.

How does this apply to those of us who are not on The Biggest Loser? We need to understand how calorie restrictive diets change our bodies on the inside. Knowing that our metabolisms are slowing down as a form of adaptation is key here. Does all of this mean that we are doomed to a lifetime of dieting and regaining the weight back?

Not necessarily.

How to reverse diet

The key here is that our metabolism adapts. If we can manipulate our bodies ability to adapt, then we may be able to protect ourselves from post-diet weight gain.

In the physique and bodybuilding community they know calorie restriction all too well. In order to get stage-ready many of them restrict their calories extensively to get as lean and cut as possible. After competition many of these athletes experience a post-competition weight gain.

In order to control the weight gain and retrain their metabolism some of them have taken on a refeeding regime known as reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is the systematic reintroduction of calories into the diet to repair the metabolism and encourage metabolic adaptation that will lead to a more sustainable daily caloric intake.

Emphasis on the word ‘systematic’. Reverse dieting can be more tedious than prep dieting.

First you need to know how many calories you are eating, on average, per day. Tracking these meticulously over about 1-2 weeks is necessary prior to starting reverse dieting. Once you know how much you are consuming per day, then you need to get comfortable weighing yourself regularly. (Check out this blog for fitness tracking app options)

Every week or so you will reintroduce 100-200 calories per day. Weighing yourself regularly is essential here because you want to watch as your weight goes up, and then stabilizes again. Once your weight stabilizes, then you can introduce another 100-200 calories.

Minor weight gain will occur throughout this process so it is important to choose an amount that you are comfortable with gaining before you start this whole process. After all, gaining a small amount of weight is much better than either continuing to live in a calorie deficit, or gaining weight in an uncontrolled manner.

This slow incorporation of calories over time gives your metabolism time to adapt and realize that you are no longer in starvation mode. It will slowly but surely increase to a point where you can be eating closer to 2000 calories a day and are still lean.

Who it benefits

Reverse dieting is a meticulous process. It requires prudent food tracking, frequent weigh-ins where you may see the number on the scale rise, and above all else – patience.

We live in a world where we can have so many things immediately. You’ll have to fight that mentality through this. Reverse dieting will be especially challenge for those of us who associate the number on the scale going up as a bad thing. In this situation seeing it rise and fall is a healthy part of the process. It may be difficult at first, but over time you will establish a new and healthier approach to the number on the scale.

This is why reverse dieting is best used for individuals who are ready and open to see a little bit of weight gain for a major metabolic and lifestyle benefit.

Reverse dieting is also best suited for individuals coming off of competitions, people who have been in a calorie deficit for many years (through diets, or simply not eating enough), and for those who are at a healthy weight, but feel they are strapped for calories.