Diet trends are popularized in part because they’re eye-catching. Eat no meat! Eat all the meat! Eat all the meat between 2 and 4 PM and nothing after that!
Reverse dieting became popular — especially with weightlifters — because it offers the opportunity to eat more while, theoretically, tricking your body into losing weight.
“There are a bunch of claims associated with reverse dieting, like its ability to increase energy levels, balance hormones, and reduce hunger,” explains Denis Faye, M.S. “But most people get stuck on increased metabolism because who doesn’t want to be able to eat more?”
We’ll clear up the science behind reverse dieting, discuss whether it’s right for you, and give you some ways to incorporate it into your lifestyle, should you choose to.
What Is Reverse Dieting?
Reverse dieting is a plan of structured eating in which you slowly increase your daily caloric intake to coax your body into burning more calories than it did before, effectively allowing you to eat more while losing weight.
“The theory is that you adapt your metabolism to eat more food by incrementally increasing your calories in a progressive, controlled fashion,” says Faye.
Reverse dieting is particularly desirable since most traditional diets are based on consuming fewer calories than you use to force your body to burn through its stores of fat.
Does Reverse Dieting Actually Work?
Eat more, weigh less — sounds a little too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, it might be.
Although there is lots of anecdotal evidence that reverse dieting can be effective, particularly for people coming off long periods of extended traditional dieting, there is little hard scientific proof in favor of reverse dieting as a means of weight loss.
As a 2014 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition concludes, “More research is needed to verify the efficacy of…reverse dieting in supporting prolonged weight reduction.”
That said, there may be times when you’re not increasing your metabolism by reverse dieting but rather helping it safely return to its ideal level (a.k.a. your body’s set point).
“When you under-eat chronically, your body adapts in a number of ways,” says Faye, “including shifting hormones around, causing cells to generate energy more efficiently, and subconsciously conserving energy by avoiding unnecessary movement.”
In other words, when your diet requires you to drastically cut calories, your body goes into a kind of “survival mode,” limiting itself only to necessary functions so you actually burn fewer calories. “Because you’re maintaining weight at what was once a weight-reducing caloric deficit, it’s easy to mistakenly assume this is your ‘normal,’” he adds.
How to Start Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting is particularly popular for weightlifters and people who are coming off long-term, low-calorie diets. It offers an effective alternative to the rapid weight gain that generally comes from overeating, which often happens when people transition off these plans. So, how do you start?
1. Determine your current caloric intake
If you’re not already on a dietary plan, spend a few days counting how many calories you’re consuming. This will give you a baseline rate to work from going forward.
2. Gradually increase your daily calories
The key to reverse dieting is a controlled increase in what you eat. Celebrating your month-long carb fast by returning to your daily extra-large pizza and 32-ounce soda habit is a sure way to gain fat and erase the gains you’ve already made.
A paper published in the Current Research in Diabetes and Obesity Journal suggests increasing your calorie intake by two to three percent per week until you stop seeing weight loss.
3. Don’t worry if you see an initial weight gain
“When you first start something like this,” explains Faye, “it’s perfectly normal for the scale to bump up a little. It’s highly unlikely that this is fat. Since you’ll be eating a few more carbs, this might result in an increase in glycogen in your muscles — and that can mean a little water-weight gain.”
Reverse Dieting Benefits
So, you understand the basics of reverse dieting, and how to get started, but what are the possible results of reverse dieting?
1. Allows you to eat more
This one’s pretty obvious. Who doesn’t want to eat a few more french fries at lunch, or an extra portion at dinner, especially if it’s not supposed to impact your weight?
2. Helps avoid ‘yo-yo’ dieting
Prolonged periods of dieting are often followed by rapid weight gain as we over-indulge in treats we’ve avoided, and our bodies struggle to compensate.
A structured plan of increased caloric intake can help avoid that pitfall.
3. Eases the transition from a low-cal diet
Reverse dieting is probably best viewed as an effective way to transition off of a low-calorie diet.
“Reverse dieting can be a perfectly healthy way to ease out of prolonged under-eating,” says Faye, while stressing to “make sure the advice you follow doesn’t smack of binge eating. Any plan that features methodically increasing calories in 100 to 300 increments until you find homeostasis is fine.”
In summary, reverse dieting may work for you, and if it doesn’t, you might be better off adopting more traditional dieting methods. Whatever you do, make sure you’re eating healthy.