Episode 89: How Reverse Dieting Really Works

Have you ever felt stuck in a dieting cycle that leaves you tired, frustrated, and always in a calorie deficit? In this episode, Couture Coaches Jo and Leigh Ann break down the concept of reverse dieting, an approach to nutrition that helps you fuel your body, optimize your metabolism, and escape the rollercoaster of restrictive eating.

We’ll cover:

• What reverse dieting is and how it works.
• The benefits of eating more to achieve metabolic health, muscle growth, and long-term fat loss.
• How to ditch the diet mindset, reset your caloric intake, and embrace sustainable nutrition.
• Why reverse dieting is a long-term strategy for building a stronger, healthier body.

This episode is packed with actionable tips for:

• Adjusting your calories gradually and overcoming the fear of eating more.
• Improving your nutrition with whole, nutrient-dense foods.
• Incorporating movement and managing stress to support your reverse dieting journey.

Whether you're looking to improve your energy, balance your hormones, or simply feel better in your own skin, this episode will give you the tools to make it happen.

Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it.

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Transcript

0:43

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the booster metabolism. After age 30 podcast, you've got Joe here today. And today we're going to be tackling a topic that many people find confusing or even scary, and it's the topic of reverse dieting. I'm here with our own coach, Leanne, who has helped so many women reverse diet, and today we're going to explain what a reverse diet is and how it really works. We really wanted to demystify this process. Many people hear about reverse dieting and number 1, they might be terrified to try it because they think it will make them gain weight. If they already think that they are under eating, they often think if I eat more, if I'm under eating and I can't lose weight under eating, if I eat more, there's no way I'm not just going to gain a ton of weight. Or they hear about it and think it's some sort of magical mystical thing that happens that when you eat more, you start losing weight. And that is beyond explanation, but today we're going to break it down, explain how it works, and then give some of our best coaching tips for reverse dieting in the hopes that if you. Recognize yourself in any of the things that we described today, or have a sense that you might need to reverse diet. We will demystify the process for you, and it will hopefully inspire you to try reverse dieting if you need to do that to recalibrate your body. So first, let's talk about what reverse dieting is. It is what it is the intentional gradual increase of. Caloric intake and doing that will help preserve and can even boost your metabolism. So it's the opposite of what we think of when we hear the word diet. Traditionally in our culture, that means cutting calories with the aim of losing weight. Again, reverse dieting is the opposite. You're increasing your caloric intake and the goals of a reverse diet are not immediate weight loss. Now, truth be told, some people do lose weight in a reverse diet. A lot. Most people do lose inches. The scale may not move that much. But that this is not the goal at all. Weight loss. Is not really the goal. The goal is to optimize your nutrition. So at some point, your body can respond successfully to a future calorie deficit to aid in fat loss. Now, if you don't need to lose weight or you don't, your body composition is fine. The purpose of a reverse diet is just to get those calories up to help your body thrive and help you have more energy and feel better. But if you have weight to lose, the goal of a reverse diet is to get your body to a point that it will respond successfully to a future calorie deficit. Another goal of reverse dieting is to maintain or gain muscle while you are, getting your caloric intake increased it also helps in resetting your caloric threshold. That has many benefits again. It will help your body respond to dieting temps better in the future and it also reduces the stress on your body of being in a calorie deficit. And then the ultimate goal is that we we increase your calories. with minimal weight gain and body recomposition along the way, meaning you gain some muscle, maybe even lose some body fat along the way. But again, making the scale go down is not the main goal of a reverse diet. Any comments on any of that Leanne in terms of what people might think a reverse diet is and what the aim of a reverse diet is and what it actually is. So I think when it comes to reverse dieting, it's foreign to so many people that, of course, everyone wants to lose weight. No matter when they jump into any program, but looking into these items and what the actual purposes I think is will help set that person up for success a little bit more mentally preparing themselves. Just, Kind of getting out of that I have to have my results right now and accepting this is what it's going to take. This is going to be the goal that I need to aim towards and this is going to be basically the path I need to take. In order to get where I want to be, so these items that you listed accepting that these are more than more likely the outcomes of the reverse diet and what it will take to help improve my health that's going to be the hardest part, I think, for people to accept going into a reverse, especially since it is, very nuanced for most people. Yeah, I think probably most people hear the word diet and think that the only. Successful result of any sort of dieting process is to lose weight, and that's just not really the aim of a reverse diet. But in terms of results that people get we've worked with, we've helped a lot of women reverse diet, I would say, no one gains as much weight as they think they will. Many people lose weight on a reverse diet. Many people don't lose or gain weight, but definitely lose inches. Their weight stabilizes, but they lose inches. And then I would say most people just feel a whole lot better regardless of what the scale is doing. Let's talk about, I want to talk about like how reverse dieting works when someone is losing weight and what's going on there. Because again, I think, it seems like magical or mystical that this could possibly happen, but there, there are some real scientific explanations as to how this happens. And I think again, another reason why maybe not to be afraid of reverse dieting. Number one reason that you might lose weight on a reverse diet or lose body fat is that when you start out on the reverse diet, you actually end up eating less than you were before. And you don't realize it. So very few people actually know how much they are eating unless they are tracking their food meticulously. And even when you're tracking that can be 20 to 30 percent off. I know and I will put a plug in for this. Now we have this fast food guide that is in our show notes that you can get a link to. So when we were putting that together, I went to three or four different sources to check the different calorie and macro amounts for the difference. Items in that fast food guide and they were all vastly different. Sometimes what I found in my fitness pal was, off by. 100 percent meaning it would say a food item was 500 calories. When I went to the restaurant nutrition information, it was 1000 calories. So things can just be off and you don't realize it. None of us are, calibrated enough to know this is what 1200 calories feels like in my body. So for some people, when they start reverse dieting, they become very intentional about their nutrition. The quality of their nutrition improves, and so they actually end up eating less on a day to day basis when they're quote unquote reverse dieting, which can result in weight loss. I have heard Many men cover the topic of reverse dieting and they always say, Oh, there's no way anyone is actually eating 1200 calories a day. That's not true. They're probably eating more like 2000 calories a day that has not been our experience. But I will say that a lot of people are maybe eating a little bit more, or maybe they're only eating 1200 calories of food, but then drinking 4 or 500 calories of alcohol a day or having little, snacks or handfuls of this or that, that really increase that caloric intake. And so when they, again, start a reverse diet, their actual overall calorie intake goes down a bit. So that's one way. Reverse dieting works and can have, you can have positive results and actually lose weight in a reverse diet. So that should give you hope because you're going to get real intentional about your nutrition when you reverse diet. And so the results may be different than you think that they are. Okay, number 2, the other reason that you might lose weight on a reverse diet is that it gets you off of the calorie roller coaster. This is something we see a lot. A lot of people, a lot of women and I think this is probably promoted to some extent by diet culture, you might. Be very restrictive during the week and so you eat very low calorie some or most day of the days of the week, but you're not eating that low calorie all the time. Let's say, maybe you're eating, you're eating 1200 calories a day, and you work very hard to eat 1200 calories a day Monday through Thursday. And then by the time you roll into the weekend, you're tired. You have some parties to go to. You're going to go out to eat with your husband or your friends and then you jump up to maybe double that. I've seen we've seen calorie fluctuations of sometimes even triple what you're eating during the week. You're going crazy on the weekends. And so when you go into a reverse diet, you're eating more during the week, but we're bringing those calories down during the weekend. And what you're eating consistently day to day might actually be fewer calories overall, which can cause weight loss or minimize weight gain during a reverse diet, even though it feels like you're eating more most days. And yeah, getting off that calorie rollercoaster and getting consistent nutrition can also result in. In weight loss during a reverse diet. Okay, the 3rd way that a reverse diet can work and actually cause you to lose weight is that you are improving your nutrition overall. So not all calories are equal. you are improving your calorie quantity when you reverse diet. We'll get into this a little bit later. The way that you want to reverse diet is you really want to improve your nutrition. So we're not talking about increasing your calories through wine and donuts and Oreos. If you work with a coach or you follow, I would say any basic guidelines about reverse dieting. Most for most people, the quality of their nutrition improves drastically. You're probably going to be eating more protein and more whole foods. I know something we commonly see with people who reverse diet is like terror, terrified of carbs. Maybe we'll have them start eating like some. Oatmeal or carbs that are very high quality carbs like oatmeal, rice, potatoes that were banned before because they're carby and they're terrible for you. But overall but we're replacing things like junk food or processed food with these whole foods. These whole foods, protein all have a much higher thermogenic effect than highly processed food. So that might result in some weight loss or fat burning as well. And again, you may just end up eating fewer calories by cutting out a lot of processed food and or alcohol that might make up more of your calories than you realize and your body doesn't digest as well. And so just improving the quality of that nutrition. I'll just put it this way. If you just, let's say you were eating 1, 500 calories of really not great nutrition, highly processed food, not much protein, lots of alcohol, and then you just moved that to 1, 500 calories. Of really high quality nutrition, lots of protein, lots of whole foods, cut out the alcohol, cut out a lot of the processed food. You would probably see weight loss or at least a change in how your body looks a lot of the bloat. A lot of digestive issues would probably go away. So that can be another reason why you lose weight or just generally feel like you look better after a reverse diet. There's no way around it. High quality nutrition helps your body thrive. And you will probably feel better. And so that's another way that that doing a reverse diet can actually result in weight loss. So that's those are the categories that we just discussed are like. Just talking about the calories and the difference in nutrition between a reverse diet and maybe what you were doing before, we're going to get into some other ways that reverse dieting can actually result in weight loss. But Leanne, what are your thoughts on just changing up that nutrition? What have you seen with clients? I know personally how reverse dieting worked for me. I gained a few pounds, but I lost Some inches. And I know for me, it was just getting me off the calorie roller coaster. And so just, I would restrict during the week and then just throw everything out the window on the weekend because I was sick of restricting and so it just was all equaling itself out. So when I did a reverse diet and just, ate. Enough every day. I know that it really balanced out my nutrition and helped. But so what have you experienced? And what do you think for clients? You see the most in terms of this category of how reverse dieting works. So for myself, I will say that I went from being extremely restrictive and thinking that even fruits were bad to then reopening my eyes to, oh, okay these foods that are out there, these potatoes, the pastas. These are okay to incorporate especially, there, there are those type plans out there. I know I mentioned fruit, but there are some plans out there that some way demonized fruit when there are so many nutrients that are in those foods. So reopening my eyes to instead of complete restriction of, just doing eggs in the morning to, doing eggs with a carb being more intentional about that and then increasing those whole foods and then working in, some goodies like an M and M ice cream sandwich or something, not every day, but still working in those things. It was a matter of, for me learning to get up my calories, still being mindful of where the food is coming from. But really having my body taking advantage of. Those foods that I've been, leaving out or intentionally leaving out because I think it would, help reduce my weight in one point or another actually flip my perspective to, wow, like this is something that is achievable. It's something that is. realistic. And I also in, in some way got off a calorie rollercoaster myself. So I was someone who was very restrictive during the week. And then, yeah, weekends were definitely a free for all. I know I have no idea how many calories I was actually consuming during the weekend, but really I would say a combination between, stop being so restrictive for myself. And matching that with my activity, cause I, my activity was still very high, but my body, I was just running it into the ground and my body was basically running on fumes And yeah, becoming much more consistent with the Calgary rollercoaster. Now I will say that while I became more consistent during the week, intentionally feeling my body, the rollercoaster on the weekend still somewhat continued as a free for all. So that was something that I had learned of, Oh yes. Consistently Monday through Sunday, it's important. And it's not just Monday through Friday. But a lot of times with clients, I tend to see, yeah, getting off a rollercoaster a lot instead of, okay, overate one day. So I need to under eat for the next two days. No, you don't need to do that. It's a matter of, getting back to your plan and if you overeat one day, then okay. But realizing that it does take 3, 500 calories to gain one pound. Yes, every once in a while, it happens, but. I think 1 of the biggest things in a reverse. Is that consistency piece and increasing, but then also taking a step back and realizing. Okay. Maybe my weekends are something that is causing this increase. Because if we're consistently driving our calories up on the weekend and not staying consistent that's a habit. That's a habit that then leads to a surplus over time. So yes, that can lead to increase there. But oftentimes though the improved quality, I'd say is the biggest piece that people are like, Oh my gosh, I can eat tortillas. I can eat potatoes and I feel full and I actually have energy. I think That is one of the most rewarding pieces that I get to hear about as a coach is people releasing the guilt of these foods, not going, out of control with these foods, but releasing any kind of bad relationship with food. And The process of improving their quality of food along the way certainly helps with that. Yeah, I think I agree. I think that the improvement in nutrition quality is where I see the biggest change for clients. Again, maybe the scale isn't doing anything, but their waste is coming in an inch, every few weeks and they just are like, what's going on? I can't believe I was like you're not living on protein bars anymore, or you're actually eating, real food. And that changes a lot of things in terms of like skin hair, just all around. So that is my favorite part of helping someone through a reverse diet is just seeing the quality of their nutrition improve so drastically. And then the other benefits that brings along. So let's talk next about the other kind of way that reverse dieting works. So let's say that you are someone who truly was just eating 12 to 1300 calories day in and day out. And, again, I think that you are not probably going to experience weight gain in that situation unless you're going overboard on the weekends or a few times a month that can definitely happen. But for the most part, you are eating low calorie. day in and day out. And so what we see when people reverse diet is that the reverse dieting by like bringing up that nutrition is they have increased activity levels even without knowing it. So we know that when people restrict calories, their neat or non exercise activity thermogenesis goes down. So that's, you won't even realize that you fidget less. You move less, you blink slower. That we know that is for sure that non intentional movement decreases when your calories go down. And so when you bring your calories up, there's just more energy for your body to engage in that and you don't even realize that's happening. So that's non-intentional increase in activity. And that doesn't probably account for a lot of calories every day, but I do think it matters for sure. But the other thing that we notice when when you improve your nutrition is that, clients actually have the energy to work out, to go to the gym, to actually perform more intense workouts. I don't mean 3 hours of cardio. Like when they get in the gym and lift, they actually have energy to push that weight around. So they're able to lift heavier. They may have more energy for, some shorter bursts of cardio. They have energy to get their 10, 000 steps in a day. And then the other big piece of this is with the more with the better nutrition is that they are actually able to recover from those workouts. And I was this person before when like my periods of, I don't even know that I'm going to call it under eating, just like shitty nutrition, pardon my French, in the name of being low carb or following this or that diet protocol is that. I do that I go in hit it hard in the gym and then I inevitably like I would strain something a hamstring my shoulder and then I would be in pain and I would not recover from that injury because I wasn't giving my body what it needed to recover. And then it would sideline me. So it was this constant cycle of hitting it hard. We're going to the gym hurting myself, then being taken out for, I don't know, a few days to a week. And so there just was not consistent energy expenditure in the gym that really was leading to anything. So that's another way that just, eating more, you can actually end up burning more calories because you have more energy. Do you feel like moving more? And so that is 1 way. Also, that reverse dieting works. We see, even if you perceive that, if you're a low calorie person, you're like, oh, no, I work out all the time. I would guess that if we were to watch you, maybe the quality of those workouts would not be what you think that they are. Even if you're consistent with working out. I do think the quality of workouts takes a hit when you are chronically low calories. Just. Yeah, so we see that but then the other thing we see is the person who's the under eater non mover. So they don't eat much, but they also don't move much. And that is a horrible recipe for gaining fat, losing muscle. And so once we get that person eating more and getting in the gym and moving more and getting more steps in every day and lifting weights, their bodies change. Very quickly even though they are eating more they're compensating for it by moving more. So the other thing that eating more or getting your nutrition up helps you worth is that you actually get to read the benefit of your workouts. So you can go to the gym and work very hard and do lots of things. of lifting, but if you are not giving your body the nutrition to do something with those workouts, like nothing really happens. So when you are giving your body good quality nutrition, you can build muscle in the gym. And again, your body will recover from those workouts. And that's actually when you gain the muscle fiber is during that recovery period. And so you actually get to reap the benefits of your workout and recomp your body when you are giving your body the appropriate nutrition to support that activity level. And that extra muscle is going to increase your metabolism. You're going to get stronger. So that's another way that reverse dieting works and can actually help you. I'm going to say in this category, recomp your body, meaning gain muscle and lose body fat. And then the final way that eating more food can actually result in weight loss or fat loss is just overall stress reduction on your body. And that I don't, I haven't seen like any scientific studies on this. I can't tell you exactly what hormones are impacted. I imagine cortisol and some of the other stress hormones, but when you are. Not giving your body enough nutrition. It's very stressful on your body. Even if you don't recognize it as stress but so I've just seen this time and time again, we bring someone's calories up and I think it just reduces the overall stress on their body of under eating. And so they're sleeping better, they're recovering better, and their body is just willing to let go of fat, body fat when that stress is reduced. The other thing that's happens, like, when you reduce that stress of under eating is your body stops down regulating all the time and really starts functioning optimally. And like I said, usually people report sleeping better, having more energy, having better digestion, just everything works better in their body when they are getting good. Quality, adequate nutrition. So in these last categories, Leanne, anything that you've noticed with clients. Who have chosen to reverse diet. Yeah. Energy is definitely 1 of the biggest things. I would say a lot of people also benefit from feeling good in the gym and being like, wow, I'm feeling good. I actually feel so much better. And then actually when they get into a cut, they're like, what happened to my food? But but yeah, when it comes to the client's experience with this sleep is one of the biggest things that when people get to the point where their stress is reduced enough, where they're not running on fumes anymore they can cut out caffeine later on in the day because they don't need it anymore because they have had. A good night's sleep. A lot of good domino effects happen. They see a great improvement in their quality of life. Just simple things like that reduction of caffeine in the afternoon that I need to cut myself after 2 PM or else I can't sleep or that they really need it, then they have it. Then it leads to more. More energy deficits, which then the next day would lead to try to go up on this up and down Calvary roller coaster of high carbs, low carb, so I really do feel like the balancing out of energy levels helps people make those more conscious decisions. In the reverse into maintenance and in. Then when people do see those body recomposition increasing their muscle, decreasing their fat those are some of the biggest things with the reverse that, that are great benefits that I see clients go through. For sure yeah, and I think also if you're not skipping breakfast in the name of fasting and, you've got good nutrition rolling into the afternoon, you probably aren't going to need that. You're not going to rely on caffeine and get into this vicious, chasing energy cycle. We hear that a lot from clients. They just feel so much better. They don't need their afternoon nap anymore. 1 client said I don't get sleepy cat syndrome in the afternoon anymore. And that's all just from fueling your body properly. Okay, so that's the, that's our bet on demystifying how a reverse diet works. Okay, Leanne, do you want to talk from a coaching perspective as to tips for success in a reverse diet? Your best advice for someone that's going to embark on a reverse diet? Sure. First and foremost Absolutely look at reverse dieting as a long-term strategy. We put clients in a reverse for as long as it takes to be able to get up to that healthy range of 1800 to 2000 calories. This is not a, alright, I'm gonna eat for high calories for two days or two weeks and my body's fixed. It doesn't work like that. Setting up and accepting that reverse dieting is going to be a long term strategy in your health. I'm not talking about, sitting in something for two years. You can do anything for three months or more if someone's had, extreme dieting history, then it will take a little bit longer and your body deserves that your body deserves that time to really repair its metabolism. Accepting this timeline, that's going to be required. And, focusing on other things and then really getting in sync with your body with some of those benefits we mentioned, like the decreased stress better energy, those kind of things. Is going to be very advantageous. I would definitely avoid the day to day stressing over the scale fluctuations. The scale is a cheap data point. It's a great cheap data point, but also it's gonna be advantageous to not Really focus on that scale number while you're in a reverse. It's, as long as you follow a plan and gradually increase your calories, you're going to be fine. But avoiding stressing over those day to day scale fluctuations is going to be key for mostly your mindset because mindset is the biggest piece of this that can. Very easily second guess every moment of your life while you're in a reverse. Avoid stressing over those daily biometrics. And then I would We live in like a amazon prime period where everything happens in two days So if it's possible then ignore the period of time that you Usually are the period of my the period of time that you have in your mind for measuring success. Because this is gonna be different for everyone. But trusting your coaches and the time that it takes and trusting your process and the journey is going to be key. So the next thing I would, I'll just say that's also is the things that you usually say are measure success by. So that again, the scale going down maybe fitting into the pair of jeans, that's 2 sizes smaller, those typical things that you might measure success by throw those out the window, you can measure success by different things. I would measure success by, am I feeling better? Am I sleeping better? How are my energy levels? Am I eating enough protein day to day? Those are things that you can call wins. And don't worry for a period of time whether that's what that's translating to on the scale. Similar to what you said about just ignore. The day to day scale fluctuations for a while, but also like ignore, I've seen so many women do this. They'll be like I'm feeling better. I'm sleeping better, but scales the same. So this is all for not. And that is just not true how you feel how you, how much better your nutrition improve is improving is so much more important than the scale. And you absolutely should count those as wins along the way. Those are really good points, Joe. All right, so next I'm going to talk a little bit about tips around focusing your quality of calories. When it comes to the quality of your calories, definitely increase your calories with nutrient dense foods. So going back to those empty calories per se worker, if you're eating a bunch of, Process foods. Maybe prepackaged foods. Maybe if you can visualize that better switching those out with those more whole foods. Prioritize your proteins with those whole foods as well. Whole foods, meaning like the potatoes, the tortillas, the rice is for proteins. If you need to increase your proteins whole foods is always going to be the best way to go. Whether that be the tofu, the chicken. The steak. Those are always going to provide more nutrients for your body. Then maybe some of the prepackaged, foods that are going to be more supplemental. I would also avoid getting excess calories from that, from those from like wine or food that you don't prepare yourself. So oftentimes fast food are going out. They tend to add a lot more calories just because. It tastes good. A lot of the oils, the cooking oils, especially and whatever preservatives that they have in there. Of course, eating out can be fun. I know we do it once a week just because it's a fun break for myself because I love cooking, but it's also fun to take a break. I would try to reduce the amount of fast food or that processed food through fast food during the week. And still focus on getting more of those Whole sources of foods at home, and a lot of this is developing those habits or developing skills. So if you're not a big cooker, there's still some other companies out there that are becoming pretty big that they're still going to provide whole foods for you. And then you don't have to do all the meal prep and stuff. So even investing in something like that tech can help you focus on those high quality foods like sun basket. I know it was 1 of them. Joe, do you know of any other good? I don't I used to subscribe like blue apron years ago. And I think there are more options now that are in the maybe they, They tell you what the macros are, or they're like higher protein, reasonable fat, reasonable carbs. But, yeah, there, there are certainly a lot of options out there. Yeah, definitely are that are good. Yeah. And it's not going to be all processed right off the bat. So it can somewhat be prepared for you without. Wasting the extra calories on eating out all the time. Yeah. For sure. If you reverse diet just by Oh, great. I can add a bunch of Oreos and wine and I'm going to add calories through highly processed kind of low value nutrition. You are not going to like the results of your reverse diet. It's not really just about eating more calories that come from anywhere. You want to be pretty judicious and where you're getting your extra calories from absolutely stuff like the full fat cheeses, even cottage cheese, potatoes rice, regular tortillas rather than carb balanced tortillas. Those are great for if you're in a fat loss phase because of all the dietary fiber and stuff that's in there. But really focusing on increasing that quality there. I would say also while you're focusing on the calorie quality, this is a great time in your reverse. If you're like I have no idea what a carb, what a protein, what a fat is. Then this is a perfect time for you to learn what comes from where and intentionally being able to feel your body and rediscover your relationship with a lot of foods that for whatever reason have been deemed as bad. So during this calorie quality uplifting, or say, or improvement. Great opportunity to become more situationally aware of what macronutrients come from. Where any other thoughts on that? Joe? No, I think those are all really good points. When, take this as a time to reset and just really learn what you're putting into your body and how your body responds to it. That's my and give yourself a couple of weeks. If you are used to just eating, a protein bar for breakfast, I don't know maybe a salad for lunch and a cup of soup for dinner or something. Yeah. If you, when you start eating more a real breakfast, that's maybe has like eggs and oatmeal and and, a more balanced lunch, you, it might take a few weeks for your body to adjust to that. And so just be really patient with yourself, with your body. And I promise that the quality of nutrition, you're, you, it will pay you back your body will thrive with that good quality nutrition. Absolutely. So the next tip I would have going into a reverse diet is ditching the dieting mindset. Let go of the calorie phobia and scale obsession that we tend to see. I know a long time ago, especially in the nineties, it was just like, oh, low calorie calories. And it wasn't about. What type of calories are we actually consuming? So the calorie phobia, being afraid of calories, which is actually just energy. The unit of calorie is a unit of energy for our body. And take shifting the mindset and perspective to. I'm giving my body more energy to live and keep the lights on in the house. And of course I know we mentioned the scale obsession, so that's going to be. Really big as if the scale is very triggering, maybe only, jump on the scale once a week, if not twice a week, or none at all, just depending on where you're at mindset wise but really shifting the focus to fueling your body and not restricting it any longer. For so long, dieting culture has been restrict restrict when the reverse is the complete opposite of that, where we want you to feel your body. We want you to provide it with nutrients intentional nutrients of carbs, proteins, and fats in order to keep the lights on, but also to. To reach your goals and be able to get a good balance of nutrition. The scale is something that, you do want to track during reverse. It can still be a great tool. I would pick it as an opportunity to learn about your body's biometric trends with sodium, exercise, menstrual cycles, even alcohol consumption. These are just a few things that tend to influence our body's weight and it's okay. So my weight fluctuates 4 pounds per day. That includes, the one thing I didn't include on that original list was, just processing your your digestive schedule when there is more body when there's more food moving through your body your body is going to have a different biometric read. I believe for every gram of water or sorry, every gram of carb that our body. Consumes. We retain three grams of water. And taking into account that little statistic there, your body will increase in weight just because you're going to be more than likely increasing your carbs. If you're when you are doing that reverse diet. Very rarely have we seen it where in a reverse people. Don't change the thing about their carbs. Usually it's bringing up their carbs. And even if the scale does go up more than likely, most of that weight is just going to be your body holding on to more water and that's perfectly normal, your body's just holding on to more water for, yeah, as a whole, just think about this as the time to optimize your nutrition versus just eating more and increasing calories. Really optimize where your food is coming from and acknowledge the wins during this dieting mindset. The dieting mindset can be very tricky, and it's probably 1 of the biggest things that can hold someone back and getting in their way of their own success. Acknowledging your wins along the way is going to be huge. So those wins non scale related, better sleep, you're better nutrition. You're feeling your body better. You feel better, your consistency, especially if you're getting off that roller coaster, better energy, and just in general, forming better habits than maybe you have before. All that to say the number on the scale is not the only measure for success but especially in reverse diet. So any other thoughts on that, Joe? Yeah, I think in retrospect, the 1st time that I actually reverse dieted, I didn't know that's what was happening. I went to, I was working with a coach and so I was so frustrated with just basically the results of my nutrition and exercise habits that I was just willing to turn it over to someone else. And I, we didn't do like macro or calorie tracking. She just gave me a food plan. And I remember thinking like, wow, this is a lot of food. I honestly don't know if like it was more calories or less calories, but I know the mindset that I went into while working with that coach was like, I'm going to let her optimize everything. I'm going to let her optimize my nutrition. I'm going to let her optimize like my exercise habits. And then we're just going to see what happens. So I really. It was just, it was a real shift in mindset. I didn't worry about the calories that she was giving me. And honestly, every good coach that I've worked with that's like a physique coach or, that's the goal is to improve your physique. They usually start you out by just loading you up with tons of good nutrition. It doesn't typically start with just like yanking everything out and putting you into starvation mode. Just really think of it, maybe instead of oh, I'm increasing my calories and no, what's going to happen? You know what? No, for once in my life, I'm just going to optimize my nutrition to my energy output. And we're going to see how my body does. And usually you will be pretty astounded at the results. So that's my best. Advice or mindset hack on reverse dieting is maybe don't think of it necessarily as increasing calories, but more just like optimizing nutrition. Yeah, that's a good point. I think. The more that can be focused on the more positive. I love that perspective. You had the better off you're going to be versus if it is just going to be focused on if you're laser focus with blinders on. Going into the process, it can almost be a little bit. hindering along the process. The last piece of advice I would say is make sure you stay active. So I've had clients in a reverse diet where it's wonderful to eat more food and it feels good to eat more food. But the activity piece tends to, fall aside at where that activity habit does not get included. And it's important to keep in mind in a reverse that this is going to be a lifestyle change if you're not currently active. So incorporating regular physical activity with the weight lifting and steps, for instance those are going to be 2 important elements to, to also. Taken to the process. Because if we it would be a perfect world, right? If we didn't have to be active and we could just eat all this food. That's just not the way our bodies work. And our bodies are meant to move. Oftentimes sedentary lifestyles tend to lead to more injuries over time because if our muscles aren't used well, that our muscles are also going to dwindle away. So if you don't use it, you lose it. You lose those muscle fibers and your ability. To become more mobile, to be have more stability for doing things like hikes or even walking around the grocery store, those different things that are just daily activities. Incorporating that regular physical activity with the reverse is still going to be a necessary part. Yeah, it just, avoiding that sedentary routine during the diet reverse dieting process is going to be. 1 of the 1 of the other things I would mention. They all go ahead. Joe. Yeah, I think the best again, this is going to be like a mindset or a lifestyle shift. And so typically people who are reverse dieting they're wanting, they're doing this to improve their overall health. Maybe they're frustrated because they can't lose weight anymore. But typically, the way they're thinking about it is. There's a vanity piece, but also I want to get healthy. And so you just have to realize that there is no such thing as a sedentary lifestyle that is healthy. It doesn't really have so much to do with the weight, but like there, there just is no such thing. Like we were meant to move. We were not meant to be couch potatoes. And so this is just, exercise is really a non negotiable. And so maybe as you're switching out your, Nutrition habits. It's also time to switch out the exercise habits if you were doing nothing before. And this is not oh, I'm just going to exercise while I do my reverse diet. No, I hate to break it to you, but like you really need to be thinking about incorporating your exer or exercise into your life on a regular basis from here on out. It will help you reap the benefits of a reverse diet, especially if you were doing nothing before. But, just like we're not going to go back to 1200 calorie days and the calorie roller coaster. You would not want to reverse diet and do all that work to go back to that lifestyle. You're also not going to, you're going to give up the sedentary lifestyle. You will feel a ton better. You're, you just will. And there just is no such thing as a healthy sedentary lifestyle. On the other hand, I don't want you to think of it in terms of I'm eating more, so I'm going to compensate by moving more. They're they're related, but don't think of it as a calorie in calorie out sort of thing. Because that can drive you crazy too. So you're just going to, in addition to incorporating and up leveling your nutrition habits, you're also going to up level your exercise habits during this process. Again, if you. Go about your reverse diet of oh, goody, just, I just need to eat more. It doesn't matter where my calories come from and I'm going to continue, not moving much, or I don't have time to move. You were, you will very much not like the results of your reverse diet. That's, it's not going to be the result that you're looking for. Okay. Any other tips? Yeah, I would just say one more. I would say if I were to go back in time and, see reverse sighting on, the internet somewhere, probably Instagram, I would not have trusted myself to go through their process alone because I would have been like, all right, I'm going to do this for three weeks and if it's, nothing's really changing, then I'm just going to go back to the way things were before. So if you are very similar to the way I thought I would be, I highly recommend getting a coach because it is, it helps your mindset so much and it also helps you trust the process so much more. By having a coach in your corner to be like, nope, yep, you're doing the right things or it also helps you with accountability to identify Where your current habits are and does it align with where your goals are? So I highly recommend getting a coach if you don't feel confident enough to do this on your own, or if you're left to your own devices, I feel like you would, probably not follow through within, 3 weeks. Yeah, probably go my last piece of advice there. Yeah, I totally echo that. I remember 1st time I reverse dieted intentionally, like, where I was just told, no you're going to get your calories up to 2000 a day. There's. There's no other path for you And then I think at one week, or there was like one week where I got gained two pounds and I freaked out and I remember just being like, I'm, talking to my coach like this. I can't do this like this. And she just was like, this is nothing, you need to stay on the path. The scale ended up going down, but it really would've abandoned ship. It just would not, it would not have been a successful process, either because I would have abandoned it. How I reverse dieted would have been very wonky in terms of what I was eating that sort of thing. And it's just helpful to have a reality check and someone telling you like, Nope, you're doing it exactly right. Your body's responding the way I think it should. And just to help you through The different changes your body might go through as you go through this process. So definitely think that especially if you are someone that is very, has a kind of a disordered relationship with calories, with food with your body, which honestly, at this point, I am convinced as most women but I, we've helped so many women who just had, like all calories were bad eating was bad. The less. You could eat the better it really, you, it takes some work to get out of that mindset. But you will never break through. You'll be caught in a horrible cycle if you don't. So definitely recommend coaching. And so on that note, I think. I think that's all we have for today. So thanks for tuning in. And just remember really reverse dieting is a lot more than just about eating more or adding more calories. It really is about giving your body the resources it needs to thrive. Any conclusory thoughts from you, Leanne, about just the whole process of reverse dieting. Yeah, I would say it's been a game changer for me and my life and my lifestyle. If you're wondering if this is right for you, I would highly recommend just to stop second guessing yourself and just do it, get with us, get with someone you trust. It is something that is an immense improvement for quality of life that you can take with you for the rest of your life. Yeah, it's just going to help you build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient body and set you up for long term success. So please share this episode with anyone that you think might find it helpful and feel free to leave us review. And like we said, if you think you need to reverse diet, or this sounds interesting, or sounds like you, and you want help, please check out our one on one coaching program. There are links to it in the show notes. We have helped. I would say at least half of our clients come to us and need to spend some time reverse dieting. So it's something that we've helped a lot of women with with really good results and good success. So please check that out. We also do have a 79 do it yourself course and links to that are in the show notes as well, where you can reverse diet yourself. We show you how to set up your macros. There's a workout plan in that course. So that's another option. And then, as I mentioned we are giving away a free. Free fast food guide, a high protein fast food guide. If you are going to go about this yourself definitely recommend getting that because it will give you some clues as to what to order at restaurants that again, isn't just like junk calories. A link to that is in the show notes. I think that's all we have for now. So thanks for tuning in and see you next time.