Reverse Dieting

Reverse dieting has become one of the most misunderstood concepts in nutrition.

Some people treat it like a metabolic superpower. Others think it's completely useless.

The reality is that reverse dieting is simply a strategic process of gradually increasing food intake after a prolonged period of dieting. It is not magic, but it can be a valuable tool when used in the right context.

In this episode, I break down what reverse dieting actually is, where it came from, and why so many people misunderstand its purpose.

For physique athletes and individuals coming off long periods of aggressive calorie restriction, reverse dieting can help manage hunger, improve training performance, restore energy levels, and create a smoother transition into maintenance. But for the average person, it is often overcomplicated and unnecessarily romanticized.

We also discuss the difference between repairing adherence and repairing metabolism. Many people are not dealing with a broken metabolism. They are dealing with diet fatigue, reduced activity, increased hunger, and unrealistic expectations after prolonged restriction.

The goal of a reverse diet is not to avoid all weight gain at any cost.

The goal is to create a sustainable bridge between dieting and normal life.

As with most things in nutrition, the answer is context.

Some people need a structured reverse diet. Others simply need to stop crash dieting, increase calories responsibly, and learn how to maintain their results.

What We Cover

• What reverse dieting actually is
 • Who benefits most from reverse dieting
 • Common myths surrounding metabolic damage
 • The difference between fat gain and normal weight fluctuations
 • Why hunger, energy, and training performance matter
 • How to transition from fat loss to maintenance successfully
 • When reverse dieting is helpful and when it is unnecessary

Key Takeaways

• Reverse dieting is a tool, not a magic solution
 • Maintenance is a skill that must be learned
 • Hunger and adherence matter just as much as calories
 • Most people need better habits, not more complicated protocols
 • Long term success depends on what happens after the diet ends

If you've ever wondered whether you should reverse diet, or you've been confused by the conflicting information online, this episode will help you understand where the strategy fits and how to think about it practically.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the rebuild. It's so good to see you today. And this one is going to be one of the most important ones I do on physiology. And it's a place I'm going to be honest that most people don't make it to. And you may have heard the term reverse dieting. So what does that mean exactly? And how do we apply it? And why is it important, Dylan? Well, reverse dieting is the stage that you get to when you've lost all the body fat that you want to lose, whether that's in a cycle or just in totality. Let me break that little microcasm down as well. If you have like a hundred plus pounds to lose, you're going to have to do it in cycles. Very rarely can you do it. Um, and I don't mean physically, but mentally, where you just kind of go from, you know, valley all the way to mountaintop, one veil sweep. Has it been done? Yes, yours truly did it. But honestly, most people are not going to um override the metabolic adaptations and the behavior needed for that long of just like digging your heels in like a trench war. Um, they're going to need little breaks, right? So you lose it in three phases of 30. And so you might lose 30 pounds, calories came down over that period. You might have to bring it back up to maintenance for a short period and then kind of rebuild that cycle. And or if someone has, let's say, 20 to 40 pounds to lose, you can often do it in one kind of fail sweep. So they might get to their goals. You can see their abs now and/or whatever body composition they were interested in getting. Uh and this also works with gaining weight, but I'm going to speak to it more so it's usually a term that we use for losing body fat, losing weight, right? But you could do it where if someone was trying to gain weight and you were bringing calories up and up and up, the reverse diet would be just that. It would reverse and you bring calories back down, so the weight gain stops. And I do a lot of that work too, but I do a little bit more work on people who want to lose body fat. Uh, and I think it's a slightly harder game. No, uh both are hard, but we'll speak a lot to that today. And so let's assume we'll we'll use some storytelling here. Let's assume someone just started and they have 35 pounds to lose. They've now worked for you know eight months, gone through some behavior change, identities change, they're feeling quite well. Things aren't perfect, but the direction is in a really good spot. They're like 80% of the way to what we would see on a successful journey. That's the point where everyone usually quits. They get the physique, and then they're like, oh, I'm firing my coach now, or I'm I'm going off my program, or I'm gonna delete the app. Like, you know, there's a bunch of different tools you can use to get out there, self-coaching, whatever it is. I'm kind of just gonna let my foot off the gas. Worst thing you can do. And I don't want this to be a kick in the cornflakes, but when you get the physique that you like in the mirror, which you're not gonna like as much as you think you will, but you're gonna like it more than the one you have. When you get to that point, that's halfway. Ooh, that sucks, doesn't it? Because many of you are listening to this, going, wait, what? Halfway? Why is it halfway? It's halfway because getting the result is actually easier than holding on to it. And the reverse diet is kind of boring. But the reverse diet is where all the benefits come from. Because let's say you've lost this 35 pounds, you can see your abs now, you're like, Dylan, I love how I look, but you know, my calories got pretty low. I had to add some cardio, I'm feeling a little bit tired, I don't feel my best. When you just quit and you you quote unquote go back to intuition, your intuition will lead you exactly where the old physique had you. Because your intuition was based off behaviors and how you see the world. And instead of adding calories back very slowly, so let's say someone lost 35 pounds, they got down to 1400 calories, but they can't live there, right? And that's why I often tell people, like, hey, if you give me 18 to 24 months, you'll be jacked out of your mind eating more than you are right now, probably losing fat. And we don't realize this because most people have never like got the physique or the health markers to do this. Your body can probably handle a lot more food when you're in a lean, healthy state than when you're just uh have too much body fat. I don't know if you ever heard the term perpetual motion. Body fat is like perpetual motion, and so even though you might weigh, let's say, 200 pounds and you have you know 40 pounds to lose, the 40 pounds that you have to lose, that 40 pounds of size and mass, that takes no energy to like it doesn't require any energy uh being burned to kind of keep that going. Fat is just like a sticky glue. Once you get rid of all that, now thyroid really wants to respond. Blood glucose is super sharp, usually gut health, and then we have training and nutrition habits on top of that. Usually you've learned how to eat better, so you have proper micronutrients, your blood work is better. All of a sudden, I take that same person over six months, who maybe took a year to lose 40 pounds, and now over the next six months, we put on three to four pounds or five back on, which people have an issue with, but that's a whole nother thing. I'll get into that. Most of that's just gonna be water weight and it's not gonna be any body fat, but we can get them back up to from 1400 all the way from anywhere, let's say 18 to 2200 calories with that new body. And when they started that fat loss phase, 1800 calories was hard to adhere to while they were more fat. Does that make sense? And so it's like, really, I could be leaner and eating more, yes, all the time. That that's that is my goal. And I'm just gonna be really honest. About 10% of the people who have ever worked with me, uh, or 20 maybe, make it through that because it's hard, it's really hard and it takes way longer. And I don't I think it's because I have so much lived experience, both coached and personally, but I just don't get it. Like to me, when I tell someone like, oh, give me two years of your life, and you know, like some time, some effort, and some money, and yeah, it costs some money, but for a two-year investment for what you get from changing your whole physiology, understanding how you operate in the mindset in your body, your hormones, your gut health, and now you can teach that to your kids, your grandkids, your partner, and you have control over that for your whole life. So if you're 36 years old, you're gonna invest, you know, $20,000, $30,000 over a couple years into from 38 to 78, let's say, average lifespan is now like a hundred times better. There literally is not a better investment, not one, not one. And so that's why I'm really passionate about that, right? And so, again, usually the reverse diet is about half as long as it took to get to where you are. So that's why I use the example. If it took someone 40 pounds to, or excuse me, one year to lose 40 pounds, get down to that place where they feel quite good, they're like, I, you know, I'd like to, this is where I'd like to live now. Probably takes half that time to get them to where, you know, all of the negative adaptations of dieting are gone. They don't have food noise anymore, they're not stressed out, and they've had that body. And then because of that, there's a recomposition effect, training performance as you bring food back up, starts to go up, energy starts to go up, you start to be more vibrant, you're just fidgeting more, your body gets way better at burning calories efficiently. I guess actually the reg the real term would be unefficiently, but it's easier to say efficiently because people understand that. I'm telling you right now that if you can give yourself that map in your mind and just chew it down like a bitter pill. I know there's gonna be other little bitch voices that come up that's like, well, what if I could do it faster? What what about what no? Just accept that pill, swallow it down, and I promise, and I don't mean to be uh the Grinch stole Christmas, but I'm telling you that that's a way better path to to sustainability. Okay. And so I think this is gonna be a really good one. And uh I think that there's a lot to take away here because those those reverse dieting pieces are never talked about as much as we should. So thank you for being here. I appreciate you. And you know, this is something that if you're a client of mine, you want to chat about, please bring it up to me. And uh if you're not and you would like to work with me one on one to find your best and most optimal health, be vibrant in your body, your mind, your life, I would love to chat. Thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you soon.