Reverse Dieting for Chronic Dieters

If you have been living off dieting calories for months or years and your body is at a stand still with meeting your goals then YES you need to reverse diet. Deficit calories are not meant to be lived long term. Whether you are trying to restrict yourself or not, if you have been eating below your TDEE (maintenance calories) then you must bring your calories up before you can respond to a healthy deficit. Many people don’t even realize the amount of food they eat is too little for their body. They’ve been doing it for so long their body has ADAPTED to it. Your body will learn to adapt to whatever you give it over time

Initially you may have lost weight eating 1300 calories (example) but if you continue to do that long term you WILL NOT and worse yet, this low level of eating will become your new maintenance level of calories (the amount of calories where your weight stays the same) instead of say..like 2000 where it likely should be. I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I’D RATHER MAINTAIN AT 2000+ calories NOT 1300!?! When you come out of deficit you are supposed to build your calories back up, and you can do this without losing your hard earned physique! This is the missing piece of puzzle for so many

If you are no longer progressing, eating low calories and are STUCK, you have an adapted metabolism that needs a break. Only way to reach fat loss would be to continue to lower calories (not advised after a certain point) or bring calories upward for a length of time and allow metabolism reset. After a length of time eating a more appropriate level of maintenance calories, body can then better respond to a healthy deficit and lose fat. This is not a quick fix. Reverse dieting for chronic dieters does not mean fat loss and often can mean a little gain because naturally you are eating more. We increase calories slowly to help minimize gain. But there is no other option to get you out of this place...if you want future results. Protect your metabolism!