Do you fear eating more calories ⁉️
Maybe you know you need to eat more calories in order to increase your metabolism, but you’re afraid you’re going to gain weight. But if done correctly, there should be minimal change on the scale, and positive changes to your body composition.
Reverse dieting is a strategy use to raise someone’s calories up over a period of time to help optimize and up regulate their metabolism and hormones (thyroid + sex hormones) that play a big role in health and fat loss. While increasing calories, we work to decrease stress on the body (ie: excess cardio, poor sleep, nutrient deficiencies, etc). If you’ve been living off of LOW CALORIES, your body adapts and down regulates hormones. So using reverse dieting helps your body return to homeostasis.
Who is reverse dieting for?
- People who have been chronically dieting or under-eating for > 6 months.
- You’ve been yo-yo dieting and progress stalled/plateaued
- You’re seeing signs of hormonal imbalance and biofeedback is negative (poor sleep, energy, brain fog, decreased performance, irregular cycles, PMS, low libido, etc)
- You dieted for > 6 months or are in a cut and progress/biofeedback is poor
- You successfully completed a diet/cut phase and you’re now ready to add calories back in while maintaining progress
Here are our top recommendations that we use with our clients when reverse dieting:
✔️Be sure to download my ABBY’S GUIDEBOOK- How to Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, Improve Body Composition. It can be found here: https://coachingwithabby.com/free-guides/
✔️Determine how much you’re actually eating (via tracking food on a free App like Chronometer) (this is Point A)
✔️Determine what your maintenance calories are. Refer to the Guidebook to determine your maintenance needs (this is Point Z)
✔️Gradually increase from Point A to Point Z by ~100-150 calories every 2 weeks and pay attention to biofeedback (energy, sleep, performance, hunger/cravings/fullness)
✔️Slow, gradual increases in calories helps to prevent unwanted weight/fat gain
✔️Track your weight (weekly is adequate)
✔️Progress pics, clothing, etc. can also be good indicators of progress
MOST clients that work with us need a Reverse Diet to restore metabolism before we even touch a fat loss phase because of the chronic dieting they’ve done in the past and the adaptations their body made. But by focusing on the restoration phase we improve energy and biofeedback, and sets them up for success long-term.
Need help with boosting your metabolism and think you might need a Reverse Diet?
Learn about our customized nutrition coaching program and see if you would be a good fit by clicking below to apply.