Reverse Deiting 101 What is reverse dieting? Well that is essentially the phase of dieting which occours after you’ve finished a deficit dieting phase (or a cutting phase or getting shredded for stereo brah phase). The idea behind reverse dieting it to bring back up your calorie intake to its NEW (estimated) maintenance calorie intake for your pre-dieting body composition status or current body composition status. Which is approx 10% lower than estimated on an un-dieted individual. So for example if you had a pre-dieting calorie intake of 2000 calls, your NEW maintenance calls would be 1800. Before I go on, I will make mention of why Ive also mentioned current body composition. Now this is purely for the individuals who had been overweight and over-fat. Of course it is not healthy to be in a state of overweight or over-fat and improving your body composition will benefit a lot of physical health markers but of course having a healthier psychological state. Just to add to the above point, for males a lean body fat is 8% and under and for females it is under 20%. The standard healthy range is 10-18% for males and 20-30% for females. Being in deficit dieting conditions that take you to below the lean ratings is certainly going to negative effect your metabolic and hormonal functions. So while you may have an individual whos normal static body composition is 8% compared to individual who has dieted down to 8% you will find the metabolic function in the dieted down individual to be lower than the static individual who sits at 8%. So while being overweight and over-fat is damaging to health, so is trying to maintain extreme levels of leanness (bodybuilding leanness) so staying in the happy medium range of body-fat is ideal. By doing that, you will benefit not only your hormonal and metabolic function, but also allow for improvements to your physique, training performance and recovery as well. Moving forward now, why reverse diet and why not simply stay at the current calorie intake? Well by staying at the current deficit calorie intake which is actually your body’s NOW adatped metabolic rate, you will simply maintain a downgraded hormonal status. By reverse dieting to your NEW estimated maintenance calorie intake, you will allow for an increase in hormonal function which will result in a better hormonal profile/balance. And that means a higher metabolic rate.Aside from that it will allow for improvement in training performance and physique development. Won’t an increase in calories cause weight gain? Yes it will. The main thing to remember is the initial weight gain will simply be water and muscle glycogen. As when you are deficit dieting, you do not just lose body fat but you also lose water, glycogen and muscle tissue! To gain a kilo of fat you need to (on paper) be in a calorie surplus of 3500 calories over a week! Which that equates to 500 calories per day OVER your maintenance calories! Just to mention that is not a true reality of it all but just simply an example to put it into some persective. How should you reverse diet? There have been a number of methods used rangin from a few days to a few week to a few months. For maximising hormonal funuction and metabolic rate adapations you should increase calories to your (newly estimated) maintenance within one to two weeks. Personally for my clients, I get them back to maintenance within a few days if not the day after the dieting period has ended. By increasing calories straight off the bat like that, you remove yourself from being in a functional deficit and allow for faster hormonal rebound. Think about it, when we are deficit dieting and it is time for a re-feed what do we do? We go STRAIGHT to maintenance calories. Why do we do that? So to limit/stop any further hormonal downgrading adaptations and for an acute increase in metabolic rate/function, so can can continue dieting to the desired level. Is there a difference between going slow or fast? Well as mentioned above, for the most optimal and beneifcial impact on overall physoloigcal fucntion is to be back at maintenance within days than months. Won’t going fast cause greater weight gain? No it will not. Initial weight gain (as mentioned) will be simply water and muscle glycogen. So that possible 2 or 4 kilos that is ‘’gained’’ in the first couple weeks of getting back to maintaince is nothing more than that (glycogen and water). That same 2 or 4 kilos will also be gained if it takes you 4 months to get back to maintenance calories and and once back at maintenance calories, the further weight gain that will occour until it stablizes will be EXACTLY the same during the maintenance period regardless of method used! So you can do it two ways. Get back to maintenace in days, gain weight (the same weight as you will if done slowly) and then spend (for example) 4 months at a stabilized hormonal balanvce and allow for increasing in metabolic function OR spend 4 months getting back to maintaince calories, gain weight slowly (but no different to the fast method), keep your hormones in a longer functional deficit before then needed to spend the (same) 4 months at a stabilzed hormonal balance while working on your increasing your metabolic function. Who is better off? Well with the fast method will be (as the example suggests) 4 months a head than the slow method, and most like have a better metabolic function, so EATING MORE CALORIES and an improved physique and can start deficit dieting if that is the chosen path or you will be 4 months into a surplus and further improving your physique and lifting. The choice is pretty simple.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 22:15:00 +0000
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