âWhen is it time to stop a fat loss phase?â âHow and when should you reverse diet?â 2 questions I got a few weeks ago that I thought have similar answers so Iâm combining them here and giving my very personal example of why I waited too long to stop my weight loss phase and first reverse diet.Â
(*Note: Majority of the beginning of this post is copied from My Journey to Balance as I found it relevant, you can read about why I initially gained weight and more about my journey here)
Extreme & Unnecessary Measures
Top left photo is me at my lowest weight in November 2016, I had lost 40 lbs by doing a program with extreme measures which required me to be eating extremely âcleanâ and low calorie and not allowing myself any flexibility to eat anything that I didnât cook. I was also doing hour long spin classes 10 times a week! To get to my lowest weight, I had secluded myself from events or I would eat all of my meals prior to any event I needed to go to, or worseâŚbring tupper ware with me to restaurants. I was starving and tired all of the time. I would spend the little energy I had in the gym. I remember not going to my boyfriendâs birthday event because I just didnât have the energy for it. I had smiled through the suffering because I thought it was necessary and was so proud of myself that my “will power was so strong”. And these measures did (of course) lead me to my goal because I was in a severe calorie deficit, BUT Iâve learned since through my education and continued experience with myself and clients that those extreme measures were completely unnecessary and that fat loss CAN happen with a moderate deficit thatâs not detrimental to your physical or mental health.Â
But back then I was naive and  âhappyâ because I had reached my goal weight, but I was tiny with no energy from overexercising and under eating, and probably the worst part was that I had reached my goal weight a week before ThanksgivingâŚso I went into the holidays being at my goal weight but with NO IDEA how to maintain it. The program I had done didnât come with an exit strategy, so I thought to keep the weight off I must have to continue what I had been doing. I knew I could relax “a little” so I let up on just doing spin 5 days a week and then went into the holidays continuing to âeat cleanâ during the week, but then on the weekends/parties would eat and drink everything in sight. Then I would add in more cardio because âI needed to burn off those weekend calories,â it was a never ending cycle for two months. I was unhappy and felt lost, and entered 2017 with the thought âI canât live like this foreverâŚthere has to be another wayâ… Â
Getting Educated
Regardless of feeling lost with being so unbalanced with training and nutrition, I did genuinely like to exercise and eat high nutrient foods but I just knew the way I was doing it wasnât a sustainable lifestyle. I had inspired my friends and family to want to adapt healthier habits too and saw them losing weight, which inspired me to want to be a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach. I was also anxious to learn more about training and nutrition so that I could learn how I was going to be able to keep off my weight loss for life! I signed up to receive my Personal Training Certification through National Academy of Sports Medicine and was told I could do the courses from February to June in 2017. I was so excited! But too anxious to wait a month to start learning about how I was going to maintain my weight loss in a healthy way. So I hit up google searching âHow to maintain weight loss after drastic dietingâ and my search results eventually led me to a method called âFlexible Dietingâ.Â
I learned that flexible dieting isnât necessarily a diet but a lifestyle in which you eat high nutrient foods 80-90% of the time and then have âfun foods and drinksâ the other 10-20% of the time. The point of this is to develop a relationship with food in which NOTHING is off limits but EVERYTHING can be enjoyed in the right moderation, and one of the best ways to implement this I learned was through tracking calories and macronutrient (protein, carb, and fat) intake. I remember seeing people on Instagram living the âIf It Fits Your Macrosâ lifestyle enjoying pizza, beer, and cake and staying lean! This is what I had been looking for! A REAL SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION TO MAINTAINING WEIGHT LOSS! A way to enjoy life and not gain back the weight as long as calories were accounted for.
I had been inconsistently tracking my calories since my drastic weight loss with the calorie goal of 1200 (which is pretty much what My Fitness Pal gives everyone in the beginning) and the inconsistency with eating low calorie during the week and then binging on the weekends actually led me to gaining weight from 123 to being 131 lbs in January 2017. I had been following a high protein and fat diet with low carbs (because I had been under the impression that the carbs and sugar in grains, fruit, and dairy caused weight gain) so I set my calories at what I thought would be more sustainable at 1350 and my macro % at a more balanced 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat. I kept those numbers for 2 months and was able to maintain my weight and eat anything I wanted as long as it was within my calorie and macro goals. I was elated because I felt a little less stressed about food, but at the same time I was finding myself limited because my calories were still pretty low so I couldnât really enjoy much of anything. And I had seen other women online who were lean but claiming they were eating 2000 calories a day! I thought âHOW?!â So I continued to do research and came across the term âReverse Dietâ termed by Dr. Layne Norton.
My First Reverse Diet
I learned that Reverse Dieting is basically the opposite of regular dieting. In a regular diet you decrease calories and increase cardio to lose weight, whereas in a Reverse Diet you slowly add calories in and decrease cardio in an effort to get your body used to consuming more calories after being in a calorie deficit. I read everything about Reverse Dieting and using tracking macronutrient intake as a way to successfully do it, and even though I was terrified that increasing calories and decreasing cardio was going to make me gain weight, I was so desperate that I trusted the science and just went for it. I slowly increased my calories through adjusting my macronutrient intake by mostly increasing carbs, decreased my cardio, and adapted progressive strength training to my workout routine, and I watched my body change ( I was becoming stronger AND leaner) and I watched my mental health towards food really change because nothing was âcleanâ or âdirtyâ, food was food, everything came down to portion sizes in order for anything to fit my macros.
I started my Reverse Diet eating roughly 1,350 calories and doing 5 spin classes a week, I ended it eating 1,800 calories (30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fat) doing 1 spin class a week and strength training 4 times a week and I actually lost body fat through this process. (Above middle photo is April 2017 at 131 lbs and right photo is May 2017 127 lbs) Yes, you read that right! I lost weight EATING MORE AND DOING LESS CARDIO! My body had been in a deprived state so when I started treat it right it flourished off of that! And building fat burning muscle through progress strength training gave me that toned and leaner look I had always wanted.
The Takeaway From My Story
The big takeaway from my story is that reaching a fitness goal or maintaining the physique you have once you reach that goal DOES NOT need to happen through drastic measures. And it really shouldnât. Taking drastic measures to reach a fitness goal are unnecessary and while they may lead to someone maybe having less body fat, it can also lead to them feeling isolated, being terrified of food, and/or addicted to exercise. Keeping your physical, mental, and social health is key to long term happiness and success. So if youâre doing some extreme measures right now to reach a fitness goal, I would say to stop/pause and do a reverse diet. This way you can get in a healthy and stable place and find from there how to continue towards your goal in a way that is realistic and doesnât put your health or life in jeopardy. I waited WAY too long to do my first reverse diet, but that was mainly because I just had no idea that I could eat more and move less and relatively maintain my weight loss. Iâm sharing my story with you because I donât want ANYONE to go through what I did. We are all worthy to love, respect, and nourish our bodies and we canât let chasing the number on the scale control our lives or lead to measures that our detrimental to our health.
When Should You Stop/Pause a Weight Loss Phase and Do a Reverse Diet?
The 3 circumstances that itâs time to stop a weight loss phase and do a reverse diet are:
- You reached your goal weight
- The most exciting one for sure! BUT can also be challenging because reaching your goal weight and wanting to maintain it can be itâs own anxiety. Itâs important to remember that you probably wanted to reach your goal weight because you thought it would make you happier, more confident, and accomplished, and initially it probably did. But obsessing about staying at that exact number is going to do nothing but make you feel more anxiety about your body.
- Youâre feeling burnt out/need a break (may be going on a vacation or have an event, or your physical goals change (ex: pregnancy))
- Needing a break doesnât mean giving up. Following any type of nutrition or exercise strategy can be challenging because it obviously takes time and commitment. And Iâm HUGE on making a nutrition or exercise regimen as flexible and enjoyable as possible which is I always take the minimum effective does approach with clients so that they are eating the most calories possible and following a flexible dieting approach, and also doing the least amount of exercise/cardio necessary to get results, but even this can be mentally taxing and sometimes itâs good to take a break and relax so that you can then push through the next period of getting closer to your goals! Also, being on top of everything can be stressful and too much stress can push the bodyâs hormones out of whack which will then stall fat loss anyways. A break could be a week or 2, or it could be longer. It just depends on how long someone has been in a calorie deficit and what their goals are.
- Your nutrition or exercise regimen has become unsustainable
- To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit, and the body will constantly adapt to calories and activity levels so that it will plateau (this is GOOD this is the body’s survival mechanism at work so having this happen is NORMAL!) But in order to continue to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight, the body will then need to start receiving fewer calories or do more activity to keep weight loss going. This can lead to calories getting too low or the time dedicated towards activity can become too high that itâs just unsustainable to keep up with and still complete other responsibilities in daily life. Remember, the main goal for weight loss should be to better your overall health and life, and if youâre eating too little/strict calories that youâre unable to go out with friends or eat a normal meal with family or if youâre exercising hours a day and giving up a social life just to be in the gym, then this will ultimately lead to being isolated which isnât good for our health or livelihood.Â
How to Reverse Diet?
It’s important to note that when you do a reverse diet you will be adding in more calories so your body will be then holding onto more water due to higher sodium intake. This is NORMAL! This is OK! Fluctuating up from your lowest weight by a couple pounds doesnât mean youâve lost your results! Itâs just showing that after being in a deficit that youâre now providing your body with more nutrients đ And I know you probably received many compliments from your weight loss which is SO exciting! But this could lead you to think if anything changes then everyone will just think you let yourself go and that you failed at keeping the weight off, but literally NO ONE can tell a few lbs in weight variance except the scale! If your weight fluctuates up a few lbs I can almost guarantee that your worst fears WON’T come true: your spouse will NOT leave you, you WON’T get fired from your job, your friends will NOT stop being your friends, your family will NOT disown you, and all of your clothes WILL still fit; if any of these do happen then that spouse, job, friend, family member, and clothes are a POS and you are worthy of better!
Everyone is different but my general recommendation to Reverse Diet is to look at whatever youâre currently doing and to slowly add in calories and decrease cardio. Unless you have a reverse diet meal plan, then the easiest way to accurately reverse diet with minimal fat gain is by tracking your calories and macros of whatever youâre currently eating and see what you need to increase it. If your protein is already at an adequate amount (.7-1g per lb of body weight) then you can focus on just adding in more calories from carbs and fats. Iâd suggest to add in 10g of carbs and 2g of fat about every 4-7 days and to add in the carbs around your workouts to help your body get used to the increase in carbs. Remember, carbs are our bodies main source of fuel! If you were used to having 40g of carbs for pre and post workout and then adding in 10g of carbs for the day, then I would suggest changing your pre and post workout carbs to 45g each. As youâre adding in calories, you will want to weigh yourself to see how your weight fluctuates so you can get an idea on when to stop, like I stated above, the scale WILL initially fluctuate up with the increase in sodium but it will level itself out! Your weight should come back down after a few days and then you can do another increase. Everyone will be different in how big of a jump from their deficit they will need to make in order to be back to their bodyâs calorie maintenance which is why itâs good to consider other factors besides your weight in deciding if youâve reached an adequate maintenance calorie goal: Are you feeling more energized? Are you feeling more satiated? Are you feeling less stressed about food? Listen to your body and it will let you know when itâs feeling fueled đÂ
For decreasing cardio, whatever youâre currently doing decrease it by 20%. Example: if youâre doing 5 cardio sessions a week then go down to 4. Or decrease the time/miles if you like working out however many days a week. Also switching in strength training for cardio will help your body use the calories itâs getting to build muscle (which will help burn more fat!) This was how I lost weight/fat through my reverse diet because I increased my strength training with my increased calories. Get to a place with your workouts that they’re not something you HAVE to do but something you WANT to do. Be realistic on how you actually enjoy moving your body and do that!Â
Body Image
I want to just take a moment to mention the hard truth that is: Reaching your fitness goals WILL NOT in itself improve your body image, but the journey to reaching your fitness goals can! Before my weight loss journey, I genuinely didn’t have any negative body image thoughts and I had initially just decided to lose weight because I knew my nutrition and non-exercise activity wasn’t good for my health, but I quickly became obsessed with the scale and doing everything I could to get the number to drop. But reaching my goal weight DID NOT improve my body image, instead it lead me to feeling isolated, to having a fear of food, and to being addicted to exercise. But what did get me to being confident in my body regardless of what the scale says, is when I changed my focus to nourishing my body to be strong and thrive instead of just focusing on keeping it small. I found confidence in the gym and in the weight room which translated to me feeling confident and strong in everything. I let go of my food anxiety and now enjoy ALL foods in moderations that fuel and satisfy me. Being more confident and relaxed with my food choices and knowing that I am respecting my body with how I’m fueling it, instead of depriving it, also led me to have more body confidence.
I want to also say that just because I am more confident in my body doesn’t mean I feel amazing all the time or have no body insecurities whatsoever. There are days I wake up feeling lean and other days I wake up feeling bloated/puffy, but I just take it as it is and don’t let it control my overall image, mood, or confidence for the day. I wish I could have known all of this while I was in my weight loss phase, but I am happy I at least know this truth now and can share it with you. Because you can have body goals AND still love and respect your body! And while soo much of the fitness industry puts the emphasis that “going hard” and depriving yourself with extreme exercise, low calorie, cleanses, and detox teas is the best way to reach your goals, ultimately following these extreme measures will just make you feel like a failure when you can’t sustain them. Which is why I suggest practicing sustainable and enjoyable nutrition and exercise regimens as this will help build that confidence while reaching your goals!
Accepting that your body is doing the best it can to keep you thriving, and will do so even better if you love it, fuel it properly, and don’t overwork it, is I think key to reaching your fitness goals and developing a strong positive body image.Â
Continuing My Fitness Journey After My Weight Loss
I think it’s important to end on the note that being fit doesn’t necessarily have an end date which is why it’s called a journey. I’ve been on my fitness journey for over 2 years and have had a weight loss phase, 2 mini-cuts, 3 reverse diets, extended maintenance phases, and a lean bulk to help build more fat burning muscle on my overall frame and give myself a leaner and more toned look even while staying around the same weight. And like I stated above, through these phases I have developed an overall better relationship with my body, exercise, and food. I’ve also gone from extreme clean eating to more flexible dieting with tracking macros to now mindful eating without tracking with each step giving me more peace and balance with food which you can read about here. And you can read about my last mini-cut here.
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Need help with setting up your maintenance calories and/or doing a reverse diet and want guidance with macros/nutrition and/or personal training from me, a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist? Check out my coaching services which range from me just setting up macros and training programs to macros with meal ideas to more in-depth one-on-one coaching that involves 24/7 email access to me and weekly check-ins.
*This post was created by Ashley Cates who is not a Registered Dietician or a Medical Professional, nothing said should be taken as medical advice or replace any advice given by a Physician. This information does not in any way intend to diagnose or treat any health condition/disorder. The information provided is based on Ashleyâs education and experience.
