Is the reverse diet for you?

If you’re caught in a trap of severely restricting how much you eat, and never reaching a healthy weight range, could more food, not less, be the solution? Dietitian Susie Burrell investigates if reverse dieting has a place in the mainstream.

The most basic weight-loss advice usually boils down to the fewer calories we consume, the more weight we will lose. But for most people who have tried calorie-restricted diets, seeing the number on the scales not budging is frustratingly common. For many, the instinct is to get even stricter, continually cutting calories. But this isn’t the answer for your health or for weight management. In fact, it can backfire badly.

There are many mechanisms behind why restrictive dieting doesn’t work, but one important factor is our body adapts to less energy intake by slowing down our metabolism.

The idea that there is an ideal amount of energy to be getting from food for optimal metabolic function is behind an emerging trend called reverse dieting.

While reverse dieting isn’t new on the bodybuilding or professional sports scenes, it is relatively new and untested in the mainstream.

If you are one of many who have a long history of active caloric restriction, could you benefit from a reverse diet?

What is reverse dieting?

Reverse dieting is a strategy where calories are gradually reintroduced after long periods of restriction, in an attempt to increase metabolic rate and minimise unwanted fat mass that can result when you start eating more after periods of restriction. In simple terms, reverse dieting is an option for individuals who have actively and severely restricted calorie intake over time for weight loss, reaching unsustainably low levels for meeting nutrition needs. For example, what may have started as a diet of 1450-1500 calories has gradually been reduced to an intake as unsustainably low as 600-800 calories each day and, over time, metabolic rate has been reduced to compensate for this starvation.

Known scientifically as adaptive thermogenesis, this gradual reduction in metabolic rate, or the number of calories the body needs at a minimum to function, is a survival mechanism. In times of starvation, this is necessary, but when brought about by dieting, it ultimately plays havoc with metabolic rate and means weight regain is significantly more likely when calories are reintroduced.

To counter this, it’s proposed that reverse dieting helps minimise unwanted fat regain post calorie restriction and helps restore metabolic rate over time, as the body slowly readjusts to consuming a higher calorie load.

What is the evidence for reverse dieting?

While reverse dieting makes sense as a concept, there is not a strong evidence base to support it. Of the research available, it is most commonly referred to in applied sports nutrition, in cases where athletes need to minimise weight regain after periods of extreme dieting to lose weight for specific sports.

As such, reverse dieting is not a scientifically documented technique, nor one that is the same for everyone. Rather, reverse dieting is simply gradually reintroducing calories, by as little as just 50-100 calories per week or two to reignite metabolism. For someone who has been consuming 800 calories each day, this means increasing intake to 900 per day, and observing indicators of positive metabolic change including increases in hunger, improvements in digestion or an increase in bowel motions.

Over time, the goal is to take calorie intake to a level in which a normal dietary intake can be maintained, without extreme cognitive and behavioural restriction. Long term, one of the goals of reverse dieting may be to support further fat loss, yet in a sustainable way.

The most common mistakes

If you want to try reverse dieting, it’s important to be consistent. If you routinely have periods in which you slash your food intake, or follow a pattern of overconsumption followed by restriction, you will not create the environment in which metabolism will adjust. Rather, you need a period of several weeks of dietary consistency to achieve results.

Ultimately metabolic changes take time, and while you may see some weight gain initially, this is likely just fluid as the body readjusts to different energy loads. For this reason, keeping off the scales, and instead paying attention to how your body is feeling is important, especially as you begin the process.

Who might benefit?

Signs a reverse diet may be for you:

➜ Your weight loss has plateaued for several months.
➜ You are consuming fewer than 1000 calories per day.
➜ You never feel hungry.
➜ You eat very little, but are still overweight.

The reality of reverse dieting

Reverse dieting is not a quick process – the gradual reprogramming of metabolism via incremental increases in calorie intake can take several weeks, if not months. It needs 100 per cent commitment, and is best suited to those who have constantly restricted calorie intake for long periods.

Dietitian Leanne Ward specialises in fat loss and has had experience in reverse dieting with clients. She says the most important thing is to be patient.

“It needs to be done extremely slowly in conjunction with a dietitian who has experience in fat loss. It generally takes my clients 6-10 weeks to shift from chronic calorie deprivation and return to a baseline level of calories. A common mistake people make is rushing the process, but once I have returned my clients to their baseline calorie intake, they need to stay in weight maintenance for at least four weeks before we try to achieve a deficit and fat loss again. It is like you need to reassure the body it is not in starvation before you cut calories again to support fat loss.”

Steps to reverse dieting

1 Calculate your typical calorie intake
2 If calorie intake is <1000-1200 calories, add an extra 50-100 calories to your first meal or two through the day
3 After 1-2 weeks, increase your intake by another 50-100 calories
4 Continue until your calorie intake is more reasonable, at 1400-1600 calories and weight stable.

What is the end goal?

Reverse dieting may be used to increase calorie intake to a level in which weight and food intake can be maintained. Or it may help restore metabolic function to enable fat loss. In both scenarios though, the goal is to get the body to burn calories more efficiently, as opposed to weight loss through starvation.

Getting started

While Healthy Food Guide doesn’t encourage calorie counting, if you feel that your metabolism has been adversely impacted courtesy of overly restricted diets and you want to try reverse dieting, the first thing you will need is to know what you are consuming. This means tracking your intake over several days to determine how and when you consume your calories, so you can adjust them slightly to induce positive metabolic change. For example, if you always consume a 300-calorie breakfast, increasing your breakfast calorie intake by 50-100 calories for a week or two may be a first step in the reverse dieting process.

An even better strategy is to engage with a dietitian who specialises in weight management, who can guide and support you through this process over time, as you work towards the goals you have for your body and food intake long term.

What about exercise?

Individuals who actively restrict their calorie intake often add to their calorie deficit by exercising for several hours each day at high intensity. Overtraining will not aid the reverse dieting process, and for a period of time, even reducing your exercise to a moderate level will help to minimise your energy deficit and support the metabolic changes you’re working towards.

The bottom line

Reverse diets are used in sporting fields such as bodybuilding, but there is little scientific evidence for their application for weight management in the mainstream. But if you’ve been very restrictive with your diet, increasing your intake over time to reach a nutritionally adequate energy intake would be more beneficial than staying restricted. Focusing on calories/kilojoules is potentially a much more problematic approach to weight management than making small, sustainable healthy changes such as increasing your vegie serves, drinking water and taking regular exercise.