Reverse dieting is commonly spoken about in the bodybuilding space & those in weight category sports 💪🏼🥊
As these sports generally require reaching a fairly low-calorie deficit to compete 🥗🍗
So, at the end of an extended calorie deficit, you gradually increase calories to reverse out of the deficit back to maintenance calories 🔄
This is usually done by increasing calories by around 50-100 calories per week ⬆️
Reverse dieting is practiced to supposedly avoid fat gain, usually by increasing carb and fat intake slowly.
The reason this became so popular as it's said to reverse metabolic adaptation.
Metabolic adaptation basically means that your metabolism is lowered when in a calorie deficit because you are expending less calories.
But these magical claims made by reverse dieting don't hold up 🙅🏻♀️
Going back to maintenance calories as quickly as possible is the best way to reverse metabolic adaptation as you are spending less time in a deficit.
The problem a lot of people face with going back to maintenance calories, is they don't consider that their maintenance calories may be slightly lower than before, because of their reduced body weight and the metabolic adaptation that comes with that.
So, people also often overshoot their calorie intake and end up gaining unwanted fat 🍩
One strategy that may be useful to avoid this is transitioning to higher calories by let's say 250-500 calories per week, to reach true maintenance calories without overshooting.
This may be different for each individual’s deficit, but that’s a basic guideline.
Doing this may also help from a psychological standpoint as lots of people may struggle mentally to come out of a calorie deficit.
It's important to also remember that you may see some weight gain at true maintenance calories and that may be purely because of things like increased glycogen storage, water weight and food volume 💧💪🏼 🍱