One of the more common questions I get from those who have been on a diet is what should I do after I successfully lose fat and am done with my dieting phase?
I help regular people. From 14 year old kids trying to have fun, to 25 year old guys trying to put on solid mass, to 65 year old men and women trying to gain fitness through retirement and everything in between. Despite who I work with, I’m still shocked by the amount of people that don’t know what to do after they reach their goal when dieting. But, I’m also really excited on how many people can learn what to do.
I usually get this question when we enter a dieting phase and they gain interest from their progress. This is such a great sign because it shows me they care about keeping results and want to learn how to do it! I take this question so seriously what I've been doing is after a training session, have a sit down with my client and answer their questions.
Their questions are usually along the lines of this one:
"After I reach my goal when dieting, what do I do next?"
Many people believe that when you diet you cut out calories and do tons of cardio and you just stay like that until you happen to gain weight back and start over. But, there’s a method to not be on a diet and keep your results!
example:
A client who’s dieting successfully reaches their goal but can’t seem to lose more fat without suffering too much, they ask what to do next. This is a great time for a reverse diet. A reverse diet is when you take steps to reverse the metabolic adaptations of a diet. Some of steps include slowly adding more calories to the persons day and slowly lowering the amount of cardio being done. This allows them to work towards a time of more life & social enjoyment, food enjoyment, training progress and much more.
When you finish a long dieting phase (10-12 weeks or more for example) & have lost a lot of weight and still want to lose more but, can’t seem to eat any less or do any more work, you should consider a reverse diet. This is one step after a successful diet to help you keep weight off and set up your next dieting phase. It allows you to slowly increase calories and eat more food while trying to remain at your new leaner physique. In an ideal situation... this allows you to then, in the future, go into another dieting phase to lose more fat, while already being leaner and eating more since your last fat loss diet, so you get even more lean but maybe don’t eat as little as your last diet.
This can be a very slow process & sometimes be more difficult than the diet because technically it’s a strategy of slow and controlled over feeding. Surprisingly, some people have lost weight eating more & doing less cardio, which is never expected but we can work and hope for it!
This is the responsible step you can take after going on a successful diet & and see what results you can bring in the long term!
A practical example of a reverse diet is laid out below,
Say a 220 male is maintaining his weight and body fat (27%) eating ~3000 calories per day and burning 600 calories during cardio exercise per week. He wants to lose 9kg and 10% body fat. He goes into a dieting phase and we see the following:
*Assume this hypothetical client is consistently training hard and losing fat while following his plan*
Weeks 1-4: 2600 cals/day - 1000 cardio/week
You continue to diet and drop cals from 2600 to 2200 cals/day & increase cardio from 1000 to 1400
Weeks 5-8: 2200 cals/day - 1400 cardio/week
You continue to diet and drop cals from 2200 to 1900 cals/day & increase cardio from 1400 to 1600
Weeks 9-12: 1900 cals/day - 1600 cardio/week
(There are many ways to make a fat loss diet suck less like adding in diet breaks or maintenance phases, or refeed days etc.)
You continue to diet and keep cals at 1900 cals/day but increase cardio from 1600 to 2000 because you don't want to eat less and don't mind doing more cardio for now
Weeks 13-16: 1900 cals/day - 2000 cardio/week
(There are ways to make training suck less when dieting like lowering overall volume, going back to the volume level that maintains your current level of fitness, take diet breaks, and other strategies)
You feel hungry often, you feel fatigued, you feel like you're always focusing on food and your next meal. But, you've already lost a great deal of weight and body fat. You then decide to stop dieting because you're happy with your results and have met your goal.
Following week 16 this hypothetical client would then start their reverse diet.
Weeks 17-18: Maintenance Phase - 2100 cals/day - 2000 cardio/week (assessing and making sure the client is able to maintain their weight at this point)
Weeks 19-22: 2200 cals/day - 1900 cardio/week
Added 100 calories to eat daily and took 100 cardio calories away
Weeks 23-26: 2300 cals/day - 1800 cardio/week
Assessing closely to see how weight is reacting.
You see the trend...
There are a lot of other things to take into consideration when reverse dieting like if it's appropriate to add a calorie "buffer" right after dieting to quickly give the person more food and put them closer to their maintenance or if they need a slower approach and the rate of increase you feel is right for the person.
Say down the line client and coach work well together and find that the client is now able to eat 2900 calories per day and does no cardio, only goes for a 5-10 min walk daily all while maintaining a lower body weight and body fat from dieting. They are now in a much better position to begin another diet in the future because they are already more lean since their last diet, they're eating more food, and doing less cardio. It puts them in a substantially better position to move forward. They likely have more muscle on their frame from training hard and when they decide to lose more fat, more muscle will show. For women, muscle is what gives you the curves and the "sexy" appealing look most women work hard for.
Taking time to reverse diet is ESSENTIAL after a fat loss phase. Plan ahead and take responsibility for your next fat loss experience.
Have questions? Message me and I will be happy to provide an answer!
Want help from a Certified Nutrition Coach who has experience helping others lose fat, build muscle, & reverse diet? Send me a message about reverse dieting!
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