THE REVERSE DIET: Eat as much as you want without putting on weight!
I want you to do something for me.
Take a moment to yourself, close your eyes, and imagine a world without eating restrictions. It’s a world where you can go out for lunch and order whatever you want on the menu. It’s a world where you can follow this up with a few drinks, maybe even a snack. It’s a world where you can eat whatever the heck you want, whenever you want, without having to worry about putting on weight.
This might sound fanciful. You might have read that and thought there was a better chance of that Hogwarts letter finally arriving, than there was of this dream scenario becoming a reality. But I’m here to tell you that not only is it possible, but it’s actually pretty damn achievable.
Welcome to the world of reverse dieting. Contrary to that word ‘diet,’ and the negative connotations that surround it, this method of eating will actually allow for you to eat more over a longer period of time without putting on any excess weight. Even better, that once you’ve nailed the process, macros, calories and food scales will become a thing of the past.
But how do you do it, you ask? Read on and find out how you can eat as much as you want without putting on weight, simply by employing the reverse diet into your eating program.
WHAT IS A REVERSE DIET
The reverse diet is exactly what is sounds like. Where most diets encourage you to eat less over longer periods of time, this method of eating allows for you to eat more. In this way, it’s not so much a diet as it is a completely revolutionized method of food consumption.
The truth is, losing weight is pretty easy. There’s no great trick behind it, or complex scientific formula. All you need to do to lose weight is eat less calories than your body burns each day. That’s it! The same goes for weight gain. Eating more calories than what you require will see that excess food turn into fat and settle itself on your waistline permanently.
The reverse diet attempts to take advantage of, and manipulate this process. The core concept of the reverse diet is to slowly introduce extra calories into your eating program at such a steady pace that your body doesn’t recognize the excess. It does take time, and it does require commitment, but if done correctly by the time that you are finished, you could be eating almost twice as much as you once were, while maintaining the same body weight as before.
WHY LISTEN TO ME
The short answer? Because I’ve successfully done the reverse diet, and as a result I now eat 3000 calories a day while maintaining a body weight of roughly 10% fat. That’s why.
But the longer answer is this.
I’ve been a ‘gym junkie’ for over ten years now, and in that time I have tried a lot of different eating fads… to be perfectly honest with you, I’ve tried just about all of them by now. I once committed myself to low a carb diet where I pretty much ate only protein and not much else. I then went the opposite way and ate excess carbs in the hope that it would see me pack on kilograms of muscle. I went paleo for a while, thinking this fad-diet was the key to all my dieting woes. And I’ve dabbled with the basics of cutting and bulking over extended periods of time too.
For me, the reverse diet just clicked. I started it four years ago now, in yet another bid to find the perfect method of eating. And where at first it was hard, and where there was a learning curve that I had to figure out on my own (which luckily, you won’t), it’s now so ingrained in my lifestyle that I don’t even have to think about it anymore. I just do it. But that’s the point.
HOW TO REVERSE DIET: THE STEPS
- START FROM ZERO
The irony here is that the hardest part of the reverse diet comes before you even start.
In order to reverse diet properly, you need to get your body weight down as low as is comfortable for you to maintain. The reverse diet is about maintaining while eating more. So, you need to reach a level that you are happy to maintain, before you can even start.
For myself, when I started my reverse diet, I was at about 8% body fat. I’d spent the three months before this period crash dieting and working out like it was my job, all to get myself down to that weight class. By the time I was ready, I was eating about 2200 calories a day, constantly hungry, and just about ready to start eating again.
2. TRACK YOUR FOOD
The reverse diet is all about consistency and attention to detail, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the tracking and measuring of food.
If you started the process correctly, then you were most likely dieting already to get yourself to a good starting off point. As such, you should have a pretty good idea of how much you eat at each meal, and over an entire day. It doesn’t have to be pin-point accurate (although that does help). Rather, it needs to be consistent. Every single time.
For my reverse diet, when I started, I knew exactly how many calories I was eating for each meal, and thus over the entire day. Breakfast was always a protein shake with a banana and half a cup of oats. My next three meals were 700 grams of sweet potato, 540 grams of chicken breast, and three scoops of peanut butter spread across those three. And dinner was white rice, lean beef mince and vegetables.
For you, you’ll need to write down what you eat each day and make sure that you stick with this every single time. Don’t increase it yet. Just know what your maintenance is.
3. INCREMENTAL INCREASES AND CONSISTENCY
This is where the fun begins.
Once you have your base weight down, and once you know how much you are eating, stick with it for two weeks. As you do, make sure that your exercise routine stays the same and always keep an eye on that scale. If, after two weeks of doing this, you notice that your weight has stayed the same (which is should if you’ve been eating correctly), then it’s time to increase.
The increase needs to be small, barely even noticeable. You might add an extra piece of bread into one of your meals. Maybe it’s an extra bit of fat (a scoop of peanut butter), or even a snack. Try and keep it at 100 calories or less over the day. If you were eating 2200 calories for two weeks, make it 2300 calories.
And then, start the process again. Once you’ve made this small addition, stick with it. Spend two-three weeks eating this same way, committing to the same amount of exercise as you were before, living the same life but with those 100 extra calories a day thrown in. If you do this correctly, you will notice that after two-three weeks your weight will have stayed the same but you’ll be eating more.
And what do you do after those two-three weeks? Increase again.
Add another 100 calories or so to a meal. Make sure that it’s the same each time. Maintain the same level of exercise you were during those previous two-three weeks. And, most importantly, try and stay consistent. This 100 calorie addition will soon be 200 will soon be 300 will soon be 400. Where you might have started off at only 2200 calories a day, within 6 months you might be eating 2700 without even noticing.
One thing to note too, before you get carried away. As you increase your calories, you will find that the periods of sticking with this increase will last for longer. So where your first increase might have only seen you wait two weeks before going up again. The next might require a month of this same eating pattern. Slow and steady wins the race here.
4. WHEN YOU GO OVER
This happens to all of us, and is just part of the process. For myself, it usually happens toward the tail end of winter. As a gym-junkie obsessed with putting on muscle, I will always be drawn by the desire to eat more food so I can lift more weight so I can theoretically put on more muscle. By the time that winter hits its end, I’ve usually started adding calories faster than my body can adjust and I’ve inevitably put on a few extra kilos.
But that’s alright to do. When you do go over your desired weight, all you need to do is backtrack a little using the exact same process. Remove a small amount of calories from one of your meals and stick to that for a few weeks. Then do it again, and again stay consistent. As with putting on weight, taking it off slowly is infinitely better for you and allows for you to live comfortably without having to stress about the pitfalls of dieting.
And then, once you’ve scaled back and you’re at the body weight you desire again, re-start the process. You’ll notice that you’re not starting from zero again either. Where 6 months ago, 2200 calories might have been your base, now it’s probably closer to 2500 calories. By the time you slip again, it will be at 2700 calories or more.
5. DON’T STRESS
This is the final step, although it’s not so much a step as it is a general piece of sage wisdom.
No one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. Sometimes it comes in the form of a big weekend with a lot of booze. Other times it comes in the form of an illness that completely throws eating patterns out of whack. When this happens, the important thing is to not worry about it.
Because you have been so consistent in tracking your food, and measuring your calories, you should know by now how much you are eating — and how much you need to eat to maintain body weight. So, on those days that you do slip up, simply take a moment, see where you’re at, and then get back to it. A couple of bad days here and there won’t make a difference. This is about having more good days than bad.
IS IT WORTH IT?
This one really comes down to you, and what you wish to get out of the diet.
For me, it was about maintaining a low level of body fat while also building muscle. In the world of weightlifting, it is often believed that you have to eat more in order to put on muscle. A natural consequence of this sees you put on huge amounts of body fat just so as to increase the amount of weight you can lift. This is called ‘bulking’ and after 9 months of bulking, the inevitable ‘cut’ has to happen. The cut is always hard, as it forces you to drop calories quickly so as to slim down for summer and show off those new muscles that you worked so hard to build.
The reverse diet counteracts this process. It allowed me to slowly increase my strength while eating more, without having to worry about putting on fat. Yes, the process was longer and harder to do. But on the flip-side, I didn’t have to worry about cutting each year, or spending 3 months of the year with a belly instead of a six pack. I was able to stay lean all year round and gain muscle.
For you, the reasoning might be different, but the end result will be the same. The reverse diet will see you eat more food than you ever have before, while not putting on any fat. It is a long process. And it does take a little bit of time and patience. But the end result is worth it. Of that, I can attest to personally.
NOW WHAT?
Eat. It really is as simple as that.
If you have been reverse dieting properly, you will eventually reach a point where you’re eating a lot of food just to maintain body weight. Oddly, this can sometimes become a problem as you might find that you lose weight on days where you don’t manage to eat enough calories (what a problem to have).
But also, enjoy the process. By far the best part of the reverse diet is the learning curve it forces you to excavate. It will teach you how to listen to your body, and eat accordingly. It might inspire in you to exercise more, eat for health rather than weight gain, and not sweat the scale so much.
The reverse diet isn’t so much a diet, but a revolutionized way of eating. Start living your life accordingly.
