So you’ve lost some weight. Or that’s the plan. And now you want to get back to ‘regular’ life. Enjoy yourself. Hang out with friends. Not count carbs/calories/fats- whatever it is. Maybe you’re going on a vacation but you’re afraid that you’ll gain some of the weight back. You’ve seen someone close to you lose weight then put it all back on within a short period of time! So what’s missing?
The reverse diet.
The body is one of the most adaptable things I can think of. We can adapt to almost anything! So when we go on a diet our body has to adapt. This usually means that we are in a calorie deficit and our body gets used to it. If we diet for long periods of time we might have had to continually be lowering how many calories we take in on any given day (this is generally true for all diets to be successful). So here it is as simple as I can explain it. I’m going to through out some random numbers to make it simple. If we finished our diet eating 1500 calories (if it’s Keto, Paleo,etc. it doesn’t matter) our body is used to 1500 calories a day. That’s the new norm. Now if before we were eating 2500 calories a day (our maintenance) and not gaining weight before we started the diet, and tried to go back to that number- the weight will come back! So how do we fix this? We take it slowly and let the body adjust as we add in more food/calories. A Reverse Diet. If we take it slowly and spend time letting our bodies adjust- then we can ween back into regular life possibility without gaining any weight/fat back (possible of course you will gain weight back in water retention- which is normally and good!). How long does this take? It depends on your body. But make a plan on how many calories to introduce each week (for example 100-200 calories a day) and watch your weight. Make adjustments when necessary. Once you reach a point where you are slightly going up in weight, and you’ve done some research to get an idea of how many calories approx you should be eating a day- stop. That’s your new maintenance and if you stay around that level you shouldn’t gain any weight. Look at how much your eating- try and replicate that. It’ll be so much easier for the body to adjust to ups and downs after you’ve done this as opposed ot just jumping back to what you think your body will handle.
In my opinion this is the MOST important part of the diet puzzle. Losing weight isn’t terribly difficult. Maintaining weight isn’t either. It’s the part in between after the diet that people overlook and mess up.
SMPL Fitness 