Reverse dieting — the latest thing the fitness kids have decided to flex their orthorexia about.
I thought this shit had died a few years ago, but alas, I’m getting a fair few questions about recently, so let me put this one to bed before explaining how to finish a diet phase in a swifter, more painless fashion, while mostly achieving the same thing.
‘Reverse dieting’ commonly refers to the process of very slowly upping your caloric intake after finishing dieting, typically by 50–100 calories each week.
There are two key reasons people recommend it:
- The belief that it minimizes fat regain.
- The belief that it helps to ‘build up’ the metabolism, making it possible to eventually eat more while maintaining weight.
Both of these beliefs are false, born from a misunderstanding of what happens when you diet and what happens when you increase your caloric intake again. Allow me to explain.
Reverse dieting does not minimize fat regain
People confuse scale weight increases after dieting for fat regain. This is where this myth is born.
The number on the scale captures not only muscle and fat mass changes, but also hydration status, gut content, and muscle glycogen changes. The first two are slow to change over time; it’s the latter three which are the cause of the day-to-day fluctuations you have doubtlessly seen when dieting or when you took a planned diet break.
After you finish your diet, the scale weight goes up because of an increase in gut content (which makes sense, you are eating more food after all), and due to an overall increase in water levels in the body, which largely comes from the increase in muscle glycogen levels from the bump in carbohydrate intake.
The problem is that people freak out and think that any weight gain = fat gain.
So, in an effort to avoid this, instead of making a single large increase to caloric intake after dieting as I recommend (I’ll come back to this), people creep up their caloric intake in tiny increments, thinking this is allowing them to eat more while staying lean after dieting.
Negative, captain. — The only reason the scale weight shows such little movement is that you’re still in a caloric deficit and thus losing fat mass (and possibly muscle mass) while gaining a little gut content, water, and glycogen.
You’ll only regain fat if you eat over your caloric maintenance.
If you track your stomach measurements as I suggest in my progress tracking guide, you’ll see that the gain isn’t on your stomach (lower measurement excluded as this catches the gut increase). This will save you from the mental torture and is something I use every day to stop online coaching clients from losing their minds.
I’ve covered ‘maximum expected leanness’ in a section on my guide to finding caloric maintenance.
Slowly reverse dieting does not build up metabolic capacity
There’s some metabolic downregulation that happens when we diet. We have to eat less and less to keep losing weight at the same rate. When we increase calories, the reverse happens as hormonal function comes back to normal.
This is where the idea that making 50–100 kcal weekly increases after dieting, ‘builds up’ the number of calories we can eat and maintain weight on comes from.
However, doing this so slowly unnecessarily lengthens the time taken for your metabolism to return to normal after dieting which makes adherence much harder.
You know how after you’ve been dieting for a while you’re hungry all the time, have little energy, a lower sex drive, and hate life? Yeah, that’s these adaptations and it’s best to get to the point of reversing them as fast as possible.
There are a range of caloric intakes we can maintain weight on. This range is captured below in the dotted ‘diet condition maintenance’ (DCM) line and the top ‘normal condition maintenance’ (NCM) line.
The difference is that at the DCM line we still feel like shit, but at the NCM line, we feel human again.

When people bump their caloric intake up by just 50–100 kcal each week, they’re spending an unnecessarily long time moving from the ‘dieting’ line to the ‘post-diet maintenance’ line, when this could simply have been done in one step.
How long? Well, let’s say you’ve been losing 1 lb per week. This means you’ve been in a 500 kcal deficit. If you decide to increase by 50–100 kcal each week, you’ll spend 5–10 weeks coming back to diet condition maintenance. You may as well do this in one step.
How to Calculate Maintenance Caloric Intake After Dieting
Take your average rate of weight loss in pounds per week. Multiply that by 500, add those calories in. You’ll gain weight but this will not be fat and this will bring you around the DCM line and will take care of that initial deficit.
The next job is to get you feeling human again and eating as much as possible without regaining fat. But we don’t have a way of calculating how much the metabolic adaptation to dieting was (the DCM to NCM line difference), so our best path is to make incremental bumps to caloric intake and track the stomach measurement changes.
I’d suggest making ~200 kcal bumps every couple of weeks and stop when you start getting visually and measurably less lean.
Click here for my more detailed guide on finding maintenance with macro examples.
Reverse Dieting FAQ
Roughly, how long does it take for hormone balance to return to normal after going back to maintenance calories?
It will be different for different hormones. A more relevant question is: How long does it take to feel normal again (in terms of hunger, libido, energy levels)?
This will depend on how severe the deficit was, how long you dieted for, and whether you’re trying to stay too lean for what your body can handle (see next point).
From the feedback of coaching clients as I’ve taken them out of diet phases into maintenance and/or bulking), typically 4–8 weeks. Energy levels come back first, libido second, and it can take a while for hunger to come under control for some people if the amount of weight loss is great, which is why I put this third.
What is the maximum level of leanness I can reasonably expect to maintain?
There is a genetic, environment and willpower component to this. If you try to stay leaner than your body can handle you’re in for a potentially rough ride.
The exact level depends on the balance of happiness between the satisfaction you derive from your low body-fat percentage, with the drawback of having to control your urges in restaurants, bars, and social occasions. But nobody walks around at competition levels of leanness year-round.
Typically, the 8-13% body fat range. But I can only speak for the clients I work with, who are all male and as they’ve sought out coaching online, this clearly puts them in a bracket of people who are particularly committed.
More on this at the end of my more detailed guide to finding caloric maintenance, where you’ll also see photo examples of a client’s changes as we transitioned from a diet into a bulking phase.
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Thanks for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments, as always.
– Andy
Please keep questions on topic, write clearly, concisely, and don't post diet calculations.
Privacy policy.
Sorry if I missed this, but it didn’t seem like this article dispelled the idea of reverse dieting. It sounds like it just proposes that you can go back to a maintenance level faster, which makes sense in some cases. With the reverse dieting theory I should be able to start at maintenance, go up slowly and not gain fat, establish a new higher maintenance level, then cut 500+ calories and be losing fat. E.G. start at 2000C/day, get to 2500C/day by going up 50-100C/day each week, then cut to 2000C/day and begin losing fat at the rate of about 1lb/week. Right?
Unfortunately not. Your metabolism will adapt again.
Hey Andy. First: it’s absolutely awesome to see that you take you take the time to answer all these questions for free! I wonder if you think there’s any reason to have a maintenance period after extended fat loss before starting a bulk? I went from 90kg to 78kg and now want to do a controlled bulk, should I jump straight into it or take some time to “stabilize” here? Thank you!
Hi John, thank you!
You’re fine to move right into it. See the second example in the “Controlled Bulk Example Adjustments” section of my How to Bulk Without Getting Fat article.
After we are done with our cut, could we simply use your macro calculator and select recomp for our maintenance calories?
Best to use the method described here if you have data because the calculator can only provide an estimation.
Hey Andy! I have a (maybe though) question. I come from a history of disordered eating and have been eating very low for quite a while. I slowly want to eat more to get my hormonal functions back to normal, repair my body and ease into maintenance (I’m about 14lbs over where I’d ideally like to be). The thing is, my body doesn’t even have that much appetite anymore, and anything over 400-600ish calories a day feels just like too much. Where would you start if you were me, 5’2, 130lbs, female, working out 2-3x (small home workouts)? I know that numbers like 1200-1500 will make me shoot up really fast (I did regular reverse dieting a few years back), although they seem already low for others:(
Hi Norah,
I can speak for the technical elements here, but not about your eating disorder and what may or may not be appropriate for you in your situation. So, if we set that aside, here’s how I would answer:
“I know that numbers like 1200-1500 will make me shoot up really fast (I did regular reverse dieting a few years back), although they seem already low for others”
When we increase calorie intake, we gain weight from water, gut content, and muscle glycogen (1 g of carbs is stored along with ~3–4 g of water). This happens in the first few days and then tapers off over 2 weeks, and only after that point do you really get to see whether you’re at maintenance or not.
So, the large rise in weight you have experienced is due to that, and it’s normal.
Do you have any bibliographic references of this?
Hi Roberto, study references do you mean?
I only add scientific references to my books, not site articles. I want to keep things casual, minimize clutter, and I know that 99% of readers would not use them anyway.
The exceptions to this are the articles containing sample chapters of my Muscle and Strength Pyramid books. The training book has 158 unique references, the nutrition book 301 unique references. The site for them is here.
Hey Andy! You say “Reverse dieting” is a myth, but Layne Norton has a whole book dedicated to this idea. What is your opinion on this?
This article.
Love it! Can’t wait to get to this point. Losing has not been as fast as I want so anxious to get past that and into maintenance.
Thank you, Melissa.
Hi Andy.
As a 63 year old make, my goal is a leaner, toned body for generally good health; I am not seeking to body build or compete. But you I would love to arrive at a 15% body fat build. Currently I am 5’11” and 61kg.
My primary exercise components are: 1) significant swimming – 1500-1800 yards with intervals 3x weekly. I very much enjoy this and want to keep doing this. 2) basic circuit weight training on Cybex equipment, 2-3 x weekly for 50 minutes.
My question: where does the swimming fight into my nutritional numbers? Are swim days training days with high carbs/low fats? Or are these something else.
Thanks.
Norm
Consider them to be independent of the training/rest day setup. Factor the swimming in by bumping up the multiplier to one level higher than you otherwise would in the calorie and macro calculator.
I trust you so I skipped to the “how to” section. I think there’s a word missing in the first part of this sentence? “I’d suggest making ~200 kcal every couple of weeks and stop when you start getting visually and measurably less lean.”
Bumps. Thank you! Fixed.
I’d suggest making ~200 kcal bumps every couple of weeks…
Hey Andy,
I am currently am reverse dieting and have been since the end of june. Now I read what you were saying in regards to increasing the calories right away. But when I did so I did gain weight but also lost leaness almost right away with the increase in calories.
I also have been in a deficit according to many people and calculators but I continue to gain weight even while eating in this deficit
Hi Meghan. Yes, some water may come under the skin making you look less lean.
Hi Andy! Thank you so much for this information. Incredibly interesting and looking forward to eating at my maintenance level soon and reading more of your content. I am by no means a competitor in fitness. Just a woman in her 40s looking to finally lose the 20-25 lbs that I have always wanted to lose. Well, I’m almost at my goal weight, and I have been working with a “nutritional coach” who set my macros. However, whenever I inquire about maintenance calories, I never get a solid answer. I have been dieting, losing approximately 1-2 lbs since May. Heading into my 10th week of my caloric deficit/diet. Should I take a break from dieting or wait till I get to my goal weight?
Thank You!
Hi Yvette. Metabolism is adaptive, so maintenance fluctuates. I go over the reasons for that here: How to Find Maintenance Calorie Intake After Dieting.
As for diet breaks, see my guide here.
Hi, Andy, love your content. I was wondering if water retention still occurs during maintenance calories. Kinda similar during a cutting phase.
It can occur at any time, but it will only mask fat loss during times you’re losing fat.
Hi there, does consuming protein 36-48 hours after weight training still stimulate mps ? Thx!!
Most likely, but I believe there is a dropoff with time. But don’t plan your workouts based on estimates of when MPS drops off. Do it this way.
Hi Andy! Quick nutrition question that has always confused me. If, close to the end of the day I have hit my calories but my macros are askew as such I am down on my protein. Should I over eat my calories to get in the protein remainder or better I stop at my calories and continue the next day? Also would you answer change if you goal was gaining muscle over losing fat say?
Hi James,
No no. Calories > macros. Have a read of this: The Complete Nutrition Setup Guide.
Thanks for the reply man 😀 have downloaded the pdf. Will have a read. Love your work!!
Thank you and most welcome, James!
Excellent!
I’m about a week in, 2lbs over stage weight. But I’m now worried about stopping the rev and do what you say (because even though I added 500kcals to my ending macros 1595, I still feel like crap), this is the first time I’ve ever been this lean post contest. I usually do the “rookie” binge lol.
So what should I do Andy? I’m currently at 2005 kcals, should I increase 200 more? This would at least put me at your calculated numbers for my current macros?
Hi Larry,
I still feel like crap
Yup, you’re gonna feel like crap for a while. I’ve just added a section at the end of the article helping to explain this.
should I increase 200 more?
Yes, the advice is the same.