Reverse dieting - your experiences?

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battybecks
battybecks Posts: 147 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hello MFPers,

So, I hit goal today. Hooray!

I have been eating a 1,200 kcal diet (eating back most of my exercise calories), and I don't want to start eating maintenance calories straight away (plus I wouldn't mind losing an extra few pounds - my goal number was a guess I made in the far off distant past) as I think it might surprise my system.

I read a blog post about reverse dieting, where you add small amounts of calories to your intake over time, and get to maintenance slowly. I thought I'd give this a go - 1,400 per day for a month, 1,600 a day for a month, 1,800 a day for a month (and then if I'm still losing on 1,800 then a bit more - and trial and error to find my actual maintenance number.

Has anyone tried this? Did it help the physical (and scary psychological) move to maintenance? Did you still lose when you upped the calories a bit, or stay the same? (The blog post said that for her, her metabolism was so shot that she didn't lose at all, even upping calories slowly). Any words of wisdom for me?

B x

Replies

  • Rose6300
    Rose6300 Posts: 232 Member
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    I don't have any answers for you as I'm about to embark on the same journey, but I'm in for the replies. My story is similar to yours. I'm 2 pounds away from my original goal, but I wouldn't mind losing 5 more than that if it happens. I lost the weight by eating 1200 calories a day (plus added-back conservatively estimated exercise calories) and just upped my calories to 1400. I actually upped my goal to 1300 a while back but didn't eat all 1300, just couldn't get the reality to match the goal. So now I've upped it to 1400 and am able to hit that. (Guess it was harder for me to add 100 calories a day than 200.)

    Hopefully you (and I) will hear some positive stories on this!
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    I don't think you need to go a full month in between calorie increases. I would do something like:

    1400 (1-2 weeks)
    1600 (1-2 weeks)
    and then step up about 100/week and keep going until you see a bump on the scale, then drop back 100 if needed.
  • GGDaddy
    GGDaddy Posts: 289 Member
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    When I hit my target weight, I pretty much had TDEE dialed in, and was eating 500 calorie below per week. I wanted to switch to surplus to add muscle mass.

    I followed SideSteel's advice from an old post, and went from TDEE-500 to TDEE-250 for a week. Then TDEE for a week. Then TDEE+250 for a week. Then TDEE+500 (and stayed there, going on 3 months now).

    It worked out very well. No weight spikes/drops, and I felt great & had lots of energy along the way.

    So to echo SideSteel, each bump for a week or two is great, a month is too long.
  • KatiePapaya
    KatiePapaya Posts: 30
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    I was on 1200 and (stupidly) not eating back calories burned. Since I hit my goal of 126lbs in January I've been adding 50-100 per week/every few weeks and increasing if I maintain. Since I started doing this, I actually dropped to 121lbs and have been maintaining that on 1640 (which I plan to increase next week!) :) it was scary at first, but I feel loads better for eating more. Best of luck!
  • ianthy
    ianthy Posts: 404 Member
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    Hi

    I am nearing maintenance - 7lbs to go and already adding back cals. Currently at the rate of 100 cals a day/week and I am still loosing weight. I know the last 7lbs will be slow but I am hoping for a softer landing onto maintenance instead of a shock to the system as you then try to add back in cals. I am eating back some of cals from exercise but it's very trial and error at the moment but m still loosing weight I certainly have not reached my calorie max.
  • KingRat79
    KingRat79 Posts: 125 Member
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    I find reverse dieting really helpful tool, it allows me to dial in exactly where my maintenance level is, it also makes me really appreciate the extra food. I wouldn't drag it out as long as you are, personally I prefer to increase my calaries each week by100-200.
  • battybecks
    battybecks Posts: 147 Member
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    Ooohh, OK - so 100 per day every week looks like the way forward! So that'd put me at 1800 in six weeks.

    I think I was going for 200kcal bumps every month because it'd be easier to work out on the weeks when my bf cooks for me (I don't want to overcomplicate what is already quite a complicated system!), but I could probably make this work ...
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    I think everyone is different, you have to play around with it. I was eating 1200 and seems like about 1400-1500 is about right for me. Anything over 1600 I gain. I am older though, 60, if your younger you can probably eat more. I am also 5 '4. They say I can eat 1900 and I do exercise 3-4 times a week but no way I gain.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    I don't think you need to go a full month in between calorie increases. I would do something like:

    1400 (1-2 weeks)
    1600 (1-2 weeks)
    and then step up about 100/week and keep going until you see a bump on the scale, then drop back 100 if needed.

    agreed
  • RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle
    RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle Posts: 1,349 Member
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    Most of us who reached goal did this. It worked for me. I kept losing at first but then it all worked out.

    Now, tell me more about your hula hooping please. I'm starting to get addicted. I've gone for thirty minutes, can kneel then stand, but I don't know any other tricks and don't want to get bored:)
  • battybecks
    battybecks Posts: 147 Member
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    Most of us who reached goal did this. It worked for me. I kept losing at first but then it all worked out.

    Now, tell me more about your hula hooping please. I'm starting to get addicted. I've gone for thirty minutes, can kneel then stand, but I don't know any other tricks and don't want to get bored:)

    Aha! My tricks are a little limited - but I'm going to a masterclass with an excellent hooper at the weekend, and hope to learn a few more things!

    At the mo I can hoop around my waist, thighs, and sometimes shoulders (sometimes not - still working on that one). Can lift hoop off waist and into air so it spins around my hand, and back down again. Can hoop around legs and lift one leg out and then back in again (which looks impressive when it's done right, but I keep banging my ankles). It's all a work in progress! Oh, also some showy arm stuff which is not really hooping but looks good when you do it all together. There's loads of videos on youtube to teach you tricks. You can also (what I mainly do when I'm just hooping for exercise) squat with the hoop and step from side to side. This is the kind of thing I do when I just wanna burn calories rather than develop tricks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5kfPPFtkUY

    Sorry - hijacking my own thread! Thank you everyone for your advice - I am going to follow the shorter timescale advice :)

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