Reverse dieting for boosting metabolism

(Briton) #1

Anyone have experience with reverse dieting? I’ve been stalled for months and think my metabolism has slowed down too much. Some say your body will adjust to eating more calories and then you can cut by going into calorie deficit and break plateaus. Apparently reverse dieting is good for muscle building as well

(bulkbiker) #2

What are you eating? I find a fast will often help break through a stall… (has worked for my last three stalls) although am doing a beef only OMAD January to try to get into Onederlnd for the first time in my adult life… currently 6 pounds away!

(Mother of Puppies ) #3

What is “reverse dieting?”

(Briton) #4

Increasing calories to maintenance after being in a deficit for awhile.

(Briton) #5

Normal strict keto IF 16:8 70/25/5 macros with about 1700 cal per day.

(bulkbiker) #6

I’m not a great believer in calorific deficit so maybe your idea of increasing could work… maybe some feasting and fasting?

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #7

I think of it like our body is a warehouse full of workers all asleep on the job because there isn’t much to do when we’re not eating much. Only the overachievers are still awake being productive. Then you feast and the alarm goes off. Wake up! We have a shipment, everyone to work.

And then, when you’re not feasting, later on, they’re all still awake and some of them take it upon themselves to clean and organize and stay busy before they get bored and fall asleep again.

(I’m having one of those days, excuse me :grin:)

(Bunny) #8

If your a one meal a day OMAD type that just might work!

When I go to a restraunt, I just pig-out on what ever, it is the frequency of the eating window that determines the metabolic equilibrium; next day I am back in ketosis because I’ve been genuinely fat adapted for a very very long time so the impact is too minimal to even worry myself to death about!

I do believe I have a lot more brown fat (BAT: from drinking bitter melon extract with cold water when I’m fasting and keeping the omega 3 intake high; ever wonder how fish survive in real cold water? Some even glow in the dark; ATP electrical current?) which takes the sugar I just consumed (restraunt pig-out incident) and body fat I already have and burns it together (UCP-1) directly as energy rather than storing it as fat when that insulin gets to spiking?

I think reverse dieting (feast & fast) is an excellent way of boosting metabolism if it is done carefully and intermittently when you have a good health reserve built-up?

(Mother of Puppies ) #9

So, Dr. Fung and Megan do recommend cycles of feasting and fasting, and say that higher caloric intake helps keep metabolism high, but as to whether you can go from restriction to increased calories to increase metabolism? Seems logical, but not absolutely sure.

(Heather Meyer) #10

It seems like it would work…follows a natural cycle it seems… I seem to be able to do 20:4 or 22:2 fasting for 2 or 3 days without issue and thenmy natural hunger kicks in on the 3rd or 4th day telling me to eat all day. So my calories come up staggered for the week. An example would be

M-Fast @900 calories(,not hungry)
Tu -Fast @ 800ish calories(,not hungry)
Wed- Fast@ 900ish calories (not hungry)
Thur - Eat… fasting 16:8 or 12:12 (very hungry)
calories @ 1500-1800
Fri- Fast@ 800-900 calories

So it seems that on 20:4 or 22:2 fasting days i lose my appetite after the 18th hour. When i start eating on fasting days i cant eat much due to no hunger really which means significant calorie deficit.(not intentional)
Then, i after a few days of it… i hit a day where all of the sudden im seriously hungry and cant fast much at all that day. So i eat and eat well up to maintrnence.
Then the next day i appear to be able to go back to fasting and carry on for a few more days at a deficit before feeling hungry all day again.

I think reverse dieting would requiring being in tune with your bodys needs. I know some who dont reverse deficit but they do reverse carbs. Instead of 20 net carbs…they will allow 30 net carbs in the form of berries and will do that once a month.
They claim it breaks a plateau.
So… N=1
I find when i do exercise it changes it all up again and i hqve to figure it out

(Robert C) #11

I have only heard the term “reverse dieting” to be what a body builder or physique competitor does after dieting down in an extreme fashion to become “ripped” for a competition. They spend 10 or more weeks lowering their calorie count down to very low levels (for large people with lots of muscles). By the last week they could be well below 1000 calories per day for a large man (all broccoli and chicken breasts). Then, after the competition, it is beer and pizza for some and reverse dieting for others.

The concept of reverse dieting for them is to avoid adding a lot of body fat by not eating a lot of calories while their metabolism is slowed so much.

It is very similar to the approach suggested here to newbies - up your calories until your metabolism and hormones have normalized.

The difference is that the term “reverse dieting” is still just about adding 100 or so calories to each day of the week - so more broccoli and chicken.

Keto recommends getting your metabolism fat adapted by upping calories with fat instead.

(Carl Keller) #12

Love this! My workers used to be chronically late for work or calling in sick, but lately they are all on point because I cut out overtime. :sunglasses:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

Our body adapts to what we give it. Restrict its calories, and the body slows down metabolic processes and put non-essentials on hold. Give it an abundance, and it speeds up the metabolism and wakes up the processes that have gone to sleep. The whole point of the “eating to satiety” thing is to be sure that we give our body enough to do what it needs to do, by letting it tell us how much it needs, rather than trying to out-think two million years of evolution.

Much easier, I should think, to avoid adding a lot of body fat by not eating a lot of carbohydrate and not bothering to restrict calories. But that’s just me.

(Dave Smith) #14

I find that every December I seem to embark on a “reverse dieting” roller coaster so I don’t need to add one in. I think I only added a few pounds this season though so let’s see what the next few months brings. Down about 60 pounds over the last year. Thanks to Keto, Paleo, NSNG, LCHF as I move through each of those when it feels right.

#15

Of late I’ve been trying this 12- to 14-day regimen. 72 EF fast; 24 eat; 72 fast; 24 eat; 40 fast; 24 eat; then three days of IF 22/2. This is definitely fast and feast (for me) with some curve balls thrown in at the end, such as enjoying a dine-out night.

The result has been 8 pounds of fat lost (not gained back) over 14 days. And I feel fine. Thankfully I am nearing the end of the 40-hour fast portion of this 14-day cycle. And it got me through Christmas on the minus side.

By the way, I’ve done this three times now and have lost 7 to 8.5 pounds (not gained back) each time.

Feast and famine is not easy but it seems to be the way of our historical lives.

#16

Adding exercise- cardio or lifting might be another way to boost metabolism and break a stall.

I don’t think it matters too much what someone does in the activity department- as long as they are putting in real effort.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

One of the starvation studies—it might have been Keys’s—put the participants on a 1500-calorie starvation diet. The participants all lost weight, but after they returned to their normal caloric intake, they not only returned to their starting weight, but added a further ten pounds or so. This effect has been seen in many other studies, as well. Intriguingly, it seems to be an effect that fasting doesn’t produce.

(bulkbiker) #18

Yep it was the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

Ta very much!

(Running from stupidity) #20

And that seems to be because if you feast while you’re eating, your body doesn’t consider that to be a reduction in energy inputs that requires a slowdown in the BMR.