For those of you thinking about or just starting a reverse diet.~~ Taking time to reverse and exit a fat loss phase even if you feel you have not reached your goal body weight or goal body composition does not mean that you are reversing your progress or postponing the results you are after. Believe me, I know it can be scary to increase calories. When I started my journey over 4 1/2 years ago I was closer to 300lbs than I was 200. I know what it’s like to be really heavy and to fear losing your hard earned fat loss results. For me, however, my goal was always sustainable weight loss. I knew that at various milestones on my fitness journey that it would be important for me to dial in and make sure that I could maintain the results I was getting by getting my calories back up to a sustainable level and take a break from being in a deficit. Throughout my journey I have done 3 reverse diets followed by a period of maintenance. After the first two I went back into a deficit to work on my fat-loss goals. Then after this most recent reverse I have entered my first ever gaining phase. The pictures I am showing are where I began my journey on the left, followed by where I ended my latest fat-loss phase in the middle, and where I found myself after 5 months of reversing and maintaining. In those 2 photos I weigh exactly the same! But my calories are up by 600 a day, my daily activity is down and I’m down 3 inches on my waist measurement. In the 5 months between these photos I focused on getting stronger and building muscle to put the extra calories I was eating to good use through a progressive resistance training program. Of course everyone’s results will be different. I wanted to share my experience in the hopes that it could help alleviate any fear you may be feeling as you step into new territory as you build your calories up and take a much needed physical and physiological break from dieting. I still, after all these years, have not reached my “goal weight”. I’m okay with that. A long time ago I fell in love with the process of improving my health and developing my physique more than chasing a specific number on the scale. So if you find yourself food focused, tired, hungry, irritable, and making very difficult progress towards your weight loss goal it’s okay to take a break and build your calories back up even if you are not to your “goal weight”. I promise it will all be okay.🤗
If you are interested in having me coach you on your own fitness journey check out my Online Fitness Coaching Service. I’d love to take the guess work out of it for you so that you can start getting the sustainable results you deserve.
Melanie Wales 