My last article talks about how important nutrition really is for you and your fitness goals. Spoiler alert: really important. Since publishing, I’ve had a surprising number of people reach out so that I can help get their nutrition on track.
It’s awesome. I love helping people. The only thing that’s been more surprising than the sheer number of people I’ve heard from is the percentage of those people that would benefit from reverse dieting.
Reverse dieting, or a reverse diet, is just as awesome as it sounds. Instead of eating less, you actually eat more—turning a conventional diet on its head. Problem is, most people have no idea what reverse dieting is or how to do it the right way.
Also, much like everything in the world of health and fitness, reverse dieting has been met with all kinds of scrutiny, skepticism, and controversy.
Bottom line: It works.
Regardless of what nay-sayers and skeptics have said, I’ve found reverse dieting gets great results. That’s why I’m about to show you everything you need to know about reverse dieting—what it is, how it works, arguments aginst it, and why it gets results anyway.
But before we get to all of that, I need to tell you a story.
Bees (and Fell Beasts) Fly Anyway
My freshman year of college, I took a lot of general education classes. Bio 100 was easily my least favorite—for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons? Professor Belk using science to prove that fell beasts (those giant things the Nazgûl ride in The Lord of the Rings) couldn’t actually fly.
It’s cool, though, I totally wanted to have my imagination destroyed in college.
His sound—albeit disappointing—reasoning had to do with the surface area to volume ratio.
The winged surface area required to support such a massive creature makes fellbeast flight impossible. Luckily, they’re fictional animals and fly anyway.
Bumblebees, on the other hand, are not fictional.
According to the story, a biologist and engineer were once having drinks when the conversation turned to their work. The biologist asked if the engineer could calculate how bees fly. And the engineer, eager to prove his knowledge, started scribbling calculations on the back of a napkin…
He soon came to a confusing conclusion. Based on the science, bees couldn’t fly.
For years, expert calculations showed that bees shouldn’t be able to fly. In other words, using the same science that confines fell beasts to the ground, bees can’t fly either. But the bee flies anyway. Like, I’ve seen it.
This idea that the bee flies anyway has been used countless times as an inspirational message to show anything is possible. That’s not what I’m about to do. For one, this is all about reverse dieting. Also, science caught up with itself. Turns out bees actually can fly. Go figure.
My point? Science isn’t even an exact science.
Although it may have seemed to be the case initially, bumblebees aren’t breaking physics when they fly. Science was wrong. It happens. As time goes on, science advances and our understanding of the world around us expands.
We see it happen in the fitness world all the time. Sometimes strategies that get results can’t be proven with science. At least, not right away. A lot of the stuff old-school bodybuilders did got amazing results even though science hadn’t yet caught up with the first-hand experience on Muscle Beach.
Regardless of what science says, reverse dieting is an example of something that still works.
Is it possible that it’s the placebo effect, correlation instead of causation, and science won’t ever catch up? For sure. But the proverbial bee flies anyway—reverse dieting still gets results.
What Is Reverse Dieting?
The concept of reverse dieting is simple—instead of eating less, you eat more. Sounds awesome, right? Can confirm, it is definitely awesome. The best part is that it can actually help you burn more fat.
Eating more food and losing more fat? That’s my kind of nutrition program.
However, eating more is calculated and controlled. It’s not rushing off to your favorite froyo spot and loading up your cup. The key to reverse dieting is a slow, methodical increase in caloric consumption. (I’ll get to exactly why that’s so important in a bit.)
But basically, reverse your diet too quickly and you’ll gain fat. Go too slowly and it won’t only be a painfully long process, but largely ineffective as well.
A proper reverse diet will keep you lean while you increase caloric consumption each week. Translation: you “get away with” eating more of your favorite foods and don’t have to worry about it going straight to your hips. Or waistline. Or love handles.
Here’s what a reverse diet might look like:
*Note: Usually, a reverse dieting program will last for 8–12 weeks. But this varies depending on individual goals and personal preference.
And here’s what the results of a reverse diet might look like:
That’s at least what it looked like for Stan. Obviously, everybody’s results are a little different—his are undeniable.
How Reverse Dieting Works
Homeostasis: Friend or Foe?
Your body is constantly trying to reach equilibrium, or homeostasis. You don’t even have to think about it—it’s always happening. Sweating, for example, is your body’s automatic response to a rising body temperature and will help you keep cool.
Most times, homeostasis is our friend. Sometimes, it’s not.
When it comes to fitness, we can thank this constant drive to equilibrium for our results. In a caloric deficit, it’s homeostasis that helps you lose fat. In a caloric surplus, it’s homeostasis that helps you gain muscle. That’s when homeostasis is our friend.
But after chronic dieting, our old friend homeostasis becomes less and less friendly.
Over time, the same biological process that was helping you lose fat starts making fat loss harder. How? It down-regulates your metabolic rate. A slower metabolism means that you’re burning fewer calories. And burning fewer calories means you’re losing less fat. Not cool.
Eventually, your body reaches a new equilibrium—even if you’re still restricting calories. That’s when the diet that used to work slows, stalls, and then stops getting results altogether. This is often called metabolic damage.
How Reverse Dieting Can Hack Homeostasis and Fix Metabolic Slowdown
I’ve got good news and bad news, guys.
The bad news: Your metabolism is slowing down. Everybody’s is.
Even if you’re doing all the right stuff—hitting the gym, eating perfectly, and getting plenty of sleep—your metabolism will get slower with age. Fact. Add in the wrong things people usually do—fads, crash diets, yo-yoing, starving themselves—and the inevitable metabolic slowdown gets even worse.
The good news: A slowing metabolism, however sluggish, isn’t irreversible.
That’s where reverse dieting comes in. It offers revival to your slowing metabolism. By slowly and strategically eating more food, you can correct the metabolic down-regulation that comes with age and chronic fat-loss dieting.
Just as eating fewer calories slowed your metabolism down, eating more will help bring it back to life.
Remember homeostasis? While dieting down and eating less, your body works to reach equilibrium by down-regulating your metabolic rate. While reverse dieting and eating more, your body works to reach equilibrium by up-regulating your metabolism.
Boom. Just like that, homeostasis is helping stoke your metabolic fire. It’s your friend again.
The consistent (weekly) increase in calories from reverse dieting helps prolong this symbiotic relationship between homeostasis, your metabolic rate, and your goals. Without the right programming, your body would reach a new equilibrium and the up-regulation of your metabolic rate would level off.
But by eating more food week after week for ~8–12 weeks, you leverage the body’s natural homeostatic function to up-regulate your metabolism. To bring it back to life. And to fix metabolic slowdown. As homeostasis closes in on a new equilibrium, you up the calories again and drive continued metabolic revival.
Put simply, reverse dieting utilizes the body’s natural homeostatic process to revive your sluggish metabolism.
The Arguments Against Reverse Dieting
Real talk: A lot of people—smart people—in the fitness industry say that reverse dieting doesn’t have a study-based scientific backing.
Well, they’re right. It doesn’t.
In regard to reverse dieting, one study notes the lack of research and says, “Until such research is available these anecdotal methods can only be evaluated from a mechanistic and theoretical viewpoint.” In other words, there isn’t much hard science to support the strategy.
This study even suggests there are no long-term increases in metabolic rate from overfeeding (read: eating more), which is the entire basis of reverse dieting.
Aside from anecdotal evidence, which is generally regarded as weak and limited, there isn’t much to support reverse dieting. And, unfortunately, arguments against are usually stronger than arguments in its favor. Because science.
But the bee flies anyway.
Reverse Dieting Still Gets Results (Why It Works Anyway)
There are countless reasons why different dietary strategies can work. And when you boil it down, all of them do work. Under the right circumstances, everything has its time and place. The trick is finding which strategy is going to work best for you. That’s where the magic happens.
Does reverse dieting get results because of a positive impact on your metabolic rate? Maybe. I definitely think so.
But could it also get results through other means? Absolutely. It could simply be a form of pattern interrupt. Or force people to pay more attention to what they’re eating. Or be benefitted by selection biases.
Truth is, I don’t know exactly why reverse dieting works. And science doesn’t either. It’s likely a combination of several different factors (including everything I just listed). Here’s what I do know:
Reverse dieting, when done properly, gets great results. If it’s getting results, do we really care why?
Eventually, science might catch up. Or maybe it won’t. I don’t care too much one way or the other. But I do care about using reverse dieting to help people bring their metabolism back to life, enjoy their favorite foods, lose more fat, and look amazing in the mirror.
That’s why I’m creating Metabolic Revival, a 12-week reverse dieting program that’ll help you revive your sluggish metabolism.
If you’re interested in reversing metabolic slowdown, eating more food, and turning back your metabolic clock, you won’t want to miss it.
Join The BENTRAINED Family and I’ll keep you in the loop about when Metabolic Revival is going live.
Oh, and we’ll be friends and stuff, which is cool because I love connecting with awesome people—people like you.
>>> Join The BENTRAINED Family Today <<<
Looking forward to talking soon.