Has anyone tried reverse dieting?

[vireak]

Hi! I’m a 4’8” (144cm) F that is finding hard to lose weight because imagine my TDEE I started trying losing weight when I hit 62kg. I’m tracking my calories since February and eating 1200 a day (I didnt want to eat lower than that) but i’ve stalled at 58-59 kg. I do exercise but not as regular, maybe 2-3 times a week of either walking outside or 30-min dumbbell home workouts when its too hot. Someone suggested that I try eating more and then focusing on strength. I just wanna be able to hit 53kg

I’m 32 by the way. Any advice is appreciated

 

[tashpauls]

@vireak Yep focus on your workout. How long have you been stalled? Its normal for someone of your height and weight to lose 1lb every 2 to 3 months.

 

[vireak]

@tashpauls Oh I did not know that but that makes me feel better hahaha been fluctuating from between 58-59 for maybe 2 months now. Do you think I should also up my calories?

 

[tashpauls]

@vireak its tough cause fluctuations are normal. You can try to up your calories to maintenance for a week and then go back to a deficit to see if it makes a difference (if it does make a difference, it should show in about another week). You gotta make sure you're actually calculating your calories correctly as well. Sadly being so short, we don't have a lot of room for error. Also take a look at your nutrition, make sure you're getting your fiber, enough water, and check your sodium intake. All of which can affect your water retention and bowel movement. (This can explain to you why it goes up or down, if you had more salt days before, it would mean you're most likely retaining fluid) Your periods also have weight and hormones can affect a lot of things.

The easiest way to speed it up is to workout more (don't overdo it of course). Otherwise, its normal for it to be so slow.

 

[vireak]

@tashpauls Thank you very much! yes, I was 58 yesterday and now 57.5 because my period finally started. This is so frustrating at times. Ill up my calories this week yay! But Ill also incorporate strength workout more. Even if I do gain weight, at least its muscle mass right? Hehe thank you again for your advice!

 

[tashpauls]

@vireak Slow progress is frustrating. Hopefully you can start being able to predict how your body tends to do things. You should start seeing patterns and take notes of patterns of what could cause the gain. So you actually know when you're plateauing. At least for me, I generally know if the next day I'll see a dip or not in my weight depending on my period or what I ate the past 2 days.

 

[victu]

@tashpauls That effing SUCKS!!!!

 

[charliechristians]

@vireak Yes. I was in the very same boat. I was extremely skinny fat 33% with very little muscle so even when I got down to a very low weight, I was still very skinny fat and my diet bottomed out.

Now I have gone from 1200 to 1900 in 2 years and from 105lbs to 124lbs at 5”2 and recomped (less body fat and more muscle) but still have body fat to lose and muscle to gain.

Went very slowly, like 25 cal every 2 weeks.

Very diligent tracking, weighing food, always eat at home, daily weights, daily waist circumferences.

Use the weekly average waist, circumference in order to decide whether or not to increase calories. If you use this instead of bodyweight, then you can slow down when your waist is starting to go up there by minimizing body fat gain. At the same time you want your wait to go up because that means you’re gaining muscle.

Progressive overload weightlifting 1.5h mwf, no cardio, average 4000 steps per day. If you have access to a gym with weight equipment, it really helps but if not, you just need to be really diligent with tracking home workouts and making at progressively harder.

Right now I’m just hanging out at 1900 cal for a while, planning to do a mini cut at some point, and then keep going.

 

[vireak]

@charliechristians Oh this is good insight. Thank you very much. Most of the doctors I saw are like "more cardio, eat less" and it's stressing me out, especially since they know I have hormonal imbalance. I'll focus on losing fat and less on scales. Thank youu!

 

[charliechristians]

@vireak You are welcome.

It’s so true. Doctors don’t learn anything about fitness sadly. The only ones who do know are actually in shape themselves. A doctor’s lifestyle pretty much means that nobody is going to the gym. They don’t really know about metabolic adaptation and such so I don’t go to my doctor for advice on any of that. Plus being in a calorie deficit all the time is really stressful on the body and will def screw both hormones and sleep.

My path is the slow path but in the end I will win and you can too!

 

[vireak]

@charliechristians That's very encouraging, I appreciate that!

I definitely agree. I tried doing a lot more weights before and naturally, my weight didnt change much but my body was better and I feel better. Unfortunately, they only relied on my BMI and kept pushing me to lose. And since I'm only 4'8" they want me to be less than 50kg. And I hated how I look when I was 45k. I looked like a 10 yo kid haha

 

[charliechristians]

@vireak This is the problem with BMI. It is grossly inaccurate for petites and tall people. I wish doctors would do dexa scans and use body fat percentage instead because there recommendations probs made you lose muscle

 

[brothermark83]

@charliechristians When you say “25 cals/week” is that 25 additional cals on top of the calories you’re eating every day day?? Or is 25 cals spread across all 7 days?

 

[charliechristians]

@brothermark83 Like this:

Week 1 - 1200 calories every day

Week 3 - 1225 calories every day moving forward

Week 5 (if waist circumference the same) - 1250 calories everyday moving forward

Etc

 

[brothermark83]

@charliechristians Thanks so much!! So every 2 weeks you increase the calls/day by 25 (ex wk1&2 at 1200/wk 3&4 at 1225/wk 5&6 at 1250, wk 7&8 at 1275 etc)? Sorry if that’s wrong, I’m trying to understand how to do this properly

 

[charliechristians]

@brothermark83 Approximately. I take daily waist circumferences and if my waist is stable I increase every 2 weeks

 

[brothermark83]

@charliechristians This was seriously so helpful, thank you!!

 

[charliechristians]

Otherwise hold for a bit

 

[iamforgivenandredeemed]

@vireak I'm currently doing a reverse diet. I'm F30 5'4" and started at 1525 calories while weightlifting 4 days a week. I upped my calories by 50 each week (and only if I was meeting my new goal). I am now up to 1925 and have maintained my weight at 137 this entire time. It blows my mind. I find it hard to eat this much food, but my end goal is 2,050 and I plan to stay there for two months before I lower it to 1750 as my new maintenance. I'm currently doing 3 full body days followed by 30 minutes of incline walking. I've been averaging about 8,000 steps a day, but I do aim for 10,000. I also get 8-9.5 hours of sleep a night.

 

[vireak]

@iamforgivenandredeemed Oh wow! Are you at your goal weight now? Can I ask why did you decide to do this?