Plateau and Gaining on Reverse Diet

[didyousaysomething]

TW: under-eating, calorie counting, weight gain

Summarizing my history because I don’t think the details are super relevant for this post:
- years of eating ~900-1100cal
- on and off lifting
- gained body fat over the years during multi-week visits back home eating 3 meals/1400-1700 cal
- tried 24H intermittent fasting because couldn’t lose anything and it felt great but didn’t always fit with my life (restarting today because I don’t know what else to try)

For the past 4 months I’ve been working towards the maintenance goal of 1800 but over the last 2-3 weeks at 1500ish i’ve put on noticeable fat (measurements and pics not scale). I frequently hit 80+ g protein and hardly ever eat out or drink.

I know some gain is to be expected but it seems like no matter how I approach it over my life my body doesn’t want to go over 1400, which I can’t cut from in a healthy way.

Does anyone with reverse diet/adaptation experience have suggestions? Should I just go back to 1400 for a few weeks before increasing by 50? My impression is that the body should adapt to net cal regardless of movement/workouts. Thanks!

 

[cph]

@didyousaysomething Get consistent with your weight lifting and movement. I use a habit tracker and have a bare minimum rule of 2 strength workouts/wk.

 

[inhasap6]

@didyousaysomething Reverse dieting goes hand in hand with a proper lifting routine with progressive overload. If you just increase calories without working on gaining muscle, you’ll most likely just have fat gain. Look into the r/fitness wiki and they offer good beginner routines and also some good info about diet.

 

[didyousaysomething]

@inhasap6 thanks for the reply! yeah this part confuses me about metabolic adaptation. my impression was that it would adjust with or without my lifting routine because it’s just a “new normal”. but i agree, a gym routine that more sustainably fits in my life is necessary long term either way

 

[loveyhwh]

@didyousaysomething What’s your daily movement look like? Do you track your steps?

And also, how much do you currently weigh?

 

[didyousaysomething]

@loveyhwh definitely not enough movement i work a desk job but walk my dog, 4k steps on a heavy work day and aim for 6k+. was in a good lifting routine but it gets thrown off when i return from monthly travel so i focus more on the kitchen. thought adaptation could work from that alone

also avoid the scale because it makes me want to give up, but was 115-125 through college, and now a decade later probably crept up to 140 lbs

 

[loveyhwh]

@didyousaysomething Yeah I’d definitely increase your daily steps! If you can get them up gradually it will really help to increase your TDEE and you’ll be able to eat more calories. Start by going to 8k. Then once you’re comfortable there, push it to 10k. If you want to ramp it up more, go up to 12-15k.

A 20-30 minute walk in the morning before work and another 20-30 minute walk after work should be good to get you there if you’re at a desk job. I’d start there.

Also - if your weight is super low, you may need to gain a little bit of weight temporarily to increase your metabolism. In order to increase it you’ll need to eat more calories for an extended amount of time. Like probably a full year. Just like you have to eat super low cal for a long time to lower it down. It works the same way to bring it back up!