What is reverse dieting and how to best recover from a restrictive diet
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Reverse dieting is a diet plan that is supposed to help you ease out of a calorie-restricted diet without gaining back weight.
The idea behind reverse dieting is that the eating plan boosts your metabolism so that you burn those extra calories that you're adding back in.
However, the body relies on more than just metabolism to maintain weight and reverse dieting is not proven to work.
This article was medically reviewed by Samantha Cassetty, MS, RD, nutrition and wellness expert with a private practice based in New York City.
Whenever you restrict calories and lose weight, you disrupt your body's basal metabolic rate (BMR) — the number of calories your body burns while at rest. That's where the concept of reverse dieting, or a recovery diet, comes into play.
Reverse dieting is supposed to give your BMR a boost, returning it to baseline where it was before you lost weight, and help you burn more calories during the day. That way, you're more likely to keep off the weight you lost and not gain it back.
At least, that's the idea. Reverse dieting is not proven, and most of the evidence for it is anecdotal. In practice, the actual eating plan of reverse dieting can be beneficial, but relying on your metabolism to keep the weight off is a bad idea.
Insider spoke to Manhattan-based registered dietician Brittany Modell, founder of Brittany Modell Nutrition and Wellness, about reverse dieting and how to best recover from a restrictive diet.
What is reverse dieting?
On a reverse dieting plan, you are supposed to gradually increase the number of calories you eat over several weeks to months so that you're no longer in a caloric deficit and your weight can stabilize, Modell says.
"Overall, the theory is to eat more calories gradually, rather than restrict and increase dramatically," she adds. This is a good way to ease out of a diet and prevent weight gain.
And, according to the reverse dieting philosophy, this is also supposed to help increase your BMR and prevent you from regaining weight as you add more calories back to your diet.
"However, it is not so simple. It is impossible to make claims that a reverse diet will 'recalibrate' your metabolism and maintain the weight you lost. The body is much more complex."
Our bodies are influenced by many hormones, like ghrelin and leptin, that dictate our appetite and hunger levels. Ghrelin triggers hunger and leptin signals when you're full. So your body releases a certain amount of ghrelin when you need to eat and then replaces it with leptin when it's time to stop eating.
However, when you lose weight, researchers have found that your body releases more ghrelin and less leptin — meaning you feel hungrier when it's time to eat and less full after you're done.
These hormones and the way they contribute to weight control is totally separate from the role that metabolism plays. Plus, these hormones likely play a larger role in whether or not you keep the weight off that you lost.
In other words, relying on your BMR to keep the weight off for you is a bad, and likely unsuccessful, game plan.
How to safely ease out of a diet
If you've found yourself in a restrictive mindset and you've dieted for a long time, you can adopt healthier habits to ease yourself out of a diet without putting on pounds.
"Chances are you likely restricted carbohydrates and fat. If this is the case, start by adding in carbohydrate and fat sources with breakfast or lunch, for example, adding oatmeal and peanut butter to breakfast or beans and avocado at lunch," says Modell. "This will increase your overall calorie intake as well as incorporating back some healthy fats and carbs, which your body needs."
Eating these types of whole, fiber- and protein-rich foods — instead of introducing or reverting back to processed foods — will help you feel fuller longer and may help prevent overeating.
Some other methods of safely easing out of a diet include:
Eat slowly until you feel about 80 percent full to prevent overeating.
Practice mindful eating to feel more satiated.
Enjoy your meal with loved ones or friends to help you make better food choices.
Related stories about weight loss:
How metabolism works and why you can't speed it up to lose weight
How to stop yo-yo dieting and finally keep the weight off for good
Is obesity genetic? About 43% of people are predisposed, making it harder to lose weight
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