Reverse Dieting for Women Over 40: Do You Need One?

Nikkiey: How do I know if a reverse diet is right for me? If you are eating fewer than 1,500 calories consistently and you're not losing weight, you need reverse dieting. If you've dieted multiple times in the past year, if you feel tired, sluggish, unmotivated, even when you feel like you're doing everything right, if you are not sleeping well, if you stop seeing results from your workouts, if you constantly feel cold, anxious, or like your body is rebelling against you, if you checked even two of those things that I just rambled through, you're not ready for another cut. You need to reverse diet.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys, welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show. I am super excited that you guys are here. If this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 284.

Today, my friends, we're going to dive in and tackle what I feel like is one of the most misunderstood topics in the entire fitness space. I've done a couple episodes on this topic before, but it's been a minute, so I thought that I would resurface it and dive in a little bit deeper with you on, drumroll please, reverse dieting.

Now, for those of you that are maybe tuning into this as one of your first episodes and you have no idea what reverse dieting is, you're about to tune out because you're thinking, oh, I'm not interested in gaining weight, Nikkiey, because that sounds like the reverse of what dieting is. Please just stick with me. Because if you're feeling stuck, if you're eating low calories and still not losing fat, or your energy, your sleep, your workouts, your mood are all tanking, then reverse dieting might be the exact solution that you need.

Reverse dieting, which you've probably seen before on social media, let me be the first one to tell you, isn't just for bikini competitors. This isn't just for fit influencers. This is literally a metabolic strategy that is backed by science. And I feel like so many women who have been chronic dieters for years on end, or, like I said in the last episode, who are learning how to break out of the dieter version of themselves, desperately need to understand this strategy if they want long-term results. Not just physically with their body, but for the health and well-being of their internal operating systems: their metabolism, their organs, their overall health internally.

Okay. So let's break it down. First, I want to start with the basics for those of you that have no idea what reverse dieting is. And for those of you that know what it is, it'll be a nice refresher. Reverse dieting is the intentional and gradual increase of calories over a period of time.

The coolest thing about reverse dieting is that it's so individual to the person who is about to embark on this journey. When I say over time, it literally depends on the human and how long they have been dieting for, and how long it's going to take to restore your metabolism, which is not a black or white answer. It's not like, hey, your metabolism is going to be restored in three weeks, or hey, your metabolism is going to be restored in six months. We have no idea, and I will be the first one to tell you that.

But what we do know is that if you are somebody that has been in a deficit for a really, really long time, or your metabolism has adapted to this deficit or to this low food intake, you are somebody that needs to embark on this reverse dieting strategy. Because if you've been chronic dieting for a really long time, this is what happens.

You eat less, you lose weight. Your metabolism slows down. Your metabolism adapts to this lower food intake. You stall, you panic, results aren't happening. And so you think that you need to continue to cut more calories. And eventually nothing works, and you're stuck eating less and less and less. You're eating maybe 1,100, 1,200 calories, and you have no results to show for it. If anything, you may be gaining more weight in your stomach area, in places that you don't want to be gaining. You're going in the opposite direction. Does that sound familiar?

What is happening here is metabolic adaptation. Your body is literally adapting to this low caloric intake. And reverse dieting is how we're going to be able to bring your body back to life. It's basically like stalling, like the brakes are fully on, and you're probably noticing the opposite of what you want to experience with your body.

When you go into this metabolic strategy with reverse dieting, you're not doing it to gain weight. You're doing it to restore your metabolism. You're doing it to improve your biofeedback, which is your energy, your mood, your sleep, all the things. And you're doing it to set yourself up for future fat loss success. Meaning, when I say that you're doing this over a period of time, if you do it the right way and you do it consistently, you are going to be able to heal your metabolism, restore your metabolism, wake your metabolism up. And therefore, when you approach a fat loss phase or cut phase, you're going to have way more success because you did reverse dieting.

So, more importantly, I want to talk about why this matters. We've seen so many women come into WarriorBabe that are eating 1,100 calories, 1,200 calories, 1,300 calories, they're working out five to six days a week, and they're frustrated because literally nothing is working. They're like, dude, I'm eating less and I'm working out and nothing is happening. I'm eating healthy, quote unquote. I'm going to these classes, I'm lifting X, Y, and Z, I'm walking my 10K steps, and I'm not seeing any results.

And the truth is, they're not stuck because they need to focus on cutting more. They're not in a position where they should be focusing on eating less, or even what a lot of people do, which is train more. They're stuck because their body is literally in survival mode.

A lot of people think in that scenario, oh, I just need to cut more calories. I need to eat less. Maybe I need to add in a cardio day. But remember what I said about what happens with chronic dieting? When you do this, your body is adapting to what you're doing to it, and no results are going to show for it other than you being extremely frustrated. When you're not giving it enough food and you're moving too much and overtraining, your body starts to go into survival mode.

This is what happens when your body has lived in this survival mode, this deficit, this not eating enough, for a really, really long time. Do you know what happens internally? And honestly, let me just say this: I wouldn't expect you guys to know what happens internally. Why? Because this isn't your profession. Whatever you do on a daily basis for work, I'm just going to throw out a couple, like a lawyer or a doctor, you went to school for those things. Unless you're a personal trainer listening to this, you didn't go to school to learn about the body. You didn't go to school to be a personal trainer or a health coach or to understand hormones and how they work, right? So I don't expect you to know what's happening. And another thing is, you're not going to feel this. That's what's crazy. Not until it's been a really long time, and then you're going to be like, wow, something feels off. I feel off. My body feels off. What's going on? And this is what's going on.

When you've been in a deficit for way, way too long, your thyroid downregulates. Let me tell you guys, you can't feel your thyroid downregulating. You will start to be symptomatic after a period of time. It could be months. It could be years. But your thyroid downregulates. And dude, your thyroid is the gatekeeper to everything else working and functioning properly in your body. Your hormone production, your estrogen, your progesterone, your testosterone, that drops.

Your cortisol is going to stay and continue to be elevated. Your hunger hormones, your hunger cues, which a lot of people lose, to the point they have no idea what it feels like to be hungry, in this state, your leptin and your ghrelin are going literally haywire. They're going crazy. And your body starts to conserve energy like it's living in survival mode. It's like a survival machine.

You're going to feel tired. You're going to feel moody. You're going to feel bloated. You're going to feel inflamed. You're going to stop losing fat. Your body is doing everything that it can to hold on to whatever fuel you give it. So let's say you're somebody that only eats one meal a day. Dude, your body is going to hold on to it, and it's going to store it, because it's like, I don't know if this human is going to give me another meal. I've got to hold on and conserve this and make sure everything internally is getting the energy that it needs. The internal machine needs fuel, and it needs a lot of it to keep you alive. And on top of that, with the things you do like activity, it needs even more.

Okay. So for those of you that feel like you're pushing it and you have all the willpower in the world, dude, it is not a willpower issue. It is a metabolic one. And again, I don't expect you to know that. That's why I'm here. And I can feel my energy on this one. I feel like I'm raw right now because this matters to me, and I want this to stick and really hit home, because reverse dieting is what I feel like every woman needs.

I asked the WarriorBabe community on Tuesday night when I was doing a call with them. I asked the ones that were on screen to raise their hands if the phase they went into when they first came into WarriorBabe was reverse dieting. A majority of them raised their hands. And honestly, that's the number one secret why a lot of women see amazing results: because we heal their metabolism. Dude, you ain't going to get results if you have a shitty metabolism. And the reason why you have a shitty metabolism is because you've excessively dieted for years on end.

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So that's why reverse dieting is not some trend. You may see it on social media and see people talking about it, but it's not a trend. It's literally a fix.

Some of you may be wondering, okay, how do I know if a reverse diet is right for me? I want to give you some signs so you know that you should be focusing on reverse dieting, not going into another diet and another diet and another diet. Because I can say confidently that that is the majority of you. The majority of you need to focus on what I am talking about and give it the time that it needs to help your body heal and revive and rebuild.

If you are eating fewer than 1,400 to 1,500 calories, and I'm saying that broadly speaking, depending on you as a human, your height, your age, your weight, your lifestyle. But for the majority of you, if you're eating fewer than 1,500 calories consistently and you're not losing weight, you need reverse dieting. If you've dieted multiple times in the past year, if you feel tired, sluggish, unmotivated, even when you feel like you're doing everything right, if you are not sleeping well, if you stop seeing results from your workouts, if you constantly feel cold, anxious, or like your body is rebelling against you, or you binge or emotionally eat when you try to restrict your food. If you're not eating more food.

So let me touch on the mindset of this topic really quick, because I feel like that's where most women get tripped up. Actually, I know that's where most women get tripped up, because I've seen it firsthand inside of WarriorBabe. Eating more when your goal is fat loss feels backwards. I get that. I hear you. It goes against everything diet culture has literally drilled into your mind.

You've been taught to fear food, to believe that more calories equals more fat, to see 1,200 calories as quote unquote good and anything more as quote unquote bad. So when I say, or our coaches say, hey, you need to start eating more to lose fat, your brain literally screams, but no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to gain weight. I'm going to get fat. I don't want to get fat. I don't want to gain more weight. I hear you.

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But here's what I want you to know. Reverse dieting is not about weight gain. It is about you healing your metabolism. It is about getting your body back to a place where it can actually respond the way you want it to. Because if your metabolism is shot, if your hormones are off, and if your energy is trash, it doesn't matter how disciplined you are. It doesn't matter how much of a go-getter you are, how gritty and determined you are. Your body will fight you losing fat to protect you.

In the short term, I get that reverse dieting is going to feel scary as hell. But in the long term, it gives you so much freedom. It's literally food flexibility. It's a metabolism that works with you. Think about how restricted you feel at 1,200 calories right now. I can't have this. I can't have that. Now think about when you heal your metabolism and you start eating more food and you get up to 1,600 calories, 1,800 calories, 2,000 calories. I've seen probably more than 100 women over 60 inside of WarriorBabe eating around 2,000 calories, which is mind-blowing, but it's possible.

Think about how much more of what you really want you can have, in balance, when you eat more food. It's food flexibility. It's literally freedom. You don't have this tension or panic or worry or these narratives going on in your mind about what you can and cannot have. Because at this point, you can have it, because your metabolism is now working for you and it's going to digest it. It's going to put it where it needs to be. It's going to be utilized as food, as fuel. It's finally being able to lose fat without starving. And that is a huge freaking win. Okay?

So let's get tactical. How do you reverse diet? I'm going to give it to you the WarriorBabe way. All right? The first thing we do is try to find your baseline. We're going to have you track your food intake for upwards of seven days without changing anything. I tell everybody this. I'm like, I just want to see how you eat. Don't try to be perfect. Don't try to be good. Don't try to throw in foods that you haven't eaten in five years. What are you eating now? That's your starting point.

Then we're going to have a baseline after seven days, and it's going to give us a true estimate of where your protein, your fats, and your carbs are on a daily basis. And we're going to be able to slowly increase your calories. It depends on the individual. It depends on how wrecked your metabolism is. Maybe it's not as wrecked and we can go a little bit harder with a reverse diet. It truly depends on where this human's metabolism is at right now.

So after seven days, we look at the calorie breakdown of what you're eating and we look at the macro breakdown, and we're like, all right, we're going to increase by about 100 to 150 calories per week. Mostly we're going to focus on getting your protein up regardless, and the others are going to come from fats and carbs. We're going to hold there for one to two weeks just to see how your body responds.

We are paying attention to your biofeedback. How is your energy? How is your sleep? How is your hunger? How is your mood? How is your strength in your workouts? How is your digestion? If everything improves and your weight is holding steady, and one, two, three, maybe four pounds of fluctuation is completely normal, but let's say the average over the course of the week or two weeks is holding steady, then we're going to add more calories.

And you can tell, just by me explaining this, what I meant earlier in the episode when I said that this happens over a duration of time. It truly depends on the individual that we are working with. It depends on you and where your metabolism is. So if you are holding steady and you're doing well with your weight as we continue to add more calories over weeks and weeks and weeks, that is a true, solid, A-plus reverse diet plan.

Some of you will notice an increase, and we'll notice there's a pound or upwards of five pounds that's holding steady. And we're like, all right, that was too much too quickly. So we'll pull it down and make sure your body gets adapted over the next week or two. So truly, it depends. That's why it's so important to work with a coach who knows what they're doing, because you just need to take the plan and run with it. Then we can look at the data and make sure we're doing it the right way for you, where we need to pull back or where we can add more.

Right. At that point, once you get through finding the baseline, you're starting small with increases of upwards of 100 to 150 per week. You're watching your biofeedback. It's literally just rinse and repeat at that point. You keep adding 100 to 150, maybe even upwards of 200 calories for some of you, every one to two weeks until you hit your maintenance number. And dude, for most women, broadly speaking, that could be anywhere from 1,800 to 2,200 calories. Broadly speaking, I see maintenance calories upwards of 2,500 calories. But it truly depends on your muscle mass, your goals, your activity, and your lifestyle.

You're just going to continue to do that until you get to your maintenance number. And then, to truly give your metabolism some honest healing, you're going to sit at maintenance. And doesn't this not sound sexy? Because y'all want to be in a cut. Y'all want to be in fat loss. But you ain't going to get anywhere going into fat loss if your metabolism is not healed. So spending time at maintenance and getting you up there is like giving your body trust back. Your body can trust you again. That's how I want you to think of it.

And at that point, you're just being patient. Like I said, this is not sexy. You're not going to drop 10 pounds overnight. But this is what sets you up for the next fat loss phase to be easier, way more sustainable, and way more enjoyable.

All right. So when you go and try to do this, or maybe you're doing this right now inside of WarriorBabe, I want to let you know what you can expect, because reverse dieting can feel so weird. It's literally, again, going against everything you ever thought was the right way to do things.

Okay. So what you can expect is your weight is going to fluctuate. That's normal. Two to five pounds as your body adjusts to more food, more glycogen, more water. But hear me out. This is not fat. You are not gaining fat.

Something else you will notice is your strength will increase. You're going to perform better inside the gym. You're going to recover so much faster. And you're going to notice that you're building muscle way more easily. Women who are 62, 63, 64 years old. There's one I just did an interview with the other day that you're going to hear on this podcast in the weeks to come. Her name is Bea, and she's 63 years old now. By doing the things inside of WarriorBabe and consistently keeping at it for 45 weeks, she's gained upwards of four to five pounds of muscle, she shared with me in this interview. So you can and will build more muscle more easily.

Your sleep and your mood are going to improve. You're going to feel fuller. You're going to feel more satiated. You're going to feel more satisfied. You're going to have less mental obsession with food. And know that you're probably going to feel uncomfortable mentally. Not because your body's changing in a bad way, but because your old beliefs are literally being challenged on a daily basis.

So I want to remind you that this is a phase, and it's a very necessary phase. You're not going to stay here forever. But if you skip it, if you refuse to fuel your body and heal your body and let your body trust you again, you're going to keep spinning your wheels and wondering why nothing is working.

Okay. So here's the truth. If you're stuck, if you've been eating less and less, you're training harder and harder, and you're still not seeing the body that you want, you do not need another cut. You do not need to go into fat loss. You need to reverse diet. You need to build your body up so that it can respond to you again. You need to let it trust you again so it can burn fat. It can build muscle. It can give you the energy for the life that you are here to live. So stop fearing food. Stop punishing your body. Start rebuilding it.

And this is everything. Literally, you guys, I just gave it to you for free. This is everything we do inside of WarriorBabe every single day. I would say upwards of 80% of the women that come into WarriorBabe start in this phase. We're helping women step out of the cycle of restriction and into real, sustainable results. That's why we're really, really successful. Because we can do these things and we're helping women understand it. We're holding them accountable and holding their hand along the way. And that's why they're literally changing the way that they look, feel, everything. And it's really cool.

So, you guys, take a screenshot of this episode. Please share it to your Instagram story. Tag me at Nikkiey Stott. Tag The WarriorBabe Show. And tell me if you've ever done a reverse diet, or tell me if you think you need one. I would love to see those responses and maybe even start up a chat with you in a DM or something like that. And if you're unsure what your next step is, come and join us inside of WarriorBabe. Go to WarriorBabe.com and check it out. Okay? I love you guys. I hope this is super helpful, and I'll see you in the next episode.

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