Reverse Dieting: The Fix You Need to Make Fat Loss Actually Work

00:00How do I know if a reverse diet is right for me? If you are eating fewer than 1500 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.

00:46What'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, Nikki Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 284.

01:16And today, my friends, we're going to dive in and tackle what I feel like is one of the most understood topics in the entire fitness space. And I've done a couple episodes on this topic before, but it's been a minute, so I thought that I would resurface it back up here and dive in a little bit deeper in an episode with you on, drumroll please, reverse dieting. Now, for those of you guys that maybe you're tuning into this as one of your first episodes and you have no idea what reverse dieting is and you're thinking, you're about to tune out and you're thinking, because you're thinking, I'm like, oh, I'm not interested in gaining weight, Nikki, because that sounds like that's the reverse of what dieting is.

01:57Please just stick with me because if you're feeling stuck, 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. And this like reverse dieting, which you've probably seen before on social media, let me be the first one to tell you that this isn't just for bikini competitors.

02:36This isn't just for fit influencers. This is literally a metabolic strategy that is backed by science. And it's what I feel like so many women who have been chronic dieters for years on end, or just like I said in the last episode, like teaching you guys how to break out with a dieter version of yourself. If that is you, I feel like these women desperately need to understand this type of strategy, reverse dieting, if they want long term results, not just like physically with their body, but like for the health and well being of their internal operating systems,

03:22of their metabolism, their organs, like of overall health internally, not just for the physical results, but for your overall health. Okay. So let's break it down. First, I want to start with the basics for those of you guys that like whatever reverse dieting, Nikki, I have no idea what reverse dieting is. And for those of you guys that have this will be a really that knows what it is. It'll be a nice refresher. Reverse dieting is literally like the intentional and gradual increase of calories over a period of time.

03:52And the coolest thing about reverse dieting is it's so individual to the person that 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. So and how long it's going to take to restore your metabolism, which is not like a blank or 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.

04:26We have no idea. And I will be the first one to tell you that. But what we know, what we do know is that if you are somebody that has been in a deficit for a really, really, really, really, really long time or your metabolism has when your metabolism has adapted to this deficit or to this low food intake, you are somebody that needs to embark in this reverse dieting strategy. Because first of all, if you've been chronic dieting for a really, really, really long time, this is what happens.

05:01You eat less, you lose weight. Your metabolism slows down. Your body metabolism adapts to this lower food intake. You stall, you panic, results aren't happening. And so you either you do it or you think that you need to continue to cut more calories. And eventually nothing works. And you're stuck at eating less and less and less. You're eating maybe 1100, 1200 calories. And you have no results to show forward.

05:33If anything, you may be gaining more weight in your stomach area in places that you don't want to be getting. 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, put dead, like brakes are fully on.

06:05And you're probably noticing the opposite of what you want to experience with your body. And when you go into the strategic 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.

06:42And therefore, when you go and approach doing a fat loss phase or cut phase, you're going to be able to have way more success because you did reverse dieting. So I want to talk more importantly on why, like, why this matters. Because when I see and we've seen so many women come into Warrior Babe that are eating 1100 calories, 1200 calories, 1300 calories, they're working out five to six days a week. And they're frustrated because literally nothing is working.

07:13Like, they're like, dude, I'm like eating less and I'm working out and nothing is happening. And I'm eating healthy, quote unquote. And I'm going to these classes, I'm lifting X, Y, and Z, I'm walking my 10 key steps and I'm not seeing any results. And the truth is, like, they're not stuck because they need to, like, focus on, like, cutting more. Like, they're not in a point or position where they should be focusing on eating less or even the opposite of what a lot of people do is they like to train more.

07:47They're stuck because their body is literally in survival mode. So a lot of people think in that scenario, oh, I just need to cut more calories. I need to eat less. And I maybe I need to, like, add in a cardio day. But remember what I said when I talked 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. And what's happening is here when you're not giving in enough food and you're moving too much and overtraining, your body is starting to go in survival mode.

08:23And this is what happens when your body has lived in this survival mode or this deficit or this not eating enough for a really, really, really long time. Do you know what happens internally? And I honestly, let me just say this, like, I wouldn't expect you guys to know what happens internally. Why? Because this isn't your profession. The professions you guys have and what you do on a daily basis for work, whether it's a like, I'm just gonna throw out some of the ones like a lawyer, a doctor, like you guys go to school for those things.

08:54Unless you're like a personal trainer that's 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 understand hormones and how they work, right? So I want to expect you to know what's happening because another thing is you're not going to feel this. That's what's crazy until like it's been a really, 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.

09:25When you've been in a deficit for way, way, way, 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.

10:01Your cortisol is going to stay and continue to be elevated. Your hunger hormones, the things like the hunger cues, which a lot of people lose and have no idea what it feels like to be hungry. Your hunger cues in this state. Like 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.

10:32It's like it's 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 hold on to. It's holding on to whatever fuel you give it. It's doing everything to hold on to that. So let's say you're somebody that only eats a 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 got to hold on and conserve this and make sure everything in the internal is getting enough energy that it needs.

11:04Like the internal machine needs fuel and it needs a lot of it to keep you alive. And on top of the things that you guys do like activity, it needs even more. Okay. So for those of you guys that like feel like you're pushing it and you feel like 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 guys to know that's why I'm here. And I can feel my like my energy on this one. Like I feel like I'm raw right now because this matters to me.

11:36And I want this to get like to stick and to really like hit home because reverse dieting is what I feel like every woman needs. I asked the Warrior Babe community on Tuesday night when I was doing a call with them. I asked them to raise their hands for those are the ones that were on screen when they first came into Warrior Babe. If the phase that they went into was reverse dieting, a majority of them raised their hands. And honestly, that's like this number one secret why a lot of women see amazing results is because we heal their metabolism. Your metabolism, dude, ain't going to get results if you have a shitty metabolism.

12:09And the reason why you have a shitty metabolism is because you've been excess diet over years on end. Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me. So that's why this like reverse dieting, like it's not some trend you may see on social media and you may see what people talking about.

12:42It's not a trend. It's literally a fix. So some of you guys may be wondering, OK, like, how do I know if a reverse diet is right for me? And so I want to give you guys some signs on how you how you know that you should be focusing on reverse dieting, not going into another diet and another diet and another diet and another diet. Because I can say confidently that it's that is majority of you. Majority of you need to focus on what I am talking about and literally give it the time that it needs to help your body heal and revive and rebuild.

13:18If you are eating fewer than 14, 1500 calories, depending on your like your I'm saying that broadly speaking, depending on you as a human, your height, your age, your weight, your lifestyle, things. But majority of you guys, if you're eating fewer than 1500 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 you emotionally eat when you try to like restrict your food.

14:08If you're not eating more food.

14:38So let me touch on the mindset of this topic here 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 Warrior Babe. Eating more when your goal is a fat loss feels backwards. I get that. I hear you. It goes against everything diet culture has literally drained into your mind.

15:10You've been taught to fear food, to believe that more calories equals more fat, to see 1200 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, eventually your brain literally screams. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

15:40I'm going to gain weight. I'm going to get I'm going to get fat. I don't want to get fat. I don't want to gain more weight. I hear you. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you.

16:11At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation.

16:42That's WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. 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.

17:12Because 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. And 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.

17:47It'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. 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, which I've seen more than probably 100 women that are over 60 and inside of WarriorBabe eating around 2,000 calories, which is mind-blowing, but it's possible.

18:19Think about how much more of what you really want to have in balance you can have 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 also 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.

18:50And that is a huge freaking win. Okay? So let's get tactical. How do you reverse diet? And I'm going to give it to you guys in the WarriorBabe way. All right? So the first thing that we do is we try and 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 and be perfect. Don't try and be good. Don't try and throw foods in that you haven't eaten in five years.

19:20Like, what are you eating now? That's your starting point. And then we're going to have a baseline after seven days. And it's going to give us a true estimate as to where your protein, your fats, and your carbs are on a daily basis. And we're going to be able to just slowly increase your calories by, like, it depends on the individual. It depends 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 matters on where is this human's metabolism 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 to like 100 to 150 calories per week.

20:01And that's mostly we're going to focus on getting your protein up regardless. And it's got others that are going to come from the fats and the carbs. We're going to hold there for like 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 like holding steady, like one or two, three, maybe four pounds, like a fluctuation is completely normal.

20:38But 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 by me just explaining this when I said earlier on the episode 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 like if you are holding steady and you're doing good with your weight as we're continuing to add more calories over weeks and weeks and weeks, that is a true solid like A to Z, A plus reverse diet plan.

21:11Some of you guys will notice an increase and we'll notice that there's a pound or like upwards of five pounds that's holding steady. And we're like, all right, that was too much too quick. So we'll pull it down and we'll make sure that your body gets adapted over the next week or two weeks. So truly like it depends. That's why it's so important to work with a coach and knows what they're doing because you just need to take the plan and run with it. But then we can look at the data and make sure that we're doing it the right way for you and where we need to pull back or where we can add more.

21:43Right. At that point, it's like literally once you get through buying the baseline, you're starting small with the increases of upwards of 100 to 150 per week. You're watching about our feedback. It's literally just rinse and repeat at that at that point. You keep adding like 100 to 150. Maybe even some of you guys can hold upwards of 200 calories every one to two weeks until you hit your maintenance number. And dude, for most women, that is so broadly speaking, like could be anywhere from 800 calories, like 2200 calories. Broadly speaking, I see maintenance calories upwards of 2500 calories.

22:14But it truly depends on like your muscle mass, on your goals and your activity, on your lifestyle. But you're just going to continue to do that until you do 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 do nothing going into fat loss if your metabolism is not healed. So spending time in maintenance and getting you up there is just, it's like you're giving your body trust back.

22:50Like your body can trust you again. That's why I want you guys to think of it as. And then at that point, you're just being patient. And 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 and actually way more sustainable and way more enjoyable. All right. So when you guys go and try and do this, or maybe you're doing this right now inside of Warrior Babe, I just want to let you know what you could expect.

23:21Because reverse siding can feel so weird. It's literally, again, going against everything you guys ever thought was the right way to do things. Okay. So what you guys can expect is your weight is going to fluctuate. That's normal. Two to five pounds as your body gets adjusted to more food, to more glycogen, to more water. But hear me out. This is not fat. You are not gaining fat. Something else that you will notice is your strength will increase.

23:52You'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 going to be building muscle way easier. Women who are 62, 63, 64 years old. There's one that I just did an interview with the other day that you're going to hear on this episode in weeks to come. Her name is Bea. And she's 63 years old now. And by doing the things inside of Warrior Babe and consistently keeping at it for 45 weeks, she's gained upwards of like four to five pounds of muscle she shared with me on this interview.

24:24So you can and will build more muscle more easily. Your sleep, your mood, it's 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 this like less mental obsession with food. And know that you're going to probably 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. And so I want to remind you guys that like this is a phase and it's a very necessary phase.

25:01You'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.

25:33You 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 that we do inside of Warrior Babe. Every single day.

26:04I would say upwards of like 80% of the women that come into Warrior Babe start in this phase. We're helping women step out of the cycle of restriction and into some real sustainable results. That's why we're really, really successful. Because we can do these things and we're helping women understand it. And we're holding them in stride and holding them accountable, holding their hand along the way. And that's why they're literally, they're changing the way that they look, feel, everything. And it's really cool. So with this at home, you guys, take a screenshot of this episode.

26:36Please share it to your Instagram story. Tag me at Nikki Stah. Tag The WarriorBabe Show. And tell me if you've ever done a reverse diet. Or tell me if you feel like you think you need one. I would love to see those responses and maybe even start up a chat with you guys in a DM or something like that. But if you guys are too, if you're unsure what your next step is, do come and join us inside of Warrior Babe. Go to warriorbabe.com and check it out. Okay? I love you guys. I hope this is super helpful. And I'll see you guys in the next episode.

27:07Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference. Helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.

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