How To Keep the Weight Off After a Diet

Every once in a while, I spend a few minutes on a Health At Every Size blog.

Not so I can get all riled up at overweight people on the internet, but out of genuine interest and curiosity.

I follow many people in the health and self-improvement space, so my feeds are saturated with tips on staying lean, increasing energy, and generally being healthy and happy.

In my online world, obesity is terrible, and it's a given that living a good life involves making healthy choices and taking care of your body.

It's frankly a culture shock to venture over to the other side of the tracks and get a glimpse into the world of fat pride — a world where obesity is nothing to be ashamed of— even celebrated.

My occasional expeditions into the fat-acceptance corner of the internet are usually inspired by something online that intrigues me, and my latest foray was no exception.

I'd heard that Brendan Fraser's comeback film "The Whale" (the actor portrays a 600-pound home-bound person) was fatphobic.

I haven't seen “The Whale”, but I want to. Prodding the internet for more information on whether these accusations were true landed me on a blog called Comfy Fat.

According to Comfy Fat, "The Whale" is indeed fatphobic. Comfy Fat provides its large and spiteful readers with a long list of points to use so they, too, can accuse "The Whale" of being fatphobic.

Sitting atop this list is the point that I see emphasized every time I come into contact with fat acceptance content:

The stat I see consistently is that 95% of diets aren't successful in the long run.

There is no doubt about it — permanent weight loss is hard. I've struggled with it and have only had to transition from chubby (or pleasantly plump, as my high-school friend used to say).

I appreciate the genuinely epic journey one has to face to go from being obese to lean. But it's not impossible. People have done it.

So what is the secret of the 5% who manage to make a permanent transition?

Is it magic?

Witchcraft?

Of course not.

Everyone who has lost a dramatic amount of weight has a unique story, but I believe that a couple of consistent factors separate the 5% who successfully pull it off.

Firstly, people who make permanent transitions likely lift weights.

Lifting weights is a superior strategy for weight loss to doing endless cardio. Not only will you burn calories during a hard weight training session, but as your lean mass increases, so will your metabolism.

Muscle burns energy.

Adding muscle mass allows people to drop weight from fat and not rely on starvation calories to maintain weight loss.

And the second point brings me to the point of this post.

What the Heck is a Reverse Diet?

Proponents of Health At Every Size claim that dieting doesn't work because it leaves someone with only two miserable choices:

1. Live in starvation mode.

2. Gain back the weight.

But there is a third choice:

Lose weight slowly with resistance training as your main form of exercise (not cardio), and then do a reverse diet once you reach your target weight.

I'm going to go over exactly how to implement a reverse diet, but first, there is a key concept you need to understand to appreciate why this is so important.

Metabolic Adaptation

Your metabolism becomes less efficient as you lose weight.

Imagine that you were to go through life wearing a 25-pound weighted vest.

Think about the extra energy you would burn from doing all your daily activities with an additional 25 pounds.

Losing weight is like shedding a weighted vest. The energy it took to move your body when you were heavier is greater than the energy it takes to operate your new lighter self.

Here's why this is a problem:

They maintained their weight with this behavior before they dieted.

But now their old behavior isn't maintenance; it results in a caloric surplus because their metabolism has slowed down.

When people don't have an exit strategy for a diet, they resume their original behavior and immediately put the weight back on. Hence the dilemma the fat acceptance community preaches: you can starve or gain the weight back.

Reverse dieting is the exit strategy.

With a properly executed reverse diet, it's possible to lose fat and keep it off without having to starve forever.

Is it easy?

No.

Does it take some time?

You bet.

But the price of being able to live in a body you love permanently without starving yourself?

Priceless.

How to Reverse Diet

I believe the term Reverse Dieting needs to be credited to bodybuilder and powerlifter Dr. Layne Norton.

He and his wife, Holly Baxter, published a book called "The Complete Guide to Reverse Dieting."

On the surface, a reverse diet seems simple: the gradual increase in calories after a diet. But it is tricky to do correctly.

You Need Data

How do you increase your calories by 10% if you don't know how many calories you've been eating?

You don't.

This is a data-driven approach — it requires tracking your nutrition so that you know how much you're eating and can precisely manipulate your calories.

Is it too much work to track what you eat?

That's fine; you can gain the weight back.

Find someone who has made a permanent body transformation and ask them how many calories and protein they've had today.

They'll have an answer for you.

Counting calories gets criticized by the clean eating gurus, but the truth is that it is the most effective way to make a permanent change, and you cannot do a reverse diet without it.

Tracking your nutrition is not rocket science. There are some tricky bits, and I have a resource to help you here, but if you download the "MyFitnessPal" app and get going, you'll be fine.

Don't Push Too Far

I have dieted too far before, so I can say firsthand that it is miserable.

Do not underestimate the force of the starvation response from your body if you push your weight loss too far before reverse dieting.

A reverse diet requires you to be measured and controlled, so if you push too far with your diet, you'll risk having the f*ck it moment and finding yourself knee-deep in a cheesecake bath, wondering what the hell just happened.

If you have substantial weight to lose, taking a few breaks along your journey is ideal.

Let's say you want to lose 40 pounds. That's a lot. So you start with a 1% rate of loss per week, and you lose 10 pounds in about six weeks.

At this point, take a break from your diet and increase your calories for a couple of weeks before continuing.

This process takes longer, but it's easier in the long run. If you take a measured approach, you'll be less likely to have unplanned catchups with your frenemies, Ben and Jerry.

Okay… How Do I Actually Do a Reverse Diet

Now that we've covered the basics let's get into an example.

You've lost 40 pounds over six months.

You've been lifting weights and taking it slow, so it hasn't been too terrible, but you're ready to stop.

It's important to understand that there will be some weight gain after a diet like this. It's unavoidable. You want to ensure it's an acceptable amount of weight gain and that it doesn't turn into a yoyo diet.

In The Complete Guide To Reverse Dieting, Layne Norton and Holly Baxter suggest three levels depending on how much weight you're willing to regain.

• A conservative reverse diet would be gaining less than 0.2% of your body weight per week by adding no more than 10% of calories back (if your diet ended at 2000 calories per day, you'd add 200 calories per day for a total of 2200).

• A moderate reverse diet is less than 0.5% weight gain per week by increasing calories by 10–20%.

• An aggressive reverse diet is between 0.5–0.8% weight gain per week by increasing calories by 20–30%.

If you'd ended your diet at 1800 calories daily, you would be taking a moderate approach if you increased your calories to 2150 calories per day.

There are a few other considerations to make as you do this:

Cardio

You don't have to worry if you have been doing a regular and sustainable amount of cardio throughout your diet.

However, if you have been relying on excessive cardio, you'll want to taper this off instead of cutting it out. As you increase your calories, drop your cardio by no more than 30–40 minutes per week at first.

If you'd been doing cardio for 45 minutes 5 days per week, cut it to 4.

Protein

Protein is the most crucial macronutrient to consider for body composition.

You should have been eating a high amount of protein when dieting, and it is essential to keep this up in your reverse diet.

Aim for at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, and I'd suggest going higher.

Train With Intensity

You want to trigger muscle growth during your reverse diet, not fat gain.

The good news is that even a slight boost of calories makes you feel amazing after a diet. Focus on increasing the intensity of your workouts compared to what you were doing when you ended your diet.

Add more volume, lift heavier and push to failure (while being safe, of course.)

During your reverse diet, weigh yourself daily and adjust based on what you see.

If you're happy with how the first week has gone, you can increase your calories by the same percentage the following week. If you'd started at 1800, you could go to 2150 and then 2300 calories. Decrease cardio again by 30–40 minutes.

It takes diligence and patience, but if you can stay focused and gradually increase your calories, you will have a sustainable body composition that makes you happy.

Perhaps the most critical takeaway is the importance of resistance training for permanent transformations.

Before Comfy Fat, I'd seen a blog from an obese Health at Every Size advocate who is legitimately a marathoner. I think that's great, and I'm not trying to rain on anyone's accomplishment of completing a marathon.

I bring this up to illustrate that endless cardio is not an approach that works for improving body composition.

The best chance of permanently improving your body composition is to lift weights and do a reverse diet.

In Summary:

• Make resistance training your exercise of choice during weight loss

• Don't diet too quickly; stay within a 1% rate of loss per week

• You need to be tracking your macros to do this properly

• When you reach your goal weight, decide whether you want to make a conservative, mild, or aggressive approach

• Remember, you will gain some weight after a diet.

• Increase your calories by the percent you've chosen, taper off of cardio if necessary and intentionally increase the intensity of your training