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What is reverse dieting, and does it work?
Reverse dieting means raising your calories slowly after a diet, often by 50–100 a week, instead of jumping back to your old intake. There's little research behind the slow version; what matters most is eating at your new maintenance, which is lower than before because you weigh less. For most people, recalculating and stepping up to that number over 2–4 weeks works well. Expect the scale to rise by 1–2 kg in the first week or two from water and food in your gut, not fat.
Your maintenance after losing weight
| Person | Before | After | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woman85 → 70 kg | 2,120 | 1,890 | −230 |
| Woman70 → 60 kg | 1,890 | 1,730 | −150 |
| Man100 → 85 kg | 2,670 | 2,440 | −230 |
| Man90 → 80 kg | 2,520 | 2,360 | −160 |
Going back to your old intake would put you a few hundred calories above your new maintenance every day, which is how weight creeps back. Find your new number in the maintenance calorie calculator.
A simple way back to maintenance
A woman who finished her diet at 70 kg (154 lb), eating about 1,500 a day, has a new maintenance of about 1,890. A gentle return:
- Week 1: about 1,630 a day.
- Week 2: about 1,760.
- Week 3 on: about 1,890, then adjust by 100–200 based on your weekly average weight over the next month.
Raising calories in steps gives you time to see what your body does, and makes the extra food feel less like a free-for-all. Going straight to maintenance is fine too if you'd rather; the result after a month is similar.
What reverse dieting can't do
You'll often hear that reverse dieting "repairs" or "speeds up" your metabolism so you can eat much more than before. There's no good evidence for that. Your burn is lower after a diet mainly because you weigh less, plus a modest drop from dieting that eases off over time. Eating more doesn't build a faster metabolism beyond what your size, muscle and activity allow. More in weight-loss plateau.
Keeping the weight off
- Keep weighing yourself a few times a week and watch the weekly average; see why your weight fluctuates.
- Keep your steps up: daily movement is one of the strongest habits among people who keep weight off.
- Keep protein and strength training, so the weight you kept off stays mostly muscle-friendly.
- Recalculate if your activity changes.
Want to lose more later? Plan the next phase in the calorie deficit calculator.