Taking Your Reverse Diet to The Next Level

Taking Your Reverse Diet to The Next Level

Reverse dieting is a great way to build up your metabolism and stay lean while putting on muscle. But unfortunately, some fat gain will accompany any reverse diet. Why? Because reverse diets strive to maintain a caloric surplus. Sure, it's a relatively small caloric surplus. But it's a surplus none the less. However, there are some things you can do in addition to reverse dieting to stay lean all year long.

Anytime you are in a caloric surplus, either intentionally or unintentionally, you are likely to gain some fat. There is no way for you to choose to add muscle weight over fat weight. All you can do is create a favorable environment for muscle growth and limit the amount of caloric surplus to reduce excessive fat gain. This is exactly what Reverse Dieting strives to accomplish.

However, over a long period of time (8-9months or more) even a reverse diet will yield a noticeable amount of fat gain. For bodybuilders, this is acceptable if the fat gain is not excessive since (1) they have likely built up their metabolism in preparation for months of successful fat cutting, (2) an appropriate amount of muscle and strength has been gained during this time and (3) it has been less than a year since their last fat cutting period. But what about the rest of us? What if you don't plan on spending months out of every year cutting fat in a caloric deficit?

In 2012 I did a 9month long reverse diet. I had some noticeable fat gain along with some solid muscle gains. In 2013 when it came time to cut fat for a bodybuilding competition, I was in a good position with my metabolism and a decent position with my body fat. I needed a strong metabolism in order to put myself in the best possible position for a 25-week fat cutting period. So, taking a break from my reverse diet was not an option over those 9months from 2012-2013. However, for the average person it is.

Short Breaks From Reverse Dieting Can Keep You Lean

I am certain that I won't be spending months on end cutting fat in preparation for a bodybuilding competition in 2014. So, how do I keep lean when I know that I will have noticeable fat gain? I am going to take strategically timed short breaks from my reverse diet.

I will spend most of the year on a reverse diet, happily gaining a moderate amount of weight. About half of that weight should be muscle if I am doing it right. But the other half of that weight will be mostly fat, with some fluids and the like mixed in.

But think about this. The average person can burn up 1.5-2lbs per week of fat without any noticeable strength or muscle loss. However, an experienced male lifter will probably put on less than 1lb of muscle in a month. So, if you spend 3-4months at a time reverse dieting and gradually gaining weight, followed by 2 weeks of cutting fat at a caloric deficit then that should still allow for solid muscle gains while pretty much eliminating all unwanted fat gain. And that's exactly what I am planning on doing!

Transitioning On and Off of a Reverse Diet

The big question now is how do you flip flop back and forth from a reverse diet to short fat cutting period. And the answer is very simple. Drop your calories by around 3500 per week, increase your cardio intensity a bit (for example, I will add two intervals to my HIIT cardio sessions) and do something like I describe in A Better Way to Cut Fat. Carb Cycling is also a great strategy when on a calorie deficit. For two weeks, you should expect to lose 1-2lbs per week. And after the two weeks are up, just go right back to your reverse diet where you left off.

**Update: During any calorie deficit period, your metabolism will undoubtedly adapt downward. And if you make any additional downward adjustments during your brief cut then you may want to be more conservative when flipping back to a reverse diet. If you are especially concerned with weight gain after flipping back to a reverse diet, then you might want to try increasing your weekly calories by your approximate weight loss rate (in lbs) * 3500 and re-balancing your macros. There might be a small weight bump when transitioning back to a reverse diet. But it should be relatively small and it certainly shouldn't negate the progress you made over the past couple of weeks.

These seemingly short fat cutting periods injected into a reverse diet can have a massive impact on your overall body composition. Think about it. If you spend 3 months gaining weight at an average of 2lbs per month. After 3months, you would have gained 6lbs, at least 3 of which are probably fat. A two week fat cutting period at a rate of 1-2lbs per week would eliminate virtually all of your unwanted fat gain.

Don't expect miracles and don't expect to just keep getting leaner every time you do a short fat cutting phase. I know some of you are doing the math and thinking, "I can end up leaner since I only gain 3lbs of fat and I can burn 4lbs of fat at the end of every 3 months." You can't just keep getting leaner forever and it won't exactly work like that anyway. Our bodies don't really fit neatly into an algebraic formula. But what this does mean is that most of the year you can happily charge along on your reverse diet. And with just few short fat cutting periods per year, you can maintain a very lean and toned physique with almost no detriment to your overall strength or muscle gain.

What About the Ladies?

For ladies the rules are the same in terms of cutting fat. Yes, you will naturally hold more fat than your male counter parts. But you can still lose fat at roughly the same rate (figure about 1% of body weight per week). However, one thing I neglected to mention earlier are your expected gains while on a reverse diet.

For men, I suggest that they set their weight gaining targets to 0.5lbs per week. For women, this probably won't work out as well. Why? Well, because women gain muscle at a slower rate then men. So, a target of 0.5lbs per week will be mostly fat gain. Instead, women should probably aim for about 0.3lbs per week of weight gain. And instead of doing a 2 week fat cutting period every 3-4 months, they should target every 4-6 months.

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Posted by Clayton Long