So this is term that I keep seeing thrown about at the
moment by trainers and athletes on social media. It might leave you wondering
what actually is reverse dieting or why would you want to do a reverse diet?
Let me summarise this for you and hopefully make it sound simple enough for you
to give it a go.
The main reason you may of heard the term reverse diet being
used quite a bit at the moment is partly to do that a lot of people will have
entered the so called bulking season, having finished cutting for various
competitions or now that British summer time has officially ended its time to
add some muscle mass and weight to replace that chiseled physique in the hope
of building a bigger frame for next summer.
Surely you just need to eat more and increase your carbohydrate intake
right? Wrong! Reverse dieting is crucial to help you with the transition from
your cutting phase into bulking season by changing your diet in a controlled
and effective manner to increase calorific intake whilst preventing unwanted
weight gain that will be the result if you don’t have a planned and structured
reverse dieting system in place.
What tends to be the case during this transition is that
people think that now they want to add extra weight in the off season its just
the case of increasing your daily calorie intake to match this goal. Once you
have worked out that magic number of how many calories you need to grow and to
add some serious gains using various macro calculators that can be found online
it is then just a case of hitting that number immediately. Wrong Again! Of
course for any nutrition plan to be successful you will need to determine you’re
your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE, which can be done online. Once you
have this figure it gives you have a target of how many calories you can
consume from your macros without causing any additional and unwanted fat gain.
During this phase you will of course concentrate on increasing your
carbohydrate intake to assist with building muscle mass and bulking. It is
recommended that sufficient amounts to divide your macros up can be anywhere
from 1 – 1.5g of Protein per pound of bodyweight. For fat it is recommended
either 0.3 - 0.4g per pound of bodyweight and then whatever remains is made up
from Carbs. Although it is not uncommon for people to increase their protein
intake beyond these figures.
So lets say for example in my cutting phase I was consuming
around 2000 calories per day to keep me in a deficit to lower my body fat
percentage. After this phase and during the off season I then work out that I
can consume around 2800 calories daily without adding any unwanted fat but
still gain some muscle mass. I would set about reaching this target gradually
over a period of weeks rather than just ramping up my numbers. I may increase
my calories by 100 – 150 each week until I had hit the magic number of 2800.
This would ensure I prevented adding excess weight and completely wasted my
gains Id made from working seriously hard during a long and tiring cut and
restrictive diet. Once you reach your new TDEE you will need to weigh yourself
on a regular basis, as your weight increase will determine your calorie intake
meaning you may need to do regular adjustments.
So why do so many people get this wrong? To start with when
you have been in a calorie deficit for so long on a cut you feel extremely low
on energy and the thought that you are now able to eat more food sounds amazing
so its common that people get a little bit too carried away and consume far too
much. When you are in a calorie deficit your metabolic rate (the speed at which
you burn calories) slows right down so naturally you are unable to burn all
these extra calories quickly enough and this is what causes fat gain. Once you
change your training program to match your bulking goals your metabolic rate
will begin to increase due to the fact your are lifting heavier weights
increasing muscle mass. By applying this
principle along with slowly increasing your calorie intake to reach your goal
you will perform a successful reverse diet and will only thank yourself later.
So in hindsight yes a reverse diet is about increasing your calories but in a
structured and controlled way that prevents unwanted fat gain. Get this right
and your bulking season will become your best yet!
Also don’t forget some important benefits a successful
reverse diet will bring : -
1.
More Energy
2.
You Can Eat More
3.
Enjoy Your Workouts Feeling Fuelled to Perform
4.
Forget about that Dieting Mindset
5.
Flexible Dieting (Coming soon in my next blog
posts)
Hopefully this helps you to understand the term reverse
dieting a little bit more and help you get it right. Any questions or help you
need planning your reverse diet or cutting phase drop me a message and I can
help you structure your personalized plan.
EJP
