Love Live Balance: Reverse Diet Update: Week 6

Good morning lovely people! I got some more updates coming your way.

I just wanted to address something first about why I am sharing so much more about this reverse diet than I have previously. The first reason is very obvious that reverse dieting is gaining more popularity and awareness, and I'm happy to share my experience with people who are curious about it. Secondly, I want to prove that reverse dieting is not a bad thing. I know so, so SO many girls who are terrified of reverse dieting (I used to be one of them) and can't make themselves take the plunge. Even if they need to (again, that was me).

I often come across posts that can really bother me. I won't point fingers or name names because that's not fair but in the posts I see something like this when talking about reverse dieting:

"You WILL gain weight"

No, no, no, no, a thousands times no. I am not telling you will you not gain weight, or lose weight, or stay the same. There are absolutely no guarantees, and that's why it bothers me when someone is guaranteeing weight gain.

Well, I can give you stats from dozens of women who have reverse dieted and they have either lost weight or stayed the same. Maybe gained 1-2 pounds (of muscle) but no huge changes in weight. My point is it is entirely unpredictable what will happen because it varies so much between people.

In my opinion, if you gain a significant amount of weight during a reverse diet then you are going too fast. Unless you needed to gain that weight because you were at too low of a weight previously, then those pounds are unnecessary. I learned this from personal experience. The first time I tried to reverse diet, I had zero guidance and went at the rate I was told. It was too fast for my body but I didn't know this and ended up gaining 7+ pounds. The second time around last fall, I worked with my coach and she had me go half as fast. I ended up losing 3 pounds, and this current reverse I'm going just as slow and getting great results.

Again, a reverse diet can be tailored to your needs. You can reverse faster (i.e. add in more carbs/fats per week) to put on weight/build more muscle IF that's what you want. If you don't want to gain weight, then try going slower.

Once again, there are no guarantees. But what bothers me is when someone is saying weight gain is guaranteed, and then trying to tell girls not to worry about reverse dieting. If that was me last summer and having zero idea of macros, reverse dieting, lifting, or anything then I would have said "hell no". I would not have wanted to reverse diet because gaining extra weight would have sounded like a nightmare to me.

If someone goes in to a reverse knowing that they want to gain weight then that is totally fine. I'm not against anyone and their goals, that is up to each individual. Some people go a lot faster because they're more after the muscle gains and don't mind some fat tagging along. Then they might do a cut at the end to shed some of that fat, and potentially go through the cycle multiple times. Again, up to each individual.

I'm here to try to demonstrate that reverse dieting can be a very positive experience, and everyone that I have talked to about this has had great experience. I have seen people get positively ripped while reverse dieting, and again that is NO guarantee. I personally have great success reverse dieting when I do it the way MY body needs it. A.k.a. turtle speed (5g carbs and 1g fat per week) but it works for me.

With all that being said, here are some pictures! I have no idea what my weight is because we're going on week 8 of not weighing myself. All my measurements are the same so things are going well!

Week 5 vs. Week 6

Increase of 5g carbs, 2g protein, and 1g fat