Bella Adams
No renunciation, no restrictions – and yet you are supposed to be able to lose weight successfully and sustainably with Reverse Dieting. What is behind this concept?
Change nothing about what you eat – and still lose weight? Sounds too good to be true, but it’s the concept behind reverse dieting.
It should be possible to lose around one kilo per week with a simple change. Stars like Kim Kardashian allegedly already swear by it.
By the way, the term reverse dieting refers to two different approaches. While one, which is the subject of this article, involves changing the classic meals, the other is the idea of eating more while losing weight by slowly getting the metabolism used to a higher energy intake.
How Reverse Dieting works according to Tricia Cunningham
It’s actually quite simple to explain Reverse Dieting: Everything is the other way around.
For breakfast, there is meat or fish – everything that would normally be on the table for dinner. Then in the evening, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, or scrambled eggs are served instead.
This reversal takes the majority of the daily calories already in the morning to itself. Thus one has more time to burn the taken-up calories again, stress fans of the method.
The nourishing way is to bring the metabolism therefore particularly well in the course.
The Diät became well-known by the US-Amerikanerin Tricia Cunningham. She lost 78 kilos within nine months and wrote down her success story with nutritionist Heidi Skolnik in the book ‘The Reverse Diet’.
Here’s what to watch out for when reverse dieting.
As great as it sounds – and as much as followers of reverse dieting proclaim their successes on social media – this diet also doesn’t work without a more general lifestyle change.
For example, as few industrially processed foods as possible should be consumed; instead, it’s important to eat mindfully.
In addition, sugary soft drinks, alcohol, and extremely salty things are taboo during the Diät, stress the authors of the book.
Also, Workouts and sports may not come too briefly. If you want to lose weight healthily and in the long term, you should make sure you get enough exercise.
Reverse Dieting Conclusion
For whom does reverse dieting make sense? Does the diet have any dangers? Nutritionist Andra Schmidt assesses reverse dieting as follows:
“Reverse dieting is specifically recommended to people who have run a hard calorie deficit over a long period of time – for example, only 1200 calories were consumed daily, although the total metabolic rate is 2300. With this deficit, the metabolism has certainly slowed down.
In order to avoid a yoyo effect, reverse dieting is recommended from time to time – but with the focus on taking in more calories step by step until the optimal total metabolic rate is reached.
It is advised to always make sure to eat a natural diet without convenience foods, sugary foods, and alcohol. This avoids activating old fat cells and building them up again. In addition, the metabolism is slowly accustomed to the higher energy intake and improved.
Whether it is absolutely necessary to start the day with meat and fish is up to each person. In principle, it depends on how the three macronutrients carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats are distributed, and whether the basic and total metabolic rate is maintained. In any case, proteins and fats keep you full longer, keep blood sugar levels constant, and promote muscle definition at the same time.”
