After you’ve completed your reverse diet, we usually recommend switching to a maintenance goal and continuing to eat your final target macros for a while before switching to a weight loss goal again.
There are several reasons for this:
Toward the end of a reverse diet, there may be a lag in response as your metabolism continues to fully adapt to the higher calories that you were eating on your reverse diet. By switching to maintenance and staying on higher calories, you’ll give your metabolism more time to adjust, maximizing your chance of success on your next goal.
*** For example, just because you’re eating 2500 calories per day at the end of your reverse, this doesn’t mean that your metabolism has increased to a point where it’s burning off all of those calories. Potentially, you may only be burning 2300 calories per day. If you turn around and cut to 2000 calories expecting the weight to just fall right off because you believe you’re in a 500-calorie deficit, you’ll be disappointed. In reality, you’re only in a 300-calorie deficit, so you’ll lose weight much more slowly than anticipated. In this case, your reverse will have been less effective than you expected.
Staying on maintenance for a while can ensure that you’re in a better mental and emotional place to diet again.
*** If you’ve spent a good chunk of your life trying to diet, or were previously on an aggressive diet before reversing, you may find it mentally liberating to eat higher calories for a while. You’ll have more time to focus on goals that aren’t weight related (such as improving training performance and getting stronger), and will likely be more motivated and better able to stick to lower calories when you finally do switch to a weight loss goal.
Staying at a higher calorie intake can give you more time to efficiently build muscle if you’re weight training, which will ultimately improve the look of your physique and even your metabolism long-term.
*** Take advantage of the extra calories you’re eating by hitting the weights hard and shuttling some of that extra energy into building muscle. Having more muscle is not only good for your health and metabolism, but it will give your body a better shape in the future when you do decide to switch to a weight loss goal.
As a general guideline:
If you’re coming off a fairly aggressive diet, it might be a good idea to stick to a maintenance phase for at least the same length of time you spent reverse dieting—especially if the entire length of the reverse diet was less than 3 or 4 months. For example, if you were on the conservative reverse diet setting for three months, you might want to spend at least an additional three months on the maintenance setting after finishing your reverse.
Again, there is no one-size-fits-all rule for this since every reverse diet case is different, but it’s important to keep in mind that spending at least some time on a maintenance goal after reversing can be powerful in giving you a mental and physical break from dieting and focusing on the scale. It also gives your body additional time to adapt to the higher calories and a better chance of building muscle efficiently if you’re pairing your maintenance phase with a solid weight training program.