It’s common to see the scale jump up a few pounds at the beginning of a reverse diet, especially if you weren’t eating a whole lot of carbs before. Not to worry though—it’s likely that the extra weight is due to fluid retention rather than fat gain!


There are two major reasons for fluid retention:


  1. When you add carbs to your diet, you’ll also be storing more of these carbs as glycogen around your liver and muscle. For every gram of glycogen you store, you’ll also store an additional three grams of water, which will show up on your scale as extra weight. 

  2. When you add carbs to your diet, insulin levels will increase. Insulin is a hormone that pulls glucose (the end product of carb breakdown) into your cells. It also causes your kidneys to retain more sodium, which in turn causes you to retain more fluid. Holding water will show up on your scale as extra weight.


If you experience an initial increase in body weight when you start your reverse diet, realize that it may take your body a few weeks to level out. Keep hitting your macros, be patient, and trust the process!