Calorie Deficit, Maintenance, Reverse Diet are the 3 importance phases you will experience in your weight loss journey.
Let’s talk about how long you should be in a calorie deficit for, reverse diet and when to go back to maintenance. Because this is important.
We need to remember this is a is not a race, it’s a marathon. It’s going to take longer than a fad diet where you will more than likely gain the weight back quickly. It’s also a lifestyle change and it’s important to love yourself in every part of your journey. Losing weight isn’t just about cutting your calories. There are 4 definite phases you’ve got to experience when losing weight.
Cutting calories is definitely a big part in that but there are 3 other equally important phases you must experience. Especially if you want to maintain your results.
Calorie Deficit, Maintenance, Reverse Diet
Calorie Deficit
You should only be in a calorie deficit for 2-3 months. This is where the fat loss will start and you create a healthy deficit for your weight loss. This will require you to accurately track your food with a scale and muscle maintenance.
Reverse Diet
This can be done two ways. One, after you’ve been severely under eating for a long time. For example, I was eating 1,200-1,400 calories for years so I was in need of a reverse. This can also be done when in a regular calorie deficit, and you’ll want to bring yourself back up to maintenance. I suggest at about 100 calories per week and calculate that into your macros. We reverse calories up slowly to build our metabolism and attempt to maintain our weight loss. It takes realistically about 2-3 months.
Maintenance
Eating at maintenance will help building muscle, balance, hormones, and give us a break from dieting. Spend more time not dieting! It can take about 6-8 months but essentially, it takes as long as it takes.
Intuitive Macros
After you’ve gained the skill of knowing macros by eyeing portions, learning more about food, and knowing about how much you’re eating daily, ditch the food scale. Start practicing what you’ve learned and put it into full gear with intuitive eating.
Losing weight isn’t all about eating low calorie and low carb all the time, it’s about enjoying the journey and creating a lifestyle for long term success.
Want to learn how to calculate and adjust your own macros?
I’ve created a Macros 101 Beginner Course that will explain everything you need to know about counting macros. I highly recommend watching it twice and taking notes so you can get familiar with it. Start by just tracking the food you normally eat for a week and then jump into macros.
Use code BLOGPOST at checkout for $75 off my course! Once you’ve completed the course, I have tons of free, macro-friendly recipes on my blog.
