Reverse Dieting: What It Is and Does It Work?
Reverse dieting means eating a little more each week after a diet ends. You keep going until you reach your maintenance calories, the amount that keeps your weight steady. The idea is to regain less weight. An early 2025 trial suggests it doesn’t. People who went up slowly regained no less weight than those who went straight to maintenance.
In brief
- A 2025 trial of 49 people who lift weights found reverse dieting didn't lead to less weight regain than going straight to maintenance or eating freely.
- A second look at the same research, with 75 people, found no sign that reverse dieting helped people stick to their plan.
- Both are early results, shared as short summaries, not full papers yet.
- Whichever way you come off a diet, aim to settle at your new, lower maintenance.
What is reverse dieting?
Reverse dieting is a planned way to stop dieting. Instead of going straight back to normal eating, you add calories in small steps each week until your weight holds steady.
It started with bodybuilders and other athletes who diet very hard before a competition. A 2014 review describes it as raising calories slowly, step by step. The aim is to help hormones and metabolism recover while keeping fat gain low.
Say you’ve been eating 1,700 calories a day, and your maintenance is now around 2,200.
| Week | Going straight to maintenance | Reverse dieting, about +150 a week |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,200 | 1,850 |
| 2 | 2,200 | 2,000 |
| 3 | 2,200 | 2,150 |
| 4 | 2,200 | 2,200 |
These numbers are only an example. The 2025 trial below raised calories by about 9% a week for men and 12% for women, which is roughly similar.
Does reverse dieting work?
Not better than simpler options, based on one early trial.
In a 2025 study, 49 men and women who lift weights first dieted until they’d lost 5% of their weight. Then each person was put, at random, into one of three groups for 15 weeks:
- Reverse dieting, with calories raised a little each week.
- Going straight to maintenance, worked out for their new weight.
- Eating freely, with no plan.
On average, every group regained some weight, but none regained all of it. The reverse dieting group regained about 3.7% of their body weight, the maintenance group 2.7% and the free-eating group 1.3%. The researchers said the differences weren’t clear enough to call, and concluded that reverse dieting “may not be more effective” than the other two approaches.
A second analysis from the same team, with 75 people, looked at how well people stuck to the three plans. Both planned groups ate less than they’d been told to, and the reverse dieting group had the most dropouts. Again, the gap was too small to be sure of.
These are small studies, shared so far as short conference summaries rather than full papers, and the people in them lifted weights. Before this, a 2022 review found only case studies of bodybuilders and similar athletes, and called reverse dieting “a theoretical concept”.
Does reverse dieting boost your metabolism?
There’s no evidence that it does.
After a long diet, your body burns a little less than its smaller size alone would explain. The 2014 review describes this. The theory behind reverse dieting is that going up slowly helps your metabolism recover as you eat more. As far as we know, no study has shown this.
The 2022 review even raised a possible downside. It warned that going up slowly “might slow physiological recovery”, because it keeps very lean athletes at low body fat for longer.
We looked at a similar claim, that a break from dieting “resets” your metabolism, in our post on diet breaks.
Why do people regain weight after a diet?
A big reason is that people tend to eat more after losing weight. Your new maintenance is also lower than before you started, so old portions now add weight.
A 2016 study used weight records from 153 people with type 2 diabetes who lost weight on a diabetes medicine. It estimated that for every kilogram lost, people ate about 100 calories a day more. That’s more than three times the drop in calories the body burns. The people in it were on a medicine, so treat the number as a rough guide.
Should you reverse diet or go straight to maintenance?
Go with whichever you can stick to. The 2025 trial found no clear winner, so the choice comes down to what suits you.
| Reverse dieting | Straight to maintenance | |
|---|---|---|
| How it feels | Small, slow changes | Eating more right away |
| Time on low calories | A few extra weeks | Ends straight away |
| Might suit you if you | Like structure, or worry about losing control | Are tired of dieting and want it to end |
The first two rows describe how each approach works. The third is our suggestion, not a study finding.
How do you come off a diet without regaining?
Find your new maintenance, eat close to it, and let your weekly trend guide you.
- Work out your new maintenance from your current weight, not your starting weight. Our maintenance calorie calculator gives you a starting point.
- Choose slow steps or a straight switch, and set your first week’s calories.
- Keep the habits that helped. Meals that fill you up make the extra hunger easier. If you lift, keep your training going.
- Expect a small rise on the scale in the first week or two. More food means more water and food in your body, and most of that early rise isn’t fat. We explain why in our diet breaks post.
- Watch your weekly average, not single days.
- After three or four weeks, adjust. If your average keeps rising, eat a little less. If it keeps falling, eat a little more. Our guide on finding your maintenance calories explains how.
Where Ori fits
Ori can help with the switch. Set your goal to Maintain, and Ori gives you a target for keeping your weight steady. With Premium, Ori checks your weight trend each week before it suggests a new target. So you don’t have to guess whether a heavier week means anything. You can try Ori here.
Related reading
- Why your calorie target shouldn’t stay the same for months
- Why does my weight fluctuate so much?
- How often should you weigh yourself?
Sources
- Rodriguez Da Silva V, Muniz M, Shelton G, et al. The effects of reverse dieting on mitigating weight regain after a caloric deficit: a preliminary analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2025 (conference abstract).
- Rodriguez Da Silva V, Holtje J, Bratton A, et al. Adherence and compliance rates across post-dieting strategies: a preliminary analysis. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2025 (conference abstract).
- Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Norton LE. Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: implications for the athlete. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2014.
- Chica-Latorre S, Buechel C, Pumpa K, Etxebarria N, Minehan M. After the spotlight: are evidence-based recommendations for refeeding post-contest energy restriction available for physique athletes? A scoping review. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2022.
- Polidori D, Sanghvi A, Seeley RJ, Hall KD. How strongly does appetite counter weight loss? Quantification of the feedback control of human energy intake. Obesity, 2016.
A gentle safety note
Ori supports general wellness. It is not medical care. If you have a history of disordered eating, are pregnant or breastfeeding, take medicines that affect weight or appetite, or have a clinical nutrition need, speak with a qualified healthcare professional before changing your intake or weight goal.
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