Plateaus, Consistent caloric deficits, and Reverse Dieting

It's been awhile since I last wrote for my website. A lot has happened over the last 7 months, but more than anything, my responsibilities have quadrupled since I officially started working for Performance Athletics. So I can proudly say I interact with clients on a daily basis and help them become better over a wide spectrum of areas in their lives. It has been both rewarding and challenging.

Although I work part-time now, my normal caretaker duties (keeping Luke and Sienna alive and thriving) are still predominantly mine with the occasional help from family and school of course. Both Luke and Sienna are doing so incredibly well in school and I'm so grateful for that.

I've learned a great deal since February when I started helping out at PA and still have so much to learn, perfect, and improve. I absolutely want to get better in every aspect of being a trainer. With that said, my biggest lesson thus far is that fitness training is so much more than the physical training itself. As fitness people, we set out on this journey to get people moving more, moving well, teaching good technique, and getting them physical results. But what happens on the gym floor is a small piece of a much larger picture. Just from my own personal experiences, webinars and courses I've taken, and literature I've read, I thought I had a good grasp at what my job entailed. Boy, did I not realize the extent to which I'd be addressing these other non-physical components of training with clients, and I didn't realize this until I was consistently interacting with and talking to clients everyday about these topics.

It's during that initial warmup time, in between groups of exercises for rest intervals, and cool down times that if you allow it to happen, you learn who that client is, why they behave the way they do, and how they think and view life and fitness. I believe allowing that relationship to grow beyond just the physical training is what makes a great trainer overall. I want to be a great overall trainer who addresses each piece of that client, not neglecting certain areas just because of my own shortcomings or fear of getting "too close." Yes, I believe there should be boundaries and professionalism in that trainer-client relationship. But as a trainer, you have to do more than the technical part, more than coaching cues, demonstrations, and subtle tweaks in technique. You have to go beyond that.

A few weeks back during my regular training hours, I allowed this to happen between myself and a client whom I don't train consistently or often due to scheduling. In between exercises, I learned more about this person because I asked questions about his/her fitness journey thus far. This person has experienced an amazing physical transformation through consistent hard work and dedication in their training as well as their nutrition and overall habits. And in expressing this to this client, he/she then revealed further goals that they would like to meet.

This client expressed that they've been in a plateau for some time now and hasn't reached their end goal weight. He/she is a beast in the gym, they put forth the effort needed to see changes and bring the intensity to their sessions to make progress. They've also been eating in a caloric deficit for a long period of time so I asked if they had considered a "refeed" or reverse dieting. We then briefly talked about metabolic adaptation and how increasing his/her calories could help get them out of the plateau and eventually meet their end goal over time.

Because a training session can't be one hour of chit-chatting, I told this client I'd put together some information for them on how to go about it if they decided to try it. The following is what I gave this person.

Reverse Dieting – increase calories in slow and controlled manner in order to increase energy expenditure (TDEE) while limiting fat gain; they can last anywhere from 1 week up to weeks in duration – it’s just a clear break from your diet

Purpose is not to lose weight but rather increase caloric intake and TDEE while limiting fat gain so you can enjoy your nutrition more, have better adherence, increase lean body mass, and make subsequent fat loss bouts more productive and easier due to greater TDEE

To keep in mind – diet breaks are never harmful; there is conflicting research that says diet breaks sometimes and sometimes not make fat loss more efficient during the next diet phase. One study where a group of resistance trained females did diet breaks and one group did not, the findings were there was no difference in body comp – neither group lost more fat or more weight or didn’t retain more muscle, they were relatively equal.

So a good way to look at this phase is that you can take a break from the diet without fearing you’ll gain weight.

Some people do lose modest amounts of weight during process as their energy TDEE increase exceeds the caloric increase at times, but it’s dependent on the individual.

Metabolic adaptation is a natural process so it affects hormone levels. When you decrease caloric intake, thyroid hormones and leptin hormone go low, cortisol (stress hormone) is elevated, and testosterone in males is suppressed. When leptin is low, you have more hunger, so you want to try to keep leptin higher to keep hunger levels in check.

The goal when dieting, whether it’s someone who is trying to lose bodyfat or someone who is lean but wants to get leaner, is to prevent loss of muscle mass and prevent your metabolic rate from going too low. You lift 3x/week and eat sufficient protein to preserve muscle and go on these diet breaks or “refeeds” to keep your metabolism higher.

Where to start – increase calories at minimum to the new maintenance level, which is your true post diet maintenance calories – dieting decreases TDEE so your maintenance calories post diet will be much lower than pre-diet levels

After the initial increase, add calories in a slow, controlled manner, typically from carbs and fats assuming protein is already adequate (1g/protein per lb of body weight) every 1-2 weeks. Increase calories by 1-10% per week depending on how quickly you wish to get calories up and your tolerance for fat gain

Other Rules for the diet break – Have to know what your new maintenance levels are, keeping your protein levels adequate, keep lifting 3x/week, and not binge eating during the actual diet break (it’s not a free for all with food.) Also, it would be wise to track this diet break just to keep yourself accountable.

I'm happy all of this happened; I'm happy I started talking to him/her and asking questions so I could learn more about them. If I hadn't, the fact that they've been in a deficit for such a long time, been in a plateau for a long time as well, and still have the desire to lose more weight, then we might not have addressed his/her nutrition and how making changes to this component could help them reach their goals. This client's training is spot on, so we shouldn't ignore other aspects of this person's life. It could make all the difference.