What is a reverse diet?

A reverse diet adds calories back slowly after a long fat-loss phase. The goal is to get back to maintenance calories while keeping the fat you regain small.

How fast should I add calories?

Conservative reverse diets add 50–100 kcal per week; aggressive ones add 150–250 kcal. Smaller steps keep the scale steadier but take longer to reach maintenance.

How long should I reverse diet?

Until your weight holds steady at a calorie level you can sustain, often 6–12 weeks. A longer or harder cut usually needs a longer reverse.

Will I gain fat reverse dieting?

Some regain is normal. Part of the early rise on the scale is glycogen and water coming back, not fat. Small weekly steps are meant to keep the fat part small instead of rebounding all at once.

Is reverse dieting evidence-based?

Partly. Metabolic adaptation is well documented: during a cut your TDEE can drop more than your weight loss alone predicts. There is little direct research on small weekly calorie steps afterwards; the method comes from coaching practice, mostly in physique sport.

When should I stop adding calories?

When you reach your estimated maintenance and the scale holds steady for 2–3 weeks. You weigh less than before the cut, so that is often a little below your pre-cut maintenance. Adding calories past that point is a bulk.

Reverse diet planner

Free reverse diet planner that adds calories back week-by-week after a cut. Builds an 8-week macro schedule with protein, carb, and fat targets each week.

After a long fat-loss phase, your old maintenance calories are probably too high. You weigh less, and months of dieting bring on metabolic adaptation: your resting rate drops, you move around less without noticing, and your TDEE can end up below what the formulas predict. Go straight back to your pre-diet calories and you will likely regain weight quickly.

A reverse diet adds the calories back in small weekly steps, commonly 50–150 kcal per week. This planner builds an 8-week schedule from your current cut calories, projects each week's total, and splits it into macros on the ratio you pick. In the app, a reverse diet steps up at most once a week, shrinks or pauses the step when your weigh-in trend is rising, and stops at your maintenance.

Current calories

kcal/day

Weekly increment

kcal/wk

Macro split

8-week reverse diet schedule

8-week reverse diet schedule
Week	kcal	P	C	F
1	1900	143 g	190 g	63 g
2	2000	150 g	200 g	67 g
3	2100	158 g	210 g	70 g
4	2200	165 g	220 g	73 g
5	2300	173 g	230 g	77 g
6	2400	180 g	240 g	80 g
7	2500	188 g	250 g	83 g
8	2600	195 g	260 g	87 g

How this works

Each week the planner adds a fixed number of calories to last week’s target, then splits the new total across protein, carbs and fat by the ratio you picked. The decisions are the step size and the split.

Step size: 50–100 kcal per week is conservative and leaves room for error. 150–250 kcal per week gets you to maintenance faster but is more likely to add some fat along the way. After a cut of 12 weeks or more, 75–125 kcal a week is a common middle ground.

Macro split: the standard preset (30% protein / 40% carbs / 30% fat) is a good default. Protein stays high to protect lean mass, fat stays at a normal level, and most of the added calories come from carbs. The high-carb and low-fat presets put more of each step into carbohydrate, which helps if your training suffered on the cut.

How to use the schedule: follow each week’s targets, weigh in daily, and average the readings weekly. If the weekly average is flat, take the next step. If it rises more than about 0.1 kg (0.25 lb) a week, take a smaller step, and at 0.35 kg (0.75 lb) a week or more, hold calories until it settles. The app applies the same thresholds.

When to stop: the reverse ends at the calorie level where your weight holds steady. That is your new maintenance, and it is often a little below your pre-diet maintenance because you weigh less. From there, hold it for a maintenance phase or add a small surplus to start a bulk.

The longer and harder the cut, the longer the reverse. A 4-week mini-cut might need only a 2-week reverse; a 20-week contest prep often needs 8–12 weeks.

Frequently asked questions

What is a reverse diet?: A reverse diet adds calories back slowly after a long fat-loss phase. The goal is to get back to maintenance calories while keeping the fat you regain small.
How fast should I add calories?: Conservative reverse diets add 50–100 kcal per week; aggressive ones add 150–250 kcal. Smaller steps keep the scale steadier but take longer to reach maintenance.
How long should I reverse diet?: Until your weight holds steady at a calorie level you can sustain, often 6–12 weeks. A longer or harder cut usually needs a longer reverse.
Will I gain fat reverse dieting?: Some regain is normal. Part of the early rise on the scale is glycogen and water coming back, not fat. Small weekly steps are meant to keep the fat part small instead of rebounding all at once.
Is reverse dieting evidence-based?: Partly. Metabolic adaptation is well documented: during a cut your TDEE can drop more than your weight loss alone predicts. There is little direct research on small weekly calorie steps afterwards; the method comes from coaching practice, mostly in physique sport.
When should I stop adding calories?: When you reach your estimated maintenance and the scale holds steady for 2–3 weeks. You weigh less than before the cut, so that is often a little below your pre-cut maintenance. Adding calories past that point is a bulk.

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