Why my reverse diet failed miserably

If you are in the nutrition space you might have heard of a "reverse diet". This is when you strategically ADD calories into your diet to get to your TDEE(Total daily energy expenditure) or even above that if you are trying to build muscle.

With the diet narrative always having been "eat less, exercise more", why would someone want to ADD calories back into their diet??

Some reasons to reverse diet are:

• To increase your energy
• To improve your performance in the gym
• To be able to diet at a higher energy intake in the future
• To repair your metabolism after an extended period of undereating
• To repair hormone imbalances

Most women I have worked with have been undereating for so long that a reverse diet makes sense as a starting point. The time in a reverse is going to depend on many factors including the depth, duration, and frequency of their calorie restriction. 

But that is where most nutrition and health coaches stop. They just randomly add in calories trying to reach a certain number that they calculated online. 

But our bodies are not simply calculators. One HUGE factor that need to be taken into account is GUT HEALTH

In my case, I wanted to BUILD some muscle. specifically wanted some lower body gains(ahem... booty). So a few months ago I started a new workout program and started tracking my food again, trying to get up to my TDEE. 

I was never able to stay consistent because I found that I would be so full on some days that I couldn't eat more than 1 meal a day. I would eat small portions and feel full for hours, so trying to shove more food in was just not going to happen. I would belch for hours after eating, sometimes feeling like the food never even left my stomach.

Being kind of a gut health nerd, I did ALL THE ThINGS. I practiced mindful eating, I made sure I was chewing my food well, I walked after my meals, I avoided a lot of liquid during mealtime, I took my digestive enzymes and Betaine HCL to help digest my food, and still struggled.

This summer I had to take a round of antibiotics when I was sick, so was honestly not surprised to develop some gut issues.

That's when I reached out to my Functional Medicine Practitioner again and did some GI testing. We did a GIMAP test and found a couple of culprits for my symptoms. So now I will start the 5-R process for healing my gut again: Remove, Replace, Repair, Reinoculate, Rebalance. 

In Functional Medicine, we look at the WHOLE PERSON. Not just their height, weight, and age.  You can't build a house without first making sure the foundation is solid.

Gut health is our foundation. 

My reverse diet failed because I hadn't taken the extra steps to be sure my foundation was solid before I started trying to add more food to an already taxed GI system. It turns out that I am not digesting or absorbing my food properly, so it really didn't matter how much extra I tried to eat, the nutrients just weren't being utilized properly anyway. 

As a coach, you can't just assume that everyone is the same. That you can plug numbers into an online calculator or give everyone the same plan to follow. 

There is SO MUCH MORE to health than eating a certain number of calories or macros. And it all starts with healing the gut. 

Just like everything else, this is a journey. I am fortunate enough to know what it's like to have my gut health in a good place, so I knew there was something off. So many people don't know what being well feels like so they just accept symptoms as "normal".

Common does not equal normal.