You just wrapped up a cut. You are so happy with what you see in the mirror, but now what? You can’t continue to cut because you won’t make any gains. It’s time to bulk, but the problem is that the last time you cut and jumped right back into a bulk- you got fat again quickly! I previously spoke about the benefits of reverse dieting and why you should reverse diet after every cut.
Reverse dieting is a method used to slowly walk dieting calories back up to maintance while repairing your metabolism and actually make you leaner. In this article, I will be providing you with the ultimate reverse dieting meal plan.
Disclaimer: It is extremely hard to write out a generic meal plan for reverse dieting since reverse dieting will be based off of the end of dieting calories. This reverse dieting meal plan will be a good guide for you to base your reverse diet off of.
For the meal plan I will be using the example of a 22 year old male that weighs 170 pounds who ended his diet on 2,200 calories, 200 grams of protein, 245 grams of carb and 50 grams of fat. In order to properly set up a reverse dieting meal plan, you are going to need to know those vital numbers. If your unsure how to get those numbers, I recommend you to use a calorie counter app such as MyFitnessPal or FitDay to log in your whole days worth of calories. These calorie counting softwares will show you your macronutrient totals. These are the numbers we are going to be working with.
The first four weeks are the most vital to reverse dieting because if you add in too much too fast you will gain too much weight back, and if you add back in to little you will not get the same benefits.
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This meal plan will be based on 5 meals per day:
Week 1
Meal 1
8 eggwhites with handful of spinach
2 servings of oatmeal
1 banana
Meal 2
2 scoops of whey protein
1 bottle of Gatorade
1 apple
Meal 3
5oz lean steak
1 medium sweet potato
1 cup of broccoli
Meal 4
2 scoops of whey protein
1 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 5
2 servings of fat free greek yogurt (plain)
1 serving of your favorite cereal
Protein: 200 Carbs: 265 Fat: 55g
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Week 2
Meal 1
8 eggwhites with handful of spinach
2 servings of oatmeal
1 banana
Meal 2
2 scoops of whey protein
1 serving of your favorite ice cream
1 apple
Meal 3
5oz 90% 10 ground beef
1 medium sweet potato
1 cup of broccoli
Meal 4
2 scoops of whey protein
1 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 5
6oz grilled chicken
1 serving of your favorite cereal with 8oz almond milk
At this point you have added a significant amount of calories back to your diet and your well on your way to a full on bulking calorie level. Try not to go over your calories during this time either. One or two cheat meals are ok, but if done too frequently you will defeat the purpose of reverse dieting. From this point forward I recommend watching the scale. If after a week you don’t gain weight from week to week, or even lose weight, add 10g of carbs to your diet. Repeat this process until you reach your offseason level.
