Woman Added 800 Calories Daily and Lost 10 Pounds Without Exercise in 90 Days

Do you want to lose weight without having to cut calories? McKenna Olsen is an influencer and health coach who recently lost 10 pounds and transformed her body. And she claims she did it by eating more – not less. "How I went from eating 1,100 calories a day to…To 2,000+ without gaining body fat," she writes in the Instagram video. How did she do it in a safe and sustainable way? Here is everything you need to know about her strategy.

It's Called Reverse Dieting

"It's called reverse dieting, aka getting your body adapted to higher calorie intake over time," she reveals in the post. "The more you slash calories, the more your body adapts to a LOW caloric intake⁣ , meaning yes, you'll have to continue to lower calories to see more fat loss over time, which is why you don't want to start your fat loss phase with a 500 cal deficit because over time that 500 cal deficit becomes your maintenance and for me."

Eating Low-Calorie Diets Can Cause Things to Slow Down

"Going through extended time periods of low-calorie eating causes a lot of other things in your body to slow," she continues. These include:

• BMT (calories the body burns at rest to live)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
• NEAT (movement outside of exercise)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
• EA (cals burned from exercise)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
• TTEF (Cals burned from digestion)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣.⁣⁣

And It Can Slow Your Metabolism

"All of these make up your metabolism, meaning…⁣⁣⁣When you reduce calories at extreme rates or stay at low calories for extended periods,⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ You risk sacrificing muscle mass (BMR reduces).⁣⁣⁣, You MOVE less (your NEAT reduces), You burn fewer calories during exercise due to less energy. (EA is reduced)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣, You eat less, so you burn fewer calories via digestion. (TEF is reduced.)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣"

Slowly Increasing Your Food Intake Will Help with This

"So how do you fix this?⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ Slowly work on increasing food intake with strategy. (AKA reverse dieting).⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ Every time you drastically reduce, your body adapts, but you have the ability to get your body adapted to higher calories, too," she says.

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She Made "Small, Incremental" Increases in Food

"In the first video, I was eating 1,100 calories a day and 109 lbs, but my body did NOT want to drop anymore, and I knew I could not sustain it. To get to where I am now (over 2k cals/day), it took small incremental increases In food," she continues.

Massive Increases Will Cause Body Fat Accumulation

"Remember when your metabolism is downregulated, massive increases in food will cause body fat accumulation, which is why so many think eating more than 1200 calories is going to cause fat gain because it WILL if food intake is not incrementally increased," she says.

She Also Suggests Meal Planning

The first thing she did? "Got back in the habit of regular grocery shopping + meal planning. In photo 1, I definitely just grabbed what was convenient. We were moving a few times a year at this point, and I was stressed. I had to stop the snacking and reprioritize eating REAL MEALS. Grazing through the day without optimal protein led me to overconsume the fats and carbs," she writes.

And Packing Snacks When on the Go

Next, she "stopped going unprepared when leaving the house," she writes. "This always leads to built-up hunger, leading to overconsuming or snacking later on. I always brought a high-protein snack with me in case I was out longer to avoid overeating at the next meal or mindlessly snacking.⁣"

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Eat Breakfast Daily

Her third change was recreating the habit of eating breakfast. "For so long, I have never eaten breakfast. I blamed it on not having an appetite in the morning, and little did I realize that not eating in the morning was continuing to suppress my appetite, then I'd end up extra hungry later and be even more mindless.," she writes.

Don't Forget to Pay More Attention to Carbs and Fat

The last thing she did was "stop winging it" with her "energy nutrients (carbs + fat) and really start paying attention to fat intake and not letting it exceed 30% of my daily intake," she says. "People tend to be so scared of carbs, but fats are the nutrients that add up QUICK. Your body is far more likely to store extra fats as fat vs carbs since carbs are your body's main energy source. This wa,y my issue.. grazing on nuts/seeds, rice cakes with PB. No real meals, and the fats added up quickly.⁣⁣" And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.