Courtney Black Shares Before-and-After Slimdown Snaps After "Reverse Dieting"
Courtney Black is revealing the secret to her snatched waist: Reverse Dieting. In a recent social media post the fitness trainer and influencer discussed the surprising reason behind her recent slimdown, sharing a before-and-after photo. "I did a 'what I eat in a day on a deficit' video yesterday and so many of you were shocked that 1,750 calories could be a deficit for me," she starts the post, going on to explain how you can lose weight by eating more. Here is everything you need to know about her method.
She Explains That She Was "Overtraining" and "Undereating" Before
In the left photo Courtney claims she was eating 1,400 calories per day, and on the right, 2,000. "On the left, I fell into the trap of thinking I couldn't eat above 1400 calories without gaining weight (this was post my eating disorder and my issues with food started to creep back a bit) and I was also over training. On the left I was doing 1 hour in the gym and 1 hour incline walk. What happened was my body adapted to these calories as my maintenance, so if I wanted to lose fat and be in a deficit I would have had to eat under 1k calories," she says.
It Led to Metabolic Adaptation
"I was eating low calories for a long period of time which lead to metabolic adaptation, where the body adjusts to the lower calorie intake by slowing down metabolism, making weight loss more difficult. I was eating too little, training too much and therefore lacking enough energy to have great sessions, so even my sessions were slacking!" she continues.
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She Was "Doing Way too Much"
"I was doing way too much… This was hindering my weight loss because I was struggling to gain any muscle which therefore was slowing down my metabolism," she writes.
This Led to Decreased Performance and Binging
She explains that it led to a few things that got in the way of her losing weight:
- Your maintenance calories is less so you go away for a few days and feel like you have gained loads of weight
- You move less as you have less energy so you burn fewer calories
- Your performance in workouts is reduced
- You constantly think about food and maybe even leads to binging
Enter Reverse Dieting
"You need to reverse diet," she says. "To successfully reverse diet you need to look at the amount of calories you are eating now and slowly increase these calories until you are at a daily intake that you know would give you more food freedom and more energy. Example: You are eating 1300 calories per day but you know 1900 calories would be your goal intake for maintenance."
This Is What Her Plan Looks Like
The first and second weeks she increased caloric intake by 10 percent, eating 1430 calories per day. Week 3 to 4 she upped it to 1573, and week 5 and 6, 1730. Week 7 to 8 she was eating 1900 calories.
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This Is More Sustainable Than Calorie Restriction, She Says
"In 8 weeks time you would be at a healthy maintenance calories and by increasing them so slowly you would have also minimized the amount of fat gained, now you may gain a few pounds while your body is adjusting but do you want to live on 1300 calories for the rest of your life?" she says.
💪🔥Body Booster: Reverse dieting is the concept that by increasing your caloric intake gradually, you will also be able to exercise more and adapt to a more sustainable diet.
