Often called reverse dieting, sometimes people need to eat more food to lose fat.

But wait, that feels wrong. Very wrong. It’s completely counter-intuitive to the basic math of calorie counting.

And believe me, I get it. To someone who’s working hard on a weight loss goal by restricting how much you’re eating this is a terrifying idea and hard to wrap your head around.

And yet, for certain individuals, it’s a key to feeling better and losing stubborn fat.

Eating more to lose stubborn body fat could be for you if you’re seeing zero progress on a very low calorie diet which (we’ll rather arbitrarily say) is under 1000 cals per day for a female and under 1500 cals per day for a male. This is well below what we’d expect for an individual’s Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is simply the amount calories your body needs to sustain itself (i.e. no exercise, just the energy your body needs to stay switched on as you sit around). You can find out more about this here, including an online BMR calculator to give you a rough idea of what your BMR could be based on gender, age and size (remember, this is only an estimate, not your actual BMR).

Extended periods of severe caloric restriction can trigger a stress response in the body as it slows down your metabolism to preserve energy. In other words, your body goes into survival mode. This can cause your body to hold onto extra fat because it thinks you might need energy stores later to stay alive.

“Reverse dieting” could also be for you if you exercise regularly but feel low energy and lethargic. You simply might not be eating enough to give yourself energy. Eating more (quality foods) can boost your metabolism when done properly. So overtime, these types of individuals will feel a lot better.