My reverse diet attempt/accountability log before Summer holidays! (5 weeks)

[jlai928]

I'm currently cutting on 1700 calories for any meaningful fat loss and I've been yo-yoing for a year and a half now since after my comp last October with no proper phases in a surplus, just maybe weeks of higher kcals or maintenance-ish for holiday. I wanted to get lean af for Summer but I'm around 13% at the moment and can't seem to push anymore... Just can't sustain sub 1800 kcals psychologically at this point in time and I stepped back finally and took a good look at the bigger picture.

Feeling insane diet fatigue and in the back of my mind I know I really shouldn't be restricting for such long periods and not making gains as a perfectly healthy 20Y Male.
Way to food focused, mad cravings and binged quite a number of times not even on sweets, I literally just wanted to eat anything and everything. Just finding it hella difficult psychologically and developing a pretty bad relationship with food, even doing the occasional 1500kcal run to burn off the binge. Not good. I know.
Will try this reverse diet thing.

Plan is to do an initial bump = 200kcals starting today. However, just wanted to have this log in place and will start officially on the Monday the 19th of June until the 19th of July when I break for holiday. During which I will try my best to continue but we will see!

Aiming for 1900kcal for the first week.
ATM my macros are to be:
1910kcals
185c
50f
180p

[jlai928]

Never done a log on BB.com before so lets see how this goes. Hopefully people can chime in and give me some advice on this "journey".
I want to stay as lean as possible, build some muscle and basically attack the fat loss again when I'm in a better psychological and physical state. My ultimate goal is maintenance at 10-11%.

My stats are (has gone down gradually since last year before restricting calories):
6 foot (183cm), 183.2lbs today.
Waist circumference at umbilical level = 79.5cm.
Waist circumference at hips = 85cm.
Deadlift: 170kg.
Bench: 95kg.
Squat: 150kg.
Training experience = 4 years (almost 2 in a bloody deficit so no good I know).
Doing cardio LISS 400kcal 3x/week. HIIT (4 minute sprint workout) 2x/week. Getting in 11500steps a day minimum. Gym 3-4x/week push pull split. Yes I hate to be sedentary hence why I really shouldn't have trouble losing at this little kcals.

[jlai928]

So...

I forgot to mention, part of the reason why I am reverse dieting is that my pulse was 45 consistently at rest. I know it doesn't always correlate with metabolism but something is up definitely and I also feel cold when it isn't.

The best thing happened actually, I'm not going to post until Monday when this officially starts but I upped kcals by 100 yesterday as a test run which is what I'll keep it at for the first week.
My weight went DOWN from 183.2 --> 181.6

I'm well impressed and hopefully it continues to go down/levels off?? Idk very excited to see what happens. Looking leaner too, probably water flushing. Haha slightly tempted to go back in a deficit due to the positive result but nah will stick with this.

[jlai928]

My reverse diet officially starts tomorrow as I was just seeing if the initial 200kcal bump would be enough and you bet it has. It's crazy how just 200kcals can feel so much better and feel like so much more food lol.

better yet my weight has dropped AGAIN. 3 days in and it has gone like this:

Day 1 - 181.6 from 183.2
Day 2 - 181.2
Day 3 - 180.4

I bet I'm still in a deficit or 1 of the following... 1. my stress levels/cortisol has gone down massively 2. I'm accurately tracking and not subconsciously snacking so my poorly tracked 1700 became a well tracked 1900, unlikely though.

Still... Will update mid week to see. Since I'm very content with 1900kcal I'm gonna stretch that out until Sunday next week. Lets see what happens

[jlai928]

So since there hasn't been any replies, I'm guessing no one gives a fk but wtv.

It's been 3 weeks since I started, had 2 slip ups where I had probably 500-1000kcal over but it's been honestly amazing. To anyone interested, this sh*t works, no joke.
Body comp has stayed the same, waist measurement has been the same. Weight has gone down. Was expecting gain but it didn't happen, can't believe this.

1900kcal --> 2400kcal this week and will still be increasing. Been doing 150kcal increments since my weight is very steady/dropping actually. I don't want to cut, I want to lean gain that's my goal so yeah can be slightly more aggressive from looking at the trend.
Week 1 average - 181.5lbs eating 2000kcal.
Week 2 average - 181.4lbs eating 2150kcal.
Week 3 average - 180.7lbs (strange drop) eating 2300kcal.
Week 4 average - weighed in today (17th July) at 180.2lbs eating 2400kcal this week.

truly amazing. Lets see how far I can take this.