Body fat overshooting is a term used to describe the potential to regain fat in a greater amount than before a diet.

Not only that, if you're NOT lifting weights, it also means you lose muscle when you lose weight and gain mostly fat when you regain weight, worsening your body composition.

It happens when you go from a period of prolonged calorie restriction to a period of calorie surplus, and your body decides to store more fat than usual as a protective mechanism.

Why does it happen?

When you diet, your body adapts to the lower calorie intake by lowering your metabolism, reducing your energy expenditure, and increasing your hunger and cravings.

These adaptations are meant to help you survive in times of food scarcity, but they also make it harder to lose fat and easier to gain it back.

Body fat overshooting can affect your metabolic health. Gaining back lost weight, primarily as fat, can reduce insulin sensitivity, increase blood pressure, and negatively affect blood lipid profiles.

Body fat overshooting can be influenced by hormonal changes. Weight loss affects various hormones that regulate appetite and fat storage, such as leptin, ghrelin, insulin, and cortisol. For instance, leptin levels decrease with weight loss, increasing hunger and potentially leading to overeating once the diet is over.

Body fat overshooting can be exacerbated by fat cell hyperplasia. In some cases, extreme weight loss and regain can stimulate fat cell hyperplasia, the production of new fat cells. While the human body generally maintains a steady number of adipocytes, severe caloric restriction followed by overeating might promote an increase in adipocyte number, which can further exacerbate weight regain.

How can you prevent or minimize it?

#1 Avoid extreme or prolonged diets

The more you restrict your calories, the more your body will adapt and resist fat loss. The more you rebound with overeating, the more your body will store fat. Aim for a moderate and sustainable calorie deficit that allows you to lose fat slowly but steadily. This is 0.25-1% of your body weight per week.

#2 Eat enough protein

Protein is essential for muscle maintenance and growth, which can help prevent or minimize body composition shift during weight loss and regain. Protein also has a higher thermic effect than other macronutrients, meaning it burns more calories during digestion.

#3 Keep lifting weights

The muscle-building stimulus is probably the most important input to avoid losing muscle when losing weight and gaining only fat when gaining weight. Lifting weights will help you preserve or increase your lean mass, which will boost your metabolism and improve your body composition. Aim for at least 3-4 sessions per week of progressive resistance training.

Check out Ep 88: Break the Cycle of Body Fat Overshooting for a Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier Physique of the Wits & Weights podcast for more on this topic.