For me – the way I got fat was a two-fold process:
1) eating past satisfaction (ignoring my ‘full’ signals, especially when eating really yummy, calorie-rich foods)
2) going on the roller-coaster calorie restrictive diets once a year for a few months at a time.
To “Recover” from dieting – you have to first give yourself enough calories so your body goes into “abundance” mode… and turns up the HEAT on the metabolism. (I read Eat 4 Heat first, and it really clicked for me.)
Once that happens, you need to really start LISTENING to all your body’s signals – and then give it what it really wants (plenty of real, whole, nutritious food) and also STOP eating when it tells you it’s had “enough”.
If you read enough of Matt’s books, the other thing you should take away (at least, I did) – is that this is a very personal experience. Each body is unique in how it responds to different kinds of foods. You have to make your OWN plan to attain your own goals, and then experiment to find out what really works for you. There is no “quick fix” and there is no “perfect” diet that works for everyone.
But… the big thing in Diet Recovery, is that it’s a process to recover from diets that will kill your metabolism (and thus your health). It is not a weight loss plan.