You are so right about how the fat can just fly back onto the butt (or abdomen).
A major factor can be when coming off a diet that metabolism was a tad suppressed and comes back up again PLUS the fact that you have lost some LBM when dieting and you're regaining some of that too.
I had the most frightening fat mass gain back in January 2005 when I took it too far and kept eating 2500+ kcal for too long after my activity level had taken a plunge.
I'd painted the house I was going to move to in October 2004, and maintenance flew up to 2700 kcal back then and stayed there for a while. Upon which I took that maintenance for granted and started overeating when I wanted to prepare meals not just for myself but for my SO as well.
Only when I exercised more again and ate slightly less, balance was re-established.
The difficult part about dieting by using exercise for the calorie deficit is that the body adapts so quickly. And yes, hopefully a routine that keeps the body guessing will prevent that metabolism to drop, but I'm afraid that the only real way to prevent that is to keep telling the body it's not starving by very frequent refeeds & free meals. Some apparently need more than others.
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