The invention provides a method for reducing circulation loss of a dual active full bridge DC-DC converter. The input and output voltage and current of the dual active full bridge DC-DC converter arecollected, the phase shift angle between bridge power conversion units on the two sides of the transformer in the dual active full bridge DC-DC converter is calculated and then using conventional phase shift control, dual phase shift control or triple phase shift control is judged according to the value of the phase shift angle. The power circulation characteristics of the DC sources on the two sides of the dual active full bridge DC-DC converter in the full power range can be optimized, soft switching of all switching tubes in the full load range can be realized by the converter, the effective value and the peak value of the inductive current can be greatly reduced, then the converter loss caused by circulation power can be effectively reduced, the power transmission efficiency of the converter can be improved and the load range of the dual active full bridge DC-DC converter in efficient working can be broadened.