How do you eat more?

nicolejo143

Hi,

I'm new to this concept and I am having problems eating more food. I feel sick, stuffed, bloated and I think I'm having problems digesting all this food! Its hard for me to eat more. I've been eating healthy foods and I would like to know how to eat more calories without eating junk food again.

I calculated my tdee to be 2208 and my goal is to eat 15% less or 1876. I was eating only 1300-1500 a day, and netting much lower than that. I actually ate my tdee two days in a row this weekend to see what it felt like, and since then I've felt uncomfortably full and bloated. It doesn't feel so good that "too full" feeling. The other day I struggled to even eat 1600 cal, and ended up netting only in the 800s. The days that I managed to eat more I only accomplished by adding on some unhealthy items like a piece of cake, since its not as filling. Even then it is still hard to reach my goal. But what is the right way to eat more? Should I increase more gradually?

mymodernbabylon

You don't try to go from under eating to eating TDEE right away - build up to it 100-200 calories per week until you reach your number. Eat more dense foods/proteins as they will give you calories you need. I can imagine if you are eating more junk to get calories, then yes, you will bloat and feel horrid. Feel free to friend me and check out my diary for ideas.

mymodernbabylon

And honestly, it sounds like you need to go up to TDEE for a bit if you were nettting well under 1300 calories to really take advantage of this programme.

nicolejo143

mymodernbabylon wrote: »

You don't try to go from under eating to eating TDEE right away - build up to it 100-200 calories per week until you reach your number. Eat more dense foods/proteins as they will give you calories you need. I can imagine if you are eating more junk to get calories, then yes, you will bloat and feel horrid. Feel free to friend me and check out my diary for ideas.

I wish I knew that earlier, oops. I don't know if I missed it but I didn't see anything on here saying to "take it slowly". If thats how much I'm supposed to really be eating I didn't think my body would act so adversely from feeding it.

But, I also added a lot more protein in my diet. I was not getting enough protien before so I had to add a lot more which also consequently added a lot of fat. I feel really sick this week, I think I did way too much too soon. I don't even know what to eat this week, my stomach is super messed up. I guess I'll be eating mild things like oatmeal and soup for a few days and not worry about calories so much.

mymodernbabylon wrote: »

And honestly, it sounds like you need to go up to TDEE for a bit if you were nettting well under 1300 calories to really take advantage of this programme.

I think I might need to do this. I also feel like its the perfect time of year to eat more. Cold weather tends to make me hungrier. I usually gain 10-15lbs in the winter so eating maintenance instead would be a huge improvement. Right now though, I can't even imagine eating that much everyday. I'm not sure how I ever did. Recently I've been only eating 1300 or so a day and getting honestly full from that, but I just realized that I used to think of that as starving! I'm pretty sure I messed up my metabolism.

Jennbecca33

Hi Nicole! Welcome to the group!

Great job on eating more! Yes, it's best to increase the calories slowly because it helps your body adjust as you begin to eat more food. You've been under eating and so your body got used to only having a much smaller amount of food - it adapts and trys to accommodate by slowing down. So naturally when you increase your cals suddenly, it kind of shocks the body since it hasn't been used to having that much food. Increase slowly - 100 cals every week or so - until you work your way up. This will help you not to feel as bloated and will help with water weight, although those things are normal for some anyway. You'll start to feel hungry again and you will want to eat more.

Here's a great link by Kiki on what to expect when increasing calories:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/521728/upping-cals-what-to-expect-why-you-need-patience/p1

Calorie dense healthy foods like peanut butter, nuts, butter, olive oil, cheese, etc. will help you fill those calories up. Hope this helps - post back if you have more questions!

nicolejo143

Updates:

• My stomach is feeling much better, not 100% but getting there.
• I gained 3.5lbs in 2 weeks (and I'm petite).
• All of a sudden seemed to have gained an appetite? So I just went with it and started eating more. I know I increased probably less gradually than I should have. But I was getting hungrier though, so I started eating snacks and slightly bigger meals.

Questions:

I'm confused now and don't know how much to eat. Do I need to do a metabolism reset? or should be eating below tdee? Also I think I might have used the wrong Scooby calculator? I just realized there was more than one. I was using this one: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
Did I overestimate what I need to eat?

When will the weight inflation go away? I am petite, so 3.5lbs a little bit scary to me. But from what I understand from the posts on this group this is totally normal? Despite weighing more, I still had to buy smaller pants a couple days ago from the weight I lost before I started this. So I know couldn't have suddenly gained 3.5lbs of fat back, right? It took me like 2 months to lose that much.

heybales

Well, the gain is because you've been eating way more than the small 100-200 extra daily for a week or two at a time that was recommended.

Whatever eating level you were at prior and not losing weight, was suppressed maintenance.
You eat more than that, you will gain fat. Until your body decides to speed up. You eat 1000 more daily for a week and body doesn't speed up - you gained 2 lbs of fat.

Your body's normal response is to get back to prior fat level is to increase hunger, so it's a good sign your hormones are in check again, but bad sign that you give in to them.
Stick to goals, which was slow increase.
Some of the gain was glycogen stores in muscles with attached water, perhaps 1-2 lbs worth.

Use the Most Accurate TDEE link, where you can enter in your bodyfat % and use Katch BMR method. Or at least Mifflin BMR method if no BF%.

As long as you jumped up way over prior eating level, fat gain will go away when body finally decides to speed up, and hoping you are not eating over even potential maintenance.

Because of course that TDEE figure is an estimate, you are guessing from 5 rough levels for exercise, and daily life isn't even considered in there.

Reset yes, working your way up to it slowly, even more so before you do reset.