I gain weight if I eat above 1000 calories

nosweetpea
nosweetpea Posts: 20 Member
edited December 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Did I mess up my body that bad that eating 1000 calories in a day causes weight gain. What can I do to getting my metabolism back on track?
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Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    What makes you think you've damaged your metabolism?
  • pope705
    pope705 Posts: 109 Member
    I would suggest eating at maintenance for a month to help your metabolism. You may gain a little weight but you will feel better. Once your body is used to maintenance calories, then you can start cutting up to 500 out or exercise 500 calories worth.
    1000 calories is too little, unless you are a tiny frail old lady, and even then!
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    Make sure you are drinking lots of water to prevent water retention. That could be part of it if you have been forgetting :)

    What is your age and height? Do you exercise?
  • schelly81
    schelly81 Posts: 161 Member
    How long of a time period are you talking about? Weight goes up and down daily. Are you female? You probably retain water 1-2 times a month.
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  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    You're either confusing shifts of water weight with real gains or eating more than you think.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    need more info ….

    age/height/gender/weight

    how many calorie eating per day?
    how long been dieting? and how many calories per day on said diet...
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Care to tell us your stats age, height weight and even better open your diary. Cant say im convinced that your maintenance is 1000 calories.
  • kyta32
    kyta32 Posts: 670 Member
    If you gain weight at 1000 calories you may want to speak to a Dr. about conditions like PCOS, low thyroid, hashimotos, etc. Bring in your food diary so you can show that the weight gain happens over time (i.e. is not cyclic water gain, sodium water gain, or the water gain you get from starting a new exercise program) while consistently eating at 1000 calories (so 7000 calories intake/week over several weeks gross). There are ways your Dr. can help you to help you lose weight even if you have a low metabolism. If you are eating this low calorie, you should be supervised by a Dr. anyways.

    You may want to talk to a nutritionist about how to get adequate nutrition at such a low intake. Ensure you are getting enough protein to prevent damage from malnutrition. 1 g/lb lean body mass or .8 g/kb body weight. This may be higher than what MFP recommends. Talk to your Dr. about whether a multivitamin/ mineral supplement would be right for you.

    You may want to try a different exercise program. Some find using HIIT intervals is more effective for weight loss than steady-state cardio. Others like the (admittedly small) metabolism boost from building muscle with strength training. Be careful exercising, and be sure to get the nutrition necessary to avoid injury, protect lean mass, and speed healing.

    Even people with very low metabolisms can successfully get down to a healthier weight. Good luck :)
  • sunnyside1213
    sunnyside1213 Posts: 1,205 Member
    If I eat more than 950, I gain too. I am old and sedentary. It happens.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    nosweetpea wrote: »
    Did I mess up my body that bad that eating 1000 calories in a day causes weight gain. What can I do to getting my metabolism back on track?
    If this is true, you need to go to the doctor because you have an underlying medical issue that needs attention.

    That said, I suspect you are grossly underestimate your calorie consumed. It's easy to do, and most of us have done this. It's doubtful there is anything wrong with your metabolism.

    Do you have a good scale? Do you weigh and log all your food? Do you ensure you are choosing correct food entries?

    Do you eat your exercise calories back? If so, where do you get your calorie estimates from? MFP an gym machines grossly overestimate calorie burns.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    sunnyside1213 wrote: »
    If I eat more than 950, I gain too. I am old and sedentary. It happens.

    Are you tracking accurately?
  • r5d5
    r5d5 Posts: 219 Member
    I'm amazed at the number of people who can "maintain" on 1000!!!!
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    You should really see a doctor about your weight loss. Everyone would have a doctor on board, for a variety of different reasons. This is one reason - you need to know if there is a problem or not.

    Bodies adapt. They work with what they have. Sometimes it means adaptations in one area that cause another area problems...they do what they do. It's really interesting to read about how they adapt through weight loss and starvation, but nobody really knows all of it, everyone is unique and dieting isn't exactly the same as actually starving, so take all the Starvation Mode stuff with a grain (or two grains or a big pile) of salt.

    Go make sure there is nothing wrong with you. Then relax, because a stall doesn't mean it's over. :)
  • nosweetpea
    nosweetpea Posts: 20 Member
    I thank you all for your help. I am 65 I walk some but I had a bad meniscus tear and had to have surgery, my knee is still not right. I had such high hope to get back to walking a couple miles a day but it is what it is. I have been trying to lose with and without MFP but every time l eat more than 900 calories I gain weight period.. I told my Dr. he told if that's what it takes to lose than that's what it takes. I'm down from 280 to 247 but It's because I'm eating around 800 to 900 calories a day. I drink plenty of fluid. Tea mostly, green tea with nothing in it and of course water too. That's all I drink. Sometimes I put lemon juice in either one of them just for flavor. Oh, I measure everything or I take the readings from the package like I did with the hot dog. For a month before I came back to MFP I was eating 1100 to 1200 calories thinking things would get a kick start but if you can go back a year in my journal I have to get back down to were I was when I stopped. I was around 244 back then but I'll be back again. I will be taking everyone's advice and seek professional help. I just read somewhere that you can mess up your metabolism by yoyo dieting which I did when I was younger...much younger. Now I am just trying hard to get fit. The weight loss is really just an added benefit. I'll be calling around for a new dr. Monday. Thanks everyone.
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  • mommyof2boys562
    mommyof2boys562 Posts: 7
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    Most likely, you are eating more than you think. Or else you have the activity level of a rock.

    Activity level of a rock«««made me laugh. I was a rock 6 months ago
  • salamii92
    salamii92 Posts: 1 Member
    I am in the exact same boat, it is a struggle for me to eat over 1000 calories regularly, I usually just don't have much of an appetite, and I have still gained about 10 pounds in the last few months. I don't exercise much, but my job is fairly active, I do work around the house and walk my dogs. Wish I knew why I'm gaining weight!
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    ginnytez wrote: »
    I'm nearly 65 and lose weight on around 1540 cals with no exercise factored in. I am pretty close to my goal, I have found that following package on some things can be misleading--things like hot dogs can individually weigh more than package says. I try to weigh everything. It is almost second nature to me now. I have been surprised at some of the variances from the package-even rice cakes can weigh more.

    I have found that true too. Packaged goods like bread and what not weigh more than labeled.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,561 Member
    nosweetpea wrote: »
    I thank you all for your help. I am 65 I walk some but I had a bad meniscus tear and had to have surgery, my knee is still not right. I had such high hope to get back to walking a couple miles a day but it is what it is. I have been trying to lose with and without MFP but every time l eat more than 900 calories I gain weight period.. I told my Dr. he told if that's what it takes to lose than that's what it takes. I'm down from 280 to 247 but It's because I'm eating around 800 to 900 calories a day. I drink plenty of fluid. Tea mostly, green tea with nothing in it and of course water too. That's all I drink. Sometimes I put lemon juice in either one of them just for flavor. Oh, I measure everything or I take the readings from the package like I did with the hot dog. For a month before I came back to MFP I was eating 1100 to 1200 calories thinking things would get a kick start but if you can go back a year in my journal I have to get back down to were I was when I stopped. I was around 244 back then but I'll be back again. I will be taking everyone's advice and seek professional help. I just read somewhere that you can mess up your metabolism by yoyo dieting which I did when I was younger...Xocharm younger. Now I am just trying hard to get fit. The weight loss is really just an added benefit. I'll be calling around for a new dr. Monday. Thanks everyone.

    In the strictest sense, that (the bolded) doesn't happen. What we can do, via decades of yo-yo dieting, is gradually degrade our body composition (lower percentage of muscle, plus higher percentage of fat at any given weight), and establish habits of reduced activity that get started through fatigue and under-nutrition, and become our routine habits (and I don't mean just exercise activity, but also incidental things we do in daily life: Those amount to more calorie burn than most people think).

    The fortunate thing is that both of those things are under our control, so we can improve them: Body composition improves with strength exercise, daily life calorie expenditure by moving more throughout our day, not necessarily vigorously.

    Here is a thread about strength exercise:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    That thread includes bodyweight exercise programs, not just weight lifting programs. Please understand that "lifting heavy" means lifting an amount that is challenging for us personally, but still manageable. If that's not a large amount at first, that's completely fine and normal.

    This is a thread about increasing daily-life activity:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

    I empathize with the challenges of exercise with physical limitations: I, too, have pretty cr*ppy knees. With careful experimentation, you may find certain activities that don't aggravate your condition, and - if fortunate - may, over time, even improve it. Many people with joint issues benefit from pool exercise (because buoyancy supports some of the body weight), if you have access to a pool. YouTube has many videos of seated exercises, some of them quite vigorous, if you're up to that. Many YMCAs (or other gym/adult ed/senior-center programs if not near a Y) offer special exercise classes for people who are aging or have physical limitations, typically taught by instructors who have skills at adapting exercises to individuals' current capabilities (as long as one communicates clearly about those).

    Like others, I wonder if your "always gain at over 1000 calories" is a matter of water weight and digestive contents. At consistent eating habits (high or low or anywhere in between), our body holds a certain normal/average amount of water weight (exact amount differs by person), and tends toward a certain average amount of digestive system contents (waste) in transit through our body. If we increase our eating by a couple of hundred calories, there's pretty much no way to do that without eating some more carbohydrates, sodium, or indigestible residue (like fiber) than we were eating on 200 fewer calories . . . even if the addition is still a perfectly healthy and appropriate amount of carbohydrates, sodium, and indigestibles.

    Each additional gram of carbs we eat causes us to hold onto 3-4 grams of water for a day or few - it's just part of digesting the carbs, not true fat gain, but it will show up as a scale increase. Eating additional sodium causes our body to hold onto a bit of extra water weight, too, to balance out electrolytes in our body. Again, this is just how a healthy body operates, and it's not fat gain, but it will cause a little bit of a jump in scale weight. Similarly, the extra waste in transit through our digestive system will show up on the scale. Sure, it's "weight gain", but it's not fat gain, so there's no reason to worry about it. If we wait it out (week or so) it will level out at that new amount of calorie intake, and - if eating at a calorie deficit - we'll start seeing loss on the scale again. (Virtually anyone will lose at higher than 1000 calories.)

    It is possible to lose weight at our age (I'm 63, lost around 50 pounds, down to a healthy weight, at age 59-60, and have stayed at a healthy weight for the nearly 4 years since). It may take a bit more insight and patience, but often insight and patience are things that improve as we age; in terms of persistence and strategizing, age can therefore be a plus.

    You can do this, and you'll be glad you did: Best wishes! :flowerforyou:
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