Hello, I need a little advice

juliec49

Hi everyone...I joined this site quite a while ago just as a casual way to watch what I eat. Im 17 (18 in dec) and I weigh around 134/5 pounds...Im 5ft5 ish...I lost about a stone and a bit on MFP which was great, but I was losing it on a 1200 calorie diet.

p.s. I dont really care about my weight anymore, if I could lose a wee bit more, it'd be great, but currently, Im more interested in having firm thighs and no back fat! I look okay at the moment, but will upping my calories ruin that progress!??! :frown:

Im a student full time, and my commitments lie with other things, so exercise was never really something I had a tremendous amount of time for. I made time obviously and lost the weight. Now its the summer holidays and I have some free time to sort my diet out properly, and get really fit. I eat pretty darn healthy if I may say so, I dont eat any form of cake, chocolate, crisps, fried food, takeouts etc....I eat a lot of fish, chicken, wholegrain, veg and fruit, oodles of water etc....

Now, Im aware of changes in my body, and I have read some startling things about the 1200 cals diet. IM AWARE IT WORKS FOR CERTAIN PEOPLE, BUT I DONT THINK ITS SAFE FOR ME ANYMORE. Making that clear, because I'm not dissing anyone who uses this diet plan. Everybody's body is different! But I am cautious of maintaining this kind of plan for much longer for myself. I want to up my levels to 1500 on a day of no exercise and maybe more if I do a 200 calorie burning run. I also do some light-ish muscle work pretty much every day (plank, squats, yoga balls etc...)
Im only really becoming aware that I have been creating a serious deficit of calories in my diet, and I want to try and reverse that, and make it right.

For the first time today I ate 1500 cals, and had a short-ish walk. I'll prob do some light muscle work before bed, but that will be it. So, question time for you wonderful people.

1) By increasing my calories, I know I will see an increase in weight, but if I dont bother with the scales, should my body change shape very much? Should I see myself more bloated, more back fat maybe? Jigglier thighs than normal? Will things become more toned? Or does this all depend on the person?

2) Will my metabolism return to normal after the 1200 cal diet? Im a teen, I drink a lot of green tea and eat a lot of metabolism boosting foods. Will it bounce back to a regular speed, where my body can use 1500 cals efficiently? I really hope I didnt damage my metabolism permanently...:frown:

3) How long will all this body adjustment take?- I know, it wont happen over night, nothing good ever does...

4) If I do some form of exercise, must I always eat back the food I burned off? If I burn 200, do I have to eat that back up again, to regulate the amount of food in the body? I used to eat 1200, and then work off 200 and not eat it back...:(

5) and finally, the question I can never seem to get a straight answer to, How much protein do you reckon I should be eating?? I generally always go over...:embarassed: I eat a lot of healthy protein tho, a mix of plant and animal...

Thanks for reading, hope you can help me, and pls be nice, because I'm rather shy with opening up like this. :blushing:

juliec49

hello hello? should i move this to another thread?

_CrepeSuzette_

Hi everyone...I joined this site quite a while ago just as a casual way to watch what I eat. Im 17 (18 in dec) and I weigh around 134/5 pounds...Im 5ft5 ish...I lost about a stone and a bit on MFP which was great, but I was losing it on a 1200 calorie diet.

p.s. I dont really care about my weight anymore, if I could lose a wee bit more, it'd be great, but currently, Im more interested in having firm thighs and no back fat! I look okay at the moment, but will upping my calories ruin that progress!??! :frown:

Im a student full time, and my commitments lie with other things, so exercise was never really something I had a tremendous amount of time for. I made time obviously and lost the weight. Now its the summer holidays and I have some free time to sort my diet out properly, and get really fit. I eat pretty darn healthy if I may say so, I dont eat any form of cake, chocolate, crisps, fried food, takeouts etc....I eat a lot of fish, chicken, wholegrain, veg and fruit, oodles of water etc....

Now, Im aware of changes in my body, and I have read some startling things about the 1200 cals diet. IM AWARE IT WORKS FOR CERTAIN PEOPLE, BUT I DONT THINK ITS SAFE FOR ME ANYMORE. Making that clear, because I'm not dissing anyone who uses this diet plan. Everybody's body is different! But I am cautious of maintaining this kind of plan for much longer for myself. I want to up my levels to 1500 on a day of no exercise and maybe more if I do a 200 calorie burning run. I also do some light-ish muscle work pretty much every day (plank, squats, yoga balls etc...)
Im only really becoming aware that I have been creating a serious deficit of calories in my diet, and I want to try and reverse that, and make it right.

For the first time today I ate 1500 cals, and had a short-ish walk. I'll prob do some light muscle work before bed, but that will be it. So, question time for you wonderful people.

1) By increasing my calories, I know I will see an increase in weight, but if I dont bother with the scales, should my body change shape very much? Should I see myself more bloated, more back fat maybe? Jigglier thighs than normal? Will things become more toned? Or does this all depend on the person?

2) Will my metabolism return to normal after the 1200 cal diet? Im a teen, I drink a lot of green tea and eat a lot of metabolism boosting foods. Will it bounce back to a regular speed, where my body can use 1500 cals efficiently? I really hope I didnt damage my metabolism permanently...:frown:

3) How long will all this body adjustment take?- I know, it wont happen over night, nothing good ever does...

4) If I do some form of exercise, must I always eat back the food I burned off? If I burn 200, do I have to eat that back up again, to regulate the amount of food in the body? I used to eat 1200, and then work off 200 and not eat it back...:(

5) and finally, the question I can never seem to get a straight answer to, How much protein do you reckon I should be eating?? I generally always go over...:embarassed: I eat a lot of healthy protein tho, a mix of plant and animal...

Thanks for reading, hope you can help me, and pls be nice, because I'm rather shy with opening up like this. :blushing:

Hi!
I'll try to answer
1) If you eat at your TDEE, you shouldn't gain weight.
2) How long you follow the 1200kcal diet plan? I don't think you damaged your methabolism at that point
3) See 2)
4) You should eat back burned calories, above all if you eat only 1200kcal. I always eat them back
5) The recomendation say about 1gr of protein for each lb of lean body mass... If you eat more, it wouldn't be a problem, be sure they fit your daily calorie intake and limit animal protein preferring vegetal ones

michelle7673

Hi Julie -- I think you're very wise to think about moving to a more sustainable intake level, and to be thinking about the effect of being in a significant deficit long-term.
You will probably get all kinds of advice about figuring out your TDEE and working from there, but what you seem to be saying is that you are happy at that scale weight -- which does seem like a very reasonable weight.
You might not see an increase in weight at all going from 1200 to 1500. That might still be below "maintenance" for you. I think the bigger question is -- what is it you're really trying to do? Are you saying that you don't have time to do a serious, organized workout program, but you just want to get back to a reasonable intake and reasonable exercise?
You'll no doubt get "fancier" (more complex) advice, but mine is this:
What you're doing sounds fine to me. Particularly as you have a healthy nutritional intake in terms of foods. Try it for a month and see. If you feel like you're putting on weight, "discount" your exercise calories some....as in, eat them back but leave 50 or 100 "on the table" to cover any miscalculations. If you're *that* worried about a little gain, you could do it more gradually....but honestly I think you will be fine.
As far as working out, I know you don't have a lot of time to obsess on it, but a progressive strength training regime would do you a lot of good. It sounds like what you really want is some body recomposition. Yes, people will recommend things like starting strength and stronglifts, and those are great. But if you even just pick five good strength exercises and do them three times a week, increasing the weight as you can, that's a good start. For a while I was not "lifting" per se but I was doing step-ups with heavy weights in my hands. Step-ups and dumbbell squats are hard to beat, bent dumbbell row, pushups....just simple but consistent. Or there are excellent quick video programs (Jillian Michaels for one, as much as she annoys me!)....
It sounds like you have a very balanced mindset and that's a great thing

Edited to add:

I should say, though, that a new workout regime MIGHT appear to put weight on you short-term. It would be water retention/swelling/inflammation....and it does go away. But for me at least, I feel it and see it where it is (like my legs).

juliec49

Thank you to you both for your advice and help. Its going pretty well, so far. Im feeling a lot more energised and a lot more positive about eating and such....a little less obsessive too, which is a good thing! Thanks again x