Help - Adjusting from VLCD (very low cal) to normal MFP recommendation, what to expect.

Jmgkamp

I have been eating too little...

I have been making changes to my lifestyle for approximately 5 months. When I started MFP recommended 1000 calories per day. At some point that changed to 1200 but I did not change. I (sometimes intentionally, sometimes inadvertently) kept my calories to between 850-1000 calories per day. On rare days I ate below 700, and on rare days I ate between 1300-1500. I do between 45-60 minutes of cardio per day and the machine estimates a burn of 450. I know that is an exaggerated figure.

At this point I have become more serious about the long-term nature of this change. I know that it is not healthy to maintain 700-900 calories per day. I do not want to do this and I have started to increase my calories. My goal is to follow MFP's advice of 1200.

Over the past week I have upped my calories to between 1100-1200 calories per day. I have seen my weight go up - not dramatically, but by almost 1 full pound. Can I expect that my body will adjust to this increase? I am not very concerned about "breaking my metabolism" as when I started I had just shy of 100 pounds to lose, and I did have some days where I ate "over" my calorie allotment. I am also not entirely convinced that it is possible to break ones metabolism.

Any idea when I can expect to see movement again? I am 5'2", 42 yo, female. I now have another 40-45 pounds to go.

Thanks for any help.

galgenstrick

Your weight will go up a bit as you said. I gained 5 pounds of water weight from eating all the 4th of July goodies. It took about a week to lose all 5 of those pounds again. This is normal and is most likely your glycogen stores being filled. Glycogen binds water to your muscles and will increase the weight on the scale.

If you keep your calories up at a normal level, your weight will likely elevate and stay there for a little while. So just give it a couple weeks before expecting the scale to go down.

Jmgkamp

Thank you for your response. I needed outside input. I will stick with this and allow my body to adjust to my new calorie intake with the knowledge that at some point in the future 1200 will still be too few to be at maintenance and the loss will begin again.