Very underweight..how should I go about reverse dieting?
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alexastoutxo
Posts: 139 Member
Okay so I made a previous post on me being very underweight (I'm about 5'1, 76 pounds) and got told to go to a nutritionist but at the moment I cannot afford one so I made the decision to increase my intake significantly on my own but at a slow pace. I know some might say to go at a faster pace but the thing Ive been under fueled for a long time. I'm a long distance runner who runs 1 hour and a half most days on 1570 calories and 1470 on rest days. I realize that's very little for the amount of running I do and now that I have to gain, I don't want my weight to just shoot up too quickly especially with my metabolism basically messed up. How should I go about increasing? Should I start from my rest day calories and build from there? 100-200 calories every few days? I would love some feedback and help with this. I'm determined to get back up to a healthier weight but I want my gains to be atleast at a slow/moderate pace. If theres anyone who's really messed up their metabolism and has gone through reverse dieting successfully please share your experience. Any other help is highly appreciatedas well thank you.
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Replies
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Reverse dieting? A diet is just the stuff you eat. When folks say they're "dieting" it means they've adopted a set of eating habits in order to reach a particular goal. Since this is most often weight loss for those of us in developed nations, that's usually reduction, but not always. You want to diet, but to gain, not lose.
Without a better understanding than I actually have about how your eating habits have affected your metabolism, I can only say that your idea seems sound to me. Use online calculators to come up with a reasonable estimate of your running calorie burns, add that to your rest calories, and set that as a kind of benchmark. Increase your daily intake by 100-200 calories each week. That's actually not much, about the equivalent of a couple of granola bars per day, so just intuitively it seems like it cannot be too fast. Eventually you'll be eating a surplus, and at that point you should finally start to put on weight. By paying attention to your exercise burn you'll know when you cross that line so you know when to expect it.
It will be a good idea to add some resistance training to your exercise routine. This will encourage your body to add lean mass rather than fat once you start to gain. (You'll put on some fat, but that's not necessarily unhealthy.)
Just a note: What you want is a registered dietitian, which is a regulated profession. Anyone can hang out a shingle and call themselves a nutritionist; there are no standards for them.3 -
Well I'm also underweight and trying to gain weight but I do have access to a nutritionist so I can tell you the things she suggested. The reason why people tell you to go to a nutritionist when you're underweight is because weight gain isn't as straight forward as eating higher calorie foods. When you're underweight you're not eating enough to gain all the nutrients you need so a good first step is to find nutritional drinks/bars/puddings. I was recommended Boost, Carnation (Nestle), Ensure and Cliff bars. Boost, Ensure and carnation offer a lot of their products in drinks. If you find it hard to eat more, replace your meal time drinks with something high in calories and nutrients (dairy, juices, supplement drinks etc.). Right now my main problem is that I can't tolerate much fat or dairy which are both dense in calories and recommended for weight gain but if you can then do so. Things like nuts and nut butters are also calorie dense and you can search for lists of calorie dense foods and incorporate them into your diet. Eat whole wheat and whole grain foods instead of their white counterparts as they're higher in calories and also more nutritious. Find foods that you eat and see if you can replace them with brands that are higher in calories. Another thing I do is add ground flaxseed to my oatmeal and in my sandwiches for extra calories and fatty acids. Eating fortified cereal is another way to get calories and missing nutrients (I eat them dry as a snack).
Hope this helps a little. Best of luck, it's certainly not as easy as people may think!4 -
Add 100 calories a day and increase by 100 every week..6
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You are right to take it slow. I think you've got a handle on that.
The calories you are on now are actually going to lose you weight, so I would try to get to maintenance as soon as possible.
Whatever weight you gain back immediately is only going to be water and glycogen filling your body and muscles up from it's depleted state so don't worry about this. It will happen, but it will happen regardless of your methods. Your body will look different when you put on some healthy weight. You're going to have to find a way to be ok with this. It will make you a better runner though
Once you get to maintenance then increase slowly maybe 100 each week. I think your maintenance is going to be around 1700-1800.
Try using liquid calories to boost your intake. I'd suggest chocolate milk after your run. Milk is the ultimate recovery drink and it also has other good stuff like Vitamin D. I'm suggesting chocolate because it will be way more calories, but just don't go for low fat milk.
Great suggestion above about adding nuts. High calorie, low volume. Plus 1 2 -
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alexastoutxo wrote: »
You can do it any way you like. Another way would be to average out your calorie burn so you eat the same amount every day.
Personally I'd prefer to do it the way you suggested though. I'm much hungrier on days when I run.1 -
You are right to take it slow. I think you've got a handle on that.
The calories you are on now are actually going to lose you weight, so I would try to get to maintenance as soon as possible.
Whatever weight you gain back immediately is only going to be water and glycogen filling your body and muscles up from it's depleted state so don't worry about this. It will happen, but it will happen regardless of your methods. Your body will look different when you put on some healthy weight. You're going to have to find a way to be ok with this. It will make you a better runner though
Once you get to maintenance then increase slowly maybe 100 each week. I think your maintenance is going to be around 1700-1800.
Try using liquid calories to boost your intake. I'd suggest chocolate milk after your run. Milk is the ultimate recovery drink and it also has other good stuff like Vitamin D. I'm suggesting chocolate because it will be way more calories, but just don't go for low fat milk.
Great suggestion above about adding nuts. High calorie, low volume. Plus 1
To be honest I think my maintenance is somewhere around 1400 calories because I'm not a very tall girl and I have a low weight or atleast that's what I'm assuming which is why my rest day calories are 1470 or so. Should I just automatically add 100 to that to start? As well as my running day calories?0 -
+1 on going slowly, mainly to let your appetite get used to the increase in calories. It's going to be harder to sustain if you feel like you are forcing yourself to eat if you suddenly go +500.
Actuslly, chocolate milk is a great recovery drink, not white milk. It's the combination of protein and carbs and proportions that make it good.
Add snacks thru the day. Drink a sports drink instead of water during or after your runs.0 -
alexastoutxo wrote: »You are right to take it slow. I think you've got a handle on that.
The calories you are on now are actually going to lose you weight, so I would try to get to maintenance as soon as possible.
Whatever weight you gain back immediately is only going to be water and glycogen filling your body and muscles up from it's depleted state so don't worry about this. It will happen, but it will happen regardless of your methods. Your body will look different when you put on some healthy weight. You're going to have to find a way to be ok with this. It will make you a better runner though
Once you get to maintenance then increase slowly maybe 100 each week. I think your maintenance is going to be around 1700-1800.
Try using liquid calories to boost your intake. I'd suggest chocolate milk after your run. Milk is the ultimate recovery drink and it also has other good stuff like Vitamin D. I'm suggesting chocolate because it will be way more calories, but just don't go for low fat milk.
Great suggestion above about adding nuts. High calorie, low volume. Plus 1
To be honest I think my maintenance is somewhere around 1400 calories because I'm not a very tall girl and I have a low weight or atleast that's what I'm assuming which is why my rest day calories are 1470 or so. Should I just automatically add 100 to that to start? As well as my running day calories?
Your maintenance calories includes the exercise you do, so on a rest day it will be lower and on a running day it will be higher. I estimated your maintenance based on a very active lifestyle, so yes, on rest days, you won't burn as many calories as your running days and it could be around 1400. The thing is though, what you eat the days your not running will have an effect on your body through recovery mechanisms. Your body needs time to replenish what you lost the day before. This is just due to the time it takes for different things to be digested and put in your blood stream and then taken to the rest of your body and changed into whatever it needs. I don't really think eating more or less on workout days or rest days makes a long term difference. It makes a short term difference in terms of your performance, but not in terms of how your body is maintaining and building itself.
I did a couple very rough estimates on an online calculator and saw that to get up to a normal weight BMI you need to gain about 20 lbs and that at that number (98 lbs), if you were sedentary that day at that weight, your maintenance would be around 1400.
I'd start with adding 100 calories to each day, regardless of running or not. If you can eat more, you should. You are very active and your body needs it.
I don't recall if you'd provided your age, I'm assuming you don't have anymore growing to do. If you are still growing (less than 25 ish) then these numbers mean less, your body will need slightly more calories because it's still building.1 -
alexastoutxo wrote: »You are right to take it slow. I think you've got a handle on that.
The calories you are on now are actually going to lose you weight, so I would try to get to maintenance as soon as possible.
Whatever weight you gain back immediately is only going to be water and glycogen filling your body and muscles up from it's depleted state so don't worry about this. It will happen, but it will happen regardless of your methods. Your body will look different when you put on some healthy weight. You're going to have to find a way to be ok with this. It will make you a better runner though
Once you get to maintenance then increase slowly maybe 100 each week. I think your maintenance is going to be around 1700-1800.
Try using liquid calories to boost your intake. I'd suggest chocolate milk after your run. Milk is the ultimate recovery drink and it also has other good stuff like Vitamin D. I'm suggesting chocolate because it will be way more calories, but just don't go for low fat milk.
Great suggestion above about adding nuts. High calorie, low volume. Plus 1
To be honest I think my maintenance is somewhere around 1400 calories because I'm not a very tall girl and I have a low weight or atleast that's what I'm assuming which is why my rest day calories are 1470 or so. Should I just automatically add 100 to that to start? As well as my running day calories?
Your maintenance calories includes the exercise you do, so on a rest day it will be lower and on a running day it will be higher. I estimated your maintenance based on a very active lifestyle, so yes, on rest days, you won't burn as many calories as your running days and it could be around 1400. The thing is though, what you eat the days your not running will have an effect on your body through recovery mechanisms. Your body needs time to replenish what you lost the day before. This is just due to the time it takes for different things to be digested and put in your blood stream and then taken to the rest of your body and changed into whatever it needs. I don't really think eating more or less on workout days or rest days makes a long term difference. It makes a short term difference in terms of your performance, but not in terms of how your body is maintaining and building itself.
I did a couple very rough estimates on an online calculator and saw that to get up to a normal weight BMI you need to gain about 20 lbs and that at that number (98 lbs), if you were sedentary that day at that weight, your maintenance would be around 1400.
I'd start with adding 100 calories to each day, regardless of running or not. If you can eat more, you should. You are very active and your body needs it.
I don't recall if you'd provided your age, I'm assuming you don't have anymore growing to do. If you are still growing (less than 25 ish) then these numbers mean less, your body will need slightly more calories because it's still building.
Wow thank you for all the info! This is really helpful and I assume I'm not growing much anymore but I'm 19 years old if it makes a difference. So I'm guessing now I should start by adding 100 calories to 1470 (rest days) and 1570 (running days)? I'm trying to take it slow but still need to up my weight1 -
You burn about 350 calories running 10 kms over 1 hour. I googled how many calories for a run and assumed about 10 km/hr which seemed close enough and it came out to 350 calories/hour. http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator
Thats about what I run and I'd say it's a bit slow for a regular runner, but it's close enough. I used your weight to calculate it.
If you only eat 1570 on running days, you'll be in deficit again by 250 or so on running days. If you plan to eat the running calories on running days, then you'll need to make up that much, plus the 100 extra you need to gain weight. Eating back the 350 will only be allowing you to run for an hour.
An example. Lets say you want to eat maintenance on rest days and maintenance on running days it might look like this, adding the 100 extra to gain weight.
Rest day: 1400 + 100 = 1500
Running day (1 hour run): 1400 + 350 + 100 = 1850
If you ran 1.5 hours your running day would be: 1400 + 475 (the 1.5 hour run) + 100 = 1975
I'm thinking this probably looks like a lot of food to you on those running days. This is a reason you might consider eating more on rest days to make it easier on yourself. It doesn't really matter how you slice it what matters a bit more is your weekly calories, you want to bump these up.
If you add all this up and say you run for one hour Mon, Wed, Fri it might look like this.
Sun: 1500
Mon: 1850
Tues: 1500
Wed: 1850
Thurs: 1500
Fri: 1850
Sat 1500
For a total of 11,250 for the week and with the extra 700 calories you've been adding you will likely only gain 0.3 lb/week.
If you only ate the 1570 on running days.
Sun: 1500
Mon: 1570
Tues: 1500
Wed: 1570
Thurs: 1500
Fri: 1570
Sat 1500
For a total of 10,710 for the week and you'd be losing 0.3 lb/week
If you find it hard to eat 1975 calories on your running days. It's easier on you to take that weekly number above (11,250), round it up to 11,500 and divide it evenly though your week for about 1,650 per day.
All these calculations don't mean anything if you're accidently over-estimating how much food you're eating. In your case you should ere on the high side and eat more than you think you need.
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Reverse dieting is just a term used to back out of a deficit without gaining a ton of weight.
Are you afraid of gaining weight? Are you simply underweight due to body type/exercise/and eating too little? Or, are there eating disorders affecting you?
If you want to gain weight- you could add in a chunk of calories at once. Or add in 100 to start. Start with 1600 daily (you don't need to eat less on a run day). Or 1600 on rest days, 1700 or 1800 on run days.
Also, echoing the sentiment on weight lifting. This can help you gain muscle and not just fat.1 -
I agree with everyone saying that you should take it slow however your weight is also very, very low, and those calories are definitely way too low. I have been, multiple times, sectioned and made to be an inpatient for my eating disorder and so have had to go through 'reverse dieting' (i.e. gaining weight to get to a healthy BMI) multiple times. Even though my metabolism, I thought, had been 'messed up', it never has been, and this has been the same for everyone I have met. I think the idea of metabolisms being slowed down is a bit of a myth, to be honest. I'm nearly 19, 5ft and just under the healthy BMI range and I maintain on 1900-2000, the only exercise I do being a walk to school (about one km each way) Monday to Friday, plus a twenty minute jog twice a week.
When I have had to restore weight, the doctors would get me to 1800 as soon as possible - even when I'd been eating under 500 calories for moths, when I was admitted they increased my calories to 1000 straight away, and then after 2 days, to 1400, and after 4 days, 1800. So I'd say you should get to 1800 in the next few days. After that, the doctors would increase by 200-400 each week we didn't gain at least 400g (although if we gained like 800g one week, the following week they'd consider that). Hope this helps and good luck x5 -
Would your health insurance cover a nutritionist/dietician if your regular doctor wrote a referral? Your weight is very low and could be considered a "medical condition." It would be worth consulting your doctor and insurance company.3
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deputy_randolph wrote: »Would your health insurance cover a nutritionist/dietician if your regular doctor wrote a referral? Your weight is very low and could be considered a "medical condition." It would be worth consulting your doctor and insurance company.
That's not a bad idea.
FWIW, I've been reverse dieting lately but it's to get from a deficit back up to maintenance. I increased my daily calorie intake by 100, and each week bumped them up another 100. I also eat back 1/2-2/3 of exercise calories (to some extent). It's worked pretty well for me. I do think increasing slowly makes sense. I found my appetite seemed to stall out earlier than I expected; I think if I'd jumped up 500 cals/day all at once, I would have had a harder time adjusting.0 -
Just want to add that I hope I didn't sound like a know-it-all because obviously I'm not a doctor or dietitian and I can't advise, and if possible it would definitely be best to consult a doctor/dietitian.0
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just eat rice for all meals and ur weight will increase0
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skinnyfatty1983 wrote: »just eat rice for all meals and ur weight will increase
Your point is only valid if the rice puts you in a calorie surplus. Carbs don't make you gain weight.2 -
You burn about 350 calories running 10 kms over 1 hour. I googled how many calories for a run and assumed about 10 km/hr which seemed close enough and it came out to 350 calories/hour. http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator
Thats about what I run and I'd say it's a bit slow for a regular runner, but it's close enough. I used your weight to calculate it.
If you only eat 1570 on running days, you'll be in deficit again by 250 or so on running days. If you plan to eat the running calories on running days, then you'll need to make up that much, plus the 100 extra you need to gain weight. Eating back the 350 will only be allowing you to run for an hour.
An example. Lets say you want to eat maintenance on rest days and maintenance on running days it might look like this, adding the 100 extra to gain weight.
Rest day: 1400 + 100 = 1500
Running day (1 hour run): 1400 + 350 + 100 = 1850
If you ran 1.5 hours your running day would be: 1400 + 475 (the 1.5 hour run) + 100 = 1975
I'm thinking this probably looks like a lot of food to you on those running days. This is a reason you might consider eating more on rest days to make it easier on yourself. It doesn't really matter how you slice it what matters a bit more is your weekly calories, you want to bump these up.
If you add all this up and say you run for one hour Mon, Wed, Fri it might look like this.
Sun: 1500
Mon: 1850
Tues: 1500
Wed: 1850
Thurs: 1500
Fri: 1850
Sat 1500
For a total of 11,250 for the week and with the extra 700 calories you've been adding you will likely only gain 0.3 lb/week.
If you only ate the 1570 on running days.
Sun: 1500
Mon: 1570
Tues: 1500
Wed: 1570
Thurs: 1500
Fri: 1570
Sat 1500
For a total of 10,710 for the week and you'd be losing 0.3 lb/week
If you find it hard to eat 1975 calories on your running days. It's easier on you to take that weekly number above (11,250), round it up to 11,500 and divide it evenly though your week for about 1,650 per day.
All these calculations don't mean anything if you're accidently over-estimating how much food you're eating. In your case you should ere on the high side and eat more than you think you need.
I think I lean towards 1970 calories since most of my running days consists of running 1.5 hours but you're right, it is a bit too much food for me especially since Im always busy and running around I don't get the time to eat all of that and usually fall short on 1570 on those days. But I also don't want to have to make up the calories on rest days because that's even MORE calories to make up on rest days since I'm going to be starting out with 1500 calories on rest days. Like yesterday, I went for my usual run and was only able to eat 1580 calories and today is a rest day which I plan to eat 1500 calories so I'm guessing its a bit of a problem because I'm still in a deficit. But like I said though, I want to increase slowly which is why I want to eat only 1500 calories today (rest day) because I want to increase my calories by 100 to start out with, not have to increase automatically to 1600 to makeup for the day before which was a running day. Does that make sense? I feel like I confused myself just trying to explain that haha0
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