Increasing calories from 1200

kirstengeffen

Hi There.

I'm a 25 year old female, 4"11 and about 116lbs.

I'm very active, I run 4x per week and weight train 5x per week.

My whole life I've been a yo yo dieter... and in the recent years been living off a 1200 cal low calorie diet with weekend binges.

I'm wanting to increase my calories to 1600 and increase carbs in attempt to improve performance in the gym and to stop weekend binges.

Is it as simple as just increasing immediately to 1600 or is my body going to freak out because it's used to quite a bit less?

StealthHealth

I think you're fine to jump straight up to 1600 as long as you're mentally prepared for an increase on the scales (due to increased "in transit food" and water retention due to the added carbs).

Getting plenty of fluid and ensuring that your 1600 cals are well balanced P/F/C should see you right and over a few days weight will stabilise (although may be slightly higher than before).

If you're thinking that 1600 is a maintenance value for you and getting to maintenance is your goal then you will need to monitor weight and measurements and tweak cals in to hit the maintenance point and I think you'll end up higher than 1600 to be honest, but maybe that is not your intention?

TavistockToad

If by 'freak out' you mean will you gain weight, then possibly.

You can always increase your cals over the next few weeks adding 100 per week which might be easier psychologically.

kirstengeffen

Well yes, you see this is actually one of my heavier weights, because I'm so small I usually hover around 46kgs... which is a lot lower than I currently am.

So I am trying to lose body fat, not exactly maintain. But I'm just tired of screwing my body over by eating so little. I feel like my weight training is in vain as you can't build muscle on 1200 calories.

StealthHealth

You won't be building on 1200 - that is true but your weightlifting has been helping you hold onto that muscle.

Maybe a period of re-comp, to get your head in the right place as much as anything, may be what you need to break the cycle of weekend binges.

From your profile pic I can see you've competed. Did you use a prep coach and where were you calorifically before the final cut before the comp?

dhimaan

With that much activity you can definitely afford 1600 calories. Perhaps even a little higher. Judging by your logging you are eating far too less for that much activity. I personally think you are on the edge of spinning your wheels.

Good luck.

kirstengeffen

StealthHealth wrote: »

You won't be building on 1200 - that is true but your weightlifting has been helping you hold onto that muscle.

Maybe a period of re-comp, to get your head in the right place as much as anything, may be what you need to break the cycle of weekend binges.

From your profile pic I can see you've competed. Did you use a prep coach and where were you calorifically before the final cut before the comp?

Hi There! Yes! I competed last year Sept. I used a prep coach, started with him 16 weeks out... was immediately put on a 1200 calorie ketogenic diet... In the last few weeks of prep I was eating around 800 cals a day and doing around 4hours exercise a day.

Then when I stopped the 2.5 hours cardio a day and ate more than 800 I ballooned.

That's why I'm trying to do things a little more healthily and sustainable.

StealthHealth

Contest prep can be very brutal. I was curious as to the cals they recommended, and they should have really given you a post comp ramp up plan because your experience post show is not uncommon - let to their own devices (and ravenous appetite) people tend to pile on the weight.

I think you're right now to work with something much more sustainable and it's my guess that 1600 is a good starting point but you will be able to ramp that up slightly as your hormones return to normal levels and your NEAT increases.