Help increasing calories

allisonaceituno

So I went on a diet for a few months and I was only eating 1,000 calories a day. It slowed my metabolism down a lot. I decided I didn’t want to diet anymore so I started eating around 1800 calories a day. It’s been two weeks and I’ve gained a few pounds. My question is: Is my metabolism still extremely slow? I want to gain muscle but I don’t know how many calories I should be eating. MyFitnessPal says to maintain my weight I should eat 1780 but if my metabolism is damaged would that be too high to start out with? I don’t want to gain any more fat to quickly. (I weigh 120 and I am a 5’3 female)

cupcakesandproteinshakes

Most of that will be water weight. You have not ruined your metabolism, don’t worry.

allisonaceituno

Thank you!

moogie_fit

Keep monitoring your weight. Keep adding 100kcals per week or more often if your able to maintain or are gaining little on the calories. I went from 1400 kcals 2 years ago to maintaining on 3000 by adding 100kcals per week, and have stayed around 3000 for about 1.5 years since then. Gained little to no weight