Exercising, Eating Right, and Gaining Weight

jfureybastian

I'm 18 (5' 7") and over this past year I went from 145-115 lbs. It was a very long and arduous task since I have a slower metabolism than my peers, but now that I've reached my goal, I'm told I need to gain/maintain my weight in order to be healthy, which, surprisingly, is scary. I've dreamt of getting to this point and now that I'm here, I'm terrified to lose all the ground it took so long for me to gain.
Recently, I've been trying to eat closer to my goal amount of calories (rather than, by instinct, aiming lower), so nowadays I eat around 1600 cals daily, as well as have basketball practice/games 5 days/week. I'm slowly trying to amp up my calories, but doing it in a way that my metabolism won't have to readjust itself. With this intake, I have gained 3 lbs making me 118 lbs, which I know is healthier, but I'm scared that if it took only 1600 calories (not net cals) to have me gain that back, how can I maintain weight with a healthy amount of calories? What am I doing wrong?

keeptehpeace

Relax, its just your body adjusting to the new calorie amount. Give it a week or two and see if its balanced out

meshashesha2012

it's called puberty. your body goes through it, you cant stay the same weight and build you were when you were teen as you become an adult.

and as an FYI, many people dont stop puberty until their mid 20's

klmorg1227

You should be fine. I recently lost a bunch of weight and since November have been working to Maintain. In the first few weeks I gained three pounds but everyone said stick with it. I started to maintain at 139, wanting to stay between 138 -142. I am 5'6" and thats a good size for me...wearing a size 4-6 in clothes. Anyway...So I gained a few pounds but stuck with it due to encouragement here and from a nutritionist friend of mine. Now I am 3 months into maintenance and I feel like I eat a house everyday with all the food I am consuming, but my body is happily chugging along. This mornings weigh in??? 138.

SO let your body adjust...if its no more than about a 3 or 4 pound increase try not to freak out too much...Also, for me, the week of my period and about 3 days before, its nothing to see a 3 pound increase. But it totally goes away as soon as my period does.

Lleldiranne

At 5'7" 145 is actually quite an appropriate weight for you, with a BMI of 22.7. (115 puts you int the underweight category with a BMI of 18). Your body is wanting to get that healthy weight back on, I would guess.

I would suggest making sure you have resistance exercise in your weekly routine and focus on body composition rather than the scale.


http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm

cwolfman13

For one thing, when you diet, you have chronically depleted glycogen stores. This is your immediately available energy supply....when you eat more, you fill these stores, and glycogen has weight. It is essentially water and you can easily put on 3-5 Lbs of water when you go from a deficit to maintenance. Also, 115 would appear to be underweight for your stats.

You are also becoming a woman...your body is still changing and you're not going to be the same weight you were when you were younger, nor should you be. It is a sign that your body is maturing. Also note that your body weight isn't static...you don't weigh exactly XXX Lbs all of the time. You are going to have a range. When I look at my scale weight, I fluctuate from about 178 - 184 with a 7 month average of 182...that's what maintenance looks like and you have to look at averages over a much longer period of time, not just day to day or week to week.

You should probably focus your energy on being healthy and fit and not worry about a couple of Lbs on the scale.

Sabine_Stroehm

Perhaps your growing body is trying to tell you something: 5'7" 115 is too low for you. That's what' I'd say.