Gradually increasing calorie without weight gain???

VanderTuig1976

So, I'm officially an idiot!!! I've been on a severely reduced diet since January (around 600-800 calories a day). I started working with a trainer 3 weeks ago and he told me to up my caloric intake to 1300; which I did. After being on this site for a few weeks I'm worried that I may have damaged my metabolism. My MBR is 1494 and TDEE is 2100. I want to increase my calories to about 1700. Should I do this gradually? I didn't gain when I bumped up from 700 to 1300 calories. I want to do this the right way but I'm afraid of gaining everything back that I've lost:(

SrJoben

It's good that you're upping them. 800 is crazy low.

Just trust the math and eat what you should be eating for your size and activity level.

You might see the scale go up a few pounds within a day or two, but don't worry about it. That's not fat. Because it's not possible to gain fat that fast. (And certainly not on 1700 a day!)

It will be your body adapting to not being starved. A bunch of stuff will happen which can result in increased water retention. Within a very short time you'll see you weight stabilize, or start going down again if you're on a calorie deficit.

It really doesn't matter if you up your intake fast or slow. In a week or two you won't be able to tell the difference.