Finished a very low calorie diet - what next?

deanjcrawford

Finished a very low calorie diet, what next?

Quick backstory: today, myself a lot of others from my yoga group finished a 10 day brown rice cleanse.  I've lost  9.4 Kg but more importantly, I feel great and my skins looks amazing.

However, even though I do want to lose weight and I continued to exercise during the cleanse, this was too much and was a surprise. I wasn't counting calories during the cleanse because you're just supposed to eat when hungry, but  I've since worked out that I was eating between 700-1000 calories a day and am worried that I'm going to put the weight on right away.  I've read that when you eat low calorie and go back to normal, your body clings on to calories much more than it normally would.  before exercise, my calories are set to .  So theoretically, if I up my calories for today to say, 1800-2000 calories a day, i shouldn't gain any of the weight back and continue to lose?   Or is there something else I need to do to ensure that doesn't happen?  

Like I said, I didn't do the cleanse to lose weight, but now that I have, I don't want to put any back on and have made myself nervous by reading around!

usmcmp

You should talk to your doctor.

ETA: I personally think what you did wasn't very smart, but the damage is done. Slowly increase your calories, making sure to get protein. Start resistance training. There's a good chance you will gain some of it back, but slowly increasing calories is a good place to start.

Chief_Rocka

All cleansing does is make room for new toxins

Ninkyou

I agree, speak with your doctor.


And eat more. That being said, you WILL see a gain on the scale when you increase your calories to anything more than you were eating. This is from your glycogen stores being replenished. You've probably depleted the heck out of them. Usually this is a temporary gain though.

Muzica1959

Yes, you probably will gain it back because that is not a healthy diet and your body recognizes that. I've been there a thousand times and the weight always comes back. The best thing for you to do would be to change your eating lifestyle to consuming a healthy diet and let the fad diets go. Use MFP and go by what it tells you. Be brutally honest when logging in weight, foods and workouts. Weigh and measure everything you eat. Follow the MFP program and you WILL lose without all of that silly fad diet mess. You can eat anything you want as long as you do so in moderation and log it honestly. Trust me, I've done more fad diets that just about anyone I have ever met and all those ever do is screw up your metabolism in the long run. Eat healthy, exercise and live life.

JayMc98

I don't think you will go right back to normal when you finish the diet as long as exercise is involved. Don't exercise while your on the low calorie diet but as start to get off of it increase the calorie intake by 100 every 3 days. As you do so exercise while you increase.

deanjcrawford

I didn't really want to get into the rights and wrongs of a cleanse, some people think its madness, others live their lives by it.

I'm just after info about how the body reacts after something like this, weight gain wise. I'd be interested to here what damage you think has been done after 10 days?

deanjcrawford

I feel people arent really understanding me. THIS WAS NOT A DIET, IT WAS A CLEANSE! I was never hungry during the 10 days and it was only a 10 day thing. They say to rest during a cleanse but I carried on lifting and doing hiit which is what much have caused the extreme weight loss.

Muzica1959

Was this brown rice cleanse all organic? If not, every time you ate you were adding toxins. And no offense but you are the one who called it a low calorie diet.

Ninkyou

I feel people arent really understanding me. THIS WAS NOT A DIET, IT WAS A CLEANSE! I was never hungry during the 10 days and it was only a 10 day thing. They say to rest during a cleanse but I carried on lifting and doing hiit which is what much have caused the extreme weight loss.

Your calories were restricted, no matter how you slice it, it was a diet. You can call it what you want, but you were on a calorie deficit, which is what caused you to lose weight.

Like I said in my previous post, your glycogen stores become depleted when you're on a deficit. When you eat more than your cut, your glycogen stores will replenish.

deanjcrawford

Was this brown rice cleanse all organic? If not, every time you ate you were adding toxins. And no offense but you are the one who called it a low calorie diet.

Yes, it was organic. And I think you're getting confused by diet. When I say diet, I mean the food I eat, not fad diets like south beach, etc.

gmallan

Was this brown rice cleanse all organic? If not, every time you ate you were adding toxins. And no offense but you are the one who called it a low calorie diet.

Yes, it was organic. And I think you're getting confused by diet. When I say diet, I mean the food I eat, not fad diets like south beach, etc.

A brown rice cleanse even if it was just for 10 days sounds exactly like a fad diet, you could even call it the 10 day brown rice slim down diet. Guaranteed to lose 5kg in 10 days and rid the body of toxins.

It's not a sustainable way of eating day in day out and it's designed to drop weight fast therefore it's a fad in my book.

Muzica1959

The word diet means what you eat. I was just using your words. I did not mean to be offensive and sorry that you took it that way. I am just speaking from years of experience of doing juice fasts, raw vegan etc etc. Anytime you go back to eating regular foods you will put some weight back on...or at least I did, no matter how healthy it was. Your body spent 10 days being denied the nutrients and vitamins that it needs to live. I've been there. Start back slow and eat healthy. If you try to go back to eating a lot all at once beware of serious cramping. The best cleanse I have ever done was a 3 day water fast. I'm not knocking cleanses. I'm just saying if you are doing it to lose weight...that is not a good thing. I just assumed that since you do not want to gain the weight back that you lost on this cleanse that weight loss was one of your goals. I still stand by what I said before about eating healthy, sensible and tracking your calories with a good workout included. It will make you healthier than any cleanse out there.

navyrigger46

I just want to know what toxins were cleansed, and how brown rice accomplished this feat.

Rigger

Muzica1959

I just want to know what toxins were cleansed, and how brown rice accomplished this feat.

Rigger

Supposedly, any "cleanse" cleans out many toxins that our body consumes such as chemicals sprayed on the fruits, vegetables and grains as they are growing, growth hormones and steroids that are given or fed to animals that we consume, and even the toxins in the water we use and the air we breath. A cleanse is also supposed to take care of toxins from shampoos, soaps, etc etc. Again I say supposedly. I lived by this for the last few years and ended up in hospital with emergency surgery from a severe cellulitis infection. Christmas of 2013.*shrug*

deanjcrawford

Was this brown rice cleanse all organic? If not, every time you ate you were adding toxins. And no offense but you are the one who called it a low calorie diet.

Yes, it was organic. And I think you're getting confused by diet. When I say diet, I mean the food I eat, not fad diets like south beach, etc.

A brown rice cleanse even if it was just for 10 days sounds exactly like a fad diet, you could even call it the 10 day brown rice slim down diet. Guaranteed to lose 5kg in 10 days and rid the body of toxins.

It's not a sustainable way of eating day in day out and it's designed to drop weight fast therefore it's a fad in my book.

Not necessarily because other foods don't have the properties that brown rice does.

And thanks for helping to answer my question rather than make judgements.

LucasEVille

I just want to know what toxins were cleansed, and how brown rice accomplished this feat.

Rigger

Do not question the yoga broscience.
Instead realise, that there is no science.

PunkyDucky

Yes, you will gain most of that weight back. What you did was a bit outrageous bc brown rice has no special powers to grant a cleanse from whatever toxins you have in your body. See a doc like others have suggested. If not..

Then just gradually increase your calories 100 a week to your specified calorie goal.

These links will help if you need it:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

cbhubbybubble

I really have no idea or personal experience as I've never one a cleanse or fast. 10 days of 700 calories f brown rice would probably have me following it up with a prison diet as someone would have gotten hurt. That said, I don't think you've done irreparable damage in 10 days. If you eat sensibly you may gain a little back as your body sucks up what it has been deprived of, but if you plan for a deficit it won't stay around long. I can't quite figure if you want to lose more weight or just maintain from here

mewickla

Sorry your post got taken over by such snarky people. :flowerforyou:
It seems like whenever someone asks a question on here, they're all quick to jump on you instead of actually answering the question in a positive and constructive way.

There's seriously some uppity people on these boards, y'all need to calm down. :sick:

giggitygoo

Sheesh. That sounds like it was rough.

Well, the good news is that if you can stick to this super restrictive cleanse for 10 days, you can pretty much do anything!

It's likely that you have only truly lost a pound or two, and the rest will come back as you revert to your normal intake. There really isn't anything you can do to avoid that.