best way to come off low cal diet

tjsims8

I've been eating below 1000 cals for a while. I recently increased so I will net 1200. I've gained a pound which I expected. So now, after chatting with you guys, I am reassessing my weigh lost goals. I did want to lose 2lbs a week, but now Im happy with 1 a week. So I need to increase my cals. I fear that if I do I will gain more weight. How should I do this? I was thinking of having a day or two where I ate how I normally would( not track calories), and then start cutting calories gradually. Like how I should have done in the beginning. I feel I need to reverse diet.

knollmma

My thoughts on this are...if you're going to do this, go all in. I have personally found it easier to track calories if I am religious about it. If I let myself go back to not tracking for a day or two, it's just that much easier for me to say "screw it" altogether. You have to do what works for you, but my advice is to go all in and make the permanent change with no cheat days. If you're eating 1200 calories a day, you should not be gaining any weight, just losing. The initial gain was probably due to your body's deprivation of calories (1000 is not enough). Your body held on to anything it could when you increased your calories since you were in starvation mode. Good luck (and drink lots of water!)!

Branstin

I wouldn't stop tracking. I would set my MFP profile to reflect my lifestyle before exercise, set my weekly weight loss goal to 1 lb. per week and gradually eat a portion of my exercises calories back. Finally, I would give my body several weeks to adjust. You are going to lose weight as long as you eat at a calorie deficiency. You just need to have patience and allow nature to take its course.