Was eating less than 1,000 calories...

mal13921

So, long story short, I was put on topamax for migraines and as a side effect, my appetite was reduced drastically. For about 2 months, I was eating around 500-700 calories a day simply because I was not hungry. I was still going to the gym during this time (doing mainly cardio, some light weights, Pilates) I lost about 15 pounds in 2 months.
Now, I have adjusted to my topamax doseage, and my appetite is back.
I want to eat more, but am used to hardly eating at all. I'm afraid once I start eating normally, I'm going to gain all my weight back. Since I've gotten my appetite back, my weight loss has stalled.

I know I HAVE to start eating more, is there anyway I can do this without gaining a ton of weight back? Or did this medicine screw me?

rosebette

15 lbs. is a lot to lose in 2 months. Were you really heavy? How tall are you and how much do you still need to lose? If you're at the weight you want to be, try to figure out what your maintenance calories would be and eat that. If not, figure out the deficit you need to lose, but don't continue eating 500-700 a day, or really bad things will happen.

mal13921

15 lbs. is a lot to lose in 2 months. Were you really heavy? How tall are you and how much do you still need to lose? If you're at the weight you want to be, try to figure out what your maintenance calories would be and eat that. If not, figure out the deficit you need to lose, but don't continue eating 500-700 a day, or really bad things will happen.

I was about 115pounds, 5'2". Now I weigh 100 pounds, I'm small framed and most comfortable around 95-100pounds... My doctor is ok with that weight. At this point, I'm not even really concerned with losing anymore weight.
I just don't want to start eating 1200 calories a day and gain 15 pounds...or more...back.

lemonsnowdrop

If you don't want to lose any more weight, 1200 is still too low. I'm 5'1 and maintain on 1500.

dbmata

Nice, how do you like topamax?

I have been lucky with supplementing magnesium.

hortensehildegarde

I just don't want to start eating 1200 calories a day and gain 15 pounds...or more...back.

That should not be a remotely realistic fear. It would take more than a month to put on that kind of weight eating 1200 calories a day even if your daily calorie burn was ZERO (as in, you were dead).

Eat 1200 calories/day one week. If you don't gain weight, or if you lose, add 100 and eat 1300/day the next week. Rinse repeat until you find your personal "maintenance" level. (or start off at 1500/day and do the same thing)

But for absolute certain don't be worried about gaining 15 lbs from eating 1200 calories a day while exercising!

ETA: and be sure you are tracking calories accurately or your data will be all off.

lemonyradiomen

This is going to be tough, but maintenance is supposed to be the hardest part, right? Calculate your maintenance calories at 5'2" and 95 pounds, and your maintenance calories at 5'2" and 100 pounds, and try to always eat between those two values. Plugging it into losertown.org's calculator, I got 1375-1400 calories per day for you to maintain between 95 and 100, if you're completely sedentary. Eat back your exercise calories and try to be as accurate as possible, and you should be able to fine tune your plan as you go along.

Things to watch out for: As you resume a maintenance diet, some of your carbs will begin to be stored again as glycogen, which carries a lot (up to several pounds) of water weight. In addition, you'll probably be ingesting more salt and just in general carry around more water and digesting food during the day. Try not to react to an immediate weight gain of a few pounds here or there, if you truly think you need to lower your calories try aiming for maybe 100 calories less or upping your exercise.

I also recommend starting a strength training program. It's great that you've been doing pilates, this will definitely give you a solid foundation for strengthening, but if your plan was this low in calories and included a lot of cardio it is extremely likely that a good portion of your weight loss came from breaking down muscle, which will contribute to a slower metabolism and just generally prevent you from being as healthy as you'd like. Unlike more meat-head types I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to lose a bit of muscle, but strength training will ensure that if you do eat a few extra calories now and then it'll be added in the form of muscle. If you don't choose to strength train, depending on your genes and activity level, your body composition might adjust itself naturally during maintenance to make up for the muscle loss. Make sure you don't rely too much on the scale and just go by the mirror and how your clothes fit when evaluating the success of your maintenance program. Good luck!! I'm totally jealous (:

mal13921

Thank you everyone for the great replies. I know I SHOULDN'T be afraid of increasing to 1200 or more like some of you suggested, it's just after eating so little for so a few months I'm afraid of initial weight gain. But I trust you guys. Thank you!

mal13921

Nice, how do you like topamax?

I have been lucky with supplementing magnesium.

I love it, I've been struggling with migraines for 7 years and I've had no luck with anything else. This was a last resort option, but I'm glad I decided to go with it.

pander101

That's weird. I'm on a high dose for epilepsy and didn't hit the appetite issues till about 6 months in. I'm adjusted and the appetite still hasn't come back.

I would say talk to your doctor about it. Or, calculate your TDEE and BMR and go off that to make sure you don't gain. I personally use IIFYM.com calculators. Or you can use the MFP. But the calorie burns are not accurate. I don't eat back exercise calories because IIFYM calculators takes that into account for you but it's up to you how you want to do it. But keep eating at a deficit if you want to lose weight or eat at maintenance.

rosebette

You won't gain eating more, you were losing so much because you were at an extreme deficit; you definitely don't want to be there. I'm your height but older and maintaining at around 1200 + exercise calories.

Liftng4Lis

Just add a 100 calories every couple of days until you reach maintenance.

hortensehildegarde

Thank you everyone for the great replies. I know I SHOULDN'T be afraid of increasing to 1200 or more like some of you suggested, it's just after eating so little for so a few months I'm afraid of initial weight gain. But I trust you guys. Thank you!

You are right to be worried about an initial "gain" on the scale. It may happen. But you also know that if it does happen, the "gain" is not fat gain so long as you have accurately tracked your calories.

Eating does affect scale weight (like, the act of just having the food in your tummy). If you have a 1 lb potato and eat it the potato doesn't magically weigh less than 1 lb just because you put it from the plate into your tummy. Since you were eating so low volume I would expect there to be a slight difference in what you are seeing on the scale, but don't freak out any more than you'd freak out if you drank 3 lbs of water then immediately weighed and found you'd "gained" 3 lbs. (not really sure that's even possible but you get my point)

Glad the med has helped your headaches! Now get to eating enough so you aren't getting physical symptoms from starving yourself