Diet question.. help!

libs3091
libs3091 Posts: 50 Member
edited September 30 in Food and Nutrition
Hey everyone

For the past 14 weeks or so I've been on a diet that consisted of only fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and eggs, and went from 51kg down to 41kg (I'm only 5'1"). I know this is underweight according to the BMI, but I don't ever feel I'm starving myself or look too thin so I don't reckon I need to gain any. The thing is, I recently joined MFP and realised how little calories I was consuming (average day would be breakfast: fruit salad, morning tea: mix of veggies, lunch: a chicken salad, afternoon tea: more veggies, maybe some dip, dinner: some sort of salad with a low fat protein, all of which added up to only around 600 calories at most), and this has made me want to increase my caloric intake, at the same time I also want to reintroduce carbs like oats and wholegrain breads because I'm sick of my diet and don't want to lose any more weight.

The question is, how do I reintroduce these foods, and up the amount of calories I consume a day without GAINING weight? I understand I'll gain some weight in water retention (I think this should be minimal as I drank more than 2L of water daily throughout my diet and also ate plenty of fruit and veg), but I can't see how I'll stay the same weight I am if I consume the amount of calories (according to MFP, 1500) I'm meant to be eating a day.

If I do a slow progression from 600 calories daily up to 1500, will this stop me from gaining fat? Or am I being pedantic and will my body just not gain fat unless I go over my recommended intake of calories?

Any advice is appreciated!

Replies

  • PBmaria
    PBmaria Posts: 854 Member
    Just set you goal to maintain your current your weight, and it'll tell you how many calories to eat.
    Re-introduce all the other foods into your diet little by little while staying in your caloric need and you should be fine :)
    I weight 52.3 kgs and I still get the to eat a fair amount thanks to exercise.
  • psychofied
    psychofied Posts: 138
    I hope this can help you http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/RestrictingRescue
  • libs3091
    libs3091 Posts: 50 Member
    I thought that I might've been severely undereating, but the thought just occurred to me; since I lost all that weight at such a slow rate doesn't that mean I was actually consuming enough calories to not just drop off more than a kilo a week? So maybe I was subconsciously eating more than 600 calories...

    Thanks anyway!!
  • libs3091
    libs3091 Posts: 50 Member
    Just set you goal to maintain your current your weight, and it'll tell you how many calories to eat.
    Re-introduce all the other foods into your diet little by little while staying in your caloric need and you should be fine :)
    I weight 52.3 kgs and I still get the to eat a fair amount thanks to exercise.

    If I start from say 800 calories daily, how long do you think I should take to get my intake up to 1500?

    thanks
  • PBmaria
    PBmaria Posts: 854 Member
    800 calories is entirely too little! Try to eat at least 1200 a day and see how it works out for you :)
    Just set you goal to maintain your current your weight, and it'll tell you how many calories to eat.
    Re-introduce all the other foods into your diet little by little while staying in your caloric need and you should be fine :)
    I weight 52.3 kgs and I still get the to eat a fair amount thanks to exercise.

    If I start from say 800 calories daily, how long do you think I should take to get my intake up to 1500?

    thanks
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