Trying to heal metabolism

pinkmotels

Is there anyone else who is silly enough to have not eaten back their exercise calories, and been eating at a lowered calorie level for quite some time?

I've spent most of the past 6 months (maybe a little longer) eating around 1200/1350 calories and working out trying to lose weight. After recovering from an eating disorder I thought I was doing it a healthy way. It wasn't until I joined MFP that I realised I'd been eating at a net calorie intake of between 800-1000 a day, for the entire time and now I feel so silly and like I've just put myself back where I started.

I'm now eating 1400 (a little above my BMR) for the past week, have only gained a little at the moment which I'm fine with. My biggest problem is eating back my exercise calories on days I workout. For example yesterday I ate just short of 1580 calories, I burnt 300 and then tried to eat back the workout calories to at least keep me above 1200 net, and really struggled. It just seemed like a huge amount of food.

Anyone else dealing with this, or gone through this? Thanks in advance!

melcowenfitness

I eat around 1900 calories/day regardless of how much I burn in exercise. It's worked for me - I lost 30 pounds and have been maintaining the same weight for a while now.

If you decide to eat a consistent # of calories/day you should do something like the Harris Benedict formula that takes into consideration your height, weight, age, gender, and activity level. It's pretty accurate from my experience.

Mel