Upping Calories slowly?

Jen800

I've been eating really low for a while. I started out eating 800-900, then upped to 1000 about a month and a half ago. Then it was 1100, and then 1200, and now I'm aiming for 1300. Ideally I'd like to be around 1400-1600. Do you think I should increase calories slowly, or all at once? I realize now that it's more important to eat higher calories, and that I may weigh more on the scale for an amount of time, I'm just curious as to whether it'd be beneficial for my body to adjust slowly rather than shoving all this food at it all at once.

I never really "binged" on my low calorie eating either. I usually just balanced what I ate to include mostly healthy options, and gave myself an unhealthy option once in a while. I never went above my calories usually. I burn around 150-200 calories on a typical exercise day.

Anyways, thank you for your replies. I'm really glad I found this group!


PS: I've calculated my TDEE, BMR, and all of that. In the end I'd like to be at 1700 ish calories, I'm just setting my goals for the present though. Thanks

jmzz1

good to see u upping ur calories ..... had similar eating habit for me in the past and now i have upped my calorie to 1900.... and still need to up a bit more...... i have been concentrating on upping my protein macroos........ i did not gain any weight till now.....
have been lifting heavy........ and avoiding cardio completely for a month.......

now i am taking around 1600 calories ....... still need to invcrease it more........ hope u will get some knowledge from my journey......

Jen800

Thanks!

Anyone else have any advice?

amonkey794

Benefit wise jumping straight up or taking it slow doesn't matter. How can you emotionally handle it? I know i can't handle the sudden change and temporary weight gain, but if mentaly you can, why take longer than you need too?:-)

Jen800

Benefit wise jumping straight up or taking it slow doesn't matter. How can you emotionally handle it? I know i can't handle the sudden change and temporary weight gain, but if mentaly you can, why take longer than you need too?:-)

Thanks! This answer really helped me out. I think I'll continue my slow approach

alana_swiss

Very interesting thread.

18
female
Asian decent
4" 10"
current weight: 42kg
goal weight: 41kg
goal weight BMR (scooby): 1234.5
goal weight TDEE (scooby): 1475

I just started my EM2WL journey this week after discovering that my daily caloric intake was dangerously low. At my lowest point, I was only eating about 700 calories a day. I decided I needed a change once I noticed I got very cold easily, my nails turned purple, my hair start falling out, I haven't had my TOM in months... I just constantly felt tried and irritable.

This is the last day of my first week since increasing my calories by 200/day giving me a total of 900 calories. I know it's still much lower than my goal weight TDEE but I'm just not comfortable making the full increase to 1475 calories.

Tomorrow is the start of week 2. I plan to increase by another 100/day giving me a total of 1000 calories a day.

It would be great if you could give me some advice, support, tips or any other necessary information about increasing calories.
thank you

alana_swiss

Sorry.. more quick questions.

I plan on slowly increasing to my goal weight TDEE so do you think my method of increasing by 100-200calories/day every week is the right way to go?
for example...
In the first week, I increased from 700cal daily intake to 900cal daily intake
In the second week I'll increase from 900cal daily intake to 1000cal daily intake
In the fourth week I'll increase from 1000cal daily intake to 1200cal daily intake
In the sixth week I'll increase from 1200cal daily intake to 1400cal daily intake

I also plan on eating consistently at my goal weight TDEE for another 8 weeks after my 8 week 'increasing phase'.

After my second phase should I eat at a 5% cut of my goal weight TDEE or just stick to eating my goal weight TDEE?
Is a cut phase even necessary since I will be eating at my goal weight TDEE so I would be expected to eat this amount to maintain my goal weight...

Sorry for asking too many questions ><

amanda_gent

Hi Alana,
You don't NEED to increase calories so slowly but fine if you choose that method. After you've reached your true TDEE for your goal weight eat at that for at least 8 weeks until you stabilize. Don't cut after that because theoretically at that point you should be eating what's required to maintain your goal weight. Exercise a bit to use the calories to build muscle but stay away from cutting unless you want to get your metabolism mucked up again!
Good luck!

Jen800

Hey Alana. I've been upping my calories slowly (by 100 every 2 weeks) and I haven't been gaining weight. I'm currently eating about 1400 a day, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not sure how much other advice I can give, as I'm no expert and i'm still trying to figure this all out on my own. But I just thought I'd let you know that I didn't gain (although stalled a bit) to help ease your mind. I don't think it matters as others have said if you jump fast or slowly, but I personally need time to adjust to eating that much. I felt like I was going to explode the first day of every new increase. It gets easier! Like someone said on another post of mine, we ate a lot more before and trained our bodies to accept it. We can adapt!

catti41

I did mine in bigger jumps, from 1400 to 1700 to 1900 to 2150 over the course of about two weeks. I stayed at 2150 for about 3 weeks but was continually feeling too full so i came back to 2050. have been eating here for 6 weeks and never feel hungry but never too full either. The quicker you get them up the better you'll start to feel; the scael didnt really move for me either way. Good luck.

cazsyl

I doubled my calories immediately to my TDEE and did a 12 week reset as I felt the longer I put it off the harder it would be.

I didn't put on any weight other than the last couple of weeks when I was on holiday and ate much more than my TDEE and put 1lb on.

Good luck.

alana_swiss

Wow thank you for the replies. It definitely makes me feel a little better.

I've only increased by 300 calories since the start of my increase phase and I already feel like I'm going to explode.

I've been reading the forums about how people have started to experience hunger and how that's a sign that the metabolism is speeding up. When does that happen? I wake up every morning feeling extremely full ><

I know it's only been 2 weeks but this bloating SUCKS!

I'll just keep reminding myself: 'short term pain for life long gain'.... hopefully not life long weight gain haha

Jen800

I noticed hunger after a few days, but then again I'm going slowly.