Hey Guys!

vopat45

Hey guys, If you did not know my story, I have been starving myself for the past 2 weeks, This week I have been trying to get back up to 1950 Calories and time to time fail. Should I eat back to my BMF cals and start over in a week? I was wondering how long does it take for your metabolism to rebuild itself or is it ruined completely? Any recomendations to improve my metabolism? Vitamin b12?

Should I go out today and have at least one burger to hit my cal intake for one day and try again the next day?

Where can I go to find menu plans or recipes for 2000 cal diets that are great for the body without feeling like you are forcing yourself to eat?

You guys are always super supportive and answer my questions! It is great being apart of this community and hopefully you can get me out of this rut!

now_or_never12

You can either work up to the higher calories by adding say 250 cals a day per week and slowly increase or just go right to the higher cals. You may gain originally but the weight will come off.

Ideas to help you increase your cal intake would be peanut butter, nuts, oils, milk, etc which all can pack a lot of calories for a small amount of food. Slowly you will learn what to eat to add more calories to your day. Switch things to full calorie versions that you normally eat low calorie versions.

Inproving your metabolism only happens by eating more and building muscle. Muscle mass is really the only thing that will speed up your metabolism. As far as I know B12 doesn't increase your metabolism. I take B12 (well a B50 vitamin) only because I don't get enough since I don't eat meat and various animal products.

Two weeks of eating too little isn't enough to mess up your metabolism. Your metabolism will be fine if you haven't starved yourself for months... you may think it is messed up when you weight yourself after eating normal calories and see a gain but that is just water weight from eating so little and than increasing cals. That weight will go away.

vopat45

You can either work up to the higher calories by adding say 250 cals a day per week and slowly increase or just go right to the higher cals. You may gain originally but the weight will come off.

Ideas to help you increase your cal intake would be peanut butter, nuts, oils, milk, etc which all can pack a lot of calories for a small amount of food. Slowly you will learn what to eat to add more calories to your day. Switch things to full calorie versions that you normally eat low calorie versions.

Inproving your metabolism only happens by eating more and building muscle. Muscle mass is really the only thing that will speed up your metabolism. As far as I know B12 doesn't increase your metabolism. I take B12 (well a B50 vitamin) only because I don't get enough since I don't eat meat and various animal products.

Thanks for resonding Now_or_Never1!
Yeah, I saw that peanut butter has a lot of calories, 190 in 2 tablespoons... the only thing im not digging is the fact that it has surgar listed as the third ingredient. Is there a place where you can buy healthier peanut butter and I can add my own sugar from apples or something?

jacksonpt

Sorry... I didn't follow your post. What exactly is the problem?

You've been "starving" yourself for 2 weeks and your worried about your metabolism? It's fine... no damage done in a couple of weeks.

You want to be eating 2000 cals daily, but can't hit that number? Have more calorie-dense foods... beef, full fat dairy, nuts, fish, etc.

now_or_never12

You can either work up to the higher calories by adding say 250 cals a day per week and slowly increase or just go right to the higher cals. You may gain originally but the weight will come off.

Ideas to help you increase your cal intake would be peanut butter, nuts, oils, milk, etc which all can pack a lot of calories for a small amount of food. Slowly you will learn what to eat to add more calories to your day. Switch things to full calorie versions that you normally eat low calorie versions.

Inproving your metabolism only happens by eating more and building muscle. Muscle mass is really the only thing that will speed up your metabolism. As far as I know B12 doesn't increase your metabolism. I take B12 (well a B50 vitamin) only because I don't get enough since I don't eat meat and various animal products.

Thanks for resonding Now_or_Never1!
Yeah, I saw that peanut butter has a lot of calories, 190 in 2 tablespoons... the only thing im not digging is the fact that it has surgar listed as the third ingredient. Is there a place where you can buy healthier peanut butter and I can add my own sugar from apples or something?

You can buy natural peanut butter that doesn't have as much sugar if sugar is a concern to you. Unless you are diabetic or have another medical condition you don't have to watch sugar intake. It is a bit more money than normal peanut butter.

You can also make your own. I put peanuts, a touch of water, flax seed and oil in a blender and make my own most of the time as where I am peanut butter is just getting far too expensive.

Or if peanut butter isn't your thing stick to nuts. A handful of cashews for example has something like 300 cals. It is a large amount of calories for a small amount of food. Something like an oil based dressing on salad can add a few hundred cals as well. Protein shakes are great as well if you find one you like.

vopat45

Sorry... I didn't follow your post. What exactly is the problem?

You've been "starving" yourself for 2 weeks and your worried about your metabolism? It's fine... no damage done in a couple of weeks.

You want to be eating 2000 cals daily, but can't hit that number? Have more calorie-dense foods... beef, full fat dairy, nuts, fish, etc.

Hey Jack! Yeah that is the problem, I need to hit 2000 cals and I have not hit that for 2 weeks and 3 days. Can I just go out and have a burger or something to get it up there and try again? Or Should I go buy a steak tonight and eat it?

jacksonpt

Sure... eat whatever you want, just hit that goal.

Step 1 in all this is to be able to maintain a healthy calorie intake. Only once you've got that down should you start thinking about how much fats, carbs and protein you are getting. Most people don't need to worry about things like sugar, sodium, etc. unless they have a medical condition that warrants hit.