Eat More to Weigh Less - How do I go about it?

lisamichelle123

Hiya,

So basically I've lost 23kg (50 pounds) and am about 7kg (15pounds) from my "ideal" weight. However, I have been doing the cutting calories and increasing cardio for about a year and have plateaued for the last 2 months or so. To try and break the plateau, I dropped to 1200-1400cals per day and burnt 700-1000cals (using a HRM - I do a LOT of exercise!!) 6 days a week.. Obviously, this means I was netting between 0-600 calories a day, which is terrible!!

So, I'm going to try EM2WL and up the calories. Here are my stats:

Height: 174cm / 5'8.5"
Weight: 84kg / 185lbs
BMR: 1675cals
TDEE: 2597cals
(moderate activity)
-15% cut: 2207cals

This is a huge number of calories for me after eating so low for so long, so I'm wondering if I should bump it up straight away or build it up over several weeks? I've also started New Rules of Lifting for Women and am dropping the cardio right back, so I'm worried I'll just blow up. Also, NROL4W recommends I eat 1800cals on non-lifting days and 2100cals on lifting days. I'm a bit confused about what I should do since I've always had it drilled in me to eat as few calories as possible but this is neither sustainable long term nor healthy. I want to be fit and strong, not skinny.

Any advice would be great! Thank you so much

breeanreyes

I would suggest just starting with eating back as many exercise calories as will bring your net to at LEAST 1200.. try that for a week or two, and add 100-200 per day from there if you need more. I'd gradually step up, otherwise you may mess up your digestion going from so little food to so much. Our bodies handle small steps a little better

Artemis00diana

Thanks for posting this, Im gonna keep and eye on the feedback too, since this has me really confused

BrittanyErica

from personal research, i've learned that it's better and easier on the body to up it by 100 cals per week. it'll be slow, but you wont get sudden weight/water gain like you would if you upped them quicker

Debby0904

Exactly what Brittany said.

FluroFaye

Look up the vid for metaboilic damage on youtube. You will har him talk about stepping it up at only 50-100 cals at a time. Hence why the longer and the lower calories your diet, the longer it will take for your body to properly adjust and work on a higher calorie diet with results.

Jemellc

Try calorie cycling! Dont over do it though....Eat alot one day... then the next eat less (drink lots of fluids for the next few days) then eat something you used to eat b4 (lots) for the next couple days... then go back to eating less with lots of fluids...

Another thing that helped and is helping me me:
Eat whatever you want for half a day....and then the rest of the day drink lots of water & one or two meal replacements.

torrini

First, eat back your exercise calories. Then if that's not working maybe slowly try to up your calories.

auddii

I've seen in other posts that people have recommended that you stop exercising until you get your calories back up to a level where you would net at least 1200 after exercising. Then, increase calories by 100 and slowly add back in exercise when it's appropriate. I'm not sure if that works, but the theory behind it is that you're limiting the damage you're doing to your body.