Very confused

Springsman66
Springsman66 Posts: 5
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this, i am utterly lost and have no idea what to do. My question requires a little back story. To make a long story short, i was a idiot and ate 600 calories per day for 12 months to lose 181 lbs, I was working out while doing this, just 40 mins of cardio and lifting a little to try to and not lose muscle. After that I went to 1600 calories to continue to lose weight slowly and it worked. But over the last 3 months I have been trying to just maintain but my body refuses to let me eat. If i eat over 1600 calories my scale shows me gaining weight rather rapidly. I work out 5 days a week I do 1 hour of cardio, and 1 hr of lifting/ab workouts, im following a muscle building guide a moderate one. My BMR says I should be able to eat around 3300 calories. I am 6'1 and currently 225 lbs,25 male. I tried a "refeeding" where i ate 3,000 calories per day for 2 weeks and I gained around 12 lbs and freaked out and stopped and went back down to 1600 and it is slowly going away. but my problem is I am ravenous at 1600 calories, it stops me from sleeping I have no energy and I cant put in a good effort at the gym or for my classes. I eat insanely healthy as well. Salids, carrots, only learn chicken breasts protein cereal etc, So i know i am not eating the wrong things, or atleast I dont think I am. When i was 214 at my lowest I took the bod pod test and they found I had a 11 percent body fat percentige, and that with my activity level I should eat 3946 calories to maintain. But if i go above 2000 calories I start to gain weight, ive been dealing with this for 3 months and i am beginning to feel hopeless. Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    If you are eating under maintenance and see the scale go up, it is most likely water retention due to your glycogen stores being topped up. This is the opposite of starting a low carb diet, where you will see large drop on the scale due to water weight as you glycogen stores go down.

    Don't worry, you are not going to gain fat this way. What I would suggest is adding 100 cals to the 1600 for 3-4 weeks, then add another 100, for 3-4 week, wash and repeat until you get to maintenance caloric intake.
  • jonward85
    jonward85 Posts: 534 Member
    I would say go check out the Eat More to Lose Weight (EMTLW) folks. While it's not for me it sounds like it might be helpful to you.
  • aholly70
    aholly70 Posts: 577 Member
    I had the same promblem stayed at the same weight or gained some,but what i did is cut done on sugar and sodium,theres alot of food with sodium you think dosen't. Change up workouts dont do the same thing, your body will get use to it. So i hope helps.
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    If you are eating under maintenance and see the scale go up, it is most likely water retention due to your glycogen stores being topped up. This is the opposite of starting a low carb diet, where you will see large drop on the scale due to water weight as you glycogen stores go down.

    Don't worry, you are not going to gain fat this way. What I would suggest is adding 100 cals to the 1600 for 3-4 weeks, then add another 100, for 3-4 week, wash and repeat until you get to maintenance caloric intake.

    This. bump slowly, 100 - 150 calories at a time over the course of a few weeks. You did the damage over a long period of time, now it's going to take a while to fix. Just make the bumps on the first day of each month so that you don't lose track. After 2 months, if it's going well and you're evening out, you can think about speeding up the process by either adding back more calories at a time or making the bump 200 calories at a time.
  • addaline22
    addaline22 Posts: 114
    There are a number of bad ideas going on here, with good intentions.
    What you need to do is go see your dr. and have a COMPLETE physical. Have them also make an appointment for you to go see a nutritionist. Then you need to realize if you are 'body building' you can't mess around with calories like that. Steady healthy eating with more variety and a little more fat will go a long way. After you get these physical issues delt with, it sounds like you would bennifit from a few sessions with a therapist who has experience with eating disorders.

    I understand that you want to be healthy and look good. We all do. I think you just need some re direction. Good luck my friend. I hope you follow my suggestions.

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