Eat more 2 weigh less! It works! (Thank God I took photos!)

Great advice. I recently upped my calories as well as my workouts. So far, I have gained a few pounds, but I'm trying not to let it get to me. I know that it's going to take a lot of time before I reach my goal. You look great, btw.

bump!!!! awesome!!

Wow! You can really notice a difference between your photos! Thanks so much for sharing that information, I am still fairly new to this site and doing quite well but I still have the mentality that you have to suffer and eat less to lose weight and look forward to days that I am way under my calories, I don't eat my exercise calories, maybe I should start doing that.

Hi I'm new to MFP and really need the support when resetting my metabolism. I'm an 18 year old female, 4' 10" (yes, I am very short), Asian, sedentary and weigh 90lbs/41kg. I have been on my weight loss journey since last June when I was at my heaviest at 70kg.

I am finally ready to stop losing and changing to maintenance. The only problem is, I have constantly been told to eat less to lose weight. I didn't know anything about BMR or TDEE while on my weightless journey and just drastically cut my calories to lose weight. It was so easy for me. I never got hungry anymore so I thought my body was completely fine and I continued to lose more and more weight.

Over the last 3 months I have been eating only 700-800 calories. I lost weight so quickly and everyone complimented me on my weight loss. But then i started noticing things in myself like fatigue, loss of concentration, constantly feeling cold, purple nails, no periods and hair loss! So even though i looked skinny, i felt so unhealthy. That's when I knew that I had to make some changes.

After researching articles and MFP forums I know now that living off of 700 calories a day is terribly unhealthy and I really want to get to a healthy maintenance diet without losing or gaining any weight. I would like to remain around 41-44kg.

I have no idea what to do... Do I have to eat my BMR calories (1234.5 calories) or my TDEE (1475 calories)? I'm so confused...

I increased my calories by only 200 everyday for the past week because I want to increase to my BMR calories slowly. So I've been eating around 900-1000 calories a day. I plan to increase it slowly by 100-200 calories a week until I reach a daily net calorie intake of about 1300.

I would like to get some feedback, tips or support from anyone who has experience with this issue. I would also like to know if there is any dramatic weight gain during the reset process. For someone who has been losing weight for more than a year, it's so hard to grasp the concept of weight gain even though I know it's better for me in the long run.

Please help!
-Alana

Hi Everyone~

I think this is the right forum for what I'm trying to do "Eat more to eventually weigh less" I thought I was the pillar of health and strength but after a lot of hard lessons with my body, it seems I have been starving myself for years.

I'm 39 years old, 5'9 and 160lbs. I've been eating around 1500-1800 calories a day, low carb while working out about 6-7 days a week. I was dumbfounded as to why my body was gaining fat despite no changes in my diet or exercise regimen. It had worked for me for YEARS until....it stopped. I've put on a good 10 lbs in a year while remaining umber strict. Other hard lessons have been hair loss, crazy anxiety, high cortisol and an inability to sleep well.

I finally found a trainer who said "Dear God woman, eat more!" I'm raising my calories to around 2-2200 per day with a little carb cycling throughout the week. Sticking to heavy weight lifting and walking while dropping all cardio(shudder).I know my body needs to heal but my mind is TERRIFIED to putting on more weight.

I'm seeking the support of others who have been through this or found peace in eating more.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks-

B