Increasing my calorie intake after restricting for so long?

You aRe a child, got help, see you parents and your doctor..now

Your post says 16 and yet your profile says 18.......so what is it?

I think you are being a very silly young lady.

Good advice from farburnfred. Take it seriously!!

You aRe a child, got help, see you parents and your doctor..now

Maybe her parents arn't helpful, maybe she dosen't feel like she can talk to them? At least she is realising that she is under eating and is trying to change her behaviour which is more than a lot of the daft young girls on here are doing.

I like jesz124's advice as well as coachnict very unbiased and encouraging ❤:flowerforyou: as for the OP at least you are not in denial with yourself that alone speaks volumes, I agree if you follow the right steps and advice you will be fine :flowerforyou:

Question: Did you lose those 19 lbs in the three months you severely restricted calories? If so, then you began at 147 lbs?

First off, and most importantly, you are very young and likely have not finished growing yet at the age of 16. Engaging in severe, chronic calorie restriction before your bones have fully grown can lead to an inability to reach peak bone mass density, permanently. It's good that you wised up, because if you didn't, then being an adolescent would mean calcium and estrogen therapy would have little chance in replacing the lost bone mass density if you continue with severe calorie restriction. That's a rather important reason why you ought to start upping calories and decreasing exercise to a more reasonable amount.

Now, you have very little to lose and are quite active. The less fat mass you have, the smaller the total calorie deficit ought to be. If you have, say, up to 10 lbs of fat to lose, then a deficit of 250 calories under what's needed to maintain weight relative to activity level is in order; if you have between 11 to 25 lbs of fat to lose, then you could assume a total deficit of 250 to 500 calories below maintenance.

Second, the reason you felt full despite lowering calories further is because your leptin levels were continuously decreasing, causing your hunger signaling to be faulty - ie telling you that you were full despite not actually meeting calorie demands. This is why determining caloric intake based purely on hunger signals while in a calorie deficit is a huge no no; You'll just end up eating less and less and less.

Lastly, regarding avoiding gaining weight back as you up calories, chances are you will - especially if you lost 19 lbs in three months with that degree of deficit created by eating so little while engaging in so much exercise. You may have lost some muscle mass in the process as well. Unfortunately, if you do regain weight, you will only regain a fraction of the muscle you lost. In other words, let's say you lost 19 lbs and 13 lbs came from fat and the remaining 6 lbs from lean body mass. You may only gain back 3 lbs of lean body mass which means if you regain all 19 lbs, you will end up having 16 lbs of fat vs the 13 lbs you started with - ie you'll have a higher body fat percentage.

There are two factors that dictate the disproportionate amount of fat gained back vs lean body mass as well as total weight regained: starting body fat percentage and decline in resting metabolic rate. You already satisfied one of those by dropping a considerably amount of weight rapidly. If you wish to minimize fat gain during weight recovery, you will need to gradually decrease the deficit you have been assuming as of late so that your resting metabolic rate can slowly return back to optimal levels. The only way to know your present RMR is to get it tested.

Things I suggest:
First, you should ultimately choose only one exercise regimen to prevent overexercising, which leads to excessive stress on the body (especially the endocrine system). You state you are burning 500 calories between Insanity and the other two activities you included - thus, you could be burning more (we can't tell without knowing what those other activities are and the duration engaged). Drop one of the activities the first week and up calories by 100.

Second week, drop a second activity and up calories another 100. During the third week, and each following week, continue to up calories by 100 until you hit actual maintenance in calories - ie your body no longer gains weight nor loses weight. Once you notice practically no change in weight, while exercising up to an hour daily, and up to 5 days a week, for at least a whole month, then you hit actual maintenance.

I would strongly suggest you remain eating at maintenance calories for at least a month to help "reestablish" your resting metabolic rate as well as hormones which regulate hunger and metabolism. Once you complete this 2nd month of maintenance, then you can continue with Insanity but decrease calories to 375 below whatever your maintenance amount of calories is. For example, if you end up maintaining at 1800 calories, then eat 1425 calories. Once you have only 11 lbs or less to lose, up calories so that the deficit is only 250 below, or 1550 calories eaten. Stick with this number until you hit your final goal.