Upping calories safely

aalhasan
aalhasan Posts: 104
in Health and Weight Loss
Male, 19yo, 5'9
Starting Weight: 215 pounds
Current Weight: 175 pounds
Goal Weight: 155-160 pounds

I've been living on a 1200 calorie intake per day since May.
Now that I'm around 15 pounds away from my goal weight, I'm planning to up my calories to around 1700-1800 to lose around 1 pound per week.
Is it safe to suddenly increase my calorie intake from 1200 to 1700/1800? Or do I have to increase it gradually?
I'm not sure if my metabolism has been damaged significantly. If it has, would increasing the calorie intake "repair" it or reset it back to normal?

Thanks!

Replies

  • alwayswinter303
    alwayswinter303 Posts: 14
    Ease into it. 150-200 calories a week until you get to your goal. Its called reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is essential to prevent the cycle of metabolic slowdown, or stop it if you are already in the situation
  • aalhasan
    aalhasan Posts: 104
    Its called reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is essential to prevent the cycle of metabolic slowdown, or stop it if you are already in the situation

    Would it repair or reset a damaged or slowed down metabolism?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    Its called reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is essential to prevent the cycle of metabolic slowdown, or stop it if you are already in the situation

    Would it repair or reset a damaged or slowed down metabolism?


    Eating around your maintenance and weight training will help. Upping your calories will just prevent a huge increase in water weight. It will also allow you you to gauge your true maintenance calories.
  • alwayswinter303
    alwayswinter303 Posts: 14
    It will even out eventually if its really that damaged. I'm not sure I'm a believer in the whole damaged metabolism thing but 1200 calories is pretty low. I'm sure your body took some time to adjust to that and now it will take some time to get back to "normal".

    Just keep tracking your calories and weighing yourself once a week. If you are losing too much or too little adjust your calories accordingly. Remember that this is a long process no matter what your goals are and to just be patient.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    How low your RMR has been reduced, as well as other endocrinological changes, compared to baseline depends on the individual in relation to how much total mass, fat mass, and lean mass was lost during severe chronic calorie restriction in a rapid amount of time. Some studies show individuals can get away with a minor reduction of a few 100 calories whereas others see their RMR drop to significantly in the area of 500 calories or greater. Too bad you didn't visit an endocrinologist at the beginning so you could assess how much change occurred.

    The problem with these VLCDs is the high risk of regaining much of the weight back with most coming from a disproportionate amount of fat vs lean mass. Even if you increase slowly and try to match increments with your recovering RMR, you may still end up regaining some of the weight (fat). That's just the body's way of responding to extreme measures of rapid fat loss during weight recovery.
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
    I would avoid jumping straight up to 1800 in one go, I would recomend adding 100 every week till you are at your goal.

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