Reintroducing carbs and cals

Slowly is the important word in your statement there. Well done on what you have done so far, very hard work!

You need to try and find that magic number. Unfortunately I think eating as low as 1000 calories for a year you might see some gains when you start upping the calories.

Personally I would work on upping your calories first but I have no evidence to back this up, it would just be personal preference for me. Also, I have known people maintain on under 20g of carbs a day, but not 1000 cals a day.

What I would do is increase calories by 100 each day, for a week. Eat 1100 calories each day and at the end of the week if you are still losing or maintained then the following week eat 1200. If you gain at 1200 (sounds crazy but it takes the body a while to get used to it)... eat at 1200 for a couple of weeks until you maintain or lose at that... it will happen eventually. Then when you maintain or start losing... increase another 100. Keep this going until you are hitting higher number. A calculate your TDEE using an online calculator, that is the number you will be aiming for to maintain at, but it could take a fair while to get there and maintain as your calories have been low.

Like I say, this is just how I personally would do it. Someone else may be able to give you advice with a more scientifical approach.

With carbs, you will gain some water weight when you eat higher carbs but if you increase them slowly you won't have a massive impact in one go.

Good luck and again well done on your loss.

I have a similar experience with carbs. It makes sense when you factor in the blood sugar reaction. My weight loss plan depends on sticking with low glycemic foods. Check out the HI Diet by a Canadian doctor.

I find using a weight trending app on my iPhone useful for monitoring my weight. It smooths out the daily up and down noise in my weight. What you're aiming at is a flat trend curve over time, and you can add calories until you see the curve flattening out - then stay there. The app I use is Happy Scale which is available for both iOS and Android. There are probably weight tracker spreadsheets out there that do data smoothing, if you'd rather not use an app.

coffeepuff wrote: »

I eat a lot of carbs in my diet, but I've find the type of carb can also make a difference in my weight (obviously).

I keep losing weight while eating carbs from fruit and starchy vegetables (raisins, bananas, apples, strawberries, corn, green beans, etc.). I lose weight or stay stable while eating whole wheat. in moderation (minute oats, wheat bread, protein bars) . I tend to gain if I heavily processed, carbs with higher fat like ice-cream, cookies, waffles, candy bars, etc. and some of the heavier starch stuff (wheat pasta and potatoes). (Technically, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to eat pasta and potatoes in moderation, but in reality, I find myself gaining weight consistantly, so it's easier for me to cut them out of my diet.)

I second the above post that slow is the way to go. I'd start increasing your carb level first via fruits and vegetables primarily until you get a better feel for how your weight will fluctuate with increased carbs.

I also agree that 1000 calories seems dangerously low for a daily calorie intake. I would re-evaluate your calorie goals via MyFitnessPal's recommendations so your muscle doesn't start to break down as a compensatory measurement.

This is me to "T".

If I eat no simple carbs I maintain my weight very well.

If I get in to Bread & Pasta I gain weight uncontrollably. I don't know why so I decided to not eat either of them. HAPPY HAPPY!

diannethegeek wrote: »

Hey y'all. I know we all want to jump in and help the OP, but hopefully they've figured it out in the 5 years since this post was started.

Though this would definitely be an interesting post to hear an update on. VLCDs don't generally make for the best transition to maintenance