Restriction->Binge eating->IIFYM would appreciate some help/advise
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valldda
Posts: 12 Member
Hello !
I'm feeling lost. And would really appreciate some help. I started my weightloss journey at the end of 2014. I'm 5'8 and a half (172cm), 19y/o and in 5-6 months I lost ~66lbs (30kg) but it was due to restriction and crazy amounts of cardio. I went from 180lbs (82kg) to 114lbs (52kg) but then restriction led me to binge eating and I gained some weight back. At the start of January 2016 I started cutting at 1200cals and did that for a month, I reached 143lbs (65kg) (I guess it's a healthy-ish weight for my height). But I'm so sick of all those diets, I'm doing IIFYM but being on 1200cals makes me so unhappy and unmotivated, so on 2nd of February I started doing reverse diet and slowly increasing calories. I want to concentrate on raising my metabolism and maybe gaining some muscle but I'm scared that I'm not lean enough to be doing reverse diet. So I would really love to get some advise.
I'm feeling lost. And would really appreciate some help. I started my weightloss journey at the end of 2014. I'm 5'8 and a half (172cm), 19y/o and in 5-6 months I lost ~66lbs (30kg) but it was due to restriction and crazy amounts of cardio. I went from 180lbs (82kg) to 114lbs (52kg) but then restriction led me to binge eating and I gained some weight back. At the start of January 2016 I started cutting at 1200cals and did that for a month, I reached 143lbs (65kg) (I guess it's a healthy-ish weight for my height). But I'm so sick of all those diets, I'm doing IIFYM but being on 1200cals makes me so unhappy and unmotivated, so on 2nd of February I started doing reverse diet and slowly increasing calories. I want to concentrate on raising my metabolism and maybe gaining some muscle but I'm scared that I'm not lean enough to be doing reverse diet. So I would really love to get some advise.
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Replies
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Results take time. It sounds like you want to have more muscle and less fat like most people. The problem is most people don't know how to get there and just do tons of cardio and crash their calories to get leaner. The problem is you burn through your muscle when you do that, and end up smaller, but still looking the same. There are two approaches to get to where you want. Bulking/cutting approach and recomping
bulking/cutting is probably going to be much faster to get where you want, but unlike recomping it's going to require putting on a bit of fat temporarily. What you want to do is cut down to 15-18% BF or so while keeping as much of your muscle as possible. This is done by eating in a moderate deficit, probably not losing more than 1lb per week. Keeping protein high at >0.8g per pound of body weight, and resistance training preferably 3 or more times per week. Once you hit that goal of 15-18% body fat, what you want to do is keep everything the same, but increase your calories so you're gaining between 0.5lb - 1lb per week. Stretch this phase out as long as you can, probably 6-8 months or until you hit about 20-25% BF. One there, go back to cutting, but this time when you cut down to 15-18, you'll look a lot more toned.
Recomping is similar, you do all the things the same as above, but you eat at maintenance so you don't gain or lose weight, over time your body will burn fat and put on muscle very slowly. Keep in mind that this is harder for women than men, and also only works if you're new to weightlifting. This process is usually slower than the above method, so you wont notice much change in the mirror for some time.0 -
How much more weight do you want to lose? 1200 for someone as tall and young as you is a bit aggressive. I'm 5'9" and I lost the majority of my weight eating 1800 a day. I would set your diary to lose.5 pounds a week and reevaluate in 6 weeks.
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With reverse dieting, Take Your Time. It can be a long and frustrating process but it is worth it in the end. I read this article a year ago: http://askgeorgie.com/the-facts-on-starvation-mode-and-reverse-dieting/ And then spent the last year raising my maintenance calories from ~1500ish to ~2500 and dropped 10 lbs (I also powerlift so that may account for some of the raise in calories). But that article completely changed my life.0
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You don't need to raise your metabolism.
You won't gain an appreciable amount of muscle mass whilst eating such low calories. You need a surplus.
Pick a goal.
Pick reasonable calorie and macronutritional amounts to reach that goal.0 -
Cut slowly down to 15-18% body fat. Lift weights 3 x week and eat 100g of protein.
When you're lean enough eat 250cals per day over maintenance and lift 3 x week heavy.
You'll put equal amounts of fat to muscle.
Cut very slowly again, you won't need to cut much to get a good body fat percentage.
You'll be lean, lifted and curvy.
You can't raise your metabolism. You have to work the numbers. It's an education in itself.
Do everything super slow.
Get help in the gaining weight forum.0 -
Hello !
I'm feeling lost. And would really appreciate some help. I started my weightloss journey at the end of 2014. I'm 5'8 and a half (172cm), 19y/o and in 5-6 months I lost ~66lbs (30kg) but it was due to restriction and crazy amounts of cardio. I went from 180lbs (82kg) to 114lbs (52kg) but then restriction led me to binge eating and I gained some weight back. At the start of January 2016 I started cutting at 1200cals and did that for a month, I reached 143lbs (65kg) (I guess it's a healthy-ish weight for my height). But I'm so sick of all those diets, I'm doing IIFYM but being on 1200cals makes me so unhappy and unmotivated, so on 2nd of February I started doing reverse diet and slowly increasing calories. I want to concentrate on raising my metabolism and maybe gaining some muscle but I'm scared that I'm not lean enough to be doing reverse diet. So I would really love to get some advise.
How many calories are you eating now? What are maintenance calories for your current height and weight?
I'm hearing you don't currently have a healthy relationship with food - maybe developing one should be your initial goal?0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Hello !
I'm feeling lost. And would really appreciate some help. I started my weightloss journey at the end of 2014. I'm 5'8 and a half (172cm), 19y/o and in 5-6 months I lost ~66lbs (30kg) but it was due to restriction and crazy amounts of cardio. I went from 180lbs (82kg) to 114lbs (52kg) but then restriction led me to binge eating and I gained some weight back. At the start of January 2016 I started cutting at 1200cals and did that for a month, I reached 143lbs (65kg) (I guess it's a healthy-ish weight for my height). But I'm so sick of all those diets, I'm doing IIFYM but being on 1200cals makes me so unhappy and unmotivated, so on 2nd of February I started doing reverse diet and slowly increasing calories. I want to concentrate on raising my metabolism and maybe gaining some muscle but I'm scared that I'm not lean enough to be doing reverse diet. So I would really love to get some advise.
How many calories are you eating now? What are maintenance calories for your current height and weight?
I'm hearing you don't currently have a healthy relationship with food - maybe developing one should be your initial goal?
Right now I'm at 1300cals P[114g] C[114g] F[43g], my maintenance is somewhere around 1770cals.
I'm still working on the relationship with food, IIFYM helped a lot I don't get the urge to binge or restrict, but it's still hard sometimes.
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If you like eating food, then don't feel guilty to eat a little more each day! Just train that much harder to burn those extra calories during your workouts! I LOVE to eat so I try and burn 1k calories a day to eat 3k a day
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Guys, thank you SO MUCH !0
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Layne Norton has a great podcast episode on Reverse Dieting. It's easy to get on your phone. The podcast is called Physique Science. I highly recommend it.0
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Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.0
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Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
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Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
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arditarose wrote: »Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
I'm not stopping even though it scares me to increase my calories. At the end of 2015 I wasn't really tracking anything as I was struggling with my eating disorders and when I decided to get a grip I just jumped back to eating 1200 did that for 4 weeks and then started reverse dieting. I currently increased to 1300 cals and if I don't see any weight gain I'll increase by another 100.
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arditarose wrote: »Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
I'm not stopping even though it scares me to increase my calories. At the end of 2015 I wasn't really tracking anything as I was struggling with my eating disorders and when I decided to get a grip I just jumped back to eating 1200 did that for 4 weeks and then started reverse dieting. I currently increased to 1300 cals and if I don't see any weight gain I'll increase by another 100.
Okay good, keep going. And please listen to that podcast I posted above! Layne Norton and Sohee Lee really know what they're talking about with reverse dieting.0 -
arditarose wrote: »Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
I'm not stopping even though it scares me to increase my calories. At the end of 2015 I wasn't really tracking anything as I was struggling with my eating disorders and when I decided to get a grip I just jumped back to eating 1200 did that for 4 weeks and then started reverse dieting. I currently increased to 1300 cals and if I don't see any weight gain I'll increase by another 100.
Don't freak out if you see weight gain when you are premenstrual
I also go up a pound or so two weeks before when I ovulate.
I weigh daily and log it in a spreadsheet so I can see trends over time.
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arditarose wrote: »arditarose wrote: »Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
I'm not stopping even though it scares me to increase my calories. At the end of 2015 I wasn't really tracking anything as I was struggling with my eating disorders and when I decided to get a grip I just jumped back to eating 1200 did that for 4 weeks and then started reverse dieting. I currently increased to 1300 cals and if I don't see any weight gain I'll increase by another 100.
Okay good, keep going. And please listen to that podcast I posted above! Layne Norton and Sohee Lee really know what they're talking about with reverse dieting.
I definitely will, thank you so so much !
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kshama2001 wrote: »arditarose wrote: »Why in the world do you eat so little? I'm smaller than you, much older than you, and I can still lose on 1900 calories.
I went as low as eating 800-900 a day and it led me to binge eating so once I started to control my bingeing and started following flexible diet/IIFYM I was scared of eating more than 1200cals as I already gained some weight back. But I'm sick of eating 1200cals everyday and seeing no results, plus I lift 5x week, I feel kinda ok at my current weight because I started to understand that I'll be able to loose it that's why I thought of doing reverse diet and then maybe if I'm brave enough going on a lean bulk and after that start cutting. I just had doubts whether should I do it, because when I see people going on a reverse diet they're super lean.
If you're reverse dieting just keep doing it. Why are you stopping at 1200?
I'm not stopping even though it scares me to increase my calories. At the end of 2015 I wasn't really tracking anything as I was struggling with my eating disorders and when I decided to get a grip I just jumped back to eating 1200 did that for 4 weeks and then started reverse dieting. I currently increased to 1300 cals and if I don't see any weight gain I'll increase by another 100.
Don't freak out if you see weight gain when you are premenstrual I also go up a pound or so two weeks before when I ovulate.
I weigh daily and log it in a spreadsheet so I can see trends over time.
Thank you ! I usually weigh myself once a week, but I think I'll start doing daily weigh-ins. I noticed that my body is holding water since I increased my calories.
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