Stay where I am or increase calories??

Jeebers, 40kgs?? Increase your calories now, and keep them there..

Ouch.

My friend with such a dire need to increase your weight.... is there a reason you are so active?

I mean, you're on serious potential problems because of low weight territory and the simple and honest truth is that you should increase your calories now and during your trip and after.

And to be very honest you should be restricting your activity until you have regained sufficient weight to probably at least reach a BMI of 20 from the approximately 16.2 you're at.

Yes, yes, BMI is not perfect, but, honesty compels to say that if you had pneumonia you would be cancelling your ski trip and your current activities till you healed.

Your current weight is as dangerous as pneumonia would be for an otherwise healthy individual.

Nothing but best wishes but...

There are a few things to consider here.

You can check sites such as smartbmi.com (or any other BMI site) to evaluate your BMI. These figures are valid for adults and indicate general levels where weight becomes a concern. They are not specific to one person and are not the ranges used for growing teens where percentiles are used instead. They become "valid" at 18 and younger people are sometimes more ok on the lower end than older people if the younger people are still growing up.

Dance/balarina culture is notorious for promoting thin to a degree that outside that culture is viewed closer to an eating disorder than not. This is born out by the multitudes of people who fight and recover (or fail to) from eating disorders that start in their teens and are often associated with gymnastics, dance, modeling, acting and similar excessively body image conscious pursuits.

While you're at it, Google female athlete triad which has to do with energy availability. Some people even experience delayed growth spurts once they have the energy their body needs. Unsure as to physiology and when growth plates close and all that. I'm not in the field nor do I know enough about it other than know, anecdotally, that it can happen.

So what next becomes the next question.

It is very good news that nobody has expressed any concerns about your weight to date. It could be that all of us without the ability to see you, who are just punching numbers in a calculator and looking at averages, have no real cause for concern.

Usually it would be a doctor or health professional who would be consulted about the General State of one's health. And the state of one's health does include their weight.

And weighing oneself wearing ski boots and winter coats might give an inattentive doctor information that may not help them come to the right decision!!! (I am referencing another thread where people often go to the pharmacy to weigh themselves wearing different clothes and shoes and having eaten and drunk different amounts of liquid).

Ok. Back to you.

I am not as concerned with refeeding syndrome as that seems to mostly affect people who have been eating even less than you. Doesn't mean you shouldn't visit your doctor once in a while and have the occasional check up. But I don't know if I would personally panic if you really have been eating 1600+ calories.

So you're asking about increasing your calories and whether you should do it in one fell scoop or not.

But, here is the thing.

Objectively, you are not only not overweight, you are not even normal weight.

So I can understand why a person who is at the top end of normal weight and getting in danger of starting to have health problems, I can understand why at the age of 18 that person would find themselves here in order to get a hold of their eating habits.

But why would a person who does not have a "too much weight" problem be worried about or even know how much food they're eating?

The correct answer, absent any issues, as to how much food you should eat is as much as you want to!

In other word you should be free feeding and letting your body regulate itself unless you have discovered that either physiologically or psychologically you're one of the many people where free feeding without restriction and brain engagement does not work well.

So to your question the correct answer is you should be eating as much as you feel like eating without restriction and you should be gaining weight till you're reliably at a BMI 20.x weight.

Why 20 when 18.5 is already in the normal range? Because many post ED refeeding protocols have a target weight range of at least BMI 20 both for the reversal of brain chemistry changes that can take place during restriction and to have a small hedge against regression. Some go as far as bmi 22.

Now. I don't know how you know you're eating 1600, or why you were worried about eating more since you were underweight, or why you're managing your weight etc in the first place.

If there is an issue there, sorting it out while you're younger and before you permanently damage your health will result in a much better outcome for you over the majority of your life. Which I sure hope is in front of you!!! Don't spend the next 30 years fighting what you might be able to address today!

Eating more and / or more calorically dense items will make you gain weight.

Minimums for women, in my view, would be 0.35 if not 0.4g of healthy fats per lb at target weight, 0.8g to 1g of protein per lb at target weight, 26g fiber, the rest a mix of carbs, protein, and healthy fats to bring the calories up to your activity level. Per kg these would be x 2.2

I used scooby's accurate calorie calculator. Your level is closer to the most active level than to the next lower one.

Or sailrabbit. I eye balled you at an activity factor of about 1.65 based on your description and used a target weight at bmi 20 and maintenance level of calories. I personally would be surprised if your activity factor isn't actually higher.

Just as an aside MFP active is 1.6, very active 1.8 and I average about 1.9 on the basis of nothing more than walking my pestering dog while taking on the phone (at an average of approximately 19k steps a day)

After an initial bump up because of extra food in your system 2350ish would be less of a fast weight gain than most recovery protocols i have heard about. Protocols bump people up fast to 2500 and go up to 3000 while simultaneously restricting *all* activity.

Again if you haven't spoken to a doctor and especially if there is more going on than what you have officially shared I would really urge you to speak to one!

Otherwise.... why just not go out there and enjoy all da foodz...without even worrying about counting them?!?