Excessive calorie restriction and now damaged metabolism, how do I come back from this?

bloomblythe5
bloomblythe5 Posts: 24 Member
edited December 24 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all I’m a little anxious about turning to the forum for help but I’ve never felt so stuck, lost and frustrated through out my weight loss journey as I am now.

I’d be nice if you read the whole thing but basically the TLDR; been on 1400 calories for a while, haven’t lost weight in over 3 months, am slowly increasing calories while still resistance training in the hopes of fixing my metabolism, I’m worried about gaining fat, I’m incredibly bloated after only a week of increasing calories, how do I make sure I’m losing fat and gaining muscle?

END TLDR

I’ll try to keep this short: I’m a 20 year old female, 5’3 weighing about 175 right now. Summer 2019 I was my heaviest yet peaking at 210 so I’m proud for being able to get to 175 but... I’ve been stuck at 175 for 3 months! I spent most of December and January working out almost everyday (resistance training from home but pretty intense stuff) and only consuming 1400 give or take on some days and that is when I noticed something must be wrong.

I came to the conclusion I damaged my metabolism so after a lot of research, now I’m on a path to recovery. I decided exactly a week ago I would bump my calories every 2 weeks by 100 so I’m only at 1600 right now. I’m also trying to just be kind to my body right now so I’m not really staying in the 1600 if anything it’s more like 1800+ and I’m working out only every other day.

Like most people who restricted their calories excessively I’m terrified of the idea of gaining what I worked so hard to lose... plus I’ve been crazy bloated these last few days which is to be expected I guess but it’s just doing horrible things to my mentality and it’s making me want to quit and go back to starving myself because at least I could somewhat look at myself in the mirror.

I hate the idea of gaining weight before I lose more and I honestly already feel like I have. My thighs look bigger to me plus my abdomen with the bloating. The worst part is I am still overweight, I want to be working towards lowering my weight. Especially since I have a big dance performance in two months and I don’t want to be 10 pounds heavier I want to be more like 10-20 pounds lighter!

I guess I’m just curious if anyone has gone through this and can give me some guidance on how to fix my metabolism the right way and stay on a good path to gaining muscle AND losing fat please help I’m so incredibly frustrated ):

Replies

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    It doesn't sound like you've been doing extreme low calorie long enough to actually damage your metabolism. How accurately are you logging? Are you using a food scale? At your weight, 1600 should be a good deficit. I am same height and mfp tells me to eat 1600 to maintain at 116lb.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,304 Member
    Did you accidentally post this twice?

    Perhaps you could ask mods to amalgamate the 2 threads?
  • bloomblythe5
    bloomblythe5 Posts: 24 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    Did you accidentally post this twice?

    Perhaps you could ask mods to amalgamate the 2 threads?
    Ah I might have I can remove one!
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    If you're typing this from anywhere other than a critical care unit, then you have not damaged your metabolism.

    Take a careful review of your intake and output and ensure your calculations are accurate.
  • KevinWH87
    KevinWH87 Posts: 74 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    If you're typing this from anywhere other than a critical care unit, then you have not damaged your metabolism.

    Take a careful review of your intake and output and ensure your calculations are accurate.

    I concur with CSAR. I've seen many posts on this site explaining how easy it is to miscalculate food portions. Maybe invest in a food scale to help with the accuracy?
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