Increasingly calorie intake gradually or suddenly?

The past three weeks I've been eating around 600-700 calories a day along with walking an hour every day. I haven't been eating so little intentionally but it was initially through stress, and once the stress subsided I found that, because I'd been eating so little for a few days, my appetite had shrunk so I have been getting full on really small meals.

Today is the first day that I've eaten more than this, roughly 1500 cals, as I ate out. I already have a lot more energy and am beginning to feel normal again. I was becoming very tired eating so little but yet could only manage 4-5 hours sleep a night.

I'd like to know the best way to increase my calorie intake without putting weight on. I realise that I'd need to exercise and take small steps towards my recommended intake which is 1500 cals per day.

What kinds of things should I be looking to eat? And how gradually should I build it up - how many more calories per day/week should I add to my diet? Am I likely to put on a considerable amount of weight if I start eating 1500 cals as of tomorrow but also work out every other day (burning roughly 400-500 cals)?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you!

Reply 1

username1978575

1500kcal is pretty low. I'm a female bikini fitness athlete and I'm only eating 1500kcal per day at the moment as I'm trying to cut down pretty quickly. If you're burning 500kcal every other day you should be eating at maintenance which would probably be around 1750kcal per day (assuming you're a girl)! Otherwise your metabolism will slow down and you could end up putting on weight even eating low calories. If you want to work out the calories you should be eating, try the IIFYM calculator on their website and use the suggested percentages.

Reply 2

999tigger

Fond put what your maintenance calories are (have a feeling this has been worked out for you before) then measure way and record your calorie intake to that level or less. You wont gain weight.

Reply 3

Greg Jackson

Just jump up to your maintenance level, no need to slowly ramp it up

Reply 4

peanutbuttercup

Original post by 999tigger

Fond put what your maintenance calories are (have a feeling this has been worked out for you before) then measure way and record your calorie intake to that level or less. You wont gain weight.

Original post by Greg Jackson

Just jump up to your maintenance level, no need to slowly ramp it up

But say if my body has gone in to starvation mode would I not put on more weight if I just start eating normally all of a sudden?

Reply 5

Greg Jackson

Original post by peanutbuttercup

But say if my body has gone in to starvation mode would I not put on more weight if I just start eating normally all of a sudden?

No, if you don't go above your maintenance calories you will not put on fat, starvation mode is a myth, at least in the way you're thinking of it.

Reply 6

NihilisticMystics

Original post by Greg Jackson

No, if you don't go above your maintenance calories you will not put on fat, starvation mode is a myth, at least in the way you're thinking of it.

Could you elaborate/post links please? I've been told about starvation mode so much I've just assumed it was received wisdom (also looking for a bit of reassurance as I've been very silly with diets in the past).

Reply 7

doodle_333

Original post by NihilisticMystics

my experience is that you may gain a few lbs pretty quickly if you start eating more but this isn't usually due to actually gaining fat but rather it's a result of having food in your belly, glycogen stores in your muscles and being less dehydrated - all of which do weigh something

if you've only been uneating a short period of time (weeks) then carry on eating 1500 cals while increasing steadily (100cals every 2-3 days) to 2000... if it's been going on several months then it might be better to increase steadily for a few weeks

but really, if you do find you gain weight then you just need to not do this again as eating 700calories a day is not sustainable and so at some point you will have to increase your calories, if you need to lose weight then you should be eating a higher amount and losing weight slowly and steadily