Tennisgal33
New member
Honestly, what you are describing dating back to your weight gain in 2010 is a lot like so many women who overtrain/ undereat for a contest and then completely lose it and gain weight back and then go up and down trying to get it off with little to no success.
1700 is the minimum I'd have you eating if I was working with you BUT...I think you have to build up to that. When you said you were eating 1600-1800 religiously in January, how long? It will take your body at least 2-3 weeks to adjust and I would suggest that you haven't been consistent for the time it's going to take you to fix your problem and get your body going again. Even the going "off" the diet and eating at maintenance for a few days will mess you up because you've been under eating for so long. And if it's dirty calories, it'll just store itself as fat.
My best advice to you is to hit 1500 min for a period of at least 3-4 weeks. Those binge periods come because you aren't getting enough overall nourishment. If you can hit 1500 for a couple of weeks, I'd start up'ing your cals by even 100 a week and see what happens. I don't think any woman should be taking in under 80 gs carbs, unless you're hitting the stage. However, again...just my opinions.
I know eating more goes against anything and everything you believe but once you get your body working for you instead of against you, you'll be surprised what the proper nutrition will do. I have been where you are now and it's very challenging to fix things and takes time. It's hard to have patience when you just want results. I've said this before on here but my first prep I started at 2350 cals/ day and ate till I was heaving. I never got below 1400 cals and that was towards the end of the prep. I lost almost 50 lbs in 23 weeks. We seriously underestimate how much we can eat and still see results.
You can also check out Layne Norton[/url] and watch his latest blog on metabolic damage. Layne is one of my mentors and very well versed in this stuff.
PS most nutrition folks will say it's the overall intake in a 24 hour period vs the week that you should focus on.
Thanks Caligirl! I really appreciate this. Everything you say makes total sense. Pre-2010 I absolutely went through a period of overtrain under eat. Absolutely! So I'm probably still playing catch up.
Two questions: when you say add 100 calories a week slowly (after staying at 1500 cals for a few weeks) do you mean daily, or 100 cals in total for the week?
If my day looks like this: up at 11:00am Bed by 2am, I have often stopped eating by 9pm thinking night eating was bad. If I eat up to 11pm to meet calories is this OK? Or should I get them in earlier and still stop eating by 9/10? Just curious. (This work schedule changes in about 6 weeks back to a 7am-12am work day)
Not sure if there is a 'prettier' macro breakdown through the day you'd suggest - but I don't want you to spoon feed me the answers either. No pun intended. Thanks again
PS - have read Layne Norton which is why I was worried I've done perm. damage to my metabolism/thyroid and can't turn back...will re-read and also just as a back up have thyroid blood work results coming back next week.