I've been dieting for probably five years at this point and the weight loss stopped after three. I'm 5' 5" and my starting weight was 290 pounds. I dropped right down to 1200 calories a day. Yes, in retrospect, I know that was way too big of a deficit for someone that size, but I was too scared of hitting 300 pounds when I already had a fatty liver and hypertension.
Lost 70 pounds in three years with no exercise and then I gained back 20 of them eating like a moron for three weeks and I have not been able to get those 20 pounds back off, even after dipping down to 800-900 calories a day. I know that sounds like an unhealthy deficit, but my thought process was that I had to still be overeating, so I figured if I went down to 800-900 calories a day, it would compensate for the extra calories that I was somehow getting and would realistically put me closer to 1200 calories a day. And if I really was only eating 900 calories a day, then whoohoo! More weight loss!
But now all I'm doing is gaining and losing the same five pounds regardless of calorie intake and that's where I've been for a long time. I'm currently in my second week of lazy dieting, I guess? I exercise portion control and log my calories and weigh things out in grams, but I also don't fret over my calorie intake if I go over 1200. I've been averaging 1300-1500 calories a day just eating what I want and when I'm hungry and not going overboard and it's been nice not having to fuss as much over my diet. Thankfully my weight still seems to be flip-flopping in the same five-pound range in spite of me not restricting calories.
So I'm looking into reverse dieting to try and increase my metabolism so I can get the weight loss started up again (if that's how it works, that is). My current weight (as of yesterday) is 238 pounds. Short term goal is below 200, long term goal is 170. I know reverse dieting isn't a matter of eating like a pig, but I feel like maybe the way in which I currently eat might be all right for now? 1300-1600 calories a day, that is. BMR at my current weight is 1770 calories a day, but I take numbers like BMI and TDEE with a grain of salt.
In trying to learn more about reverse dieting, more than one source I referenced suggested that reverse dieting should be done for the same amount of time as I ate at a deficit. Does this mean I have to eat more and more for five years??
I'm seriously scared of undoing my progress. Especially because I don't want to have to buy new clothes to accommodate gained weight. Because if I can be completely honest, eating more to lose weight sounds like nonsense to me. But I feel like my only other option is to just keep eating less and less until my calorie intake is zero and that's obviously not very sustainable.
Is reverse dieting something that actually works? Or is it a bunch of fatlogic-y crap? And how long do you have to do it before you can go back to restricting and for weight loss to start again?
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