BMI 17.8 - Am I unhealthy?

[Dean Pomerleau]

2 hours ago, Marcomat said:

Yeah thank you… sounds very hard for me

Pwonline's approach is sound if a little complicated. I found it simpler to just eat an extra banana on days where my weight had dropped, or hadn't ticked higher in a couple days. A medium banana conveniently has about 100 calories, so it's easy to track. But whatever works for you! 

[mccoy]

It's very easy to add calories without feeling full, for example drinking liquids with liberal amounts of honey. 1 liter = 2 pints Green tea and honey, 5 tablespoons= 100 grams of honey, will go down like nothing and provide at least +300 kcals of hi-polyphenols drink.

In the case of Marcomat, young and running like crazy, there probably will be no blood glucose problems whatsoever (especially if drunk before running).

[Marcomat]

12 hours ago, mccoy said:

It's very easy to add calories without feeling full, for example drinking liquids with liberal amounts of honey. 1 liter = 2 pints Green tea and honey, 5 tablespoons= 100 grams of honey, will go down like nothing and provide at least +300 kcals of hi-polyphenols drink.

In the case of Marcomat, young and running like crazy, there probably will be no blood glucose problems whatsoever (especially if drunk before running).

Thank you, I am actually catching up, my body actually asked for more food than I intended to eat for weight gain and ended up eating 2800kcal yesterday and I was still feeling hungry and unsatisfied. I think my body realised it’s below its set point and will ramp up my appetite until I get back to my set point, like BMI 18-19. Thank you all for your advice, I hope i can continue to do CR once I get back to a healthy BMI

[Marcomat]

16 hours ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

The body is pretty resilient at 25 and you've still got time to increase your bone mass with a healthy diet and weight-bearing exercise (which it sounds like you do plenty of). Don't fret over your bones. Get your weight up and you diet dialed in and you will be fine. 

By weight bearing exercise I get running, but I really hate strength training and gym. I do it in my off season a few months per year only. But do you think that running is enough to keep my bones healthy and will running direct my weight gain to muscolare strength rather than fat? I heard that to gain weight healthily you should strength train because otherwise all you gain is fat. But since I run will I still gain a proportion of muscle and bone mass do you think? If you have experience feel free to share. I am worried about my bone health to be honest because I have seen an increase in my fragility recently, and in overall strength even when running and doing other daily activities . I hope I can maintain a BMI of 19 with intuitive eating and intuitive calorie restriction but it seems I need to count calories now to make sure I am gaining at least 18.5-19 BMI then from there let’s see how to continue. Problem I hate strength training and want to invest my time in running, my sport of passion, and do with my time what I love to do

[Dean Pomerleau]

Hopefully Mccoy can chime in on the effectiveness of running for gaining muscle mass and maintaining bone health. I'd say it is good for the latter but not so good for the former. I try to do some of both running and strength training every day. 

Counting calories is very important now that intuitive eating has gotten you to a point much below the BMI you should be targeting. 2800 calories in a day is just fine. Try to eat in a controlled, non-bingey way though. That's why I found adding bananas to be helpful. They are easy to quantify calorie-wise, reasonably satiating and taste pretty good but not so good that I was tempted to go overboard eating them! 

[Marcomat]

1 hour ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Hopefully Mccoy can chime in on the effectiveness of running for gaining muscle mass and maintaining bone health. I'd say it is good for the latter but not so good for the former. I try to do some of both running and strength training every day. 

Counting calories is very important now that intuitive eating has gotten you to a point much below the BMI you should be targeting. 2800 calories in a day is just fine. Try to eat in a controlled, non-bingey way though. That's why I found adding bananas to be helpful. They are easy to quantify calorie-wise, reasonably satiating and taste pretty good but not so good that I was tempted to go overboard eating them! 

I am now in the gym, i had to make myself go, I lost so much strength I have difficulty even walking to be honest and running with long runs because I don’t have the energy. I think I need to fix a bit of my bone and muscle strength in the gym so I forced myself to go, I don’t like it but it’s a health issue here not really a choice of like or not. I targeted myself to eat 2500kcal but then once I start to eat it’s like I am even hungrier so ended up eating 2800kcal but it wasn’t a binge, it was just eating 🍽 ut of hunger. It’s like my body is trying to catch up. But yes you are right. With intuitive eating I got to BMI 17 and I actually cannot see that I am underweight, so it’s only because of the scale that I know I need to fix the issue. I will eat on a controlled way to avoid both ends of the problem, I don’t want binging, neither undereating. For now I know that numbers never lie so, chronometer and scale, to eat all vitamins and minerals and ensure 2500kcal daily average. I am so sorry intuitive eating has gotten me to this point

[IgorF]

Maybe the idea of setpoint is a bit confusing on how it works.

There is no one and only ideal setpoint for the weight, there are many possible. It is just a balance point that is being riched not by some smart and conscious entity but rather by a process that could be described by math function with some special properties. For the sake of simplicity humans creating models, definitions etc, to be able to share the thoughts, accumulate knowledge etc and a concept of setpoint is an example but this thing should not be taken idealistic.

If the person's energy balance is close to the body's ability to fine-tune then after some time there will be some neurological memory created and it will look like the stable weight because the metabolic "waisting" of calories into heat will speed up or slow down to keep the weight constant. But any shift, either intentional or unintentional, either desired or not, either normal or because of decease will move the so called setpoint and if stabilization will come "the brain will accept" it as a new and will fine-tune the metabolic rate to oscillate close to it.

Getting back to more practical things.

If a person is in a constant nett -500kcal/day then at first there will be a slow down of things possible - feeling cold, slower heartbeat whenever possible, less energy for everything that could be avoided but after few weeks the weight will go done, no way to stay on any desired setpoint. I stopped several kg behind my expected 25yo weight into my ~15-19yo just because I increased walking to 2-4h day and 2200kcal/day was not sufficient to stay stable. When I tuned up to 2500-2900 I finally am almost stable, slowly loosing weight due to rare activity bursts but I am periodically traveling for a few days, switching my diet to 3000-3200 thus refeeding somehow and my weight looks like a saw with long slopes. And there are unhealthy examples of setpoint shift which I will avoid here to not to overcomplicate the topic.

So, the flow is like this

- think about desired target weight

- tune your intake like colleagues described above

- go to it

- after reaching - fine tune to stay at it for several weeks or better months

the brain will accept it as a new target, this will be visible e.g. for heart rate measurements when non-active (NOT wakeup rate, just when calm during the day, in more limited state the rate will be lower but when the balance is reached it will be higher and this will be visible, e.g. 70 instead of 60, while the night one will be 53 instead of 48 - these numbers are individual, just to show the trending)

Maybe there is a way to assess with thyroid hormones values but this is for very experienced professionals, maybe we can use TSH as a proxy sign for a healthy person - if it is in the low normal - you are close to the balance, if it is high - you body "calls for energy".

 

And another thing - gaining weight, we want muscles and bones and not fat)

Just breath out, this way like any other the weight gain is done with fat. There is nothing wrong in having it, it is a safety net for many things, so some fat is beneficial. Just do not get it fast because no one knows if it will not land in undesired places.

Protein synthesis is very energy-demanding process and also there are rate limiting reactions in the way we do it, so no one can get muscles fast, usually just few grams per day. This will happen off-scene and unless a person is a strength athlete, we should not care, just do the excercising to a degree we like or don't like (I personally don't like them, so doing some minimum and I wish I would like it more).

After some months there will be a bit more muscles and bones (having enough nutrients for bones) and a bit less fat, inside the same weight target

And that is it, for a healthy and relatively young person, no idea about 60+, there could be more nuances probably.

Br,

Igor

[Dean Pomerleau]

Sounds like you are on the right track now Marcomat. Don't perseverate over the past. Focus on sticking to your new practices and taking it one day at a time and you'll get back the strength and health you previously enjoyed. 

[Marcomat]

2 minutes ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Sounds like you are on the right track now Marcomat. Don't perseverate over the past. Focus on sticking to your new practices and taking it one day at a time and you'll get back the strength and health you previously enjoyed. 

Yeah, thank you Dean 

[Marcomat]

3 hours ago, IgorF said:

Maybe the idea of setpoint is a bit confusing on how it works.

There is no one and only ideal setpoint for the weight, there are many possible. It is just a balance point that is being riched not by some smart and conscious entity but rather by a process that could be described by math function with some special properties. For the sake of simplicity humans creating models, definitions etc, to be able to share the thoughts, accumulate knowledge etc and a concept of setpoint is an example but this thing should not be taken idealistic.

If the person's energy balance is close to the body's ability to fine-tune then after some time there will be some neurological memory created and it will look like the stable weight because the metabolic "waisting" of calories into heat will speed up or slow down to keep the weight constant. But any shift, either intentional or unintentional, either desired or not, either normal or because of decease will move the so called setpoint and if stabilization will come "the brain will accept" it as a new and will fine-tune the metabolic rate to oscillate close to it.

Getting back to more practical things.

If a person is in a constant nett -500kcal/day then at first there will be a slow down of things possible - feeling cold, slower heartbeat whenever possible, less energy for everything that could be avoided but after few weeks the weight will go done, no way to stay on any desired setpoint. I stopped several kg behind my expected 25yo weight into my ~15-19yo just because I increased walking to 2-4h day and 2200kcal/day was not sufficient to stay stable. When I tuned up to 2500-2900 I finally am almost stable, slowly loosing weight due to rare activity bursts but I am periodically traveling for a few days, switching my diet to 3000-3200 thus refeeding somehow and my weight looks like a saw with long slopes. And there are unhealthy examples of setpoint shift which I will avoid here to not to overcomplicate the topic.

So, the flow is like this

- think about desired target weight

- tune your intake like colleagues described above

- go to it

- after reaching - fine tune to stay at it for several weeks or better months

the brain will accept it as a new target, this will be visible e.g. for heart rate measurements when non-active (NOT wakeup rate, just when calm during the day, in more limited state the rate will be lower but when the balance is reached it will be higher and this will be visible, e.g. 70 instead of 60, while the night one will be 53 instead of 48 - these numbers are individual, just to show the trending)

Maybe there is a way to assess with thyroid hormones values but this is for very experienced professionals, maybe we can use TSH as a proxy sign for a healthy person - if it is in the low normal - you are close to the balance, if it is high - you body "calls for energy".

 

And another thing - gaining weight, we want muscles and bones and not fat)

Just breath out, this way like any other the weight gain is done with fat. There is nothing wrong in having it, it is a safety net for many things, so some fat is beneficial. Just do not get it fast because no one knows if it will not land in undesired places.

Protein synthesis is very energy-demanding process and also there are rate limiting reactions in the way we do it, so no one can get muscles fast, usually just few grams per day. This will happen off-scene and unless a person is a strength athlete, we should not care, just do the excercising to a degree we like or don't like (I personally don't like them, so doing some minimum and I wish I would like it more).

After some months there will be a bit more muscles and bones (having enough nutrients for bones) and a bit less fat, inside the same weight target

And that is it, for a healthy and relatively young person, no idea about 60+, there could be more nuances probably.

Br,

Igor

Yes I am trying to find out my calorie intake needed to maintain my desired weight of 51-52kg. Basically my former healthy weight when I had BMI and 19-19.5, I will write down what I eat and see where I am headed , then adjust my intake accordingly until I maintain my desired weight and keep it constant. It’s hard because I am used to eat intuitively, but if I listen to my body I will end up with a BMI of 17. So I need to eat in a controlled manner to ensure a sufficient intake. As of now I am eating 2500kcal a day, and see where I am headed. I worked my ass off in the gym so I can gain strength and bones , not only fat, I hate the gym , I would rather only run but until I gain to my desired weight I need to do the gym. Anyway, I don’t believe any centenarian counts calories and is so obsessed like we are, so I don’t have to agree with what you say. I believe if your body is at a healthy point , at its set point , like BMI 19-21, then listening to your body and eating using common sense is a much more sustainable way to go. Of course this doesn’t work for underweight or overweight individuals, but I think it works when you are at a healthy weight

[mccoy]

4 hours ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Hopefully Mccoy can chime in on the effectiveness of running for gaining muscle mass and maintaining bone health. I'd say it is good for the latter but not so good for the former. I try to do some of both running and strength training every day. 

The opinions are not always the same. Even endurance sports provide a degree of hypertrophy (for example bikers and some swimmers), whereas the impulsive stress of running and hopping seems to send a greater hypertrophy signal to joints cartilages than to bones. Bones and muscles seem to go cheek to cheek as far as hypertrophy goes, that is resistance exercises govern by far the synthesis of muscle and bone tissue (they make up a connected system).

In the case of Marcomat, I'm afraid that the repair in muscle (and bone) tissue due to lengthy running leaves no material (nitrogen, essential AAs) to the upper body parts, or even the body may draw from the upper body to supply the lower body in case of necessity.

Bottom line, I would keep running but go to the gym once or twice a week, engaging in multiple joints exercises like bench press, rowing machine, pull-up machine, and add in a single lower body exercise like squat or leg press.Not very much is needed to achieve 75% of the potential results. But MArcomat needs to eat enough calories and enough protein, rich in EAAS. Marcomat, I believe that most of your protein may go to replace the damaged muscles tissue in the lower body, due to intensive exercise.

 

[mccoy]

Just now, Marcomat said:

I hate the gym , I would rather only run but until I gain to my desired weight I need to do the gym.

Again, you don't need to exercise long with weights, you only need to do the right exercises in the right way. 30-60 minutes per week may be enough if optimized, especially in your case. But remember to provide enough protein, of good quality (I'm not saying to exceed like the bodybuilders do but you'll have to start high, then see what happens and eventually decrease down to the optimal amount, - easier said than done).

[Marcomat]

42 minutes ago, mccoy said:

Again, you don't need to exercise long with weights, you only need to do the right exercises in the right way. 30-60 minutes per week may be enough if optimized, especially in your case. But remember to provide enough protein, of good quality (I'm not saying to exceed like the bodybuilders do but you'll have to start high, then see what happens and eventually decrease down to the optimal amount, - easier said than done).

Yeah, easier said than done… but I am working on it, I am eating 2500kcal daily see what happens if I gain weight and then adjust my intake to my desired weight once I get there, and I started again the gym, hated every moment but spent an entire session today to strengthen hips and glutea. 40kg. Squats, weights as heavy as me almost, then other exercises and concluding with the machines. It was a long time I didn’t do weights I felt I was gonna break myself almost but I wanna see results so I am not gonna waste my time with light weights. I totally hate gym culture and would rather run, and I plan to stop completely my membership when I get to my desired weight. Protein wise I am extremely restrictive with this macronutrient because I don’t wanna activate mTOR, and usually choose vegetable sources like whole grains and beans. I eat now 250grams of Greek yoghurt in the morning, 100g of lean fish at lunch and 80g of beans at dinner. The rest of calories comes from carbohydrates and healthy fats. Thank you again all for the support , I guess I am not alone. I got carried away with a too severe calorie restriction, while running 5 times a week long distances, eating as low as 1600-1700 on some days it was too much. I remember my intake rarely exceeded 2200kcal, with average about 1800-2200. Now I should gain with 2500

[mccoy]

20 hours ago, Marcomat said:

so I am not gonna waste my time with light weights.

Light or moderate weights have the advantage that they can stimulate hypertrophy while minimizing injuries. Also, when starting out it's better to be progressive, to avoid tendons and joints inflammation

20 hours ago, Marcomat said:

I totally hate gym culture and would rather run, and I plan to stop completely my membership when I get to my desired weight.

But resistance exercise is an essential part of a sound pro-longevity strategy. You don't need to go to the gym after you gain weight, I advise though that you keep doing free-body exercises for the upper body, like pushups, pullups and dips, they are very effective.

[Marcomat]

4 hours ago, mccoy said:

Light or moderate weights have the advantage that they can stimulate hypertrophy while minimizing injuries. Also, when starting out it's better to be progressive, to avoid tendons and joints inflammation

But resistance exercise is an essential part of a sound pro-longevity strategy. You don't need to go to the gym after you gain weight, I advise though that you keep doing free-body exercises for the upper body, like pushups, pullups and dips, they are very effective.

I completely agree with you, no doubt that strength training is especially good for thin people like me, I don’t wanna become old and frail, and weak. Ageing and getting older is literally my nightmare which is also part of the reason I got into calorie restriction in the first place. I am now eating 2200-2500kcal daily, if I don’t gain weight I will need to adjust with trail and error until I maintain a healthy, lean BMI of 19-19.5. The problem is I really hate the gym, it’s something I need to force it through, there is nothing I can do to make myself like it. I would rather just run and do aerobic sports, if I don’t work myself to like the weights I don’t know how I can sustain my health and strength as I will age which is worrying considering my weight

[Marcomat]

On 2/4/2023 at 11:50 AM, Dean Pomerleau said:

Sounds like you are on the right track now Marcomat. Don't perseverate over the past. Focus on sticking to your new practices and taking it one day at a time and you'll get back the strength and health you previously enjoyed. 

Just as an update I have gained during this week about to 50.3 kg. , my body responded quickly I know it’s mostly water weight and salt but some of it is also body mass I guess. I have been thinking to continue eating 2200kcal. On rest days, and increasing energy intake to 2500kcal on training days where I run long distances. Considering my current BMI of 18.7, and my goal weight of BMI 19-19.5, I think I can take it slowly, I can see my body has maintained my weight of 50.3kg./BMI 18.7, over the last few days with no further weight gain , but I think to ensure the most optimal distribution of weight I want to take it slowly so instead of eating 2500kcal every day, I prefer to eat 2200kcal. On days of no exercise and then I will eat 2500kcal only on training days. I will see how my body responds during the month and if of course I don’t gain to BMI 19 then additional changes might be needed. What do you think? I did make changes, before I ate 1700-2200maximum on training days, now my range is 2200-2500kcal. I am not underweight anymore so I can afford to take it slowly 

[Dean Pomerleau]

Marcomat, It is good to hear that you are moving in the right direction.

It may be ok to do what you suggest and go more slowly, as long as you continue to steadily gain weight. But be VERY careful with seemingly innocuous and reasonable adjustments like this. It is very easy to slip into old habits of not eating enough to gain weight when you start to down the road of "taking it slowly."

From what I can tell, pwonline may have fallen into this trap several times in the last few months - having good intentions and a solid plan to gain weight but then not following through on it. Perhaps he can chime in with his experience in this regard. 

--Dean 

[Marcomat]

1 hour ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Marcomat, It is good to hear that you are moving in the right direction.

It may be ok to do what you suggest and go more slowly, as long as you continue to steadily gain weight. But be VERY careful with seemingly innocuous and reasonable adjustments like this. It is very easy to slip into old habits of not eating enough to gain weight when you start to down the road of "taking it slowly."

From what I can tell, pwonline may have fallen into this trap several times in the last few months - having good intentions and a solid plan to gain weight but then not following through on it. Perhaps he can chime in with his experience in this regard. 

--Dean 

Thank you for your reply. I can also consider my body’s hunger and fullness signals, if today I had planned to eat 2200kcal I can establish that as a range intake then if I am more hungry I will increase the calories to 2400-2500kcal:ish, now weight has stabilised at 50.3 and not increasing further but if I continue to eat 2500kcal when I train, over the months it will increase I guess. For now do you suggest I keep my intake at 2500kcal also when I don’t train? I am so afraid of my weight gain redistribution and also I am afraid to stimulate mTOR, and damage my metabolism so I am keeping protein to the absolute minimum. Maybe you are right, I just find it too uncomfortable and slip into old habits is so much easier. If my hunger allows, should I keep my intake constant at 2400-2500kcal a day do you think? Then if I am not hungry to eat 2500kcal I can make myself eat the 2200kcal when I don’t train I was thinking… I always end up borderline underweight I think I might be dealing too with some eating issues like the other guy here 

[Dean Pomerleau]

Personally I find it much easier to eat the same amount every day and stick to that. I actually eat the exact same food in the same quantities every day, not just the same amount of calories. But that is up to you.

As I said previously, you shouldn't rely on your body's hunger and satiety signals. Don't worry about weight gain distribution or stimulating mTOR. And DON'T restrict protein,you want to gain muscle and as mccoy said, that requires protein. 

As long as you are gaining a small amount of weight steadily (0.5 to 1.0 lbs per week) on 2500kcal per day and you are exercising regularly (running and strength training) you don't have to worry about weight gain distribution or excess mTOR activation. Modulate your calories based on weight gain (or loss) not based on your hunger level or amount of exercise. 

[IgorF]

I would say if a person is not ready to invest a lot of time to understand mTOR topic to a reasonable degree then this should be definitely forgotten. I personally think there are not many people who both understand it good and write "wellness" books, thus it is completely safe to forget what is written in the books if they are not scientific books for scientists, it is too early to generalize the topic for being used as a simple schema for non-professionals.

To understand the issue with muscles and protein calculations it is worse to know some things "under the hood" but simplified.

- muscle tissue is rebuilt continuously, when excercising even more, because it breaks more on usage

- the reactions that are creating the building blocks for the tissues are energy eager

- there is cell's perception of energy levels available and based on its signaling brain also has its own perception of available energy and this will "orchestrate" the way body "spends a budget" of energy and protein

- if energy and protein is at survival minimum there will be serious problems with gaining the muscle mass, this is long time well known, long before modern science was established and the reason - the reactions will not even be started or intermediate molecules will go other fate

- also many amino acids has their own metabolic role and could also be burned for energy, thus decreasing effectively their availability to build proteins

- the maximum possible muscle mass gain is just few tens of grams per day (and it is not easy to reach this level, there are practical skills people developed for decades to do it) and the daily rebuilt mass is 10times of that, just to feel the depth of mechanics

So, just go with advices - do have enough protein and energy, prepare for many weeks of doing the things and just don't care and don't expect miracles, the body will grew muscles if there will be some excess of energy and building materials but this will be slow unless you will try to do it bodybuilder's way, but that is definitely for those who like this.

A simple analogy, this is like water and ice, there is delta energy required to change the aggregate state from ice at 0 degree to water at the same 0 degree. So either CR with negative or zeroed delta energy or growth. I know it is too simplified but it is fundamental in our universe. With complex things like our bodies in addition there is a rate limiting on many levels, so we have to have positive delta for energy and protein(the brain MUST recognize the presence of this delta to orchestrate the growth) but it is an art to find it high enough to maximize the goals and not higher. Many people just don't care about the second part of this equation and prefer abundance, but without the first one there will not be result.

One more thing, regarding weight observation.

The brain is reacting on energy level changes and it takes days or weeks to stabilize it, I would say it is like a ping pong with "hysteresis" when the ball is on an elastic link and is moving a bit not the way mechanics would describe. So it is better to stick with any strategy for 2 weeks before deciding about increase/decrease of something, so - prepare for months of tuning and this is definitely not the last such tuning and it is completely ok, no one is doing it faster and hits the optimal regimen as a marksman)

Br,

Igor

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by IgorF

[Marcomat]

3 hours ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Personally I find it much easier to eat the same amount every day and stick to that. I actually eat the exact same food in the same quantities every day, not just the same amount of calories. But that is up to you.

As I said previously, you shouldn't rely on your body's hunger and satiety signals. Don't worry about weight gain distribution or stimulating mTOR. And DON'T restrict protein,you want to gain muscle and as mccoy said, that requires protein. 

As long as you are gaining a small amount of weight steadily (0.5 to 1.0 lbs per week) on 2500kcal per day and you are exercising regularly (running and strength training) you don't have to worry about weight gain distribution or excess mTOR activation. Modulate your calories based on weight gain (or loss) not based on your hunger level or amount of exercise. 

Yes I feel now counting calories is a way to get to know on average what portion sizes I should be eating to maintain a healthy weight with a BMI 19, then I c an just get accustomed to eat the right portion sizes everyday so I just measure what food to prepare. I don’t eat the same thing every day, but I can calculate to match 2500kcal. I find it difficult to eat so schematically, it doesn’t make sense that on a day where I sit in the couch, I eat the same amount of calories when I run a marathon let’s say, that’s why I think using our own hunger and fullness signals is a more sustainable approach during the long term. For now, since I ended up underweight by listening to my body, I will stick with a more schematic approach, but I hope for the future, I can switch back to intuitive eating if I will be able to maintain my desired weight of 51-52… 

[Dean Pomerleau]

Sounds good. Now stick to your plan for a couple weeks and report back to is on how it is going. Good luck! 

[Marcomat]

4 minutes ago, Dean Pomerleau said:

Sounds good. Now stick to your plan for a couple weeks and report back to is on how it is going. Good luck! 

Thank you! I really am not used to feel so full, I find on some days 2500kcal is too much, its like I am stuffed. When I train I can easily eat it but on rest days I find it a struggle. Let’s see how it goes with the scale, with some trial and error I find then the right amount but it will take weeks to find out. Eating same amount of foods is easier like same amount of grains, veggies and proteins like you said

[Marcomat]

On 2/6/2023 at 1:52 PM, Dean Pomerleau said:

Sounds good. Now stick to your plan for a couple weeks and report back to is on how it is going. Good luck! 

Hi, I thought to update you about my situation… it’s been a couple of weeks I managed to  eat between 2200-2500kcal daily, that’s a lot more compared to my previous intake, which ranged from 1700-2000/2200max but very rarely over 2200. I gained from about 49.4kg. To a 50.1kg. Now my BMI is just 18,5, however weight gain has stopped and weight has stabilized. Do you know what should I do? Is BMI 18,5 ok? I run and walk such long distances and find it difficult to eat more than I do, in some days I need to intermittently decrease my calories from 2500->2200kcal to feel better. I am considering booking a time with a nutritionist, because I feel “just eating more” isn’t so easy for me. My goal was to reach a BMI of 19 but now weight has stabilized, and won’t increase more than 50kg. Maybe I should wait months and see how it goes? I mean, 2500kcal even for a runner and an active person, even if it’s not a lot I feel it’s more than enough to support a good state of health, now I am trying to go for 2500kcal every day 

[Dean Pomerleau]

33 minutes ago, Marcomat said:

it’s been a couple of weeks.. 

Boy time flies. It seems like it was only 5 days since we last spoke. 🙂

33 minutes ago, Marcomat said:

Do you know what should I do?

if your weight doesn't start creeping up again in a day or two, stick to plan and eat more calories.  Nobody said it would be easy for you. But eating 2500+ kcal in a day isn't that challenging for someone with a healthy relationship to food.

Maybe a nutrutionist could help you figure what foods you could eat more of. But I still think that your issues are more psychological than nutritional.