low calorie past catches up
 

I have a friend who's weight would be at the low end of normal range. She got that way by eating an extremely low calorie/low fat diet for years.

She recently discovered information about low carbing and was interested because she was concerned about glycemic load etc. She has been eating low carb for a couple of weeks (and has added some meat, dairy etc) and is gaining weight visibly.

I seem to remember somewhere a post about the problems people who have eaten extremely low calories can have long term. Can anyone direct me to some helpful advice for her?

TIA :)

Well from the email I am a bit confused
 

About what your friend is actually doing to low carb.
But I can tell you wiht my plan, Dr Schwarzbein talks about how some of us with damaged systems, especially adrenal glands do gain weight after starting to eat what she refers to as a balanced diet.
Your body uses protien and fats to repair and maintain many of your body systems. It can't make some of those protiens and fats. That is why they are called "essential". On the other hand there are no essential carbs.
As I understand this, after years of depriving the body of the very tools it needs to rebuild and heal, you do in fact gain body weight.
I did this very thing. It can be discouraging to know that your doing what you should be but you gain. On the other hand I just now think of it as healing.
I hope that this helps.
Poofie!

Thanks, Poofie,

I suspect my friend has been driving her calories lower and lower over the years to maintain her weight. I feel her body would be happier with a little more weight on although she is not thin just slim.

I guess what she would like to know is whether her former low calorie diet has mucked her metabolism around so much that she is likely to balloon if she starts to eat normally...and also whether this will ever change and allow her to eat healthily and maintain a healthy weight in the future.

I think someone posted with this problem. I'd like to find that post again.

Sharon, try a search for "metabolism" by Razzel, and check out her Journal, she lived on very, very few calories for a long time and it did come back to haunt her. I did something similar for years and I did regain my weight; it took time for things to heal but eventually LC did work for me.

I would suggest that when you've been eating very low calories for a prolonged time increasing them should be done slowly, as in a few hundred more a week. PoofieD is correct in the statement that once a body is getting the protein and fat that it was denied it will begin repairing and buidling tissue, enzymes and hormones.

Best of luck in your searching.
Nat

Weight gain
 

As Dr S puts it is not permanent and no metabolism is beyond repair.
It just takes time..
As I said. I had to think of it as healing..I damaged myself quite a bit, and now I just have to be patient and keep doing the right things.
You get healthy, then your body reaches for a normal weight.
We have been used to thinking it was opposite.

Yea i agree, when a person reduce her calories metalbolism rate will reduce as well and over the time the body is so used in only running that amount of matalbolism that if any extra food taken in you will gain wt.

I experience that. As there was a period of time i was so skinny ppl evn say i look like an aneroxic evn thou i am not as i so still eat my regular meals then but taken out alot of food that is rich in fat and calories. And it resulted in gastritis and my appetite shrunk and make me evn look thinner (ttz waht my frens said) so when my body began to heal i took in more food and i did gain wt. which my frens said i looked beta.

So maybe your fren's body is adjusting the metabolism so as to burn the food. It will stabalise within a vouple of weeks.

GOOD LUCK

Thanks Nat, Poofie & Cherie, :wave:

I'll follow Razzel's journal up.

I know that my friend will be pleased to hear that healing is possible. I hope you don't mind that I pass on your advice about increasing calories slowly.

Thanks so much for replying. It will be a bit help. :)

That was meant to be BIG help.

Oops :blush:

I also went on a starvation diet
 

about 15 years ago. I went from 212 to 135 in less than a year. It was great until I started eating again!

I think it makes your body extremely efficient--since it's essentially in starvation mode, it stores as much as it can because it doesn't know when you're going to feed it again.
I gained all the weight back I'd lost, plus lots more.

From what I've read, one way to heal it is to exercise. The other, most important way, is to quit starving and start eating right. Your friend is on the right track--she'll just have to be patient. :thup:

Hi Macleay! :wave:

Thanks for your comments. I'll pass all that on to my friend.

:)