Am I going to gain weight eating 1500 calories a day?

Hi gretharoll,

It's great that you have acheived your current BMI (24.3kg/m2) in the ideal weight category (BMI 18.5-24.9kg/m2)!

REALITY:

Changing from a very low calorie diet (800-1000kcal) to an average calorie diet (1500kcal) would result in a weight gain of a few kilos (1-3kgs). you won't gain much of the weight if you do the the Four things I will recommend below.

Maintaining an average calorie diet is better than yoyo dieting. Yoyo dieiting is associated with two-times gain of the weight that was initally lost, in the same amount of time it took for that weight loss.

AIM

The quality and quantity of your 1500kcal diet and how you maintain our energy balance play huge roles in helping keep most of your 15kgs off.

To maintain the weight, you will need to keep these four words in mind

Balanced, Varied, Moderatation and Exercise.

1. QUALITY AND QUANTITY

To consume enough nutrients and calories our body needs, we can focus on having variety of foods. That means having all the foods on the food groups, in the recommended servings (moderation). Try googling 'Healthy food pyramids' to know more of these food groups and their recommended servings.

Balanced meals means having a plate full of all these food groups in their portion sizes recommended (google 'MyPlate' for the visuals).

Have 3 main meals a day of 400-500kcal and perhaps one snack a day 100-200kcal.

Starving yourself will do two things- causes your body to crave more unhealthy foods (high kcal, high fat, high sugar etc) and causes you to eat more than you ought in the next meal.

SO I recommended STRONGLY regular three meals daily in moderation, balanced with a variety of food groups.

It may be hard at first to try to include variety of food groups, or having balanced meals. Try preparing a week ahead, google simple recipes, etc.

Start slow. Plan. You'll be just fine. The possibilities are endless

2. EXERCISE

Our bodies are like fixed deposits, we invest (eat) and it just grows (turns to fat etc) as long as we don't cash out (sedentary lifestyle).

The Exercise recommended for weight maintenance is about 150mins a week.

So you can divide your time depending on your schedule to achieve that total in a week

Try to have more than 30mins a day. It takes about 30 mins before the body gets into actually burning fat.

Go for moderate intensity activities (google for ideas, check out Zumba classes, aerobics, etc). Example: Jogging of 10km/h for 30 mins (for an average 70kg) burns about 360kcals.

Exercise can be boring sometimes, so go for something that excites you during the weekends or whenever you have time to spare for those activities (Zumba, aerobics, hiking, etc).

I hope this helps you.

Angela

Clinical Dietitian