Reverse diet for metabolic adaptation, anybody tried this, seems risky! But I cannot reduce my calories

[Menopot]

So, bit of history. I eat so healthily but also count calories. No flour, no sugar, so little alcohol. Lots of salads (they're actually hard to count) but apart from salads from the salad bar at the supermarket I have been weighing, reading labels, logging tracking et cetera. I am as certain as I can be that I have not lost a gram in the last month on 1200

I feel healthy though, my skin is clear, I have energy, but I am almost obese. So it's not just vanity, I want to lose weight and I feel like I need a better strategy than reducing calories again. Every time I've dieted before it has worked. This is the first time that I have been just stuck at the same weight for 4 weeks.

I'm going to try and edge my calories up by 20 cals per day each week. I'll check to see that there's no weight gain. I'll slow it down if there's weight gain.

My plan this year was to lose weight but there's been a curve ball, it's going to have to be to fix my metabolism instead. I'm already walking to work and home from work, drinking loads of water, peppermint tea, fibre, a yakult every second day.

I'd love to hear from anybody who's thinking of trying this or who has tried it! and succeeded.

End goal, when I've pushed my calories up to 1350 (if that's possible?) then I will fast one day in 4 and see if that works for weight loss.

It will be 2024 before I can buy new clothes.

Pray for me!

I used the calorie counting app Nutracheck, but there are lots of other good ones. It works out your maintenance calories for you and allows you to choose your fast days.
It's important that you eat all your maintenance calories on normal days (don't be scared, it'll work, you'll see!) because there needs to be a big difference between normal days and fast days. If you're overweight now, I expect your calorie allowance for normal days will be more than 1700 which can seem scarily too much at first but you need to get your metabolism working fast again so it'll burn fat on your fast days. Maybe don't weigh yourself for a couple of weeks while your body gets into the swing of things. Also, don't start the diet on a fast day, have a couple of nice days eating normally!

I was like you, I was on 1400 calories, reduced it to 1200 when weight loss slowed, but stopped losing altogether. I started the 5:2 diet and it kick-started weight loss again and it didn't stop until I wanted it to.

The best thing is, you can have cake again. Enjoy!

i haven't had a slice of cake since about November. I eat so healthily now............

According to calorie calculator my maintenance calories are 1485 so I will not panick if I go 50-100 over that the day before or after a fast, but being short, fat and old I have to be realistic too.

I feel like HOW could I lose weight if I ate too much more than that on my normal days, but for the sake of this experiment I'll start with 1500 on normal days I think.

But I'm not going to start yet. I'm pushing my calories up very gradually atm. Normally if I get to the end of the day and I'm under 1200, I think oh congratulations me, but atm I'm having a square of super cocoa dark chocolate and a walnut. Pitiful I know. But the dark choc is not so nice that you can't stop at one square. Next week if I haven't gained weight I'll add in another walnut. This is a modern day tragedy I know. But I'll triumph, victorious, slim, healthy.............

I'm going to do fasting instead of dieting from now on though. It's 5:2 but there's no law that says you can't do 6:2 just to reassure the metabolism that for every fast day there are THREE normal days so we got you hun

One more question if you don't mind! Even though I'm not starting the fast yet, I'm in the r&r phase still, if I'm only 5'1'' have a desk job (but walk to work) aged 52 , does the 800 on fast days stay as high as 800?
I'm going to try and get back in to pilates again.

800 is fine on fast days.
the fast 800 online “diet” is great for learning well rounded 800 cal meal days (3 meals) most days are simply under 900.
cronometer is a calorie counting app, much much better than mfp. cronometer is particularly accurate.
menopause has a big effect on metabolism I follow Dr Mary Claire Haver (Galveston Diet) for hormonal info.
improving your muscle mass will really be helpful.

Just updating this thread to say my reverse dieting was successful imo. I upped cals from meagre 1200 to just under1400 most days, and I did not put on weight. All very healthy food though. For ages, I didn't lose any weight either though, not a gram for about 8 long weeks, then I lost 2lbs suddenly! In April I walked off a pound, in May I did the same plus a few monk's fasts and lost another 1-2 from the few 36 hour fasts and walking so imo the reverse dieting has worked. Thank God, couldn't have coped with 1200 a day forever. The day after a fast you can eat 1600 but you ''walk off'' the extra 200.

So, felt quite depressed about my weight in Jan, like I'd lost control, but now it seems doable. BMI of 26.7 now so getting there.