DaveFoster
Member
I definitely make an effort to eat as much as I can as often as my schedule allows.tara said:DaveFoster said:tara said:Sometimes people feel good for a while running on an energy deficit. I would caution against running this kind of deficit for long, especially at an age where your body would ideally still be growing and maturing. There are a number of potential negative consequences from chronic undereating.
No worries, I'm definitely not in a deficit at this point. I'm slowly getting fatter and more muscular.
I make a distinction between an energy deficit with respect to what it would take to grow and run a healthy metabolism, and a deficit with respect to what may currently be suboptimal. I am partly informed by information on youreatopia, which points out that the average non-dieting adult man eats about 3000 cals, and under 25yrs, while still growing and maturing, somethnig like 3500 may be required (or much more at times for people who are recovering from severe undereating, but I'm not assuming this is you). Less than 2500 cals is probably not enough for most young men to grow to full maturity and to run a healthy metabolism. If you gain fat on less than 2500 cals, that seems likely to me to be either or both of: your body actually needs a bit more fat and it's just catching up and/or your base metabolism is low. So from my PoV, you may be eating enough to maintain your current weight/fat mass, but you are likely also trying to run on an energy deficit of about 1000 cals wrt what your body would need to grow and be optimally healthy in the long run.
There are different opinions on this in this forum. Some people recommend eating no more than your current metabolism can use without gaining fat, and employing various strategies to raise metabolism (eg avoiding PUFA, attending to micronutrients, and in some cases supplementing thyroid or using outher substances to stimulate increased metabolism), and gradually increasing food intake in step with the rising metabolism.
I'm not certain that there is perfect optimal approach to this for everyone, but I'm fairly confident that it is useful to aim for a higher calorie intake, whether quickly or slowly. Famine or chronic under-eating can be one cause of reduced metabolism - the body downregulates so as not to be forced to burn off it's protein too fast. If this is the cause of the reduced metabolism, I would not expect to be able to recover without signalling the body that the famine is over by eating more again. I speculate that if other factors are the key causes, then this strategy may not be so helpful.
For young men and women who have not yet fully matured (up to about 25), eating too little can interfere with growth and development. Undereating at this stage can be very counterproductive.
@Giraffe and Charlie
Thank you guys for the kind words. I'm pretty hard on myself most of the time.
@pboy
I definitely agree that the quality of calories helps with satiety. At the same time, the positive metabolic impact of sugar allows me to eat a bit more if I want.
@Nicholas
I used to intermittently fast, eating once every one or two days, and I find this a much easier and less stressful way of living.