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eating and exercise

In the past month I (unhealthily) lost 20 pounds. Not much exercise was involved in this, though I usually am a very active person. (I love to run and go to the gym and such). My question is, if I start up a running and gym routine again (including regular cardio boxing and probably spinning classes) can I be more lenient with my diet? Like guilt-free add in junk food? (obviously not tooo much) I know the obvious answer is “sure if its not too much”. but because I lost the weight by starving, im concerned that trying to go into a normal pattern like this will have a weird effect on how I gain weight. I’ve always had eating problems and so I’m worried I’ll just gain and the exercise wont make a difference. But I want to be able to eat normally, I’m sick of eating disorders. I just dont want to gain weight. I should add that when I get into exercise routines, I go hardcore. I rarely miss days. Anyone have experience with this?

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Answer #1

So if I understand you right you’re worried about how fast your metabolism is working? When you starve your body it goes into panic mode and your metabolism slows way down. This is why when you’re trying to lose weight you’re supposed to eat 5 small meals a day. When you do this, you keep giving your body fuel to burn so it never goes into panic mode.

When you exercise you burn calories doing so, and make your metabolism speed up. So they best thing to do is to slowly add more calories into your diet, and not worry about weight immediately.

Also, when you exercise you should include rest days. If you workout hardcore 7 days a week you don’t give your body a chance to heal itself. When you exercise you are tearing your muscles up, and your body rebuilds it strong, if you give it the time to rebuild. The reason you want to rebuild muscle is because the more muscle you have on your body the more calories you burn through the day, and even when you sleep.

I think that answers your question, let me know if anything was confusing.

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