How the Body Heals from Restrictive Eating

If you are someone who has followed fad diets or severely restricted your diet to quickly lose weight, you will likely have to gain some weight before you can healthfully lose fat — regardless of your starting weight. This approach can be discouraging, but it is vital if you want to truly recover from the negative impact of restrictive eating.

In today’s blog post, let’s consider an example of an individual with a past of restrictive eating and discuss the benefits of allowing your body to heal.

In a video on our YouTube channel, Elaina Efird, RDN, CD, CEDRD, CSSD outlines a case study of a six-foot tall patient at The Kahm Clinic who had been struggling with restrictive eating for about two years. He honestly didn’t know how to approach dieting. He tried cutting calories and limiting his sugar intake as well as intermittent fasting, which led to binging. At one point, he lost 15 pounds but ultimately gained it all back. He realized that nothing was working for him. 

His initial metabolic testing results were lower than what we predicted. We expected him to be burning 2,400 calories per day, but he was burning 2,135 calories per day. “This happened because the body was compensating for being under-fueled,” Elaina explains. He was not consistently eating enough calories, so his body lowered his metabolic rate to conserve energy.

Our goal, then, was to increase his metabolic rate to 2,400 calories per day by letting go of his restrictive eating habits.

If we don’t correct this issue first, this individual will find himself in the same cycle of losing and regaining weight or maintaining his weight despite restriction. In order to burn more calories, he must eat more calories — quite a bit more, in fact. We increased his calories to 2,800 calories per day to accommodate his resting metabolic rate (RMR) of 2,135 calories, plus any general movement and exercise. 

It’s not surprising that this person initially gained some weight. When he first came to The Kahm Clinic, he weighed 284 pounds. After our recommendation to increase his daily calorie intake, he gained over 15 pounds in three months, weighing 309.1 pounds. Not only did this weight gain work to correct his metabolic rate (it increased to 2,403 calories per day), but it also led to other non-scale victories, like increased energy levels and decreased restrictive eating and binging habits. This shift also increased his lean mass, which is beneficial for immunity, longevity, injury prevention, and more. 

Additionally, his hormones became more regulated. As Elaina shares, studies show that restrictive dieting negatively impacts your hormones; these changes can last for up to two years. By allowing him to heal before we focused on his weight loss goals, we helped all of the systems in his body return to their baseline.

Now, it was safe to adjust his calorie intake to allow for healthy weight loss. 

We decreased his intake to 2,400 to 2,500 calories per day — right at his RMR — to see what would happen. About a year later, we repeated the body composition analysis. His weight was down to 269.2 pounds (15 pounds below his starting point!). His lean mass maintained itself, but his fat mass decreased by over 12 pounds. “Note that it was a slow, steady process,” Elaina points out. “This approach is so much more effective at preventing weight regain.”

In other words, it’s okay if your weight loss journey feels like a long, winding road!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our video content. To talk to a professional about eating disorder treatment, please reach out to our staff or schedule an appointment at The Kahm Clinic today.