Weight Gain and Metabolism Restoration

Patients often wonder if they will gain weight as they work to restore their metabolism. For instance, if you struggle with a low resting metabolic rate (RMR) due to restrictive eating, what will happen to your body as you work to increase both your intake and your RMR? Unfortunately, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. Each individual has a different trajectory and experience as their bodies adjust to dietary changes. 

In today’s blog post, let’s explore two different case studies of patients working to restore their metabolism.

The first case study looks at a female patient who is five feet, eight inches tall. In March 2018, when she first came to The Kahm Clinic, she weighed 133.8 pounds with a lean mass of 90.7 pounds. At this point, her metabolic rate was 1,090 calories per day — much lower than it should be for her height and weight. At her final visit in June 2020, she weighed 157.6 pounds with a lean mass of 110.3 pounds. Her metabolic rate was up to 2,000 calories per day — a huge difference!

So what changed in her diet? As dietitian Elaina Efird, RDN, CD, CEDRD, CSSD explains, to start, she followed a very strict vegan diet, eating only 900 calories per day. By the time she finished working with our team, she still followed a primarily plant-based diet, but her calorie intake increased to 2,400 calories per day.

As you can see, this patient learned how to properly fuel her body. Even though she gained weight, she found an eating pattern that worked for her body’s internal function and her lifestyle. “She more than doubled her intake,” Elaina says. “She had better energy. She reduced her cravings, and she stopped obsessing over food.”

The next case study for metabolism restoration looks at a female patient who is five feet, two inches tall.

She gained only six pounds during her time working with us — a much different trajectory than the first patient! “What’s really interesting here,” Elaina shares, “is this patient also more than doubled her intake.”

At her first appointment in October 2019, she weighed 110.1 pounds with a lean mass of 83.9 pounds. Her RMR was incredibly low at only 810 calories per day. It dropped so much because she was restricting her intake to the point of an eating disorder, eating about 600 calories per day. 

At the end of her time working with us, in December 2020, she weighed 116.5 pounds with a lean mass of 87.7 pounds. “She went from being very restrictive in her eating disorder to more than quadrupling her intake to 2,700 calories per day,” Elaina shares. Her RMR increased to 1,340 calories per day, and even with her highly increased intake, she only gained six pounds.

Do you want to explore the topic of metabolism restoration even more?

Check out our YouTube video, where Elaina analyzes these two case studies as well as three more!  

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.