I think the reason that you gain weight eating so little is because of your body's resiliency. When you ate very low calorie to lose all that weight (congrats btw) you were effectively training your body to learn how to survive on less food. Now if you went from averaging 700 cal per day (which honestly is bordering on starvation) and then more than doubled that to hit 1500 cal per day, your body thinks "woohoo! Excess!! Lets store this stuff away for the next time we are starving!"

How to combat this? Well a few things: 1) time. Yoyo dieters are notorious for creating this scenario. If you think you can eat 1500 calories for years, stick with it. Your body will reach equilibrium. Eventually. You just have to wait it out. But if you drop calories to lose weight and add them back in again, expect the same thing to happen. 2) build lean mass. No need for super heavy lifting. Heck, body weight exercises are the best and cheapest thing to do. Push ups (or push ups on your knees or against a wall if that's too much), squats (don't go to low or modify if it's too intense), and planks are a great way to start out. And the more muscle, the higher your metabolism. Although only slightly - no free pass to eat in excess. 3) relax. If you're following a generally paleo diet, you're doing the best thing for your body and making an investment on your life. Keeping stress low can really help with leaning out.

Good luck!

Susan is right... I say this from experience. Years ago I did this to my body too - I am a 5"2 female and weighed 185 lbs. By eating no more than 600 cals a day, I dropped 80 lbs. I was happy about it - at the time - but was 'skinny fat'. I was afraid of fat during that time in my life, and was still eating wheat - this was before I knew I am a celiac and intolerant of dairy.

Now I am. A healthy, muscular 120 lbs. I added weight workouts, vitamins, fats (coconut oil especially, and lots of it) and dropped dairy, gluten, all processed foods. Low car works for me, but I need to eat a lot of kale/ spinach/ greens to keep things moving.

By adding strength elements to your workout, you will also stoke your metabolism and use more energy, as Susan said.

I understand why you ( and I) believed fewer calories was responsible for what appears on the surface to be healthy changes, but Uggla, we are making ourselves miserable following such a low cal plan and wasting away. Our bodies begin to latch on to every calorie after a certain point- as you are experiencing now.

Personal advice: you need to eat more, but add more food in slowly, and add it in as you add in exercises. In my experience, this 'tempered' the effect of coming out of starvation mode, so my body didn't gain a ridiculous amount of weight at once. The weight I did gain was muscle. Good luck! :)

I am about the same situation as you. I lost 50 pounds got to 118 and without changing what I was eating or exercise level gained 20 pounds in a very short period. No matter what I do it just isn't going down. I am grain, legume and dairy free too. I am currently doing Dr. Kruse Leptin RX and going to start his Thermogensis cold adaptation. You might give the Leptin Rx and go and if that doesn't get your weight loss going then the Thermogensis. He was interviewed by Sean Croxton at Underground Wellness recently. It really isn't good for you metabolism to restrict calories that low for long periods of time. You could become very deficient in minerals and vitamins. Do you supplement with any minerals?

Also you don't say how old you are and any medical issues you might be facing. Do you have thyroid issues? How tall are you? I know you don't want to read this but you might be at your optimal weight.

Probably a good place to start is to give us as exact amounts and items of everything you consume....be very very specific and don't leave anything out. Also include activities etc.

Are you tracking your food intake using something like fitday? do you know what your exact % of carbs/fat/protein are? you'd be surprized how things differ if just self-calculating.

The more specific information you share the more helpful people can be for you!!!

feel free to post as soon as you can so we can get into it and see if we can discover something for you!

We could use a little info on your height and exactly what your meals are etc. but the simplest explanation is probably that you don't need to lose more weight. What I mean is that your body prefers not lose everything. If you eat 1500 calories then your body will adjust to manage with that - and if you are restricted from doing high intensity activity then there's no real way round that. There's two things you can do. You probably need to eat more - at least sometimes. Chronic undereating just slows everything down.

But you probably also want to eat less. Most doing partial IF would be doing 14 hours every day, or doing a full 24/32 hour fast once a week. For me that's the trick to eating both more and less. Exactly how many calories it adds up to doesn't really matter, but it allows your average for the week to be where it needs to be, without feeling deprived.

I'll bet someone will answer suggesting that you should try carbs as well. And if it's been over a year since you had a significant amount of them then I'd probably agree it's about time you gave your body a break and persuaded it life was easy.

I'm the same way as you. I can't lose weight. I'm 5'6" at 160 pounds...I was 150 when I started Paleo. Granted I do Crossfit, and have a huge amount of muscle for a female, BUT my body fat has remained constant. I've tried VLC/Keto, LC, High Carb, super caloric restriction, eating "normally", restricted calories AND restriced carbs together....nothing works for me when it comes to "losing" weight. I've started to IF ala Leangains and am seeing some improvements, but maybe because Im "not worrying" as much I might finally be starting to relax enough where Im not screwing my hormones.

You might want to get your levels tested. I plan to get mine looked at...my yoyo-dieting and the birth control I was on + the stress probably threw mine off. This can make it really hard to function properly/let go of excess fat.

You definitely need to eat more. If youre worried about weight gain while upping calories walk for 45 minutes a day and do a few body weight exercises. Dont stress your body out, but try to counteract what is the norm with a few more minutes of activity. You might gain weight, but muscle weighs more than fat. I always tell myself Id rather be 170 pounds of lean muscle than 140 pounds of skinny fat.

Mark has his post today about fasting, and it seems that for a lot of people, especially women, it may be easier to fast outright than just restrict calories. Just a thought. I didn't know this... Here's the link: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-weight-loss/#more-27872