Weight + calories = confusion

So I went on this crazy diet to try and lose weight where I was eating 800 calories a day or less. I've been doing that since mid May but I know now that the sort of diet I was on isn't healthy. I'm now eating about 1800 calories a day with 30 to 90 minutes of walking or biking a day.

Now, I've only been doing this for 4 or 5 days but I've already gained SIX POUNDS! This is CRAZY and FYI I used to be anorexic so I know all about starvation mode but how long does a body take to come out of that and drop back down to a stable weight?

It sounds like your body doesn't trust you to feed it and is absorbing everything you eat.  Keep doing what your doing for another week.  Most of the weight you've gained is probably water and should come off soon.  Are you underweight?  How much of the six pounds (if any) do you want to keep?  You should probably do different exercise (aerobic, strength, cardio, etc.) everyday to figure out what triggers your body to gain/lose weight based off of exercise.  Other than that, maintain 1800 calories a day.

This sounds all too familiar. Within a week of starting my self-recovery, I gained 15 lbs instantly! But don't let this stop you!! It's great that you've decided to begin eating healthy again! 

Since you've been in starvation mode for awhile, your body has more than likely began to use muscle as an energy source. So when you begin eating again, much of this lost muscle is rebuilt, especially if you were already doing moderate exercise. And as I'm sure you know, muscle weighs more than fat ;-) Some of this weight could also be water weight, especially if you eat a lot of carbs. But I seriously doubt much of it is fat. If it is fat though, in time, it will begin to evenly distribute and become less noticeable, provided you keep this up. :-)

I was just reading in a mag. about RMR, Resting Metabolic Rate. You have to have so many calories to maintain proper body function. There is a formula in the mag. that helps some, but is not all that accurate either because it doesn't account for exercise, muscle mass etc. Here is the formula though if you want to try to figure out how many cals. you should eat etc.

655+4.35 x your weight in pounds, +4.7 x your height in inchesm - 4.7 x your age. It said on there that if you cut your cal. intake by 15%, you should lose weight then. When I did it, I was down to 1288.5 cals. a day. I can't live on that, so I will increase my calories, and increase my work out then. I get too hungry if I go too low in calories. I got a treadmill now, so I can walk daily and if I eat something I know I shouldn't at least I can burn off a few calories and not feel so guilty all of the time now. Starvation never helped me in the past, nor did diet pills etc. It just messes up your metabolism. Good luck.

Think about this: if you ate nothing for a week, and then you ate 1000 calorie for a week, you are going to gain weight. At one point you will stop, but your body is used to less calories and is now getting a healthier amount, but now its taking whatever it can. Keep where you are and the weight gian will stop...increase your excercise.

Keep eating at least 1800 calories a day and stay off the damn scale!