Can you 'adjust' your metabolism and/or TDEE?

[gbrice75]

Yea, I know - I ask alot of questions, shoot me!

I have read before that when people diet improperly by 'starving' themselves, they slow their metabolism to a crawl, and their bodies adjust to the low amount of calories they're eating. This may be what happened to me early on when I started dieting as I was eating about 1300 calories a day for a good 6 months.

Isn't it feasible then that it works the other way as well? Let's say my TDEE is 2500 calories, and I start eating 3500. After X amount of time, would my body adjust to the point where 3500 could become my new TDEE? Then if I were to cut back to say 3000 calories (500 more than my OLD TDEE), I should be able to shed bodyfat at that caloric level.

Am I way off base here? Please school me, and thanks for putting up with my overly inquisitive mind!

[FireGuy]

Everytime your body composition changes you change your TDEE. Add muscle, TDEE goes up, lose muscle TDEE goes down. Low calorie diet for extended period of time, lose muscle TDEE goes down.