Here goes nothing...

hummingbirdhope

For the amount I exercise (5 barre classes a week + some yoga) annnnd I bartend, calorie calculators say I should be eating about 2000 calories. I've been maintaining on 15-1700 tho

Has anyone else had luck with upping their calories slowly? I've heard some people say "you gain before you lose"?

Stats: 5'5 female 24 y/o 107lb

williams969

I "maintained" (in quotes on purpose) at 1,750 for an entire month, after a slight 1 or 2 pound gain the previous month. Had I not trusted the slow increase in calories, I would have though the same.

But nope, I marched on with upping the calories. I'm up to 2000 for December now, and I'm down 3 more pounds (I'm 137 lbs @5'6", so I had the room to lose those few). The "gain" you see will be water, and will likely fall back off as you eat at the new level for a while (my body apparently takes a whole month to do that, or it's period bloat, but whatever, doesn't matter).

hummingbirdhope

williams969 wrote: »

I "maintained" (in quotes on purpose) at 1,750 for an entire month, after a slight 1 or 2 pound gain the previous month. Had I not trusted the slow increase in calories, I would have though the same.

But nope, I marched on with upping the calories. I'm up to 2000 for December now, and I'm down 3 more pounds (I'm 137 lbs @5'6", so I had the room to lose those few). The "gain" you see will be water, and will likely fall back off as you eat at the new level for a while (my body apparently takes a whole month to do that, or it's period bloat, but whatever, doesn't matter).

Thanks! So you only had about 1 lb of gain?

5stringjeff

When I decided I was going to maintain, I increased my daily calories by 100. Each week, I went up until I hit maintenance. Others here have had success with this same method.

williams969

hummingbirdhope wrote: »

williams969 wrote: »

I "maintained" (in quotes on purpose) at 1,750 for an entire month, after a slight 1 or 2 pound gain the previous month. Had I not trusted the slow increase in calories, I would have though the same.

But nope, I marched on with upping the calories. I'm up to 2000 for December now, and I'm down 3 more pounds (I'm 137 lbs @5'6", so I had the room to lose those few). The "gain" you see will be water, and will likely fall back off as you eat at the new level for a while (my body apparently takes a whole month to do that, or it's period bloat, but whatever, doesn't matter).

Thanks! So you only had about 1 lb of gain?

Yep, but I was still trying to lose that month (sometimes, things just don't work like math says it should, I don't stress it). The point is, even though the scale shows something that looks like we're gaining or maintaining on a short term, a longer trend (for me, it's a month at a time to see things) shows the truth, that we may still be in a deficit.

Trust the process, don't stress daily minutia, and up the calories progressively, wait. Rinse and repeat.

nxd10

I upped by 250 of my 500 calorie deficit and never gained anything. After a year I suddenly lost 5 pounds and dropped the other 250 and have maintained since. No gain.