Increased calories, but losing not gaining!

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Pollyannepocket
Pollyannepocket Posts: 7
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
My boyfriend and I have both recently joined MFP. I'm here to lose weight and he's on it to gain.

He's 6ft2, with a slim build and a 32" waist.

He's input his details and his goal is to eat 3000 cals a day... he's been sticking to this, and for the past 2 weeks since he's started, he's actually lost weight.

He's lifting weights and running (and eating the calories he's burnt from this)

Any ideas? help is much appreciated!!!

Replies

  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    MFP uses estimates - that number is not set in stone for him, just a starting point. It's all trial and error. He'll need to gradually increase cals till he finds his own TDEE then surplus. Bear in mind, there can be wild fluctuations but I don't think this affects the guys as much.
  • elfman5150
    elfman5150 Posts: 116 Member
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    This happened to me, and I was worried at first. Then I added about 250 calories more per day, and I've been seeing a definite increase in weight - almost at the rate of 1.5lb/week now (so I might cut the calories down a bit so that I'm at around .75-1lb/week). If he isn't seeing weight gain, just up the calories, but as noted above, also know that there will be fluctuations in weight (water weight, for example), so it's best to find out the average for 7 days or so rather than going day-by-day.

    Good luck to you both!
  • caseythirteen
    caseythirteen Posts: 956 Member
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    Yup, if he's losing than he isn't eating at or above TDEE. When you're new to tracking you can use calculators to start but then you just have to go by your own results to see what works for you. If he's losing on 3000 then definitely increase and go from there. I would go with smaller increases in the 100-200 range to keep initial jumps to a minimum and get a good idea of what TDEE really is. From there you can increase to a calorie surplus.

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