So many calories...!
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Back to the question from the OP..
I'm in the same boat, especially now that my exercise burns more due to increased length and intensity (summer = outdoor exercise). So I struggle with eating enough to maintain. I upped calories very slowly, say +100 a week or so. At first I wondered how I could regularly eat 2000, then when I upped it to 2100, I wondered about that and realized I was consistently eating 2000. Don't try to add 500 calories at once.
I added a cereal/milk night time snack for no other reason than to add more calories (found that easier than increasing meal size). I added afternoon snacks. Find ways to add just a little more into your daily diet.5 -
richardgavel wrote: »Back to the question from the OP..
I'm in the same boat, especially now that my exercise burns more due to increased length and intensity (summer = outdoor exercise). So I struggle with eating enough to maintain. I upped calories very slowly, say +100 a week or so. At first I wondered how I could regularly eat 2000, then when I upped it to 2100, I wondered about that and realized I was consistently eating 2000. Don't try to add 500 calories at once.
I added a cereal/milk night time snack for no other reason than to add more calories (found that easier than increasing meal size). I added afternoon snacks. Find ways to add just a little more into your daily diet.
Cereal and milk is so easy and perfect, agreed--that's the first thing I did. Thanks for the 500/cal tip.
And @kgirlhart, glad I'm not alone.0 -
1300 to 1600 is what I consume before dinner and I keep it to a light dinner at night and a snack0
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besee_2000 wrote: »Its not that she couldn't eat that physically, I think. It sounds like a mental road block. Try watching 10,000 calorie challenges on youtube and you might gag from how much they put down! I am partly envious because I would fear the repercussions too much.
I have no idea how they put away all that food. As for the weight gain, well, many of them are YT fitness gurus so they know how to get it off. Plus when you do the math, let's say your TDEE is 2400 a day. You eat 10000 calories. You have to subtract 2400 from 10000 to get the net calorie count, so 7600. 7600/3500 is 2.17lbs. Of that, some low, but not completely irrelevant, percentage will actually go to building LBM. It won't go every penny to fat.
To lose 2.17lbs (assuming that is the goal and this wasn't part of their bulk to end bulks), you could lose that in a little over 2 weeks with a 500 cal a day deficit. Sucks for the time, but won't set you back for life either.0 -
Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »1500 with exercise 3x a week sounds like still weight loss to me. I maintain on 2100-2600 and i exercise a few times a week and am only a tiny girl.
Depends on age and other factors. I am 69-5'2"-and only get 1420/day to maintain 115 lbs. plus any added exercise. We old and petite ladies don't get many cals.
I have just learned I have to leave off the empty calorie foods in my diet. Like not drinking my cals and non-nutritious junk food.3 -
YT fitness gurus???????
How about just overweight and we learned how to pack it away over the years.
If the daily allotment on this site is 2400 and you burn off 300 cals, its better to eat back some of those exercise calories. The site already subtracts the deficient for you automatically.
2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/4 cup of nuts is 200 to 250 calories depending on what the nut is or if it's a trail mix of some kind. Some trail mixes can go as high as 300 to 350 for a small amount of food.
It's not very hard to consume calories if you know which kinds of good food is in the high calorie percentage vs low calorie percentage. Sometimes it doesn't take much to go above your daily allotment for the day.
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YT fitness gurus???????
How about just overweight and we learned how to pack it away over the years.
If the daily allotment on this site is 2400 and you burn off 300 cals, its better to eat back some of those exercise calories. The site already subtracts the deficient for you automatically.
2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/4 cup of nuts is 200 to 250 calories depending on what the nut is or if it's a trail mix of some kind. Some trail mixes can go as high as 300 to 350 for a small amount of food.
It's not very hard to consume calories if you know which kinds of good food is in the high calorie percentage vs low calorie percentage. Sometimes it doesn't take much to go above your daily allotment for the day.
You misunderstand what we are discussing - 10k+ calorie challenge videos on YT have nothing to do with people gaining weight the usual way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgK0fPV6jlI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzjLJS71g70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7OqkMtG0fo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1etzQKxBR68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdUnzwKtoFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAEjD5cDslM
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OP, how much were you eating when you were losing? How much did you lose, how long did it take you, was your rate of loss steady?
Making the jump to maintenance can be a little scary, but 1500 is likely only 300 cals above what you were eating when losing, is that right? A lot of people add cals back in slowly, 100 or 150/week for a few weeks. This helps get your body used to additional food (although really 300 cals is not much, that's a bowl of cereal!) and it helps avoid a big spike in water retention from glycogen stores being replenished (similar to the quick weight loss that people see when they initially cut their calories, losing water weight). Things usually level off, but it can be a shock if the scale goes back up.
Another thing to keep in mind is that maintenance is a range, both in the weight you'll see on the scale, and the calories you can eat to maintain that range. My maintenance weight is 120 +/- 2 lbs, and my calories are anywhere from 2100-2300 usually based on how active I am that week. So while it is good to figure out a target number, it is also helpful to do some trial and error and make sure your maintenance level is actually what the calculators suggest.
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_lyndseybrooke_ wrote: »
Is this real life? I could smash 1500 calories in under an hour, easy.
yup very easily lol
OP just try i understand the fear but you are going to love eating more , add in snacks ,have bigger meals and desserts
eat back all your exercise calories and enjoy1 -
CrabNebula wrote: »YT fitness gurus???????
How about just overweight and we learned how to pack it away over the years.
If the daily allotment on this site is 2400 and you burn off 300 cals, its better to eat back some of those exercise calories. The site already subtracts the deficient for you automatically.
2 tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/4 cup of nuts is 200 to 250 calories depending on what the nut is or if it's a trail mix of some kind. Some trail mixes can go as high as 300 to 350 for a small amount of food.
It's not very hard to consume calories if you know which kinds of good food is in the high calorie percentage vs low calorie percentage. Sometimes it doesn't take much to go above your daily allotment for the day.
You misunderstand what we are discussing - 10k+ calorie challenge videos on YT have nothing to do with people gaining weight the usual way.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgK0fPV6jlIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzjLJS71g70https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7OqkMtG0fohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1etzQKxBR68https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdUnzwKtoFQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAEjD5cDslM
oh never mind,. yeah I misunderstood... from some of those vids, they're eating stuff I'm trying to avoid but 30.000 cals in two days there's no way I even could do that. I barely get above 3500 on a complete cheat day let alone 10,000 plus. I would be sick really sick and it can't be that healthy for you...0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP, how much were you eating when you were losing? How much did you lose, how long did it take you, was your rate of loss steady?
Making the jump to maintenance can be a little scary, but 1500 is likely only 300 cals above what you were eating when losing, is that right? A lot of people add cals back in slowly, 100 or 150/week for a few weeks. This helps get your body used to additional food (although really 300 cals is not much, that's a bowl of cereal!) and it helps avoid a big spike in water retention from glycogen stores being replenished (similar to the quick weight loss that people see when they initially cut their calories, losing water weight). Things usually level off, but it can be a shock if the scale goes back up.
Another thing to keep in mind is that maintenance is a range, both in the weight you'll see on the scale, and the calories you can eat to maintain that range. My maintenance weight is 120 +/- 2 lbs, and my calories are anywhere from 2100-2300 usually based on how active I am that week. So while it is good to figure out a target number, it is also helpful to do some trial and error and make sure your maintenance level is actually what the calculators suggest.
I started out at 1420 cal./day (at over 200 lbs) and that got whittled down by MFP as I whittled down to 1220/day. It took me around 18 months to lose around 75 lbs. It actually went fairly steady until three months ago, when I began to hover around 130. At that point, I decided to do the Couch to 5K program and lift. So, while I'm glad I'm working out regularly (now at 3 mi., 4x/week and lifting 3x/week), this muddles the math a bit. Maintenance at my current weight of around 128 is 1500/day, so I'm trying to just eat that with the exercise and see how that goes for a few weeks; I can always adjust.
I'm using Trendweight to keep the data (https://trendweight.com/), which is helpful because it measures the general...well, trend...of my weight over time.
Thanks for the advice!0 -
No. I don't feel that way. I feel my maintenance calories are not enough. I have the appetite for at least 2500 calories per day.1
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that just made me cringe. 3 miles four times a week? You should be eating more then 1500 cals a day. increase your uptake on the days you walk 3 miles a day. Calories in and calories out basically. You're most like burning off half of what you eat leaving you at a negative deficient.0
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that just made me cringe. 3 miles four times a week? You should be eating more then 1500 cals a day. increase your uptake on the days you walk 3 miles a day. Calories in and calories out basically. You're most like burning off half of what you eat leaving you at a negative deficient.
I'm just going by the numbers:
Half of that is 150 calories, which isn't very much at all. I'm just not comfortable eating much more than maintenance with such a small deficit, especially considering I was holding steady for weeks before this with 1270/day. I *am* actually increasing my calorie count by more than a little by switching to maintenance, which is why I feel nervous about the situation, is all.
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I never eat all my calories after exercise comes in. But I maintain. I find logging useful because it tells me when I haven't eaten enough and just should and when I'm hungry and should definitely give in and eat. I trust my body, and logging confirms it's right.1
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Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »1500 with exercise 3x a week sounds like still weight loss to me. I maintain on 2100-2600 and i exercise a few times a week and am only a tiny girl.
How nice for you. I can't. Now I EAT more than that, but I NET less than that. And I'm 5'10" Different people's bodies work really differently.0 -
vicky1947mfp wrote: »Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »1500 with exercise 3x a week sounds like still weight loss to me. I maintain on 2100-2600 and i exercise a few times a week and am only a tiny girl.
Depends on age and other factors. I am 69-5'2"-and only get 1420/day to maintain 115 lbs. plus any added exercise. We old and petite ladies don't get many cals.
I have just learned I have to leave off the empty calorie foods in my diet. Like not drinking my cals and non-nutritious junk food.
I think it must be "other factors". Granted, I'm 'only' 60, but I seem to be maintaining on around 2100 net, 2300-2400 or so gross, at 120 pounds (5'5"). I would loseLoseLOSE on 1500 (and did).
OP, I agree that adding calories gradually is a helpful strategy (that's what I did when heading into maintenance a few months back). If you're having trouble doing it, thinking in terms of higher-calorie but low-volume healthy foods may also be a good plan - nuts, avocado, dark chocolate, or something else you really, really enjoy. Set a maintenance weight range (say, plus or minus 3 pounds), and plan to go to a slight deficit if you stay at the top end for a few days. There's no way you're going to pack on a bunch of weight suddenly without noticing. You'd see it in time to adjust. And you've proven you know how to lose weight, right?
It wouldn't be healthy to just keep losing, dropping below a sensible weight, would it? You can do this; just give yourself time to adjust, physically & mentally.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP, how much were you eating when you were losing? How much did you lose, how long did it take you, was your rate of loss steady?
Making the jump to maintenance can be a little scary, but 1500 is likely only 300 cals above what you were eating when losing, is that right? A lot of people add cals back in slowly, 100 or 150/week for a few weeks. This helps get your body used to additional food (although really 300 cals is not much, that's a bowl of cereal!) and it helps avoid a big spike in water retention from glycogen stores being replenished (similar to the quick weight loss that people see when they initially cut their calories, losing water weight). Things usually level off, but it can be a shock if the scale goes back up.
Another thing to keep in mind is that maintenance is a range, both in the weight you'll see on the scale, and the calories you can eat to maintain that range. My maintenance weight is 120 +/- 2 lbs, and my calories are anywhere from 2100-2300 usually based on how active I am that week. So while it is good to figure out a target number, it is also helpful to do some trial and error and make sure your maintenance level is actually what the calculators suggest.
I started out at 1420 cal./day (at over 200 lbs) and that got whittled down by MFP as I whittled down to 1220/day. It took me around 18 months to lose around 75 lbs. It actually went fairly steady until three months ago, when I began to hover around 130. At that point, I decided to do the Couch to 5K program and lift. So, while I'm glad I'm working out regularly (now at 3 mi., 4x/week and lifting 3x/week), this muddles the math a bit. Maintenance at my current weight of around 128 is 1500/day, so I'm trying to just eat that with the exercise and see how that goes for a few weeks; I can always adjust.
I'm using Trendweight to keep the data (https://trendweight.com/), which is helpful because it measures the general...well, trend...of my weight over time.
Thanks for the advice!
Great job!0 -
vicky1947mfp wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP, how much were you eating when you were losing? How much did you lose, how long did it take you, was your rate of loss steady?
Making the jump to maintenance can be a little scary, but 1500 is likely only 300 cals above what you were eating when losing, is that right? A lot of people add cals back in slowly, 100 or 150/week for a few weeks. This helps get your body used to additional food (although really 300 cals is not much, that's a bowl of cereal!) and it helps avoid a big spike in water retention from glycogen stores being replenished (similar to the quick weight loss that people see when they initially cut their calories, losing water weight). Things usually level off, but it can be a shock if the scale goes back up.
Another thing to keep in mind is that maintenance is a range, both in the weight you'll see on the scale, and the calories you can eat to maintain that range. My maintenance weight is 120 +/- 2 lbs, and my calories are anywhere from 2100-2300 usually based on how active I am that week. So while it is good to figure out a target number, it is also helpful to do some trial and error and make sure your maintenance level is actually what the calculators suggest.
I started out at 1420 cal./day (at over 200 lbs) and that got whittled down by MFP as I whittled down to 1220/day. It took me around 18 months to lose around 75 lbs. It actually went fairly steady until three months ago, when I began to hover around 130. At that point, I decided to do the Couch to 5K program and lift. So, while I'm glad I'm working out regularly (now at 3 mi., 4x/week and lifting 3x/week), this muddles the math a bit. Maintenance at my current weight of around 128 is 1500/day, so I'm trying to just eat that with the exercise and see how that goes for a few weeks; I can always adjust.
I'm using Trendweight to keep the data (https://trendweight.com/), which is helpful because it measures the general...well, trend...of my weight over time.
Thanks for the advice!
Great job!
Thanks!
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It's a mind f****, we are programmed to think we should eat a small amount, but once you get over it and eat more you'll find your body responds to it! It's pretty amazing actually.1
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