Determining maintenance calories

Snipsa

Hi all,

I realize this question has been asked and answered many times, but I am having difficulty finding the "right" amount for me.


The problem I'm currently having is the "whoosh effect".

Some history - I lost approximately 27 Kg from the start of the year, and have been looking to maintain at 60 Kg. It looked like I was maintaining well at 60kg for about 2 weeks on 1850 calories. But then I suddenly whooshed down to 59.5 kg and maintained between 59.3 and 59.6 kg for another two weeks. Then 3 days ago I weighed in at 58.8 Kg and have been staying in the 58.8 to 59.1 kg range over the last few days.


I am afraid that I'll keep losing weight even at 1850 calories, and am now at a bmi of 20 so don't really want to lose much more, however I also really worry that upping my calories will cause weight gain.

With how much calories would you suggest I up my daily intake, to hopefully stop the weight loss, but not lead to any gains. I was thinking to start with 2000 and see where that leads.


Ps I'm 1.68m tall.

trigden1991

I would increase calories to 2000 for 6-8 weeks and see what your weight does. It sounds like you are in a very slight deficit currently.

sijomial

2000 sounds fine.

The same maths works for deficit, surplus and maintenance so this

I also really worry that upping my calories will cause weight gain

is just emotion rather than logic - it's logic and experimentation (plus patience!) that nails down maintenance calories.

Snipsa

sijomial wrote: »

2000 sounds fine.

The same maths works for deficit, surplus and maintenance so this

I also really worry that upping my calories will cause weight gain

is just emotion rather than logic - it's logic and experimentation (plus patience!) that nails down maintenance calories.

Thanks.

I realize the logic behind the math, but the fear of gaining is very real


But will go with 2000 cals for now and see how it goes...