Maintenance issues.

ccruz985

According to MFP I am ok to eat 1850 calories on maintenance mode. I read in several places that it's ok to eat back calories you burned from exercise. I don't always do that and more times than not end up eating around my regular 1850 maintenance amount. I work out 6 days a week, Insanity Max30 for 5 of those days and one day is a hybrid of lower body work and either upper work and a short HIIT or a core cardio workout. YET, I am very slowly but surely regaining weight!! I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

fiddletime

I'd stop eating back all but 50% of your exercise calories and see how that goes.

Lillymoo01

You may need to tighten up your logging. Are you weighing all solids that go into your mouth, including prepackaged food, condiments and tastes while cooking? Are you using measuring cups for all liquids? Are you checking your entries again package labels and places like USDA website? Are you relying on apps only for calorie burn and overestimating? If you are doing all of those things then your metabolism may be slighly lower than average which would mean you may need to drop your calorie intake ever so slightly. Use an app like Libra or Happy Scale to moniter your weight fluctions to get an idea of how much of a reduction you need to make.

rmgnow

You're either not logging your food correctly or over estimating your workout calories

ccruz985

I weigh all of my food that isn't packaged, I measure everything, I underestimate my calorie burn when I work out. I didn't know about checking stuff against the USDA website though. Hmm.

LivingtheLeanDream

You don't say how long you've been eating at maintenance calories? for the first few weeks when you bump up to maintenance calories the glycogen stores get replenished and that can show up on the scale as a gain.

ccruz985

Two weeks! Ok, I feel relieved and will see how my weight fluctuates within the next couple of weeks. Thanks so much!

LivingtheLeanDream

No problem just monitor your weight for the next few weeks and then decide if you need to take action. If scale kept going up after that point then you know the score and you'll need to cut some cals.

cwolfman13

ccruz985 wrote: »

According to MFP I am ok to eat 1850 calories on maintenance mode. I read in several places that it's ok to eat back calories you burned from exercise. I don't always do that and more times than not end up eating around my regular 1850 maintenance amount. I work out 6 days a week, Insanity Max30 for 5 of those days and one day is a hybrid of lower body work and either upper work and a short HIIT or a core cardio workout. YET, I am very slowly but surely regaining weight!! I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Is your weight actually going up or are you just seeing normal fluctuations in weight...your body weight isn't a static number...it's always in flux up or down. You have to look at the trend and average weight over time.

I can easily be up or down 3-5 Lbs day to day throughout the week.

AnnPT77

Also, its important to be aware that the maintenance calories that MFP (or any other calorie needs calculator) gives us is just an estimate.

Someone has done a large-group research study, and the calculator gives us a calorie level based on the average from that study. Most of us are close to average - in statistical terms, the standard deviation is small. But a few of us can be farther away from average, and will either gain or lose on that "maintenance" estimate.

If that happens, we need to adjust based on our real-world results.

helenvcl

Are you building muscle, that weighs more than fat? Do your clothes feel tighter?

ccruz985

My clothes definitely aren't tighter. I actually came back from vacation this week and was told I look thinner than I left. That damn scale though, it messes me UP.

nxd10

Models work on average. If you're gaining weight either MFP is over-estimating your energy burn from exercise or you're underlogging your food or your body uses it differently than the typical person. In any case, you just have to eat a little less. This is a good model, but we all need to quirk it to fit our individual bodies.

BUT if you're gaining a little weight and shrinking inches, you're are doing great. I'm jealous!

ccruz985

UPDATE: I weighed in at 171 this morning, 7 lbs less than I did on Tuesday and on the light side of my goals. So, I can only assume it was my body adjusting these last couple of weeks. Thank you so much for all of your advice, it went miles in helping me!!

AnnPT77

ccruz985 wrote: »

UPDATE: I weighed in at 171 this morning, 7 lbs less than I did on Tuesday and on the light side of my goals. So, I can only assume it was my body adjusting these last couple of weeks. Thank you so much for all of your advice, it went miles in helping me!!

Thanks for taking the time to update: It's so much more interesting - not to mention more useful/helpful - to know how these questions sort out!

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Glad you got a low number to balance the highs. My weight always creeps up if I don't watch it constantly. Probably because, if I'm close to goal, I tend to log less carefully. It's a pain!