Increase calories one day per week?

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  • Sam29a
    Sam29a Posts: 201 Member
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    All the advice has been really helpful, thank you for all the replies. I have taken it on board, I'm not just ignoring everything that people have said. It has genuinely been eye-opening.

    I will go on a diet break for 2 weeks, continue with my exercise, but maybe add in some free weights too. Every calculator I try is giving me different maintenance calories, but I think I should try 1700 calories. Is this about right?
  • FattieBabs
    FattieBabs Posts: 542 Member
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    Try it and see and please do let us know how you get on as following this thread with interest. Good luck!
  • Sam29a
    Sam29a Posts: 201 Member
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    FattieBabs wrote: »
    Try it and see and please do let us know how you get on as following this thread with interest. Good luck!

    Thanks. I will do :smile:
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    Sam29a wrote: »
    All the advice has been really helpful, thank you for all the replies. I have taken it on board, I'm not just ignoring everything that people have said. It has genuinely been eye-opening.

    I will go on a diet break for 2 weeks, continue with my exercise, but maybe add in some free weights too. Every calculator I try is giving me different maintenance calories, but I think I should try 1700 calories. Is this about right?

    I'm really pleased to hear this Sam :). I plugged your stats into a TDEE calculator the other day, and got ~2000 for maintenance, so I think 1700 is too low. Given that you probably have some metabolic adaptation for being at a deficit so long, taking 10% off that is reasonable, so I would go with 1800. And remember, you need to keep your carb intake above 100g per day, at least 100-150g. Leptin is carb sensitive, and it's not going to come back up without that.

    Now, you may have an initial scale gain from glycogen replenishment and more food in your system. It is not fat gain. I repeat, it is not fat gain. If this is likely to freak you out and make you abandon the diet break though, I would suggest not weighing again until a few days after you finish the break. When I did my diet break recently, I went up a couple of pounds initially, then settled back down a little and stayed around there for the duration (ignoring a massive ovulation bloat at the end). Within four days of finished the diet break, and shedding the ovulation bloat, I was lighter than when I started.

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