Increasing calories without gaining weight

pinkgurl456

I’m currently eating in the 1,600 range a day I wanna up the calories to 2000 I weigh 118 at 5.6 and want to stay that weight is there a way to slowly up the calories so I maintain and don’t gain? I would say I’m pretty active I dance everyday and except on Sundays average at 6k to 10k Steps.

TavistockToad

If maintenance is 2000 then you won't gain.

WinoGelato

pinkgurl456 wrote: »

I’m currently eating in the 1,600 range a day I wanna up the calories to 2000 I weigh 118 at 5.6 and want to stay that weight is there a way to slowly up the calories so I maintain and don’t gain? I would say I’m pretty active I dance everyday and except on Sundays average at 6k to 10k Steps.

Are you losing weight now when eating at 1600? How did you choose 2000 as what you want to be eating? That may or may not be reasonable for maintenance calories, if all depends on your TDEE.

pinkgurl456

I’m pretty sure I’m maintaining now I wanna up the calories because I increased my exercise and I get really hungry at 1.600

cmriverside

So go up the equivalent of a half pound per week = 250 cals per day.

If you've been logging food while losing you should have enough back data to confidently make the switch.

Buff_Man

Also add more vegetables, will keep you fuller for longer

sijomial

You can manually change your daily goal so you can step up in whatever increments you choose.
A degree of experimentation over an extended period of time may be required to fine tune things but that's OK - you have all the time in the world.

Question though - are you not eating back exercise calories as that would have taken your change of exercise routine into account?

pinkgurl456

That could be it I usually don’t eat them back 🤔

sijomial

pinkgurl456 wrote: »

That could be it I usually don’t eat them back 🤔

They are part of your calorie needs, your body still counts them.

ahoy_m8

Some people unconsciously move more when calorie intake increases. The only way to know if you are one of those is to experiment. I like cmriverside’s suggestion of adding in increments. It takes patience, though. If you’re not tracking meticulously now, start doing so to give you good data during the transition. If you have a month where your weight trend is a gain, then adjust (move more). For me (5’7”, 53 yo, 115lb), adding 400 cal would require me to add ~5mi daily (walking, running or a combination thereof).

WinoGelato

pinkgurl456 wrote: »

That could be it I usually don’t eat them back 🤔

Don’t eat exercise calories back? Do you use a food scale for logging accuracy?

If you’re interested in tweaking your numbers for maintenance, it would be helpful if you were being as precise and accurate as possible with your numbers up to this point so that you have real data to work with.

Also - just an FYI - maintenance is a range. Your weight will fluctuate, your cals May fluctuate as well.

spiriteagle99

On days you exercise, eat back at least half the calories. See what the result is. My base maintenance is 1600 calories, but with exercise I usually eat over 2000, sometimes 2500. If I didn't eat back the exercise calories, I wouldn't have the energy to do my runs, plus I'd be a crazy hungry b***. Since my exercise is mostly running and walking, the burn is pretty well known and accurate, so I eat back 100%. Some exercises are less predictable, so you need to try out various percentages to see what you are actually burning.

sgt1372

If your maintenance level is 1600 cals/day you can eat 2000 and burn 400 cals/day to maintain your weight.

You do not have to work up to it. If you start eating 2k cals and start to gain weight, the dancing and walking you do is NOT burning 400 cal/day and you either need to exercise more or eat less to stop losing or gaining again. Your choice as to which.

HeyJudii

I wanted to maintain at 1800 cal/day, so I knew I needed to burn 1800 cal/day. If I want to eat more, I know I need to burn more also.