Increased cals from 1200 to 1500 and have gained significantly every day since

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  • purple4sure05
    purple4sure05 Posts: 287 Member
    edited April 2019
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    apullum wrote: »
    Weight fluctuation of a few pounds from day to day is normal. Fluctuations that encompass increasingly "less high upper numbers" are what normal weight loss looks like. Your Libra graph looks like weight loss at a pace that is generally reasonable given your stats.

    You are within the optimal BMI range for your height. Therefore, you should not be expecting or attempting to lose more than 0.5 lb/week, and that pace of loss may not be consistent. Additionally, 0.5 lb/week may even be faster than your stats can support. When people have very little to lose, it's common for them to only see the number on the scale go down by a pound or two every 4-6 weeks. A pound per week is not a realistic expectation given your stats.

    You also need to become comfortable with normal weight fluctuations as you approach maintenance. Maintenance is not one number. Maintenance is a weight range, usually about 5 pounds, and your weight will fluctuate within it from day to day.

    When you get to maintenance, you'll likely figure out your maintenance calorie goal by gradually adding calories, giving it *about a month* to see whether your weight has stabilized, and adjusting from there. Worrying about day to day fluctuations does not work well for maintenance. You are looking for long term trends rather than each day's number on the scale.

    I'm not currently worrying about the fluctuations, but my question was that I increased to a deficit that should make me lose a pound a week, but I've only really lost 1.5 over 4 weeks. I'm posting again to ask how I'm supposed to figure out my maintenance calories. When I ate 1200 calories i lost 2 pounds a week and then 1.5 or so at the end, so my maintenance calories should be almost 2000. I'm eating 1500 a day now and losing less than a half pound per week so now I'm confused because it significantly stalled my weight loss. I'm just asking for some help figuring out where to go from here. I dont necessarily want to lose weight, I'm just trying to slowly shift into maintenance by increasing calories month to month until I get there.
  • benevempress
    benevempress Posts: 136 Member
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    Since you are still losing and want to find your maintenance calories, and because the math isn't working out for you at this point, I suggest increasing 100 calories per day for a week or two (1600 calories for two weeks, 1700 calories for the next two weeks, etc) and if the trend is still down ... repeat. Eventually you should have a flatter trend line and you will have found your maintenance calorie level.
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
    edited May 2019
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    purple4sure05 wrote: »
    Hey guys, really stressed at the moment and not sure what to do. I've been eating 1200 calories gross for 3 months. I work out for over an hour 6 days a week running two and a half miles, walking quickly at an incline, and strength training. I'm 5'6 and around 131 pounds.

    I decided I needed to increase my calories and start slowing down my weight loss as I transition to maintenance, so I went up to 1500 after a "cheat" meal which was all logged and left me around 1500 cals net. So nothing too crazy.

    The day after my cheat meal I was 59.3 kg (1 kg is 2.2 pounds)
    The next day 59.7
    Then 59.8
    Then 59.8
    Then 60
    Now today I'm in at 60.4?!

    I need to add that my weight never fluctuates like this. I've seen it go up a maximum of .2 kg ever.

    Yes I weigh every single thing I eat on a scale. Including oil. My diet has stayed almost identical with an addition of a couple wafer cookies and popcorn or a small portion of spring rolls.

    This is 1500 gross as well which means 1200 net at the most with exercise cals.

    What am I doing wrong :( I want to just go back to 1200 before I ruin all my hard work. I was losing 1.5 to 2.2 pounds a week before and now I've gained every day for almost a week.

    It took me about 6 months to transition into maintenance and during that time my weight jumped all over the place, before finally settling down (I also lost another pants size during that time, as my body shape continued to change!). Seeing fluctuations right now is completely normal, also remember that you'll have a maintenance range and not a set number. This range takes into account all of the normal daily fluctuations that happen. Most chose a 3lb-5lb range :)

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