Does metabolism pick back up after a while of maintaining?

albinayb

I lost 25 lbs over 4 months and then found my maintenance calorie level by gradually increasing until I stopped losing. I've been maintaining for a month and a half at this level but now my weight is going down a bit again. I've been exercising at a pretty even pace the entire time, so no clear reason why it would go down.
I'm in my 40s so not working with sky high metabolism here, but does it usually pick up after the weight stabilizes for a while? I'm determined not to gain again, but would rather stay at goal weight and not below.

heybales

Not really your metabolism, which is your base sleeping burn rate to take care of the necessities of the body.
Now, since you have less body, it has slowed some and that won't speed back up of course.

That's like the last thing slowed down when presented with a foolish level of undereating.

Above that is slowing down other things the body does, keeping warm, growing hair & nails, replacing skin and muscle, ect. You may not have noticed that depending on how reasonable your diet was.

First thing lost has probably started coming back - spontaneous movements, other willingness to move more.
That can keep increasing back to where it was.
Workouts may be getting better, so burning more, or causing more damage that needs more repair.

And it's good to push it higher unless you are just comfortable with level of eating and not going outside your weight goal range.
Yeah - make it a range, not a number, or you'll drive yourself nuts with water weight fluctuations.

albinayb

It's true that I am getting stronger and workouts are improving, so it could be just that. I understand about water weight and also am trying to keep track of body fat % that's been coming down a bit over the last month. Range vs number is also clear, but now I'm 4 lb under goal and that's more than water (water fluctuations for me are usually +-2 lbs). I guess I'll add a few calories and see how it goes.

heybales

So if that was 4 lb additional loss in 4 weeks, or whatever time period, take half of it as non-water weight change. Or all of it if pretty sure it wasn't.

2 lb x 3500 cal/lb fat / 28 days = 250 cal additional deficit daily.

So you would eat additional 250 cal daily on average.
Or whatever your math works out to for time range and weight lost.

sijomial

My maintenance calories rose after a couple of month maintaining, I just started losing weight on what previously had been my maintenance calories computed from my rate of loss and also confirmed by the scales holding steady for a while. Bumped my calories up and it stabilised again.

Much longer term increased my maintenance calories significantly through raised activity levels and higher volume of exercise.

TBH in purely maths terms don't add a "few calories" when you are already well under goal weight, add what you compute to be your current deficit.

albinayb

Yes this looks like the situation I'm in, so I should just keep tweaking the calories until I get the desired result. 4 lb, only half of which is likely real, is not "well under goal" (I'm also fairly tall), so i don't think i need extra rescue feeding by 250 immediately (my entire losing vs my current maintenance differential was 450). This is actually great, appears that the workouts are changing my body beyond the number on the scale. Thank you all for advice!

Theo166

I suspect you are burning more calories from increased exercise. Also, your TDEE would increase if your muscle mass is increasing. It would be natural to increase your exercise calorie burn as you continue training.

ninerbuff

If you're getting stronger and workouts increasing, then you're burning more calories. Just bump it a little in calories and see if you level off.

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