What happens if your maintenance level is too low?

jmsspr93

What happens when your testing your maintenance level by say 100 extra a day per week then 200 a day and you find out your maintenance level is like 1600 when it should be nearer 2000?

sijomial

It's the way the cards fall - not everyone can be "average", some people will be under estimates and some will be over.

Calculators have always over-estimated calories for me. :sad:

darrensurrey

I guess you can increase your maintenance by making yourself bigger. Whether that's through more fat or more muscle is up to you. As well as making yourself generally more active.

FromHereOnOut

Just be certain that you aren't mistaking glycogen replenishment + water gain for fat gain.

Joannesmith2818

Well I got to 1600 cals and was maintaining. But I carried on increasing to 2000 and I was still maintaining at that. So maybe if you haven't already, maybe try going higher anyway !

xDawnsgrace

that happens, friend. my maintenance "should" be around 1500-1600, and it's around 1200-1300(though it's true that i don't have as much muscle as i should for my weight, either).

gemmamummy

The body is a funny thing. 2 months ago I would have said my maintenance was 1500 but now I've been eating between 1900-2220 a day. Initially when I upped it to 1700 I saw a couple of pounds increase, I did freak out but carried on gradually upping it and strangely the couple of pounds disappeared and I now weigh the same as what I did on 1500 cals, even though my workout is the same.....strange! I'm trying to put muscle on so its quite annoying! Sometimes I think you have to test things for a couple of weeks and wait it out before you drop down again.

sun_fish

It's the way the cards fall - not everyone can be "average", some people will be under estimates and some will be over.

Calculators have always over-estimated calories for me. :sad:

This is me too. Based on my results eating at a deficit, my calories are lower than average too. It's just the way it is. :ohwell: