Eating over your maintainance calories

Tanie98

How easy is it to eat 3500 over your maintenance calories when you stop logging your food.I am not at my maintenance yet but I calculated my maintenance calories when I reach my goal and I think they are allot and also exercise which means more food. I will however continue to log my food and take a break when I am away from home or out in family gathering as it would be stressful to worry about calories.

so is easy to eat 3500 calories to gain 1 pound when you stop paying attention to what you are eating en when you exercise?The reason why I gained weight in the first place is I stopped exercising regulary and I was eating allot of junk late at night.The weight gain was also gradual.so I was thinking if you keep up with exercise and you watch your potion sizes and you eat everything in moderation then you will be fine? Also for those who gained the weight back ,was it because you stopped exercising and you stopped paying attention to your diet?::glasses:

SezxyStef

for me personally, normally, over a week or two it wouldn't be hard to eat an extra 3500 calories over maitenance.

Esp in the winter...with all the comfort food.

I have almost 3k logged extra on Saturday (mainly alcohol) but some food too...2k worth.

If I don't pay attention, weigh and log I would get over weight again easy. Even with my exercise.

Define moderation...and how will you watch portion sizes? eyeball? estimate?

When I yo yo'd the same 25-30lbs over the last 4-5 years it's because I didn't pay attention to my food...

sexytati89

Yes, we all gained weight my eating 3500 and over. I think you should keep calculations of calories. For me, when I got big it was because I ate and did not calculate how much calories I was eating and gained a lot of weight. So from personal experience, knowing is better than not know so you don't blink and end up at the same weight. I lost 13 pounds before and stop calculating for a couple of days and gained most of it back.

levitateme

I've yo-yoed up and down losing somwhere between 30 and 85 lbs about six times. I kept gaining it back because I would hit goal and just go back to eating whatever, with no regard for calories. I knew what I was eating, and that it came out to like 3500-4500 a day (picked up some keen calorie eyeballing skills from losing weight so many times) but just did it anyway. I never exercised regularly, even when I was losing. I lived in NYC for most of my life and walked ~2 hours a day which pretty much covered it.

This time, I have fitness goals that require me to get my butt in gear and I enjoy going to the gym. I plan to log food forever because I don't trust myself. I'm doing body recomp and eating my supposed TDEE at 2300-2500 calories a day right now, which is more than enough food and logging takes so little time, plus it's automatic at this point.

PaytraB

Maintenance is a range of weight; not a specific weight. You need to decide your comfort level of "range" (+/- 5 lbs, for example), then occasionally check your weight and adjust your intake & exercise accordingly.
I first weighed and logged all my food & exercise to determine how much food those calories were (visually). After almost a year of that, I stopped weighing my food (just eyeballed it) and kept logging what I thought were the amounts. Over 6 months, I was within my range but slowly creeping upwards and I wasn't seeing the corresponding downwards swings. Now I'm weighing some foods that I'm not as certain about and that are higher calorie and I'm not counting my exercise calories (I enter the burn as "1 calorie"). That seems to be working and I seem to be maintaining well (some upward and some downward movement on the scale but always in the middle of my range).
Maintenance is a trial-and-error situation. You've got to find what will work for you for the long haul. You've got to remain diligent. That's the biggest lesson I've learned so far with maintenance.
It's very easy to eat an extra 3500 calories if you aren't paying much attention.

Francl27

Extremely easy to gain weight back. One extra snack and I'm 200 calories over etc. That's why I'll have to keep logging and probably maintain a small deficit to make up for 'those' days.

sarafischbach9

I gained weight in 2013 due to eating out too much and not moving around ( exercising ) enough.

I think if you keep track of your eating. It doesn't have to be perfectly logged on MFP but if you are mindful about your calories and keep yourself active, you should be fine. It is okay to eat over maintenance once in a while... that is going to happen and it is easy to do, but if you're keeping yourself good most other days, you should be fine.

I'm very active now at the moment ( training for a marathon ) so I'd need probably around 3000 for my body to even think about gaining weight, and I'd need to eat that most days of the week. And that would only be like 1/2 to 1 lb a week depending.

Tanie98

Yes, we all gained weight my eating 3500 and over. I think you should keep calculations of calories. For me, when I got big it was because I ate and did not calculate how much calories I was eating and gained a lot of weight. So from personal experience, knowing is better than not know so you don't blink and end up at the same weight. I lost 13 pounds before and stop calculating for a couple of days and gained most of it back.

You mean couple months ?its hard to believe that you gained the weight back in couple days:huh: