Increasing Calories & Weight Gain

Jhenry20

This week I decided to adjust my calories because in one week I lost about 4 pounds, and I would rather lose weight more slowly. The original calorie goal was 1240, and now it's up to about 1400. I'll admit, I hardly ever made up the exercise calories, that's one of the major reasons why I chose to adjust the goal. Anyway, I'm just wondering with the increase in calories if I should be expecting to gain a little bit of weight back the next couple weeks while my metabolism adjusts?

JennLifts

That will depend on how much you're working out and how much you're eating back. And.. how much maintenance is for you. If that's more than maintenance... which I would highly doubt it is, then yes. If it's still below, no. But You might stop losing for a moment.

angisnee

I'm not sure of the answer to your question, but I just wanted to say your attitude towards your weight loss is awesome! So many people that use this site have unrealistic expectations about how much they can realistically lose each week. In my experience, when my net calories drop too low (under 1400), my weight loss stalls. If I keep my net calories around 1600, I lose 1 to 1.5 pounds per week pretty consistently. Too bad it took me 2 months of no loss to figure that out!

Good luck with your continued weight loss!

alazarus

Your probably won't gain anything if you're only adding 160 calories a day after losing 4 lbs. in a week. You'll still continue to lose weight, but slightly slower. 1 lb. = 3,500 calories, and you're only adding in 1,120 a week-- so, after some math, you'll probably lose a little more than 3 1/2 pounds a week.

Jhenry20

Thanks. I've lost weight only to gain it back so many times, that I just want to make sure I'm doing it in a healthy way and realistic way. I don't know if the 3/4 lbs weight losses are due to my metabolism speeding up (I have been doing cardio 3-4 times a week plus some strength training) or if it was that I was eating too few calories. I'll stay with 1400 for a couple weeks and see how that goes. I think I'd rather increasing to 4-5 days of cardio a week than decrease calories. According to this site, to maintain my current weight would take 1900 calories a day (I can't imagine). So I'm hoping even if during the next couple weeks the weight loss slows down a bit, my body will adjust.

alazarus

Unless you have a lot to lose, it's usually recommended to lose only 1-2 lbs./week. But if you're making some drastic lifestyle changes (like exercising a lot when you're body's not used to any kind of exercise) and lowering your calorie intake, then your body will probably have a more drastic weight-loss response.

If you're used to 1900 calories a day, 1240 does seem a little too drastic. I think 1400 is a much safer bet. Without exercise, at that rate, you could expect to lose a pound a week-- which is a healthy loss! But, if you don't eat back your exercise calories, you'll probably lose more.

To eat or or not to eat back exercise calories is a huge topic of debate on these boards, but at any rate-- 1400 calories for you is probably a good change