how slow to increase calories?

grover0ca

I was eating below BMR by approx 100-200 calories..I think it is almost 3 weeks now since I increased my calories to my BMR. I haven't gained but I am maintaining..so I want to increase again. Should I do that now or wait a bit longer? Should I increase by 100 calories at a time? Just wondering how much time to let pass between upping my calories for each jump.

Thanks!

dannyarguello

Its all personal preference as far as i know. doing it slower will just make the spikes in weight less noticeable.. Personally i have little patience for slowly upping cals so i essentially doubled my calories over night. Do what ever will allow you to stick with the program.

ANewLucia

I ended up doing it slowly because I didn't know what I know now...I just wasn't losing at 1200, or 1350...starving to death most of the time and binging...at 1500 a slight decrease then the same plateau thing, THEN I read a few forums, diff posts, and an excerpt from NROLWFW and BAM light bulb went off. HAD I KNOW FROM THE BEGINING, I would have upped immediately, but you have to do what you are comfy with. If you live and die by the scale, then it may be easier for you to adjust up slowly...if you understand that you may see a little spike that will level off then start to decend slowly thereafter...then go for it!

Have you calculated your TDEE -15%, because that is the number to work towards. You not losing/gaining means the body needs more food. So, work out to that cut value and make sure to NET no less than BMR on high burn days.

An example let's say your cut amount is 1800 and BMR 1500 then if you workout and burn 250 then you just eat the 1800 for the day...but if you have a burn over 300 let's say a 500 burn, then you need to eat at least 200 cals so you net your BMR. If you change you MFP goals (just ignore what it says you will lose) then you can watch your homepage for your NET calories for the day...if it dips below bmr on workout days then eat until it hits at least that BMR number.

31prvrbs

In a nutshell, you could either hop right to it, and ride out the wave, or increase slowly (50-100cal/wk) until you get to the desired level. Things will have to equalize either way, so you pick the method you're comfy w/.

Other than that, here are some general tips on fitting more cals into your day:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/increasing-cals-finding-maintenance-some-pointers-201248

grover0ca

I have calculated my bmr and tdee (thank goodness for this forum or I would have had no clue what a problem my lower calories are) and I am wanting to keep increasing. I think maybe I will do another jump in the next week then (yeah!).