Upped my calories and upped my weight!

Anyaaaa11

I think you should just stick it out.. What goes up, must come down.. Right?(:
It looks like youve already lost weight so I don't think that 6lbs will make a difference. Your body is just probably confused
With where to put the extra calories. Only time will even it out. Once your weight starts to level off I think you'll be alright.

I think you should just enjoy the increased amount of calories your getting. Even though your body seems to be rejecting the extra food that it's not used to, you'll be glad you upped in the first place..

Btw, I gained 4lbs when I upped but I'm happy I did!

meerkat70

bless you flaxmix. there's a bit more to diagnosis than dsm. (and incidentally, dsmv is in the final stages of development if you want to update your bookmarks).

meerkat70

Yep not rocket science.

A 6-pound gain is a probable sign of the obvious: She's consuming too many calories for her activity level.

what, water weight?

just as well it isn't rocket science, really, isn't it?

littleali

Thank you all for your suggestions, but I'm still stumped with the conflicting advice.

in terms of exercise, I run 3-4 miles 5/6 days a week and strength train with 5kg dumbells 3x a week.

I calculated the following on fattofit:
BMR: 1490
TDEE: 2223

The thing is, if I'm gaining on a net of 1300-1400, surely logic tells me I will gain on 1490-2223?

How much am I supposed to bump my calories up by?

Thank you all for your replies!

theoriginaljayne

Thank you all for your suggestions, but I'm still stumped with the conflicting advice.

in terms of exercise, I run 3-4 miles 5/6 days a week and strength train with 5kg dumbells 3x a week.

I calculated the following on fattofit:
BMR: 1490
TDEE: 2223

The thing is, if I'm gaining on a net of 1300-1400, surely logic tells me I will gain on 1490-2223?

How much am I supposed to bump my calories up by?

Thank you all for your replies!

Ideally, you should net somewhere between 1490 and 2223 calories per day.

1490 is your basal metabolic rate, or the energy needed to sustain your most vital bodily functions (such as breathing and maintaining body temperature). You should net at least this amount every day to ensure that you're not depriving your body of the energy it needs to survive.

However, unless you're in a coma (unlikely, because you're here on the forum), you actually expend far more than 1490 calories every day. In addition to breathing and such, you get up and move around and exercise and so on. That's where your total daily energy expenditure comes into play. 2223 calories is the total amount of energy needed to get you through your normal daily activities.

In theory, if you ate exactly 2223 calories, you would expend every single one of those calories and thus maintain your weight. If you ate less than that, you'd need to obtain the missing energy from your body's own energy stores. This should result in weight loss.

If I were you, I'd up my net to around 1600 calories a day for a while (give it a month or two), and see how I feel. Feel free to experiment with calories and macronutrient ratios and exercise levels, but I definitely would not restrict your calories any further. Your maintenance calories should be pretty close to your estimated TDEE, so over time, you'd want to work up to around two thousand calories or so -- and it looks like you're pretty close to your goal weight, so now is a good time to begin the transition to maintenance.

(Edited for typographical errors -- I haven't had my daily coffee yet, so I'm not fully functioning at the moment!)

meerkat70

Jayne's answer is very thorough and sensible.

How long have you been on your slightly increased intake? it does take a while for your body to re-adjust to the healthier intake. You can't have gained 6lb of actual fat (logically, you just haven't eaten enough, whatever the rocket scientists above might suggest). So give it a bit more time, see how you get on over a month or so.

foxbat2828

Thank you all for your suggestions, but I'm still stumped with the conflicting advice.

in terms of exercise, I run 3-4 miles 5/6 days a week and strength train with 5kg dumbells 3x a week.

I calculated the following on fattofit:
BMR: 1490
TDEE: 2223

The thing is, if I'm gaining on a net of 1300-1400, surely logic tells me I will gain on 1490-2223?

How much am I supposed to bump my calories up by?

Thank you all for your replies!

Perhaps this may help you out a little along with some additional "food for thought"

I posted this on another similar thread about eating back calories or the eat more to lose issue. Most of it pertains to your question; especially since you know your BMR and TDEE. Since your net intake is below your BMR, I think this is where your bigger issue is. Take a look below and see if it makes a little more sense. I too have been conflicted by that 1,200 total / net number, not because I don't believe it, but because I think it's too cut and dry. The BMR is much more "personalized" and thus I think is something that would have better, more consistent results in breaking plateaus, leading to higher weight loss, etc. ESPECIALLY among people who do decent amounts of exercise on a regular basis.

****************************************** Text from other post follows ***************************************

Whenever one is dieting, there are three things that are lost ... a combination of fat, water, and muscle. Typically, as long as one eats above their BMR, they are going to be targeting much more fat than muscle. Once we dip below that BMR, we end up in a situation where we start losing muscle in greater quantity. The more extreme the diet or calorie deficit, the more muscle will be impacted by the dieting. While folks often point toward 1,200 calories or 1,200 calories net as being the magic number, I'm convinced much more that BMR is that threshold point that our body looks at with regard to how metabolism is impacted. It tends to be much more specific and individualized that the 1,200 total / 1,200 net number because it is calculated taking into account other factors like height, weight, age.

In other words, stay above your BMR in your dieting, while making sure that calories in < calories out and you will lose weight ... with a larger percentage of the weight loss coming from fat/water loss. When we dip below that BMR, we can still lose weight although 1) the percentage of loss that impacts muscle is greater and 2) we ultimately can slow our metabolism making weight loss drop off dramatically and eventually even resulting in seeing weight gain.

By the way, this is a big reason why, when dieting, you'll often hear most trainers and medical folks suggest some type of weight regimen along with cardio and reduced caloric intake. Most of us think of weight training the wrong way ... like we need to figure out how to set a world record in the press or continually beat our personal best ... however, it's not quite to that extreme and just a little incorporation of weights into your overall routine will help to replenish any muscle that gets consumed in the dieting effect ... provided that we aren't going to extremes in our caloric deficits. Even under the best conditions of dieting, we can lose muscle; and that's not good. As such, it's a good thing to put in a little weight training activity into your overall exercise to keep our muscle status quo while losing the fat. It looks like you have weights in your regimen, so you appear to be good-to-go" in that aspect.


One last thing. Most folks that "add calories" often state that they have trouble adding the calories and often look to supplement those extra calories with highly processed foods. Someone might look at an additional 450 calories of food that need to be consumed and think, "Well, I can each three doughnuts and hit that and then I don't have to eat that much more." While those three doughnuts will certainly close the calorie gap, my guess is that the person that eats them, after eating relatively lean on their first 1,200 calories will feel kind of bloated and sluggish. Look for alternatives that are high protein as opposed to high-carb/high-sugar. One thing that I've found that's great for "killing calories" in a healthy way when I'm not really hungry, but have a whole bunch of calories left over at the end of the day are nuts. One ounce of almonds will eat up about 170 calories. While they are high in fat, they are high in the good fats, mono- and poly-unsaturated, and those help to raise your HDL, the good cholesterol, and ultimately lower the bad cholesterol. Do one ounce in the morning, one at lunch, and one ounce for a snack after dinner and you have consumed 510 calories, 18 grams of protein, only 3 grams of saturated fat, and 9 grams of fiber. A way to get the calories without all of the bloat and in a healthy way. Feel free to experiment with other higher-protein items to finish off those added calories that at least get you to BMR..

AnnyaSB

Bump to return and read the above again when I have time to digest it (pardon the pun :laugh: )

em9371

One thing I noticed on your food diary is that some of the entries are missing sodium. I'm not sure if that would be enough to have water retention, but I know that all milks and cheese have at least some sodium, and the listings your using for your cheddar and oats with skim milk are listed as zero. Not pointing fingers or anything... it's something that some people leave off when they enter their foods.

Also, be sure to track your progress through measurements, how clothes fit and photos. The scale... sucks.

^^
this is good advice, if you are working out you may get smaller and not lose any lbs, if you are not doing weight training already then you should start. i only lost 0.5lbs this week but i got in a smaller size jeans - inches are way more important than weight.

double check all entries, you could be eating more than you think if entries are incorrect. An extra 250 cals a day over what you should be eating means a half pound a week gain, so small errors in database can really add up, and sodium can cause water weight gain.

If you are eating back exercise, the exercise cals in the database are generally on the high side, so invest in a HRM to be sure you are eating back the correct amounts
OR
the TDEE calcs on the fat2fit page are good as exercise is already allocated for in your cal allowance so you dont have to worry about eating back exercise.

also try tracking your sugar, i noticed that you eat more fruit than veg, and also lots of low fat yogurt which is usually very high in sugar, fat free greek yogurt is delicious, and has higher protein and much lower sugar than your normal 'diet' yogurts.
MFP standard is about 35g, I altered mine to 60g but i regularly come in over that just from fruit and milk, so im trying now to eat more veg and no more than 2-3 fruits a day.


finally, unless you are eating above your MAINTENANCE cals, its impossible to gain fat and the gain will just be temporary while your body adjusts to the new calorie levels, so stick with it. As you dont have much to lose, you should adjust your goal to 0.5 a week :-)

Pidders89

I upped my calories as i have plateaued too, it worked for me, it can take about a month for your body to get used to it so please don't get disheartened its just your are fuelling your body more now, which is a good thing as under 1200 isn't healthy.

Keep at it i'm sure you will get there, a lot of people have lost weight from upped their calories, its also easier for you then when you want to maintain

xx

Lyadeia

I appreciate all the advice I read on this site, but, at the end of the day, I have to listen to my own body.

I agree with this statement.

I had been on a plateau since January with both pounds and inches. I was at 140 pounds and 30 inch waist from New Year's until the beginning of March. I was eating 1550 calories minimum, exercising 4 times a week heavy weight lifting and 2 times a week cardio. Tons of people said that I should try eating more because I was getting more fit and exercised a lot. So I tried that. I gained 2 pounds and 1 inch in my waist by mid-March (exercise was the same). I then asked the advice of Steve Troutman (very awesome guy on this website who really knows his stuff. I took his advice to lower my calories to 1400. He said a good rule of thumb was 10 cals per pound body weight, and then you can adjust up or down if needed depending on results. Well, I've lost 3 pounds and 3 inches from my waist since then. I am definitely NOT starving and actually feel more energized now than before. I am dropping body fat like there's no tomorrow...

So, yeah, I appreciate everyone trying to help by telling me to eat more, really I do, cause they were just trying to help. But at the end of the day, the right advice for me was to eat slightly less calories... I do have a "refeed" once a week where I eat maintenance level or slightly above...but normally eat around 1400 net calories a day. (Not sure about going lower than that, but may reduce by 50-100 cals. if I lose 10ish more pounds and plateau again)

Sure, "conventional wisdom" says to eat less. And the "new thing" is to eat more. BUT, I think they can be consolidated... Eat less than you were eating when you gained the weight, eat less than your maintenance level............but eat more than your BMR. I think both thoughts are correct in the correct context, but "eat less" is not right if you are starving and "eat more" is not right if you are eating above maintenence...so do one or the other correctly and you are technically doing both. My .02 cents.

Hope1971

I also struggle in my mind what is right or not. But what I believe is that there is a huge misconception of Calorie starving vs nutrient starving. I don't think that a body could care less about calorie starving..you could eat till the cows come home and think you are doing great however if you are not feeding your body the proper nutrients in my opinion THAT IS STARVATION MODE. Now with that said, if you are eating 1200 calories and the food you are consuming has little to no nutritional value then heck yes you are starving yourself ..in the true definition. If you are eating 1200 calories and that food is loaded with nutritional value your body will not be in starvation mode because you are giving it what it really wants. As an example a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's is not going to give you those nutrients that your body is starving for. I eat as much as my body tells me too..some days its 900 some days its 1400. It all depends on what my body tells me. However when I am hungry 80 % of what I am putting into my body is full of nutritional value and good for me.

ladyraven68

The initial gain is going to be water weight as your glycogen stores are replenished

http://www.justinowings.com/understanding-bodyweight-and-glycogen-de/

it is impossible for it to be fat.

it takes 3500 EXCESS calories to add 1lb of fat. That means your daily maintenance plus another 500 calories on top.
As you only increased by 200 cals this cannot be the case.

This is a good article - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/208407-how-to-repair-a-damaged-metabolism-stavation-mode?

Also , you may find a lot of people in the same situation in this group - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4455-metabolism-repair-mode

Hopefully they will be able to give you some advice.

Good Luck.

morganadk2_deleted

Here is a guide for setting weekly deficits, and on top of this when you workout you should eat those calories back. So if you are on 1200 cals and burn 300, you should eat 1500 for the day.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

erinkeely4

Unless you are under about 4'9" you should NOT be eating under 1200 calories!!! You are gaining weight now because you actually have food in your digestive system. Let your body catch up. Eat healthy food. Do strength training.

huntingforhipbones

I would never up my calories in order to lose weight. Conventional wisdom says if you want to lose weight eat less and exercise more. I don't know why some people on MFP say to eat more food. It makes no sense to me. I do eat some of my exercise calories on days I am extra hungry but I try not to. I'll agree we probably shouldn't eat below 1200 calories but even occasionally I'll do that. I don't believe in eating if you're not hungry. All my life this is what I have been taught and that is the way I've lost 47 pounds. If eating more food really works for some well good for them. I know it would never work for me. :flowerforyou:

Agreed. I mean, whenever people on MFP say, "eat more", it just seems so counterintuitive to me.

XXXMinnieXXX

confusing hey? x

downtownstazi

Eat your 1200-1500 calories. Work out more. Strength train to build muscle. Keep trying new work outs to break platters, everyone's different.

Miss2Mrs2013

Firstly well done on your weight loss so far! Without knowing what your BMR, TDEE and how much you are exercising its difficult to know for sure why you have gained 6lbs. As for the difference between eating less or eating more, I think everyone is right, depending on who you are referring to. Allow me to explain...

I am currently obese, the reason I am obese is because I have stuffed my face with probably between 4000-6000calories a day with no exercise. Ok my BMR is 2000 and my TDEE about 2730 but thats still a massive amount of calories over hence I put on weight. Therefore the "conventional" method of eat less, exercise more is correct for me. I have to eat less than my TDEE in order to lose weight. Therefore eat less, exercise more is correct in terms of your TDEE!! (you probably know all this since youve done so well already..Im only starting out, but as I have dieted my whole life, I have a good idea of what to do..I just need to do it! )

HOWEVER, there is a limit to how much less to eat. If you starve yourself and your body isnt getting what it needs to work with you to lose weight, then you need to eat more. Now, something I have learnt new is unless you are obese (like me) you shouldnt eat below your BMR. As you will know your BMR is what your body needs to function...if you dont give your car petrol, it wont get you very far. Since you are near goal, you definitely dont want to go below you BMR. What is your BMR? and please dont ever go below 1200 calories unless you are on a medically controlled diet by doctors orders! Of course you can lose weight on lesser and lesser calories. However whether your body has all the nutrients it needs, whether it is sustainable and maintanable is another matter. I did a shakes diet on 500 calories a day lost about 7stone in 6months, however it wasnt sustainable I started eating "healthily" probably 1200calories a day and guess what..I put weight on...all of it and more..starting with 11lbs in 3 days!!

So everyone is right to an extent...everyone is different and I think its a bit of trial and error to find out what best works for you. 6lbs could be natural fluctuations, water retention, muscle mass, starvation mode..there are a number of reasons...personally and this is just what I would do at that point (you dont have to, its up to you), you only have a little to lose now so you dont really want to be losing more than 1lb a week - so TDEE-500calories and eat back your exercise calories ..give your body a couple of months to recover. Goodluck, I know this doesnt answer it, but I hope it helps in some way...:)

ladyraven68

I would never up my calories in order to lose weight. Conventional wisdom says if you want to lose weight eat less and exercise more. I don't know why some people on MFP say to eat more food. It makes no sense to me. I do eat some of my exercise calories on days I am extra hungry but I try not to. I'll agree we probably shouldn't eat below 1200 calories but even occasionally I'll do that. I don't believe in eating if you're not hungry. All my life this is what I have been taught and that is the way I've lost 47 pounds. If eating more food really works for some well good for them. I know it would never work for me. :flowerforyou:

Agreed. I mean, whenever people on MFP say, "eat more", it just seems so counterintuitive to me.

they simply mean, eat more than your BMR, not more than maintenance.

As long as you are still between BMR and TDEE you will lose fat.