Eating over maintenance (not to lose)

tokens101

I have a question. Say your maintenance calories are X amount, and you eat, say, 50 more calories over your maintenance every day, will this eventually lead to weight gain (obviously ridiculously slow weight gain) or will your body simply burn these off because they aren't a substantial amount of calories on their own? It's out of pure curiosity but I just wonder how precise the process of maintenance is. We could flip it and say if you eat 50-100 calories under your maintenance every day (not necessarily conciously), will you lose weight exceptionally slowly, or will your body simply cope with the slight deficit in another manner and allow you to maintain? Thanks.

Stacyanne324

Well, you would have to assume that you knew the exact amount of calories you burn in a day and that your calculations are spot on for exercise and food/drinks consumed which is impossible. If it were possible to know down to the calorie and you went 50 over then yes you would very slowly gain (3500 calories is a pound of fat so ...very slowly). But, since you can never know that if you eat 50 calories over or under what you estimate to be maintenance it really won't make any difference either way.

allison0820

Bump for later... I wonder the same thing... I am not finished losing however have had to go to maintenance mode for a short while due to my upcoming wedding and wanting to be able to fit in my dress... I have set everything to mainteance until then (April 28th), but have still managed to lose a little... ???

hottottie11

50-100 consistently over a long period of time will cause slow weight gain. Likewise, 50-100 consistently under your calories will cause weight gain. However, everything is an estimate. What you may think is a overage/underage may not be.

zsaoosh

MFP isnt perfect, so just watch the scale. If it goes up, started eating less. BUT basically, 50 cals over what your body needs will add up to 18250 cals a year which is a little more then 5 lbs. BUT just work out a little and your good to go. But everyone is different and MFP isnt perfect so just see what it does for you.

tokens101

As this is a purely theoretical situation, can we assume that it is a definite fact you eat a tiny weeny bit over maintenance every day?

Julezebub

Yeah the maintenance number you are given is based on your BMR in my case 1434 cals a day and then an estimated number of cals is added on top based on my percieved activity level bringing it to 1940 for me. Those extra cals are a total estimate bearing in mind everyday is not groundhog day and there are all sorts of fluctuations.

The BMR itself is even a bit of a guess so MFP really works best based on an average. If you are slightly over every day yes you would slowly gain. If you are slightly over some days you'll be fine.

lporter229

An interesting question. Here are my thoughts on it...

Unless you are in a highly controlled laboratory environment, the business of counting calories is not an exact science. It is impossible to determine exactly how many calories are consumed and burned every day. There is error an portion sizes and the calculators for calorie burn are estimates at best. I would think that for most people, there is AT LEAST 50 calories of error in their daily calculation. That said, is it possible that if you exceed you daily goal by 50 calories everyday that you will gain a pound in 70 days? yes. It is also entirely possible that you will maintain your current weight or even lose a pound.

I think the goal in counting calories is to be aware of your caloric intake and to keep yourself from over indulging to the point that weight gain is inevitable, not to obsess about every single calorie you consume. The goal is to learn good habits so that calorie counting is no longer necessary.

tokens101

To add to this, people go stick to similar calorie goals when dieting/maintaining. I for instance, eat around 2000 calories a day (normally just under) and comfortably maintain on that but what are the chances that I burn exactly 2000 calories a day?