upping calories

kentlass

hey,

for a long time i've been undereating and over exercising...not healthy but i love exercise and have a hard time eating alot....but i've lately, for the last week or so, upped my calories by ALOT...am eating between 1800-2000cals a day on exercise days...i am trying to stay high protein, reasonable carbs and fat.
my question is, when should i notice if this amount is working for me?

i know i will probably gain a little at first and am prepared for that, but how long do i give it before i'll know if doing it this way is working for me

thanks in advance

mturgeon05

I would give it 6-8 weeks eating that many calories and then re-assess. If you gain, drop that number by 100 and give it a few weeks before you recalculate. You will need to experiment with the numbers in order to find what works for you, but it isn't going to be worth anything if you give up on it too quickly. It's all about finding your right number.

Good luck!

myfitnessnmhoy

In all likelihood, you'll start seeing it first in your workout performances, then in your overall energy levels.

You may or may not experience a weight gain, especially if you are remaining active. I've been using calorie increases to break plateaus (I lower my goal by a half-pound) and after about a week of additional plateau the weight starts slowly coming off again. Each time I do it, I lose weight more slowly but feel better, and I up my exercise intensity as soon as I start feeling better.

If you are consistently gaining weight and have done so for at least 2-3 weeks, chances are you have your calories set too high. Remember that 500 calories a day is a pound a week. A lot of your days are currently close to 500 calorie deficits below your goal. So you aren't (as far as I can see) making a ridiculously radical change.

If you can, I'd take advantage of the increased intake and the proteins and experiment with some heavy lifting. The muscle will serve you well in the long run.

Also, a lot of your exercise calorie days are very high. Are you verifying the calorie burn from those workouts?

kentlass

yes, i have a polar HRM...i run at 9mph for alot of my runs(intervals on treadmill) so the calories do tend to be very high...but i deliberately don't eat back all of my exercise calories to allow for BMR(obviously i'm already eating those back in my base cals) and any possible over-estimation of calories/under-estimation of food calories

i have been wanting to get into heavy lifting but i only work out at home, have been planning to go and buy some more weights though