Part 2: serious help needed

Girl_Bomb

So sounds obvious to some but someone suggested that every time I up my calories I gain weight so I should decrease them, well duh right? But I thought according to EM2WL says your body hoards calories until you feed it enough and it adjusts, so with that I should keep eating at 2200-2400 and wait it out?? Or say F it and decrease calories?

Noor13

No, you do not decrease the cals as long as you are not over your TDEE. Are you resetting?

norcal_yogi

....bumping.....cause this is a big question (and one i'm personally still on the fence about).

ladyace2078

I think it depends on a lot of things. Did you do VLCD for a long time? What is maintenace TDEE for you? How do you want to eat for the rest of your life? What's important to you - a number on the scale or looking a certain way and being able to accomplish certain fitness goals?

Gaining on scale doesn't mean much of anything when you are lifting weights. It just doesn't. I once gained 5 lbs and lost a dress size at the same time. In fact it happened again recently. In the last 2 weeks I started fitting into a size 6, but instead being at the low 171 lbs I've been at the high 176 lbs during that time. The scale number just doesn't mean anything.

Noor13

I think it depends on a lot of things. Did you do VLCD for a long time? What is maintenace TDEE for you? How do you want to eat for the rest of your life? What's important to you - a number on the scale or looking a certain way and being able to accomplish certain fitness goals?

Gaining on scale doesn't mean much of anything when you are lifting weights. It just doesn't. I once gained 5 lbs and lost a dress size at the same time. In fact it happened again recently. In the last 2 weeks I started fitting into a size 6, but instead being at the low 171 lbs I've been at the high 176 lbs during that time. The scale number just doesn't mean anything.

So true.

heybales

So sounds obvious to some but someone suggested that every time I up my calories I gain weight so I should decrease them, well duh right? But I thought according to EM2WL says your body hoards calories until you feed it enough and it adjusts, so with that I should keep eating at 2200-2400 and wait it out?? Or say F it and decrease calories?

Well, if you are wrong about the estimated TDEE, then eating more doesn't cause the metabolism to go faster, except for the fact you'll weigh more and that causes a speed up. Not enough to compensate for eating too much of course.

But on the other end, you can eat too little and cause everything to slow down. Probably the state you were in or approaching and wanted nothing of.

So you can approach it two ways.

Try to under eat and keep going up calories slowly, hoping the metabolism follows quickly to a new balance point, where it feels safe enough to allow a deficit, or you might say max deficit you can take before it feels threatened.

Or try to eat at estimated enough and then lower, hopefully not finding the point that causes the body to slow and just balance out because it doesn't feel safe.

Many have slowly increased calories, like 200 extra a day for weeks on end, they won't gain, but they won't lose either. Body just reached another set point because deficit from what it would like was still too great. So new TDEE was new eating level.
At least during that time, the slight increase in food means the body finally has something to work with to make improvements for the exercise being done. But not as much as it could.

So then another 200 calories for weeks on end. Same thing, maintain, no loss, no changes to measurements.

So, are you finally eating at real TDEE, or suppressed TDEE? How would you know? Lower cals? Perhaps a short loss of weight, and then no changes again. Nope, suppressed TDEE.

Then another 200 added. Ahhhh, finally a 1/2 lb loss a week avg for several weeks. So must have a 250 cal deficit on avg.
But from what? The real TDEE, or suppressed TDEE?
Is there more that could be lost, by eating a tad more?

Another 200 added. Ahhhh, now 1lb a loss week, body doesn't feel threatened, metabolism is running at full speed and feels safe enough with the 500 cal deficit.

How long did that just take to get there? How many weeks at each 200 add?

If easier to just feel safe, add 200 daily for one week, do another 200 daily the next week, and move it on up there to TDEE faster.

If you really do reach your real TDEE, the effect should be perhaps some slight weight gain at first, but as metabolism speeds up, it continues to be less and less gain. Exactly the same effect as when metabolism slowed and you lost less and less each week.

Now, if you keep gaining like 1/2 lb weekly after several weeks, constantly, that shows a surplus to your TDEE, your metabolism isn't going any higher likely. Subtract 250 from daily goal, eat it several weeks and confirm you are now maintaining.

That would then appear to be your real TDEE. That divided by current weight BMR is your personal multiplier for your level of activity. If you keep that activity, that multiplier still applies at new weight BMR's as you drop weight.

Now take the reasonable 15% deficit, aware that if you are working hard, the body improvements may hide scale losses with fat loss and LBM gains. Not likely muscle, but still LBM, which is increased metabolism too.

So use Katch BMR based on bodyfat - because you may actually find yourself needing to eat more as you lose weight! Not only because the deficit should be smaller with less to lose, but you have more LBM taking energy.

justjen0117

Bump....note to self: READ this weekly!