240 extra calories a day equals 25 extra pounds each year

efirkey

*** Disclaimer *** Sorry for all the math.

You don't have to overeat that much to gain a lot over the years. I wanted to try and figure out how many calories I burn a day, so I just did some basic math.

I added all my calories from the last 31 days and added to that the calories I lost in weight this month (10 pounds x 3500 calories ) and divided that number by 31 to get the amount of calories I burn in a day. This assumes there is 3500 calories in a pound of weight loss.

I ate on average 1812 calories each day (total calories for the month divided by 31) and I lost on average 1129 calories each day in weight (10 pounds x 3500 calories divided by 31). I added these two numbers together and I burn 2941 calories per day (in the last month). From the formulas online I determined my TDEE to be 2862 calories per day, so I am pretty close to that number.

I can only calculate this because I track every calorie I eat and log it all. This is one reason why logging everything is so important.

Last year before MFP I gained 25 pounds so I was curious to see what that actually is in regards to overeating calories. If you take 25 pounds and multiply that by 3500 calories, the number of calories in a pound of fat, you get 87,500 excess calories I ate last year. Divide that number by 365 days and you get approximately 240 extra calories each day.

This means that last year I ate on average 3181 calories each day. Not a huge number for a guy to have gained 25 pounds.

If I had exercised 240 calories more each day last year I would not have gained a pound.

Also I drank on average about a 12 pack of beer each week last year. That alone is 93,600 calories and more than the surplus I had last year.

It doesn't take much for you to gain a lot of weight over time and it also shouldn't take a huge deficit to lose a lot of weight over time.

jonnythan

Unfortunately it's not that simple. The body does undergo adaptations within a few percent either way. An extra 100 calories a day above some middle "maintenance" value will generally lead to no increased body mass at all, for instance.

efirkey

I am just throwing out some real numbers. Can you prove that I can eat 100 calories over every day and not gain weight?

What is a middle maintenance value?

what if it is that simple?

I do believe your TDEE does change all the time depending on many factors. For example as I weigh less with weight loss my TDEE may go down, but if I add lean muscle mass it may go up. But over time there should be some averages that may help you zero in on what the numbers may be for you.

And yes I do agree that no matter what you do your body will adapt the best it can.

dbirty

Brilliant post.