People eating low calorie to maintain weight, read!

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  • lambchoplewis
    lambchoplewis Posts: 797
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    Great post - I did not know about the glycogen storage. I have been maintaining for 10 months and find it interesting to understand all this.
  • kath711
    kath711 Posts: 712 Member
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    bump, great posts, thanks!
  • gbeveridge1
    gbeveridge1 Posts: 1 Member
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    The reason most people think they have to eat so little to maintain their weight is because our bodies naturally store glycogen and water in our muscles. This is the body's ready energy. When you eat at a caloric deficit, the glycogen stores (and the water molecules they must bind to in the cells) are shed first. That's why you get a big loss the first week of any diet. You just depleted your glycogen stores and now the body has no choice but to resort to fat in a continued caloric deficit.

    So you keep up your deficit and your body is burning both glucose from the food you're eating and fat from your body (and some lean mass because you're in a deficit and that will just happen anyway) and you finally get to a weight you like. So you increase your calories to stop losing...

    Or, you just decide to ditch the caloric deficit for a weekend of eating without discretion...

    Or Christmas rolls around or you go on vacation and you eat to satisfaction and maybe a touch more...

    ... and you find you almost instantly put on 5 lbs.

    All that has happened is your body has restored its glycogen stores and the water that glycogen must be stored with. In fact, trained endurance athletes will deliberately store extra glycogen by carb-loading before major events in order to have more energy for sustained effort. The body will, under perfect conditions, store this energy for use. It's part of being human.

    So suppose you want to maintain your weight at 125 lbs. You diet down to 125 and then think, "Awesome! I will diligently increase my calories to maintenance." So you were eating 1700 calories/day to lose and you increase to 2000 calories daily... and after 1 week you've put on 1.5 lbs... so you cut back down to 1800 and your weight stays the same but now you're at 126.5... but you want to be 125lbs, so now you're just pissed off. So you go back down to 1500 calories for a week and you get back down to 125lbs. Then you increase by only 100 calories/day for a week and your weight stays the same... so you do it again... and you stay the same. You think, "Yay! I'm maintaining!"... And any time you eat over 1800 calories daily you start to gain again.

    Why?

    Because your body just wants 5 lbs of glycogen stores. The solution? Cut down to 5 lbs under your target weight and then eat at maintenance. Your body will rebound up to a healthy non-glycogen-depleted state and you'll be able to maintain relatively effortlessly and eat more food.

    Okay, sorry... that was long-winded. I just cringe at the number of people who think they have to eat so little to maintain.




    What a fantastic post! :flowerforyou: :wink:
  • tarotlou
    tarotlou Posts: 47
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    Awsome post need to keep reminding myself, as its hard to get my head around upping cals = weight loss after plateauing for a month on 1200 I upped to 1300 and gained the first week then someone gave me a similar explanation about water and glycogen and to weight a couple of weeks while the body adjusts :smile:
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    Really great thread. Being a former distance athlete, I did already know this. But it's good to be reminded! I miss those carb load days. *sigh*
  • bhsishtla
    bhsishtla Posts: 151 Member
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    Is it possible for the water weight to increase by 4 lbs in a single day?Is it applicable to medicines we use,and allergies our body react to?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Is it possible for the water weight to increase by 4 lbs in a single day?Is it applicable to medicines we use,and allergies our body react to?

    Yes, 4 pounds of water weight change in a single day is completely possible.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
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    Is it possible for the water weight to increase by 4 lbs in a single day?Is it applicable to medicines we use,and allergies our body react to?

    Yes, 4 pounds of water weight change in a single day is completely possible.

    ^ This. Yes. It's possible. It's not glycogen stores, but it can be from water retention. I will retain water if I take decongestants, for instance. There are a host of things that can cause weight fluctuations of a few pounds either way... we just don't get upset when they fluctuate downward the same way we do when they fluctuate up :wink:
  • skygoddess86
    skygoddess86 Posts: 487 Member
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    Is it possible for the water weight to increase by 4 lbs in a single day?Is it applicable to medicines we use,and allergies our body react to?

    Yes, 4 pounds of water weight change in a single day is completely possible.

    ^ This. Yes. It's possible. It's not glycogen stores, but it can be from water retention. I will retain water if I take decongestants, for instance. There are a host of things that can cause weight fluctuations of a few pounds either way... we just don't get upset when they fluctuate downward the same way we do when they fluctuate up :wink:


    Decongestants?? What?? I have been at a plateau for a couple months and I am working pretty hard and I started on claritin at about that time. I wonder if claritin is considered a decongestant.
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,023 Member
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    Thanks for sharing, great post
  • natsukokaito
    natsukokaito Posts: 8 Member
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    bump
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,661 Member
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    I was extremely unhappy eating this amount. I know most of you will be thinking ''that's a lot of calories?!''

    i don't think too many people are thinking that.

    not sure if the HRM is really that accurate to track your calories throughout the day like that, but 2500 doesn't sound insane, but i don't think you'd want to eat back exercise calories on top of that.

    not that you asked for any of that.

    not that i'm a good one to ask either. i'm good at going up, good at going down, horrible at maintaining.

    I typically eat between 2100-2400 to lose weight. I'm 5'8'' around 160. been eating 1800 for the past two months because i haven't been able to go to the gym, which is a double whammy on my muscles i suppose, but i just want to shed the fat.
  • Rachiet91
    Rachiet91 Posts: 1 Member
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    Hi am also in the process of recovering/ maintaining after anorexia and i gained to a healthy weight on around 800-1400 a day (before was eating 500-) and wassoo unhappy with my body and energy, feeling like i could need eat anymore again and it was zoo difficult! 2 weeks ago i upped my calories to 1600-800 isn and I'm zoo scared of gaining loads!! i don't weight myself and i Workout everyday! However I am still hungry and actually feel like I'm still having to restrict, do u think i could increase more?? Also do you watch your macros, and o you eat carbs??

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