Why you gain weight if you eat more than your cut

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Replies

  • jennybennypenny
    jennybennypenny Posts: 90 Member
    Good advice for later!
  • Sxy_Mace
    Sxy_Mace Posts: 5
    That happened to me every time. I was at the point where I thought my body just naturally wanted to be at a certain weight (when I tried to maintain my initial loss), which was sooooo frustrating!. Time to push a little harder, go a bit further and hopefully I will find a new "normal" by the time my birthday rolls around in January.
  • purple180
    purple180 Posts: 130 Member
    BUMP...Good info.
  • blgmw2
    blgmw2 Posts: 171 Member
    :smile:
  • SHRINKINGG1
    SHRINKINGG1 Posts: 48 Member
    I need to remember this. I still have a long time before I get to goal think this just changed my ever changing goal.
  • hif123
    hif123 Posts: 19 Member
    Bump. thanks, interesting post.
  • indrani1947
    indrani1947 Posts: 178 Member
    bump
  • kluvit
    kluvit Posts: 435 Member
    Sure in a perfect world we would all ignore the scale. But given that I know there are countless people who are not ignoring the scale, I wanted to she's light on the reasons why these small gains are happening. Maybe once those who are maintaining using scale values to gauge their success feel confident that their weight is indeed stable, then they will feel more comfortable with the knowledge that they've found the correct caloric intake for them.

    Thanks for posting! Ignoring the scale (or in my case a faulty scale giving me a false sense of reality) is probably what drove most people to MFP in the first place. While it's true that weight fluctuates, most people on maintenance have a target weight and an acceptable fluctuation +/- 3-5 pounds of target. To me, a new weight is not real unless it "sticks" for 3 days in a row (1st thing in the am before any intake). A "real" weight > +3 prompts action...increase workouts, decrease intake until < target. At 5'7" it takes a lot of pounds to make a difference in the way my clothes fit, and I don't want to let it get that far. My goal is to never need to lose more than 3-4 pounds again, and weighing almost daily helps me do that.
  • jeedsjds13
    jeedsjds13 Posts: 58 Member
    bump to keep it handy :)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I've been "maintaining" for nearly 12 years and never quite understood why although I easily got down to 127, the minute I stopped losing, I weighed 132. I sat there for a decade or so, wondering why I couldn't "keep" 127. Beautifully clear. D'oh!
  • Ideabaker
    Ideabaker Posts: 514 Member
    What a wonderful post!

    I knew that when those rebound pounds came back swiftly after moving up to maintenance eating they could not possibly be fat. Thanks for explaining it all so clearly.

    Will be adjusting my time at 1,200 calories accordingly, to allow space for the sure-to-come glycogen gain!
  • kelag297
    kelag297 Posts: 103 Member
    Bump
  • sbrownallison
    sbrownallison Posts: 314 Member
    Bumping...
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
    Nothing to add except that when I first saw the thread title I had some lint in my eye and I thought the title was "Why you gain weight if you eat more than your cat" and all I could think was "WTF???"

    I thought the same thing. That's why I clicked, haha.
  • robeff
    robeff Posts: 15 Member
    Welp, weight is just an arbitrary number, but I'm shooting for 175 and plan to stay between like 179-186. If I don't like the way I look/feel at that weight, I'll plan on 170 and staying between 174-181. I figure I'll naturally fluctuate several pounds and won't worry about it unless I get 10lb from my goal weight when in maintenance.

    Obsessing over the scale weight isn't very healthy, you just get disappointed when you're up a little when in reality you're healthier and leaner than before. I actually weight slightly less right after my workout than I do in the morning. I keep track of it but don't worry if I'm up a few pounds the next day.

    Having been through > 50lb weight loss before, I say plan on losing 5-8lb below your goal weight before going into maintenance, and realize your body is going to keep changing the longer you stay around that weight so you might have to reevaluate your weight based on what's best for your health and body type.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    Welp, weight is just an arbitrary number, but I'm shooting for 175 and plan to stay between like 179-186. If I don't like the way I look/feel at that weight, I'll plan on 170 and staying between 174-181. I figure I'll naturally fluctuate several pounds and won't worry about it unless I get 10lb from my goal weight when in maintenance.

    Obsessing over the scale weight isn't very healthy, you just get disappointed when you're up a little when in reality you're healthier and leaner than before. I actually weight slightly less right after my workout than I do in the morning. I keep track of it but don't worry if I'm up a few pounds the next day.

    Having been through > 50lb weight loss before, I say plan on losing 5-8lb below your goal weight before going into maintenance, and realize your body is going to keep changing the longer you stay around that weight so you might have to reevaluate your weight based on what's best for your health and body type.

    I completely agree with you. Watching the scale every day and adjusting your mood and your intake accordingly is verging on disordered IMHO. So I'm hopeful that by sharing this information, people will realize there is a quick rebound (that is permanent provided you don't cut again) and once you get to your steady maintenance weight, it actually does stay pretty darned stable. I've been at maintenance now a long time and as long as I don't change what I do, my weight fluctuates maybe .2 lbs daily. It's been the same for over a year.

    The problem lies in the way we feel. When people are at the bottom of a cut, they feel more ripped, lean, toned and awesome. They are depleted and dehydrated. That is not a state that can be maintained in a healthy way for extended periods of time. We have to learn to love the body we get once we start eating at maintenance and those fuel stores are all filled up.
  • __freckles__
    __freckles__ Posts: 1,238 Member
    You just got bumped.
  • Flab2Fab27
    Flab2Fab27 Posts: 461 Member
    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.

    Such silly advice, it'd be better to tell people to ignore the scale vs giving advice how to stay at a certain weight after reversing up to maintenance

    Condescending much? I thought it was a really informative, well written post, as did the majority that replied.
  • Pinkgingham_19
    Pinkgingham_19 Posts: 28 Member


    The problem lies in the way we feel. When people are at the bottom of a cut, they feel more ripped, lean, toned and awesome. They are depleted and dehydrated. That is not a state that can be maintained in a healthy way for extended periods of time. We have to learn to love the body we get once we start eating at maintenance and those fuel stores are all filled up.


    omg. this really spoke to me.
  • shad1018
    shad1018 Posts: 191 Member
    Thanks for sharing
  • mushie
    mushie Posts: 9 Member
    bump
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    bumping to refer back to ...
  • Entmoot
    Entmoot Posts: 1 Member
    Bump for later. Thank you.
  • cosmonew
    cosmonew Posts: 513 Member
    saving for maintenance time
  • marleniap
    marleniap Posts: 120 Member
    Look like good reading for later, when I get to that point.

    BUMP
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    Tagging this because I keep referring people here.
  • crazybookworm
    crazybookworm Posts: 779 Member
    bump for later. Thanks!!
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    This awesome post has answered the question that I have been struggling with for about 25 years since I first gained weight as a teenager. Thanks so much! I am going under by 5 and I can't wait to fill my glycogen up and be a healthly looking slim person rather than a confused slightly fat, always on a deficit one! ThANK YOU MRS BIGMACK
  • Fivepts
    Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
    Nothing to add except that when I first saw the thread title I had some lint in my eye and I thought the title was "Why you gain weight if you eat more than your cat" and all I could think was "WTF???"

    Now I'm picturing the "don't eat more than your cat" diet sweeping MFP.

    Not sure how many calories are in a cat but it's probably a good daily intake for a lot of people.
  • Fivepts
    Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
    LOL. Thanks for a little humor on this weighty subject.

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