Need Help - Calorie intake tweaking

MassiveDelta
MassiveDelta Posts: 3,271 Member
edited September 22 in Health and Weight Loss
So for the last month I have been stuck at the same weight give or take a 1-2 lbs fluctuation. I believe this has happened because I'm not eating enough. *Disclaimer* If you look at my public diary please ignore the last few days as nothing is really posted.

I generally don't eat my exercise calories and have lost 80 lbs with this method. However with the help of my Good friend Fesse she helped me to see that I might not be eating enough. When I reviewed my calories I was taking in most days 1470 plus or minus ~100 calories. That's where MFP put me when I used the guide so I went with it I had been losing weight up to this point why second guess what isn't broken. the problem is that most days I was burning 500-700 calories during workouts 4-5 times per week sometimes more. That means my net calorie intake on a high calorie day was 1000 calories or less. So Im here today to change my intake but I'm a little scared. I don't want to gain weight and I don't really know how long it will take for my body to readjust.

My question is do how long do I wait or how much weight do I gain before I readjust after the initial increase in calories? How do I do this so I don't gain a bunch of weight .

Over thanksgiving I didn't not count calories but I did monitor my intake so I only rocked the boat instead of sinking it. I ate pie just not a whole pie :) Hey don't judge pecans and pumpkins are healthy! :) Besides I didn't gain any weight.

Help me out MFP pals

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    If you are eating below maintenance, and you have not slowed your metabolism you should not gain any weight. That being said it is normal to fluctuate by 3-4 pounds in a given day. I would suggest to stick with the "new" plan for at least 4-6 weeks, at that time if you put on more than the 3-4 pounds I would re-adjust.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    I've never done maintenence or dramatic increase in cals, but I would think it would make sense to bump it up about 100 cals/wk. So if you are eating 1470 each day this week, eat 1570 ish each day next week. until you get to your goal. Thats how you get to maintence caloric intake without big gains. I concur with Eric tho- give the higher cals 1 -1.5 mo, consider not even weighing in during that time.
  • MassiveDelta
    MassiveDelta Posts: 3,271 Member
    Sorry I think I was unclear. I want to continue losing I don't want to maintain just yet I have 40 lbs to lose. I need to continue losing but I'm concerned about increasing the calories I'm eating and how long it will take for my body to adjust so that it wants to lose weight again? I really don't want to gain a bunch of weight back because I'm screwing with my caloric intake
  • Fesse
    Fesse Posts: 611
    More fuel for a better running engine. I think. Change it up for a week or two and see where you're at. Shock your system.
  • SarahElittlebit
    SarahElittlebit Posts: 66 Member
    The following link will tell you how to determine what your daily calorie needs are to maintain:

    http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-determine-your-calorie-needs.html

    Subtract 500 calories a day to lose 1 pound, 750 for 1 1/2 lbs, and 1000 calories for 2 lbs per week.
  • MassiveDelta
    MassiveDelta Posts: 3,271 Member
    Anyone have any actual personal experience? I don't really like the idea of of just guessing? That seems rather inefficient. If I had an idea of how long I should try a new calorie level before moving to a new one that would be great.
  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
    It takes time to adjust so a month should be adequate time to see what effect a change in diet really has..
    I did increase my calories to get off a plateau. I went from 1500 Kcal a day + exercise cals to 2000 + exercise cals, lost a couple of kilos and plateaud again for a month. Got a little back too! Now I lowered it to 1700 + exercise cals and lost about 2 kilos in a matter of days so I suppose that the weight, I got back, was mostly just water.. Now I seem to be losing again but probably need to up my calories soon again. It's still way too soon to tell what my current pace is though.
    My situation is a bit different though, because I'm pretty close to my goal and seem to need constant tweaking for things to work. I also found some hidden calories in my diet and my exercise calories are mostly guess work without an HRM but anyway..

    Overestimating the exercise calories is really easy! If you end up maintaining or even gaining after a month, don't quit eating them altogether but cut them in half and see what that does. Without an HRM it is a lot of guesswork to really find out how much you burn doing different activities. Plus, you need to reduce the calories that you burn during that time even if you didn't exercise!
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