Increasing Calories But Still Losing Weight

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  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Depends on what kind of meat. Italian sausage or pork chops has more calories than chicken for example. Mashed potatoes has more calories than rice, white rice has more calories than brown rice and all of those has more calories than sweet potatoes.
  • gclauson
    gclauson Posts: 26 Member
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    I do not understand why you are scared of increasing calories when you are obviously still losing weight. Eat whenever you want to...you don't need a meal plan or whatever...you just find your maintenance number. I've been maintaining for about 10 months...while I was losing I was losing at a rate of roughly 1 Lb per week...which means 500 calories per day roughly...so I increased by 500 calories per day to maintain...voila...I started maintaining.

    It's just math....

    LOL (like)
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    I have all kinds of meat. My dining hall lays out the calorie count for everything so what you see in my diary is the actual calories and servings. However, I am not sure if I am putting too much on the plate or not. I know my meat intake is exactly as listed. But for vegetables I use half the plate and the final quarter of the plate is the starch. I am not sure whether this is 1/2 cup of starch and 1c of veggies or not. Do you think if I am eyeballing it this way(1/4 meat 1/4 starch 1/2 veggie) that there really is a very big difference though and that I am probably getting accurate servings?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    The fact that you are still losing weight suggests that you are estimating low on calories. Eat more dessert, problem solved.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    My only reservation is this past weekend. I had a big party where I drank (2 beers) and had a four course dinner (Appetizers, Salad, Entree, Dessert). I cut out 300 calories to account for the extra calorie intake, but I am not sure how much I had that night. The next day, we were traveling all day and I only at about 1,000 calories (not starving myself just couldn't really get much food in with all the traveling and honestly didn't need it). So I am now not completely sure about whether I have hit maintenance calories with my plan and dropped the weight from the irregular weekend, or if I am genuinely too low on my calories. Does this make sense?
  • Jwold55
    Jwold55 Posts: 39 Member
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    My only reservation is this past weekend. I had a big party where I drank (2 beers) and had a four course dinner (Appetizers, Salad, Entree, Dessert). I cut out 300 calories to account for the extra calorie intake, but I am not sure how much I had that night. The next day, we were traveling all day and I only at about 1,000 calories (not starving myself just couldn't really get much food in with all the traveling and honestly didn't need it). So I am now not completely sure about whether I have hit maintenance calories with my plan and dropped the weight from the irregular weekend, or if I am genuinely too low on my calories. Does this make sense?

    I think you're over thinking it. If you truly want to maintain, you need to get over the fear of gaining, learn to incorporate higher calorie things and relax. Like everyone's said if you gain one week you know you went over, so you scale back, weight again the next week. I'm sure it's hard but you won't gain back 60 lbs in one week so it's okay to let go and worry less about what you're eating <3
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    You stated the 10 pounds weight loss has been over the course of a few months since January when you moved to maintenance, if that is the case then it wasn't just that irregular weekend.

    Really there is no way to tell exactly what is going on if you are not logging accurately, except to say clearly you aren't eating enough to maintain your weight. So either eat more, or decrease your workouts to compensate.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    Well I have been increasing the calories since January so each week hasn't been the same (I've been eating more and more each week). But this week I was 138 all week (granted I was eating high sodium all week as well) and then came back from the weekend and was down. Do you think just the weekend must have done it?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    OP - you really are making all sorts of excuses not to eat a little more!

    You know you have to - it's not a slippery slope and you will still be in control. And just suppose you manage to get yourself to a small surplus and your weight starts to edge up slowly..... You have lost 60lbs, so you know how to lose weight again.

    Set yourself some sensible protein, fat and calorie goals and meet them rather than undercut them.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    The sodium could have been the reason for the increase and then the drop.

    But look at the big picture here. You need to GAIN 10 pounds to get back up to your goal weight which you wanted to maintain, correct? But instead you have been losing. You need to INCREASE calories or DECREASE energy expenditure, or a combination of both these things in order to put weight back on. You don't log accurately, so you are guessing on calorie consumption, but the trend is showing you are not eating enough. So, stop obsessing and EAT MORE.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    Alright, I will continue adding. It's not that I am trying to avoid eating more it is that I hate the constant changing. Last week, I thought I had found my maintenance and was pretty comfortable with it given that I didn't seem to be losing until Monday. Now I am back to adding things in. But I understand all of your points. Btw, how big of a difference will going out on the weekends and not paying attention to calories make in my overall diet? Seeing as it is only weekends, should I just not worry about accounting for going over on occasion?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Alright, I will continue adding. It's not that I am trying to avoid eating more it is that I hate the constant changing. Last week, I thought I had found my maintenance and was pretty comfortable with it given that I didn't seem to be losing until Monday. Now I am back to adding things in. But I understand all of your points. Btw, how big of a difference will going out on the weekends and not paying attention to calories make in my overall diet? Seeing as it is only weekends, should I just not worry about accounting for going over on occasion?

    Since you estimate ALL of your food, I don't see that it is going to make any difference at all. You are just guessing. So, don't worry about going over. You NEED to go over to gain weight.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    Honestly, right now I don't want to gain. I just want to maintain my weight. After a little bit of time with maintaining, I will try to gain slowly (probably through a bulk) but for now I just want to figure out my maintenance level and not have to worry about eating to excess and then coming back down to maintenance again.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    Maintenance is trial and error. It takes time to figure it all out. But you need to understand that people are trying to tell you that it's about ignoring the small fluctuations and observing the overall trends. Right now you have been trending downward which tells you that you are not in maintenance, you are in a deficit. So your solution should be to eat more. How much more? Only time will tell. Try to carve out some habits for yourself that you can live with. Maybe that means watching what you eat all week and enjoying one night a week out with your friends. Or maybe that means giving yourself a treat every day. And then if these habits start to trend in the wrong direction, you adjust them. Only you can figure out what will work for you over the long run. Just trust in the fact that you are not going to gain a ton of weight over night and as long as you stay in control over your eating habits, YOU WILL BE OK! People who gain all of their weight back after dieting tend to let go of all control and fall back into their bad habits. Just don't do that!

    Out of curiosity, how tall are you?
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    Still losing weight but don't want to? That's easy:

    Eat more.

    You're eating more and still losing weight? Still easy:

    Eat even more.

    This isn't rocket science. Keep increasing your calories until you stop losing weight. If you happen to overshoot by a few hundred calories for a couple of weeks, you'll gain maybe a pound total. Expecting to be *exactly* the same weight during this whole process is unrealistic and ignores the realities of scale weight.

    Also, I assume you're weighing and measuring everything you eat.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    One of the big things you are missing is that maintenance doesn't mean you're the exact same weight every day. Set a 5-10lb RANGE and if you fall out of it, make small adjustments. No one weighs the same every day or every week. I can go up or down 3-5lbs every single day depending on my diet. High carbs and sodium == weight way up....which then suddenly disappears after a few days. If I skip the gym for a week then I lose 5lbs almost instantly. I think you're getting too wrapped up in the minutiae. You're a 19 year old male, and eating 1800 calories? That seems very low, which is probably why you're still losing weight. Increase slowly until you weight starts to even out, and keep in that approximate range that I mentioned.
  • dpr73
    dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
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    Okay I understand that. I think what I will do is watch what I eat all week but let go a little more on the weekends and see how that works. I guess my fear lies in the fact that people say that almost everyone gains that weight back and I want to stay where I am. And I am about 5'7.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Also, I assume you're weighing and measuring everything you eat.

    No, it is all estimates, which makes the obsessing over the little details even more ludicrous.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    It sounds like you've answered your own question. Stop planning ahead for splurges that you're not having and eat more now. You can even increase it gradually so you can keep an eye on what's happening. Try increasing by 100 or even 50 cals at a time.

    If you do slip up and overeat you can deal with that as and when it happens. If you're unsure about average cals, ATM, you can use the 'weekly' option to see how the week is playing out.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    Also, I assume you're weighing and measuring everything you eat.

    No, it is all estimates, which makes the obsessing over the little details even more ludicrous.

    To be fair, if someone had told me that I had to weight/measure everything I ate when I was 19, I would have laughed at them.

    But I was also probably consuming at least 3000 calories as a very active 145ish pound, 6'0" 19 year old who should have gained (and eventually did gain) 30+ pounds.

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