Same, I'm in my second week and I'm at 1600 calories a day. Still feel weird eating so much, but it's kind of relaxing to not stress so much about overeating a little bit.

I am doing a full reset day 1 always looking for more support. I am doing the EM2WL Program

I'm on week 4, have already gained 7-8 lbs and I'm really freaking out! My clothes simply don't fit anymore. I was eating 1200 or less for years, so I know it takes time, but this is a very unpleasant process! When can I cut? If my weight stabilizes over the next couple of weeks?

Yes, I'm at my TDEE (or within range - I'm trying not to count calories and just eat intuitively, but I check every couple of days to make sure I am about TDEE). How long should someone be stable at before a cut?

This is the one part of the process that you don't want to rush. This portion of the re-set is truly where you are getting your metabolism to "trust" you that the intake will remain consistent. It is normally recommended that you eat consistently at TDEE for *a minimum of 8 weeks*.

The purpose of a metabolism reset is to give your body a break from the stress of dieting and to get used to eating an appropriate (and consistent) amount of food. Under general circumstances, we will recommend a time frame of 8-12 weeks of eating TDEE. After this time, most people can return to eating a small deficit (TDEE - 10 to 15%) and they will generally see slow and steady fat loss. However, every person responds differently. The length of time required for a successful reset will depend greatly on the length and severity of restrictive dieting.. It is critical during this time that you trust the process and are willing to stick it out as long as it takes.

So within that 8 - 12 week time frame, how will you know when your reset is complete? Generally, if you are in a rush to get it over with so you can go back to dieting, that is probably a good sign you’re not quite there yet. This is as much a mental process as a physical one...

12 weeks seems like a good length. I did an 8 week reset but then kept gaining for 4 more weeks, so I should have gone with 12 weeks from the beginning. The weight loss afterwards has been slow with a 0.5lb / week loss for my goal. I wish I had been a bit more gentle with my reset as I don't think I needed to gain 23lb. I would have been fine with just 10lb I am fairly sure. Now I am "just" at a 19lb gain.

I've been at this for a month now and my appetite is HUGE. I have eaten around 2000 on some days to balance out the cardio, so that might've made it easier. I'm also noticing a lot of muscle building, especially in my arms. I can actually feel my biceps whereas before I would lift and lift without results. Unfortunately, now my stomach isn't shrinking so fast, and I've gone up another couple pounds. I'm eating around 1900, this would be accurate if I remembered to add in drinks! So I'm curious if I'm close to TDEE if this is what my body's doing. The calculators I've looked at have ranged from 2100-2300. I also wonder how long I should stay at TDEE since I wasn't doing a VLCD for too long. I've cycled between 1100-1400 for the past year or two and since I was stuck I decided to try this.

I could NOT eat 2500 cals yesterday....I just couldn't do it. It was the end of the night and I still had 300 more cals to go and I was so full...I just couldn't do it. Today I started my day off with a spoonful of PB and a glass of milk so I don't get to the end of the day with so many cals left to consume!

PS - it's that TOM and I'm SO bloated! UGH!

Have a great day everyone!

You know, I wish I'd found this group before Christmas last year. That was when I did my reset - a total of 3 weeks. I ate at TDEE and the only exercise I did was walk (because I was on holidays and needed to get out of the house!). I felt really good.

I honestly don't think the 3 weeks was enough. I went back to a cut, which "in theory" was 10-15% but the reality is I struggle with eating more. I feel guilty and like I'm undoing all my hard work. So my "actual" deficits are closer to 25%. Don't get me wrong, I know this is too much, and I am trying to work on it.

So I am debating whether to re-do my reset. My average calorie expenditure (Fitbit) is 2800-3000 cals and my average consumption is 2000-2100. I just don't want to get any bigger. I have no other clothes since I got rid of all my big girl clothes (I have nothing over a size 14!) On the bright side, at least I now feel hungry (never used to) so something must be working.

Would it be worthwhile to go back to a reset?

Should take a diet break anyway every 6-8 weeks, depending on how big the deficit.

Now, if you have corrected the Fitbit exercise with manually logging non-step based stuff it is badly underestimating, so you can trust their estimate - you should be losing very close to 2 lbs weekly.

If you are not losing almost 2 lbs weekly - guess what you have already done.

Well, I'm up another few lbs, and basically back to my original starting weight. I am maintaing at this weight (I have always maintained easily here, just didn't like the extra 10-15 lbs on me!) so obviously this is what my body feels comfortable at, even if I don't.

I think if I want to get lean, my only recourse at this point it total body recomp, versus another weight loss attempt. Now that I actually have the energy to really push myself, I am just going to focus on that, at least for another 8 weeks. I have been doing body-weight exercises (primal style), but I think it is time I join a gym.

Well, the set-point theory has more to do with the hormones released when you try to eat less and lose fat, they try to make you eat more. To great a deficit they will also cause you to burn less daily.

If you can get over that first issue and keep a reasonable deficit, it's not like your body will automatically go back to that weight no matter what you eat.

The recomp can work, it'll be very slow though. And if weight is outside healthy range, like for joints or heart, ect, then just carrying the extra weight might have some negatives too.

So don't give up, but indeed be patient. And indeed get whatever recomp you can during reset.

For 12 weeks doing a progressive overload lifting routine full body 3 x weekly, you could probably trade 2 lbs fat for 2 lbs LBM, muscle would be less than 2 lbs.
2 lbs fat is a lot of volume, especially depending on where it comes off first and most.

And you are correct, body weight isn't going to be progressive overload except for perhaps pullups and dips, most folks can take a long time to get up to 12 reps x 3 sets on those.

Oh, healthy weight already, then don't eat at a deficit.

During heavy lifting, for your body to make the most improvement, it would like a surplus of calories.
As you go down in calories you'll get less improvement for your effort.
Eating at maintenance is the lowest if at healthy weight.
Deficit will cause weight loss and even slower improvements.

So eat at maintenance, or do what lifters do because it is more efficient for time.
Bulk by eating in surplus and really get the benefit.
Then cut by eating in deficit and lose the BF back to healthy weight.

Don't start at healthy weight and try to go under - it just creates a bigger fight with the body that will just add stress, and make it worse and slower.

One suggestion though, if you truly want the recomp, focus on lifting and getting best results from that.

Which means you cannot do true HIIT or anything intense during the 24-36 hrs post lifting that will interfere with getting the best repair possible. If you aren't repairing to get stronger, then why waste the time on the workout?

HIIT is for the cardio focus person that doesn't want to lift, because it's the next best thing to lifting without doing it.
But if you are lifting, skip the HIIT. (even though majority are jumping on the fad of it and not really doing it anyway).

If you want a hard cardio routine to increase what you can eat, then just do some interval cardio after your lifting. You won't be able to do HIIT, unless you did a very bad lifting workout. Muscle should be so worn out you can't do it right, impossible.

What happens with combo you mention is just loading on stress.
Your rest day after lifting for recovery and repair is instead another load on the muscles, killing repair process and not near the needed recovery.
Which means the day after HIIT is another lifting day, now with tired muscles trying to recover from the HIIT. But now you put another lifting load on them, but not as hard because tired.
You eventually reach a steady state of just stress with no recovery.

Think about the HIIT routine, intervals in general - why so beneficial?

Because you go hard, then you go easy to recover, which is what allows you to go hard again.
It's the ability to go hard that actually allows a great response from the workout.
But what if you did all out for 30 sec. Then did all out for 30 sec. Then did all out for 30 sec.
You may feel wiped out on that last hard set - but did you do near the level as the first one? Impossible.
Exact same thing applies to the week. Hard day, easy day. That allows the next day to truly be as hard.
It's only by the lifting days being really an overload with weight failure that causes the body to want to build more.
If you do hard, hard, hard, the response isn't more muscle (because it has no time to do it), but to add more carb stores in muscles to endure this workout.

Sorry about the speal, but so many get caught up in the HIIT fad going on now, without realizing while it has it's place (cardio training for limited time and great fat burn), if you are already doing the better fat burn and muscle building routine, it's out of place.

If it's like circuit training, that is actually the best lifting you can do while trying to lose weight.
It's bigger increase in calorie burn than traditional lifting.
It doesn't take as much to recover from like traditional lifting.
And with increased TDEE, the % off for deficit is bigger, so faster loss.
It's still resistance training so maintains muscle mass.
With it's big use of carbs during the workout it helps with insulin system.

Here's great article on it from my profile page. Perhaps this is where you got the term metabolic conditioning from, since most would call it circuit training.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html

Just keep in mind the perspective of what he's discussing, if you haven't been lifting and have gains to lose, but starting out - no problem.

But also notice that since it's not a muscle overload, the signal to build more isn't there, for in your case eating at maintenance.
So you might make sure those efforts like it are put at the end of a traditional lifting session.