Why you gain weight if you eat more than your cut
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This was a great read and something I 100% agree with. I have gone from over 215lbs and currently weight 173lbs. I noticed through hard work and also clean eating that I would loose weight and used myfitness pal for everything I ate. I also cut out drinking alcohol. I never drank often so this was easy for me. When I started to complete Insanity, then Asylum and now a mixture between weights, cardio, T25 and swimming. I find I eat more than I did when I was not active. I can tell now from a week to week basis what works food wise for me. I never knew before reading this about the 5lb store of glucose but it make perfect sense.
Looking back to the start of my journey I hated exercise and never real thought about what I ate. My fitness pal was and still is the key to my success. Good luck everyone with your path and goals.0 -
Hello, I am new to this method and still trying to understand the many concepts and ideas behind this approach. I have abused my body very long time, through very systematic undereating and very systematic bingeing. Now for two-three years I have had basically two weights --one after the binge which is around 66-67 kg and one when not binging- 64 kilograms. So I take it that for these two years I have only played with my water weight on and on? The only time I have been above 66-67 is when I was on birth control pills, when I was 66 non-binging and 69-70 at my "after binging", but when I quit those again I lost effortlessly.
1. I have very very thorough detailed measurements of my weight (for many years), and I am starting to think, that my body gets stuck in some weight and considers it "normal" weight. This normal weight is maintained without difficulty, but lower weight is impossible to reach without restricting.
Can I change this?
2. When I was young I did not count calories and my weight was the same, regardless of exercise or dietary changes. I weighed myself once a year and it was always the same weight. I cannot imagine that I always ate at the same amount of calories, because for sure I binged at Christmas and birthdays, and other days I did not eat the same way. I was also an athlete and did different trainings, before competition I trained 2 times a day, and in vacation I did not train at all. At that time my weight was 58 kilograms with training, without training, eating without giving it any thought. How is that possible? The only reason I ruined that is because I was told to lose weight and started dieting, to keep much lower weight than 58. Then I started getting bigger, and now for three years I am 64-66 completely constantly. Can I go to that state of body and mind using the metabolic reset and doing weight training (I assume that at that time I was much leaner), without having to cut? I want my body to simply "remember" that its weight is not 64-66 kilograms, but 58 or 60 and I assume that appart from LBM there should not be much difference with now. Call me crazy, but I am sure I would have been 58-60 if I had not started dieting.0 -
Hello, I am new to this method and still trying to understand the many concepts and ideas behind this approach.
Would suggest you start a new topic in this group with exactly your info so it can be looked at by the most.0 -
Hi, I am just starting and yes I am eating way less like less than 1000 cals. I started exercising today and feel good but now I am concerned that I should eat more when I exercise??? I have 50 lbs to lose and I want to start a program that I will not yo yo on, any suggestions? For the amount of calories to start with and the amt of exercise weight training etc. Thanks :happy:0
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Hi, I am just starting and yes I am eating way less like less than 1000 cals. I started exercising today and feel good but now I am concerned that I should eat more when I exercise??? I have 50 lbs to lose and I want to start a program that I will not yo yo on, any suggestions? For the amount of calories to start with and the amt of exercise weight training etc. Thanks :happy:
Read reply right above yours.
And you don't get enough stats for anyone to help you in any meaningful way.
If you are 4.5 ft tall and sedentary that would be about right calorie level - that's about it.0 -
Question for the group - If you are eating your TDEE daily (mine is 1,900) and you work out and lift heavy, do you all eat your deficit back or still eat your 1,800 calories consistently every day and on days you work out, nothing more? Having trouble figuring it out. Im obviously hungrier on a day where I've worked out and can easily eat 2000+ but other days I struggle to get 1,800 in. Tough problem, I know.
Thanks, all!0 -
Question for the group - If you are eating your TDEE daily (mine is 1,900) and you work out and lift heavy, do you all eat your deficit back or still eat your 1,800 calories consistently every day and on days you work out, nothing more? Having trouble figuring it out. Im obviously hungrier on a day where I've worked out and can easily eat 2000+ but other days I struggle to get 1,800 in. Tough problem, I know.
Thanks, all!
So you have to remember - your TDEE of course literally changes from day to day.
With lifting, it could even be bigger the next day because of increased metabolism, depending on when you did the lifting.
Since the TDEE deficit method attempts to keep it simple for planning purposes, you are taking a weekly total but daily average, which you eat daily.
Some days your TDEE really is more than you eat, some days it's really less than you eat. The average if you got it right is maintenance.
Also, if you are eating your TDEE daily as you said, there is no deficit, so not sure what you mean by eating it back.
Are you trying to eat at maintenance then?
Might be time to take the MFP approach back, with a slight tweak.
MFP starts with non-exercise TDEE estimate, then if you exercise you log it and it now has your exercise included TDEE.
So that means each day is literally closer to your TDEE for that actual day of activity.
Only difference is when you log lifting, that's the minor burn for during the workout, doesn't include the repair for the next 24-36 hrs with increased burn, which could fall in to the next day.
That's why people that are trying to gain weight many times you'll here them complain they increase calories by 250 daily, but weight doesn't go up. Their workouts are better, they cause more damage, need more repair, and are eating at maintenance again.
Sounds like where you are at.0 -
Thanks for your help, heybales. So on days where Im active I should eat my TDEE + what MFP adds back as calories? For instance, today my workout burned 454 calories; I should be eating that in addition to my 1,800, correct?0
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*****Reposted from the main forums*****
It seems this is new information for a lot of people and it could potentially relieve a lot of anxiety about weight gain when increasing calories. So for anyone who thinks, "But 1700 calories IS my maintenance amount!" Or, "I must just have a really slow metabolism because when I go over 1200 I gain." ... this post is for you.
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.
Thanks for this0 -
Thanks for your help, heybales. So on days where Im active I should eat my TDEE + what MFP adds back as calories? For instance, today my workout burned 454 calories; I should be eating that in addition to my 1,800, correct?
Sorry, you still aren't being clear what you mean nor your goal, so I can't answer you, just as I couldn't above.
So first.
Maintain or lose weight?
TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure
If you happen to exercise, guess what it includes that day already.
So to maintain are you trying to eat at literal TDEE daily, or you have calculated TDEE based on what you do weekly and average it out daily?0 -
Lose about 20. Your explanation makes sense. Thanks again!0
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Thank you! So glad I joined this group! I have yo-yo ed up and down for years, I had no idea of this fact. I want health and the number. I want to see 140 on the scale and a 24 inch waist again. I want to fit comfortably in my size 8s. In high school, I wore a size zero and in college a 3. I could still shop in the boys section even into my mid 20's. Then I got married and got comfortable. Until one day my sister in law said, "I've never seen you that size before, it looks funny on you." And my great-grandmother told me I had let myself go. That was at a size 16. Well, I never want to see that size again and I'm getting too close now. I never thought I would ever see a double digit number and I hate it. So I'm planning to have 20 lbs gone by Christmas. And all of it gone by my birthday in March and I never want to see it again. So no more diets, only healthy living.0
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I have my fitness pal set 1200 calorie goal and I burn 500 calories at the gym so I should eat 1700 calories?0
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Thanks for this post. We've all seen something like this going on, but this explains it and confirms (phew) that that "bounce-back" is nothing to worry about.0
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Thank you so much for this post. I am very new to weight loss programmes in general and there is a lot of contradicting information out there, which is confusing me as to what is the best approach. I've been a couch potato for three years, living on nuts and sweets and thirty kilos piled on.
I started on MFP 4 weeks ago and have lost only 300 grams. I couldn't understand what everyone was talking about concerning the water loss because it just wasn't happening with me despite reaching great workout goals. I started seeing a dietician last week who explained that I was starving myself and so my body wouldn't release any fat or water because it was in survival mode.
Although your explanation is very technical, I understand it better than how it was explained to me by the dietician. I am really battling to eat my calorie quotient though and I am still under most days, so of course I am not losing any weight.
I need to understand, if I exercise, do I have to eat those extra calories that I burn too?0 -
Thank you so much for this post. I am very new to weight loss programmes in general and there is a lot of contradicting information out there, which is confusing me as to what is the best approach. I've been a couch potato for three years, living on nuts and sweets and thirty kilos piled on.
I started on MFP 4 weeks ago and have lost only 300 grams. I couldn't understand what everyone was talking about concerning the water loss because it just wasn't happening with me despite reaching great workout goals. I started seeing a dietician last week who explained that I was starving myself and so my body wouldn't release any fat or water because it was in survival mode.
Although your explanation is very technical, I understand it better than how it was explained to me by the dietician. I am really battling to eat my calorie quotient though and I am still under most days, so of course I am not losing any weight.
I need to understand, if I exercise, do I have to eat those extra calories that I burn too?
Was your eating goal based on a daily burn that included exercise being done?
Or was your eating goal based on daily burn no exercise until you added it, like MFP?
Oh, your dietician is wrong. You'd have to be literally not eating for days on end for the body to be starving and shut down normal fat burning.
The majority of your daily calories burned is from fat stores. Even when undereating.
The problem with suppressed body is it's burning a whole lot less (upwards of 20% less) than it otherwise could burn.
So if eating very little you think, and not losing weight, you should also check the accuracy of your food logging, because it's probably bad enough your deficit isn't as great as you think, but it is bad enough to slow your system down.
Because even if you reached max suppression, eating less still causes fat loss.
But it's unsustainable for vast majority, makes maintenance a failure for majority, and makes your workouts not be the body changer it could be.
But you don't hold on to fat and water.
Now, with eating that low many do binge often, and every binge is eating in surplus, so that would indeed put on fat, but not speed the body up.0 -
I was going to post about eating less. I put on 6lbs at xmas time. And once i stopped eating crap I lost 3lbs. Now im back on 1600 cal a day and eating good, exersice back to normal but my weight is slowly creeping up rather than down. Im not doing that much weight training for the weight to increase. Im all confused again ....
I am on the 5:2 - It was recommended to me by my doctor and I lost almost 2 stone last year with it. Any help even if it means being harsh will help me ! I need all the help I can get.
Thanks guys0 -
Thank you for posting this. This will save me a lot of grief when I get to my goal weight. I should be aiming for 155 for a goal weight of 160 if I'm understanding this correctly....0
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I was going to post about eating less. I put on 6lbs at xmas time. And once i stopped eating crap I lost 3lbs. Now im back on 1600 cal a day and eating good, exersice back to normal but my weight is slowly creeping up rather than down. Im not doing that much weight training for the weight to increase. Im all confused again ....
I am on the 5:2 - It was recommended to me by my doctor and I lost almost 2 stone last year with it. Any help even if it means being harsh will help me ! I need all the help I can get.
Thanks guys
Are you sure you are truly eating 1600 cal a day? Are you measuring everything on a scale that is solid and in cups/teaspoons that are liquid? Are you near your period or eating more sodium than usual? Are you just relying on two weeks worth of data or something more, because weight loss is NOT linear.0
