Two Week Update for Anyone Curious
MandaLeigh123
Posts: 351 Member
Calorie increase update for those curious: Been bumped up for about two weeks now. After 2 days of caloric increase, my weight dropped down 2lbs, then went back up almost immediately so looking back I am guessing that was a water fluctuation. So started at 145lb, two days of 143, and now I am back to 145lb. The entire last week I ate between 2100-2400/day. The week before that mostly 1900-2100/day. Before that was averaging 1200-1500/day and not losing quickly anymore, weight barely coming off. Right now, I am trying to figure out what my maintenance calories are before I even think about any more weight loss. I guess I just want all of my friends to see how things are going for me. I can't imagine not discovering this group. Would I have made myself stick to 1500cal/day for the rest of my life? 
Sad thought indeed.
Going to attempt increase my calories even more this week if my stomach lets me. Probably go up 100 every week that I can manage it. These calculators have my recommended daily intake at 2,700-2,900 (I workout a lot)! Wowza. Once I start to gain, that's when I'll know around where my maintenance calories are and I'll drop back down by 100 calories. Let me tell you how good it feels to not feel consistently guilty about my food choices. Feels good to eat again.
Sad thought indeed.Going to attempt increase my calories even more this week if my stomach lets me. Probably go up 100 every week that I can manage it. These calculators have my recommended daily intake at 2,700-2,900 (I workout a lot)! Wowza. Once I start to gain, that's when I'll know around where my maintenance calories are and I'll drop back down by 100 calories. Let me tell you how good it feels to not feel consistently guilty about my food choices. Feels good to eat again.
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Update~ at heybales recommendation, I'll go up 250cal over two weeks so I can more quickly *kitten* what my body does with the increased calories.0
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This is a great report! Perfect example of how to push those cals up to find true TDEE! Great job! And still no gain coming from 1200-1500 a day! You've almost doubled your intake!0
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Great report! I have a question related to this topic, for the experts...how do you tell the difference between water weight gain as a result of increasing calories and a true surplus of calories showing you are above your TDEE? Is the water weight usually rapid right after you increase your calories? And a true surplus would be seen by gains of around 1-2 lbs a month? I want to find my TDEE but I'm also nervous about gaining a lot during reset.0
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You nailed it exactly.
If you were eating 250 more than what you thought was TDEE, then for 2 weeks you should only gain 1 lb slowly.
And if lifting - not even all fat.
Conversely, if it jumped up 2-3 lbs in 2-3 days, then obviously prior level was not maintenance, because you just topped off carb stores in the muscles with attached water.
First thing going in to a diet, body drops those stores by some amount. The first big weight drop everyone gets.
But if you were eating at maintenance, there should be nothing to quickly refill.
Also what could happen is no weight gain, body sped up enough during that time to better potential TDEE that no excess was to be had, probably still burned some fat while those carb stores with water was increased actually.
If the latter 2 happen, you do the 2 week 250 increase test again.
If the first happens, your prior eating level was TDEE.
Take it from there.
What's actually good at that point if you plan on keeping your workout routine, is divide that tested TDEE by your calculated BMR.
That's your personal activity factor for that workout routine.
When you drop 10 lbs, recalculate BMR, times activity factor - there's new TDEE to do math with.
Simple.0 -
I am trying to get up to 2700-2900 this week- have had three days of success with it. Will see in a couple of weeks what the scale does.0
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Thanks for the explanation HeyBales! MandaLeigh123 I want to hear another report in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to find my TDEE too.
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Will do!0
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japp, I am following this too!0
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So, I've also been at about 2000 for a while and short of a few pounds flux have really maintained for 3 months. I think it's taking a while to wrap my mind around what I'm doing. So I'm trying to figure out if I should start to cut because I haven't lost since December or to press on with adding calories first to up my intake prior to cutting. My bmr is 1652 and tdee 2560 per the scooby website. This is the first time just tonight that I considered maybe I need to up the calories. I'm satisfied at 2000 but perplexed that I'm not losing eating under my tdee. I guess this is because I'm training my body to burn that and need to go back down to lose? So if I want to cut at 2000 I first need to get to 2600, is that how it works?0
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KickboxDiva wrote: »So, I've also been at about 2000 for a while and short of a few pounds flux have really maintained for 3 months. I think it's taking a while to wrap my mind around what I'm doing. So I'm trying to figure out if I should start to cut because I haven't lost since December or to press on with adding calories first to up my intake prior to cutting. My bmr is 1652 and tdee 2560 per the scooby website. This is the first time just tonight that I considered maybe I need to up the calories. I'm satisfied at 2000 but perplexed that I'm not losing eating under my tdee. I guess this is because I'm training my body to burn that and need to go back down to lose? So if I want to cut at 2000 I first need to get to 2600, is that how it works?
If you are truly eating about 2000 and maintaining weight - guess what your current TDEE is?
If it was truly a potential estimated 2600, you'd be losing weight, right, eating less than you burn by 600 calories?
So either you badly estimated the TDEE, or your food logging leaves a lot to be desired for accuracy, or you had been eating even less for a while and moved up in calories.
In one study, the participants starting seeing a very slow increase to their RMR and daily burn after 3 months of eating at lab measured TDEE, this following 3 months of big diet.
So you could stay where you are at, and possibly, eventually, if your body has no other health stresses and truly eating at suppressed TDEE, it might speed up and start causing a deficit allowing weight loss.
Or eat more and make it happen faster.
Oh, and if your body is suppressing TDEE because of undereating - you are not getting nearly what you could from your workouts. Why would your body make improvements that require more energy use when it's already slowing down to conserve calories?
You can get stronger without muscle gain, but that will tap out eventually.0 -
Week 3 update
Stayed between 2600-2800cal/day this week. Getting easier to eat that amount of food without feeling bloated. I still never feel hungry. I really enjoying eating again! I don't feel guilty about it anymore. What a bad head space to be in that was.
I plan to eat at that level for awhile, because I was on a low calorie diet for about 6 months prior to increasing my calories. Trying my best at a proper reset. I am wondering if my TDEE really is even higher than 2700 because I still haven't really had what I consider a real gain. My starting weight was 145, dipped down briefly 143, and currently at 146. This is within normal fluctuation range AND my period is schedule to start today, and I always go up 1-2lbs for a few days before/beginning of my period.
I'm not panicking at all about scale weight anymore. I don't know how I turned that voice off in my head. I wish I had tips for other people struggling with it, but for some reason it just clicked that it doesn't matter as much as I thought it does. I think it was seeing a picture of someone who looked really fit and they were 10-15lbs heavier than they used to be. Up/down doesn't bother me. It's more like a puzzle now. What's my actual TDEE and how many calories will I have to increase by before I find it? Its interesting. I don't have a "goal weight" so much anymore.... there are some places I would like to lose fat, but if I can lose the fat and but not lose scale weight, that's fine with me. If I can't lose the fat, I think I'll be okay with it. I look and feel so much healthier than I did before. My bra's getting looser. I can't say I am happy about that, but it's telling me that I'm loosing fat from chest/bust area.
I workout a lot. I like it. Strength training helps me feel strong. Cardio helps soothe my anxious and busy mind. I also love watching tv, it's one of my favorite hobbies. I can pop some tv program on my iPhone and play it while I do my cardio. Double the fun. What I am training for? Hmmm... life I guess. Zombie apocalypse maybe? Both cardio/strength help me as a nursing student. I remembered this week that I have a joint condition and that even if my muscles can lift heavy, my joints can't really take the pressure. I was in a lot of pain twice. I did it to myself once, said I wouldn't do it again, and then did it again to test it out. I need to lift as heavy as I can without hurting my joints. Posting it here just to say it again. Sometimes I forget about my issues when I'm at the gym, and it totally bites me in the *kitten* the next day.
Found some new podcast that are helping me learn more along my journey! Loving Nia Shanks "Lift Like a Girl" and also discovered on of my favorite blogs "No Meat Athlete" has a podcast. I tried out the Jillian Michaels podcast but it wasn't really my thing. If anyone has any health and fitness podcasts they love, I would like to hear them!
I'm finding that MFP friends who are eating more than 1200-1600 seem to be happier people. At least that's what they are portraying online. My MFP friends doing low calorie diets are often stressed out and have feelings of guilt when they "totally over did it" by eating 1800 calories. I'm starting to feeling really disconnected from them. I'm trying to point people in this direction, but I know personally, I wouldn't have listened to me 4 months ago.
I had some big NSV's this week:
I fit into my goal pants and I wore them out! This wasn't possible three weeks ago, they fit but were too tight to move in.
I am on Scooby's push-up plan, and I finally managed (for the first time!) to do five sets of 20 knee push-ups with proper form. I had to start my push-ups over because I realized my form was just awful when I was doing standard push-ups. Had to drop back to my knees and start again
I started working on the benching the bar two weeks ago, and benched 55lbs this week! Was very proud of that. Was pretty steady with it and didn't need the clips this time.
I am leaving March 26 to go to Montana for most of the week visiting family, so I will be doing a lot of guessing and quick add calories to my diary. Montana isn't really known for it's fantastic vegetarian selection, so we'll see how it goes! Will be doing a lot of family gathering, which I am not used to and a lot of eating. Thankfully, I think my TDEE is high enough that it won't mess me up to much. I already have my workouts planned so that I can get some exercise in while I am there!0 -
OMG. I want to to Scooby's push-up plan! I can do sets of about 5-6 regular pushups with decent form now but haven't been sure how to progress beyond that. Congrats on the strength wins!0
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wow, Manda, that´s so -looking for words- friggin´ Supercalifragilisticexpialidociousawesome! It´s late, so I will write more tomorrow, but yeah!0
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That is incredible progress, probably the biggest in the place that really matters the most for future success - your mind.0
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Manda - That Scooby pushup plan is kicking my *ss! I thought my form on pushups was pretty good, but I totally couldn't do 5 sets of 20 knee pushups. Gives me something to work towards!0
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You are doing so well Manda, you've nailed it haven't you!! You certainly sound in a very happy place, am very pleased for you
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bump0
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This post is so full of awesome!0
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Love what you are sharing!
Thanks for pointing it to me!!!
I'm so IN... now I can picture myself where I'm supposed to be...
I'm glad you answered my question earlier today!!!0 -
You're doing great! This is very encouraging to hear.0
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Just caught up on this thread, Manda great work and I can't wait to hear more!!0
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