It sounds to me like you shorted yourself on the TDEE. Lifting 3x wk and 3x wk cardio sounds like 5-6 hours and that's not counting life outside of just workouts. Do you have a dog, kids, standup job? But just with the workouts Scooby gives you a 2600 TDEE and 20% cut of 2000-2100.

You might need to do a full reset where you increase calories and find your own TDEE.

Some people swear by FitBit but personally, it had my calories wayyyy too low. There were way too many things in my daily life that FitBit couldn't account for and I didn't have time to enter them in manually. So FitBit was telling me my TDEE was something like, 1600-1700 per day but my actual TDEE ended up being roughly 2800. Scooby said my TDEE was 2500 I think if I remember right.

The only way to truly know your TDEE is to keep increasing by 250 until you start gaining. Gaining slowing over the course of a couple of weeks. Not gaining in one day, people don't gain a pound of fat in a day. 250 calories over maintenance per day, it would take 14 days to gain 1lb of fat slowly. It's math. 1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories. 250 calories x 14 days = 3.5000. I see people in this forum particularly say, "My weight has been 2lbs up for the past 3 days. Does that main I am over maintenance?"

No, if your weight spikes up 2lbs suddenly, that's water. You wait and look to see that the weight gain is sustained. Then you make sure your sodium levels are in check, so that it's not water retention. If you go over a ton with sodium ( I am guilty of this), drink lots of water and flush the sodium out. The water weight will flush out with the sodium. You look at training. Did you weight train the day before? Because you'll retain water a couple of days after that, so that's not gaining fat, that's water retention. Is your period soon... because that's water weight.

There is no easy answer to the question, how will I know if my numbers are right. This is part of the process that is the most difficult for people who have been restricting so carefully. Restricting that much is a lot about control. Feeling in control of your weight. When you start increasing your calories, your weight starts bouncing around and it feels out of control and it's scary.

All I can say is this, I increased and I was scared. There was one day my weight went up 7lbs over night. Not even kidding. I ate chinese food and movie theater popcorn the same day and didn't drink much water. The weight was gone by the end of the week. It's a good example of the scale not being your friend and the scale not telling the whole story. I take my measurements once a month. So even if the scale was up a couple of pounds, I could see my inches were the same.... and one month my weight was up and my inches were down! Take your measurements always.

I stayed at maintenance for 4 months. I bounced around with the number. When my activity level went down, I lowered my maintenance accordingly. It was really hard because I went from very active to pretty sedentary (besides my set workouts). So my maintenance level went from 2800.... down to 1800 * wah wah *. To figure out that lower number, I kind of looked at my number of active minutes per week and used my FitBit (I use it basically as a step counter only) and could tell I had to drop a ton of calories. Injury plus summer vacation has had me sitting a ton. Anyway... In that time, I only ended up gaining about 5lbs. At least a couple of those were purely water weight, because when I started my calorie cut, they dropped away withing two days and haven't come back. Fat doesn't drop that fast. That was water.

So starting weight back in February was approximately 147.... weight during most of maintenance 149-152. Current weight after a month at smaller caloric cut, 148. I don't really have a goal weight anymore. I do know I want to lose some more fat. I don't know how many pounds that will equate to.

Most of this battle for me was mental. People want exact answers for questions like:
How do I know my activity level?
How do I know if my metabolism is suppressed?
How do I know if I am gaining weight?
How long do I reset?

If you read enough, you'll find great guidance for all of these questions but a lot of really comes down to trial and error. Maybe in your reset time, you'll start to calm down your fear about becoming fat again. You look strong and you look healthy! Trust your past successes and keep you nose to the grindstone trying to do the right thing with a reset. I would so at least three months at a full reset and then go from there. Keep with those measurements so if your weight bounces around, you can calm yourself with measurements. Take pictures in undies for yourself. Drink lots of water and be amazing at how much strength and endurance you gain your workouts.

Eat more to weight less also has their own website with forums if you feel like you want more people to chat with since its a little quite here right now.

I have to chime in and second Mandy's sentiments. The first time I tried a reset, I wasn't mentally there. I was doing it to help me lose weight. This time (just started week 8) I'm doing it for the mental break and I've also let go of all numbers. No scale weight bugs me...no pants being tight.....I'm just over it. I have faith in myself that I won't be obese again. I know what to do and why and the reasons for bingeing are gone....I eat. I enjoy....


I went on vacation for a few days with friends and still chose salads and chicken and fruits and egg whites. Because I wanted to and it makes me feel good physically and I didn't HAVE to splurge since it was vacation. I did, however ,eat dessert both nights. LOL Guilt free. There's no beginning or end per se. This is just life.

Come over to this side. It's really nice here.

Mindylee143 wrote: »

@kmac1196 I think I'm beginning to really understand and embrace the whole journey...just wish I had found this group and gained this knowledge when I first started my weight loss journey! Better late than never, I guess!

That's most of us @Mindylee , but we can always learn, adapt and change. Especially when it's for the better.

I second picking a diff valid weigh in day. I always have a big loss day after cardio which I have always chalked up to dehydration bc a- its usually 2lbs b- it doesnt stick.

retirehappy wrote: »

I decided to do my weigh ins on a rest day, since I take Sat. and Sun off except for my daily steps. I consider Sun. my weigh in day, helps control Friday and Sat. indulgences as well.

I weight in on Monday morning for that reason.

bahahahah--- I know!

I actually don't have any good consistent weigh-in days. Sat/Sun/Mon my sodium is usually making me retain water. Other days my muscles are often in recovery from either cardio or strength training. So my day changes from week to week. I just try to pick the one where it seems like I am most rested and have the least water retention.

retirehappy wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

Fri and Sat indulgences?

Is this a new ice cream I've not heard of, or more than ice cream?

For me it is not ice cream, not my thing. I'm in Manda's camp, salt, give me salty crunchy stuff, I can eat that stuff all day and night .

Mmmmm.. so true!

About 250 cal extra daily would be 1 lb every 2 week gain - plus any water weight stuff going on, which was big increase.

Scooby only has big blocks of suggestions - I wouldn't be surprised if the spreadsheet estimate is still between levels on the 5 rough levels.

And that's the whole point if a rough estimate is used - might be wrong way - need to adjust and spend more time testing.

If honest with daily activity level, and used actual average times in the exercise section (like 3-4 x weekly 60 min is 3.5 x 60, not 3 x 60), then I'd go with better estimate that actually takes in to consideration different types of workouts.

And indeed it shouldn't take weight much to level out depending on how you got to even an exact potential TDEE.
The water weight from extra carbs is taken care of within first 2 weeks, unless workout changes or gets more intense or longer endurance, then more increase of glucose stores.
Other than that is a suppressed daily burn speeding up slowly to match the eating level - so for some period of time really are eating in surplus and gaining fat.
But even that won't be that much, maybe 500 surplus slowly getting lower to nothing. Unless estimated TDEE is higher than reality, then you'd keep gaining.