Going 'over' Maintenance Calories

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Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    you don't gain weight (fat) from overeating here and there just like you don't lose weight from dieting for a day...your body is an awesome machine and very good at using excess energy for good and strives for maintenance...where you run into problems is when you consistently overeat...when you consistently overeat, you override your body's ability to maintain and that's when you start storing fat...similarly, you have to consistently under-eat (diet) to effectively lose weight. you don't start storing excess fat with one day of over-indulgence just as you don't lose weight having low calorie days here and there...either one requires a consistent effort.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    you don't gain weight (fat) from overeating here and there just like you don't lose weight from dieting for a day...your body is an awesome machine and very good at using excess energy for good and strives for maintenance...where you run into problems is when you consistently overeat...when you consistently overeat, you override your body's ability to maintain and that's when you start storing fat...similarly, you have to consistently under-eat (diet) to effectively lose weight. you don't start storing excess fat with one day of over-indulgence just as you don't lose weight having low calorie days here and there...either one requires a consistent effort.

    Science tells us that energy doesn't just disappear though.. so that extra energy from all those extra calories... where does it go?
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Science tells us that energy doesn't just disappear though.. so that extra energy from all those extra calories... where does it go?

    You still gain it. It's just negligible in the grand scheme of things.

    Let's say you pig out 3 days a year and eat 1000 calories over maintenance on each of those days. That's 3000 calories total. Or less than a pound. Over the course of an entire year, it's negligible, especially since our weight fluctuates more than that. And you can always burn them off with an extra run or gym appearance or two over the few days after that. So, whatever.

    If, however, you're just 200 calories over your goal almost every day, then that's 73,000 calories over the course of a year. That's a gain of 20 pounds, which is not negligible.

    Most of us didn't gain weight due to the occasional celebration or indulgence. We gained weight by not eating mindfully and eating more than we burn over a long period of time.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    ncfitbit wrote: »
    segacs wrote: »
    I've always wondered this, so it's true that smaller people fill up quicker than their taller counterparts?

    Well, sure. If you burn less energy just by existing, then you don't need as much energy to fill up.

    The challenge, IMHO, comes not from the quantity of food being less, but from standard portion sizes being designed for much larger people. Most of the time we keep eating not really 'cause we're still hungry, but 'cause it's there. When food is portioned out for a 6 foot man who weighs twice what I do, then obviously I'm going to have too much on my plate. I therefore need to be a lot more mindful than he does, to force myself to only eat half of it or to share it with someone or whatever, if I don't want to gain weight. Whereas he can probably just eat it and be fine.

    I think you're right about this. I know some naturally thin, petite women who tend to do things like "split an appetizer" for a meal! I would think to myself, WTF, what are you a bird? But they were probably doing the more natural thing than what I was doing, which was to eat my whole meal, a taste of someone else's plus the bread on the tables, plus drinks,and maybe dessert. Lol.

    Haha I could have written this exact same post! :lol:

  • KBmoments
    KBmoments Posts: 193 Member
    MissJay75 wrote: »
    edvsoreos wrote: »
    Some great input on the replies here. 1700-1800 cals is pretty low for maintenance (unless you are really short). If you're keeping in that range for a majority of the time, some excursions to 3-4K a few times a month will not make a noticeable difference. Just try to keep is as a special treat and not make it a habit.

    1700-1800 is not really all that low for a female. My TDEE is 1620 without exercise and I am 5'7" I've been tracking for almost 2 years, I know that number to be very accurate. I also disagree when you say an extra 304K a month will not make a noticeable difference. An extra 3-4K a month that isn't made up for with a deficit at some later point will gain her over a pound a month or over 10 pounds in a year.

    ^ This.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    you don't gain weight (fat) from overeating here and there just like you don't lose weight from dieting for a day...your body is an awesome machine and very good at using excess energy for good and strives for maintenance...where you run into problems is when you consistently overeat...when you consistently overeat, you override your body's ability to maintain and that's when you start storing fat...similarly, you have to consistently under-eat (diet) to effectively lose weight. you don't start storing excess fat with one day of over-indulgence just as you don't lose weight having low calorie days here and there...either one requires a consistent effort.

    Science tells us that energy doesn't just disappear though.. so that extra energy from all those extra calories... where does it go?

    Remember you are also likely to have low days though being too busy, ill, a lot of exercise or as a conscious decision.
    To me it's dreadfully restrictive to attempt to maintain by eating the same calorie level every day.
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited October 2015
    segacs wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Science tells us that energy doesn't just disappear though.. so that extra energy from all those extra calories... where does it go?

    You still gain it. It's just negligible in the grand scheme of things.

    Let's say you pig out 3 days a year and eat 1000 calories over maintenance on each of those days. That's 3000 calories total. Or less than a pound. Over the course of an entire year, it's negligible, especially since our weight fluctuates more than that. And you can always burn them off with an extra run or gym appearance or two over the few days after that. So, whatever.
    .

    I've thought about this a bit. I wonder if it can also be accounted for by non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).
    "Physiological studies demonstrate, intriguingly, that NEAT is modulated with changes in energy balance; NEAT increases with overfeeding and decreases with underfeeding. " (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415 )

    Perhaps our bodies move just a little more, we tap our feet, we drum the steering wheel while we drive, we pick up something heavy instead of asking for help, etc. It all takes energy, but maybe our bodies are more likely to dissipate it in this way when we have plenty at hand.

    Generally, I worry about it more in the other direction, though. Lately, when I work out really hard my body is really good at telling me to relax and sit still the rest of the day! Thanks to having negative adjustments on Fitbit I know exactly when I'm doing this.