How Many Calories- Can Too Little Cause Weight Gain?
KelsBean25
Posts: 1 Member
While training for and running a marathon 2 years ago I gained 10 pounds that made my body look and feel fat, not muscular. I listened to my body while eating and definitely wasn't overeating. The weight has increased to a total of 20 lbs in the past 2 years. Some say I don't eat enough for my activity and some say I eat too much. How do you know how much your body needs? I'm at this increased weight and can't figure it out. My clothes no longer fit and I just look chunky all over. I'm lifting alternating with cardio and intervals classes. What's the ideal calorie intake for someone like me?! Who else is there to ask? I've been to multiple doctors!
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Calorie deficit creates weight loss. Do you track your intake because listening to your body isn't exactly working for you, I'm thinking.
Read the stickies at the top of the getting started board. Loads of great info.
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For you to gain weight, you have to eat above your TDEE. So, you've been eating over your TDEE. To lose weight, you have to eat below your TDEE. There are some TDEE calculators in the Internet, like http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
You'll have to eat at your TDEE to maintain. So, you can say that it's your ideal calories intake (??).0 -
Too little calories can throw your body into starvation mode but not cause you to gain. If you have gone to several doctors this is a red flag. Certainly they gave you possible causes. The fact that you have gone to multiple doctors could mean that you do not like their answers or suggestions.0
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bellabonbons wrote: »Too little calories can throw your body into starvation mode but not cause you to gain. If you have gone to several doctors this is a red flag. Certainly they gave you possible causes. The fact that you have gone to multiple doctors could mean that you do not like their answers or suggestions.
Starvation mode doesn't mean what you think it means.0 -
bellabonbons wrote: »Too little calories can throw your body into starvation mode but not cause you to gain. If you have gone to several doctors this is a red flag. Certainly they gave you possible causes. The fact that you have gone to multiple doctors could mean that you do not like their answers or suggestions.
Starvation mode doesn't mean what you think it means.
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We are a medical family I am well aware what starvation mode means and how it is defined.0
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Consume less calories (energy) than you use, a deficit, your body is required to use its reserves of energy (fat etc).
Consume more calories (energy) than you use, a surplus, and your body stores the energy (fat etc) for use at a later date.
This is how we work as human beings.
It is against the laws of the known universe to create body fat with no surplus energy floating about. You have to be eating a calorie surplus.
You can't build a wall without bricks.bellabonbons wrote: »We are a medical family I am well aware what starvation mode means and how it is defined.
You need to speak to some of your medical family about simple high school human biology then.0 -
Apparently it's quite common for people to gain a bit of weight when training for a marathon. Running often causes appetite increases that exceed the actual calories burnt by running. While running is a great calorie burner, it doesn't make you immune to weight gain, even if you feel you are following appropriate hunger cues.
Since I started running longer distances (up to 1/2 marathons, training for a full in a few months) I've had to be stricter than ever with my intake as often I feel like I need far far far more fuel than I actually do.
As others have suggested, enter your stats in mfp, set your loss goal, accurately weigh (WEIGH) and measure your intake, be conservative with your exercise estimates, and you'll be fine.0 -
KelsBean25 wrote: »While training for and running a marathon 2 years ago I gained 10 pounds that made my body look and feel fat, not muscular. I listened to my body while eating and definitely wasn't overeating.
Yes you were overreating - the extra training made you hungrier and you overrate your calories - there is no other way to put on weight (well there's water weight but this wasn't water weight was it?
The weight has increased to a total of 20 lbs in the past 2 years.
So you continued to overeat - seriously not by much - in 2 years you've put on 20lbs - do you realise that's just by eating an extra 96 calories each day - that's less than a single slice of bread, fewer than some apples, it's half a pint of milk
Some say I don't eat enough for my activity and some say I eat too much. How do you know how much your body needs? I'm at this increased weight and can't figure it out.
well the easy answer is whatever you are eating now less 95 calories per day is your maintenance - so how much are you eating now - you need to weigh and log it
My clothes no longer fit and I just look chunky all over. I'm lifting alternating with cardio and intervals classes. What's the ideal calorie intake for someone like me?! Who else is there to ask? I've been to multiple doctors!
What does MFP tell you when you set it up - start there. Weigh and log your food, take a 1lb a week goal, set your activity level properly (excludes exercise) - add half the calories from your activities as per MFP database
rinse and repeat for 8 weeks
see how much weight you've lost and adjust accordingly0 -
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bellabonbons wrote: »We are a medical family I am well aware what starvation mode means and how it is defined.
Starvation mode is not a medical term. Are you talking about adaptive thermogenesis?0 -
KelsBean25 wrote: »I listened to my body while eating and definitely wasn't overeating.
I'm sure many obese people would say they regularly listen to their bodies, are sure they are not over eating, yet still put on weight too...
How were you tracking your food intake to give you such confidence that you were not consuming calories above your daily requirements?
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Being 'medical' doesn't mean you know about nutrition, as clearly demonstrated here.0
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KelsBean25 wrote: »While training for and running a marathon 2 years ago I gained 10 pounds that made my body look and feel fat, not muscular. I listened to my body while eating and definitely wasn't overeating. The weight has increased to a total of 20 lbs in the past 2 years. Some say I don't eat enough for my activity and some say I eat too much. How do you know how much your body needs? I'm at this increased weight and can't figure it out. My clothes no longer fit and I just look chunky all over. I'm lifting alternating with cardio and intervals classes. What's the ideal calorie intake for someone like me?! Who else is there to ask? I've been to multiple doctors!
It's easy to gain weight while training for a marathon if you "intuitively eat". It's very common when people aren't tracking their intake.0 -
bellabonbons wrote: »We are a medical family I am well aware what starvation mode means and how it is defined.
please explain then what this starvation mode is...
For me it's when you are starving and losing fat, muscle and eventually life...0
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