What exactly happens from deficit to maintenance
viren19890
Posts: 778 Member
Hello,
I've been in deficit since Jan 9 and so far I've dropped 40 lbs. For last 21 days I've been on hypo caloric days 1500 cals a day and I'd like to get back to reasonable calories 1800-1900 so my workout gets back to normal but I was suggested that I should take couple weeks of staying at maintenance break.
I haven't taken a single cheat day or did not get out of deficit at all since Jan 9. I think I'll need to drop another 10 lbs to reach my ideal bf% . So going on maintenance won't balloon me up or anything like other people I've seen right?
I've even seen people gain 5-10lbs in a 2-3 days of over-eating during their diet. I don't want to take 2 steps back.
Suggestions?
I've been in deficit since Jan 9 and so far I've dropped 40 lbs. For last 21 days I've been on hypo caloric days 1500 cals a day and I'd like to get back to reasonable calories 1800-1900 so my workout gets back to normal but I was suggested that I should take couple weeks of staying at maintenance break.
I haven't taken a single cheat day or did not get out of deficit at all since Jan 9. I think I'll need to drop another 10 lbs to reach my ideal bf% . So going on maintenance won't balloon me up or anything like other people I've seen right?
I've even seen people gain 5-10lbs in a 2-3 days of over-eating during their diet. I don't want to take 2 steps back.
Suggestions?
1
Replies
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When you're at goal, slowly increase calories. 100 more cals/day for a week, each week add 100 cals until you hit maintenance. Then see if you actually do maintain. If not, adjust up or down until stable.3
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If people are gaining 5-10lbs in 2-3 days, they're either eating an enormous amount of calories or they're gaining water weight which will go away with time. Not in maintenance, just my observation.4
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If you're going to take a maintenance break to get back to a deficit, just take it and trust your logging. You've been eating 1500 calories (as a male who is training?!). The sooner you get your calories back to maintenance for a bit the better. You might see a spike on the scale due to water weight but if you are logging accurately/weighing food you can feel assured it is not fat gain.5
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arditarose wrote: »If you're going to take a maintenance break to get back to a deficit, just take it and trust your logging. You've been eating 1500 calories (as a male who is training?!). The sooner you get your calories back to maintenance for a bit the better. You might see a spike on the scale due to water weight but if you are logging accurately/weighing food you can feel assured it is not fat gain.
Yes, it was for this last 3 weeks.
So from June 17 until June 26 i'm suggested to take a deficit break and eat at maintenance.
I know there will be water gain- i just want to ensure I don't end up doing something stupid.0 -
viren19890 wrote: »arditarose wrote: »If you're going to take a maintenance break to get back to a deficit, just take it and trust your logging. You've been eating 1500 calories (as a male who is training?!). The sooner you get your calories back to maintenance for a bit the better. You might see a spike on the scale due to water weight but if you are logging accurately/weighing food you can feel assured it is not fat gain.
Yes, it was for this last 3 weeks.
So from June 17 until June 26 i'm suggested to take a deficit break and eat at maintenance.
I know there will be water gain- i just want to ensure I don't end up doing something stupid.
You know how to log. You're the only one who can make sure you don't do something stupid.1 -
So my maintenance according to scooby calorie calculator is 2700-2900 based on TDEE.
Lol I don't even know how I'll eat that much it seems now because I'm not that hungry anymore lol Workouts would get wonderful again.
Also, I did LCHF diet for 21 days -so I know water weight will be huge gain.1 -
Also for my last 10-15 lbs if I stay at 1800-2000 cals a day- would I continue to lose weight even though I am "used" to 1500 cals a day now?0
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viren19890 wrote: »So my maintenance according to scooby calorie calculator is 2700-2900 based on TDEE.
Lol I don't even know how I'll eat that much it seems now because I'm not that hungry anymore lol Workouts would get wonderful again.
Also, I did LCHF diet for 21 days -so I know water weight will be huge gain.
I find Scooby estimates to be on the high side. You can get close to maintenance with your own data. Were you losing 2 lbs per week on 1500? Then your maintenance is likely 2500. It's all in the data. That's the beautiful thing about tracking.viren19890 wrote: »Also for my last 10-15 lbs if I stay at 1800-2000 cals a day- would I continue to lose weight even though I am "used" to 1500 cals a day now?
I doubt you have had any metabolic adaptation that has decreased your TDEE so much that you just can't lose on 1800-2000 calories. That's part of what the maintenance break is for anyway.1 -
If you've been logging food accurately, you already have your best estimate of maintenance calories right at your fingertips: Add up the calories you ate for a time period (week, month, whatever, but a period of time). Take the number of pounds you lost in the same time period, and multiply it by 3500 (roughly the number of calories in a pound). Add the result to the calories eaten. Then divide by the number of days. As a formula:
(Calories eaten in time period + (pounds lost in time period x 3500)) / number of days in time period
= estimated daily maintenance calories.
That's a little squishy because you've been eating at the same calorie level at the same time your calorie requirement has been decreasing (because of your weight loss), and it doesn't account for your exercise. But if 40 pounds is your total loss, then ( (1500 x 156 days approx since January 9) + (40 x 3500)) / 156 = 2397 estimated maintenance calories - call it 2400.
Like I said, that's squishy. But suppose you eat at 2900 for a week's "diet break". If that's too high (horrors!
), and 2400 is right, the most you should gain (actual gain) in a week is ((2900 - 2400) x 7 days) / 3500 = 1 pound. Anything further that shows up on the scale is probably water weight.
Even if those estimates are substantially off, you're not going to balloon up. For someone to gain 5 extra pounds (of something other than water weight) in 3 days, they have to eat 5833 calories above maintenance each of those 3 days (5 pounds = approximately 17500 calories), or 11666 above maintenance to gain 10 pounds. You're not going to do that.
To gain 5 real pounds during your June 17-26 diet break (10 days), you'd have to eat 17500 calories above maintenance, or 1,750 calories above maintenance daily. Don't. You have enough data that you can avoid that. And it certainly won't happen if you increase your intake from 1500 (at which you've been losing) to 2900, because there isn't even 1,750 between the two.
But you will see a larger gain on the scale from the water weight, and that might be 5-10 pounds. If you understand the arithmetic, you'll know what it is, and you don't have to stress about it. (I'm a tiny li'l ol' lady, and I've gained/lost 5 pounds of scale weight that was almost entirely water/digestive contents, between one morning & the next, a few times!)
(Dang, I hope I got all of the above right - I'm usually pretty good at math (the formulas), but terrible at arithmetic (I forget to carry the one, and stuff like that.)8 -
If you've been logging food accurately, you already have your best estimate of maintenance calories right at your fingertips: Add up the calories you ate for a time period (week, month, whatever, but a period of time). Take the number of pounds you lost in the same time period, and multiply it by 3500 (roughly the number of calories in a pound). Add the result to the calories eaten. Then divide by the number of days. As a formula:
(Calories eaten in time period + (pounds lost in time period x 3500)) / number of days in time period
= estimated daily maintenance calories.
That's a little squishy because you've been eating at the same calorie level at the same time your calorie requirement has been decreasing (because of your weight loss), and it doesn't account for your exercise. But if 40 pounds is your total loss, then ( (1500 x 156 days approx since January 9) + (40 x 3500)) / 156 = 2397 estimated maintenance calories - call it 2400.
Like I said, that's squishy. But suppose you eat at 2900 for a week's "diet break". If that's too high (horrors! ), and 2400 is right, the most you should gain (actual gain) in a week is ((2900 - 2400) x 7 days) / 3500 = 1 pound. Anything further that shows up on the scale is probably water weight.
Even if those estimates are substantially off, you're not going to balloon up. For someone to gain 5 extra pounds (of something other than water weight) in 3 days, they have to eat 5833 calories above maintenance each of those 3 days (5 pounds = approximately 17500 calories), or 11666 above maintenance to gain 10 pounds. You're not going to do that.
To gain 5 real pounds during your June 17-26 diet break (10 days), you'd have to eat 17500 calories above maintenance, or 1,750 calories above maintenance daily. Don't. You have enough data that you can avoid that. And it certainly won't happen if you increase your intake from 1500 (at which you've been losing) to 2900, because there isn't even 1,750 between the two.
But you will see a larger gain on the scale from the water weight, and that might be 5-10 pounds. If you understand the arithmetic, you'll know what it is, and you don't have to stress about it. (I'm a tiny li'l ol' lady, and I've gained/lost 5 pounds of scale weight that was almost entirely water/digestive contents, between one morning & the next, a few times!)
(Dang, I hope I got all of the above right - I'm usually pretty good at math (the formulas), but terrible at arithmetic (I forget to carry the one, and stuff like that.)
Nice logic ANN1 -
If you eat maintenance calories you will or should remain the weight you are now. Think of it as a learning curve so when you finally are in maintenance you will know the score. Its trial and error for all of us finding our actual maintenance calories anyway.
A lot of people take 'diet' breaks and eat at maintenance every few months, it can really boost the weight loss when you go back to eating at deficit again.2 -
If you've been logging food accurately, you already have your best estimate of maintenance calories right at your fingertips: Add up the calories you ate for a time period (week, month, whatever, but a period of time). Take the number of pounds you lost in the same time period, and multiply it by 3500 (roughly the number of calories in a pound). Add the result to the calories eaten. Then divide by the number of days. As a formula:
(Calories eaten in time period + (pounds lost in time period x 3500)) / number of days in time period
= estimated daily maintenance calories.
That's a little squishy because you've been eating at the same calorie level at the same time your calorie requirement has been decreasing (because of your weight loss), and it doesn't account for your exercise. But if 40 pounds is your total loss, then ( (1500 x 156 days approx since January 9) + (40 x 3500)) / 156 = 2397 estimated maintenance calories - call it 2400.
Like I said, that's squishy. But suppose you eat at 2900 for a week's "diet break". If that's too high (horrors! ), and 2400 is right, the most you should gain (actual gain) in a week is ((2900 - 2400) x 7 days) / 3500 = 1 pound. Anything further that shows up on the scale is probably water weight.
Even if those estimates are substantially off, you're not going to balloon up. For someone to gain 5 extra pounds (of something other than water weight) in 3 days, they have to eat 5833 calories above maintenance each of those 3 days (5 pounds = approximately 17500 calories), or 11666 above maintenance to gain 10 pounds. You're not going to do that.
To gain 5 real pounds during your June 17-26 diet break (10 days), you'd have to eat 17500 calories above maintenance, or 1,750 calories above maintenance daily. Don't. You have enough data that you can avoid that. And it certainly won't happen if you increase your intake from 1500 (at which you've been losing) to 2900, because there isn't even 1,750 between the two.
But you will see a larger gain on the scale from the water weight, and that might be 5-10 pounds. If you understand the arithmetic, you'll know what it is, and you don't have to stress about it. (I'm a tiny li'l ol' lady, and I've gained/lost 5 pounds of scale weight that was almost entirely water/digestive contents, between one morning & the next, a few times!)
(Dang, I hope I got all of the above right - I'm usually pretty good at math (the formulas), but terrible at arithmetic (I forget to carry the one, and stuff like that.)
oh damn! thanks
btw though my calories kept changing. Started from 2300 then 2200 then 2100 then 2000 then 1900 and for last 21 days I was at 1500.
Last 21 days were also HFLC diet and I dropped 10 lbs from that.
So how does the formula work for fluctuating calories? Do I average them out and use that number instead?
Also maintenance might be until July 10 instead of June 26 and I realize most of the water weight I'll gain is because of re-introduction of carbs.0 -
viren19890 wrote: »If you've been logging food accurately, you already have your best estimate of maintenance calories right at your fingertips: Add up the calories you ate for a time period (week, month, whatever, but a period of time). Take the number of pounds you lost in the same time period, and multiply it by 3500 (roughly the number of calories in a pound). Add the result to the calories eaten. Then divide by the number of days. As a formula:
(Calories eaten in time period + (pounds lost in time period x 3500)) / number of days in time period
= estimated daily maintenance calories.
That's a little squishy because you've been eating at the same calorie level at the same time your calorie requirement has been decreasing (because of your weight loss), and it doesn't account for your exercise. But if 40 pounds is your total loss, then ( (1500 x 156 days approx since January 9) + (40 x 3500)) / 156 = 2397 estimated maintenance calories - call it 2400.
Like I said, that's squishy. But suppose you eat at 2900 for a week's "diet break". If that's too high (horrors! ), and 2400 is right, the most you should gain (actual gain) in a week is ((2900 - 2400) x 7 days) / 3500 = 1 pound. Anything further that shows up on the scale is probably water weight.
Even if those estimates are substantially off, you're not going to balloon up. For someone to gain 5 extra pounds (of something other than water weight) in 3 days, they have to eat 5833 calories above maintenance each of those 3 days (5 pounds = approximately 17500 calories), or 11666 above maintenance to gain 10 pounds. You're not going to do that.
To gain 5 real pounds during your June 17-26 diet break (10 days), you'd have to eat 17500 calories above maintenance, or 1,750 calories above maintenance daily. Don't. You have enough data that you can avoid that. And it certainly won't happen if you increase your intake from 1500 (at which you've been losing) to 2900, because there isn't even 1,750 between the two.
But you will see a larger gain on the scale from the water weight, and that might be 5-10 pounds. If you understand the arithmetic, you'll know what it is, and you don't have to stress about it. (I'm a tiny li'l ol' lady, and I've gained/lost 5 pounds of scale weight that was almost entirely water/digestive contents, between one morning & the next, a few times!)
(Dang, I hope I got all of the above right - I'm usually pretty good at math (the formulas), but terrible at arithmetic (I forget to carry the one, and stuff like that.)
oh damn! thanks
btw though my calories kept changing. Started from 2300 then 2200 then 2100 then 2000 then 1900 and for last 21 days I was at 1500.
Last 21 days were also HFLC diet and I dropped 10 lbs from that.
So how does the formula work for fluctuating calories? Do I average them out and use that number instead?
Also maintenance might be until July 10 instead of June 26 and I realize most of the water weight I'll gain is because of re-introduction of carbs.
If it were me, I'd just ballpark it using those most recent 21 days (but I'm kind of laid back about these things, knowing my weight will give me feedback in time to adjust before anything terrible happens!):
((1500 x 21) + (10 x 3500)) / 21 = 66500 (calories eaten & lost) / 21 (days) = 3166!
Makes it seem like the 2900 estimate may not be too crazy, huh? But keep in mind that the 3166 is still an estimate, just an estimate based on your own personal data. I'll leave it to you to play with the arithmetic and figure out some potential values for how much "real weight" you might gain or lose if you're a certain amount off precision.
Personally, I tend to think of this whole weight-loss thing as a really fun real-world science fair project, but maybe that's just me.
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My main concern is not gaining fat that's about it. I'd still be eating same food just little bit more amount. Also I don't think I'd be able to eat a lot more. I'd just stay around at 2500 or so and full on strength training.
Thanks all- just wanted to confirm -to make sure I don't unnecessarily gain fat because I still need to drop 10-12lbs0 -
viren19890 wrote: »I've even seen people gain 5-10lbs in a 2-3 days of over-eating during their diet. I don't want to take 2 steps back.Forty6and2 wrote: »If people are gaining 5-10lbs in 2-3 days . . . . they're gaining water weight which will go away with time.
There's your answer. You would literally have to inhale several blocks of lard to gain 5-10 lbs of fat in 2-3 days. No, scratch that. Your body wouldn't even process it. You'd get diarrhea and poop it all out before it went into your bloodstream. There is no such thing as gaining 5 lbs of fat in 2 days or 10 lbs of fat in 3 days. It's all water.
Someone who eats like a total Fatty McFatterson might gain 2-3 lbs a week at the most.
I'm not sure what your exact question is, but "What exactly happens from deficit to maintenance" = 1) We increase our caloric intake so that our CICO balances out to zero; 2) we have (hopefully) developed a stable pattern of good eating habits and possibly a tenable exercise routine; and 3) we feel comfortable in our own skin now.
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