Will eating over maintenance once a week cause weight gain?
TenderBlender667
Posts: 78 Member
I'm 5'4, 115 pounds and I'd consider myself sedentary. I eat 1500 calories per day, but I work out 3-4x a week and average 10 000 steps on my rest days. If I eat 2000 calories once a week, would this lead to weight gain?
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Replies
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Only if it pushes your total calories eaten for the week over your maintenance amount.10
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If your average TDEE truly is 1500 and your logging is accurate then every seven weeks you might gain a pound.
Sounds a bit unlikely to be that low.
Only way you will know for sure is to try it for an extended period of time to see a slow upward trend developing.4 -
That depends on your calorie needs. Personally, I'm very successful with eating at weight loss calories (and tracking and weighing) 4-5 days/week and then loosening up for 2-3 days. It sounds like a similar method might be what you're looking for. Just pay attention to what works for you.0
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Yes, it will. That's how it works. But keep things in context: maintaining your weight doesn't mean having the exact same number on the scale every day. Your weight is going to fluctuate constantly. Some days you'll gain, some you'll lose, your goal is for it to even out over time. Many people have "ceilings" where they'll take action if they see that number on the scale.9
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Theoretically it will cause about a pound per week gain. But is your maintenance really 1500? You say you consider yourself sedentary, but 10,000 steps per day isn't really sedentary.11
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Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.4
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It takes 3500 calories to add a pound of fat... As a side note if you work out 3-5 times per week and average 10000 steps on your non workout days - you are actually active... sedentary is under 4000 steps per day with no working out. You might want to recalc your TDEE you can probably eat a lot more than you have been - especially if you move up your calories slowly.5
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RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.0 -
TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
You do seem to be estimating low on everything.
That's c. average of 6,000 steps a day when averaged out.
Are you accounting for your exercise in any way? (Either TDEE or MFP methods.)1 -
It might, it might not. Depends how accurate you log, depends on how much you burn working out & if you eat those. Depends if having those extra calories makes you feel better & ends up unknowingly bumping your NEAT.0
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If all your counting and logging is correct, and you eat 100 cals per day over maintenance, (700 per week) you will gain about 1 lb per month.0
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TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
Why do you call that sedentary? If you input moderately active, you would get a much higher number. 1500 is pretty low for the activity you do.5 -
You need to calculate your weekly TDEE to be able to answer your question. If your daily calorie intake doesn't take you over then you shouldn't put on weight. E.g.:
If your weekly TDEE is 12000 and you eat only 1500 cals a day for 6 days (9000 cals), that leaves you with 3000 cals for day 7. If you then only eat 2000 cals on day 7 you are still on an average 1000 calorie deficit for the week.
You see, one day doesn't ruin a diet. Look beyond one day and focus on the entire week.
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If you work out 3-4 times a week with 10000 steps on rest days, then you're not sedentary. 1500 calories isn't maintenance for your height and weight, you would still be in a deficit. So an extra 500 calories once a week only averages out to an additional 71 calories every day, which most likely would STILL keep you in deficit. No, you are not going to gain weight on that.1
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TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.3 -
Sedentary refers to your normal daily work/life routine. Intentional walking and exercise are logged in addition. Sedentary with 2000-3000 steps is appropriate for OP. Log the exercise and extra walking on rest days and eat back half the exercise cals. This is basic MFP process.AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.1 -
Sedentary refers to your normal daily work/life routine. Intentional walking and exercise are logged in addition. Sedentary with 2000-3000 steps is appropriate for OP. Log the exercise and extra walking on rest days and eat back half the exercise cals. This is basic MFP process.AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.
But her average is far higher than that as per the OP.
The activity setting has to be an average otherwise it's being understated.1 -
TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
You do seem to be estimating low on everything.
That's c. average of 6,000 steps a day when averaged out.
Are you accounting for your exercise in any way? (Either TDEE or MFP methods.)
No, just eating maintenance calories set as sedentary. I don't eat any exercise calories back which backfired on me since I've developed a binge eating problem that happens a few times a month. I will definitely up my daily calorie intake and recalculate my tdee.0 -
AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »If you work out 3-4 times a week with 10000 steps on rest days, then you're not sedentary. 1500 calories isn't maintenance for your height and weight, you would still be in a deficit. So an extra 500 calories once a week only averages out to an additional 71 calories every day, which most likely would STILL keep you in deficit. No, you are not going to gain weight on that.
this is woo. there are a lot of possible combinations in MFP settings. one needs to understand how it works and make sure that all activities - dedicated cardio, daily life steps, lifting etc. are counted EXACTLY ONCE. there are multiple ways to achieve these settings.
eg. i average 2500-5000 steps daily without intentional cardio. so i keep my activity setting at 'sedentary'. Any steps more than 5000, I manually log them as cardio to get the calorie offset. Similarly I manually log weight training to get an offset of a few calories. i have no apps or gear synced with MFP.
Sedentary refers to your normal daily work/life routine. Intentional walking and exercise are logged in addition. Sedentary with 2000-3000 steps is appropriate for OP. Log the exercise and extra walking on rest days and eat back half the exercise cals. This is basic MFP process.AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.
what is suggested here ^^ is most simple and sound imo, but there are other ways to set up MFP as well.4 -
AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »If you work out 3-4 times a week with 10000 steps on rest days, then you're not sedentary. 1500 calories isn't maintenance for your height and weight, you would still be in a deficit. So an extra 500 calories once a week only averages out to an additional 71 calories every day, which most likely would STILL keep you in deficit. No, you are not going to gain weight on that.
this is woo. there are a lot of possible combinations in MFP settings. one needs to understand how it works and make sure that all activities - dedicated cardio, daily life steps, lifting etc. are counted EXACTLY ONCE. there are multiple ways to achieve these settings.
eg. i average 2500-5000 steps daily without intentional cardio. so i keep my activity setting at 'sedentary'. Any steps more than 5000, I manually log them as cardio to get the calorie offset. Similarly I manually log weight training to get an offset of a few calories. i have no apps or gear synced with MFP.
Sedentary refers to your normal daily work/life routine. Intentional walking and exercise are logged in addition. Sedentary with 2000-3000 steps is appropriate for OP. Log the exercise and extra walking on rest days and eat back half the exercise cals. This is basic MFP process.AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.
what is suggested here ^^ is most simple and sound imo, but there are other ways to set up MFP as well.
Right but OP said she doesn't log her activity and eat calories back so she should not be set at sedentary.0 -
DawnOfTheDead_Lift wrote: »AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »If you work out 3-4 times a week with 10000 steps on rest days, then you're not sedentary. 1500 calories isn't maintenance for your height and weight, you would still be in a deficit. So an extra 500 calories once a week only averages out to an additional 71 calories every day, which most likely would STILL keep you in deficit. No, you are not going to gain weight on that.
this is woo. there are a lot of possible combinations in MFP settings. one needs to understand how it works and make sure that all activities - dedicated cardio, daily life steps, lifting etc. are counted EXACTLY ONCE. there are multiple ways to achieve these settings.
eg. i average 2500-5000 steps daily without intentional cardio. so i keep my activity setting at 'sedentary'. Any steps more than 5000, I manually log them as cardio to get the calorie offset. Similarly I manually log weight training to get an offset of a few calories. i have no apps or gear synced with MFP.
Sedentary refers to your normal daily work/life routine. Intentional walking and exercise are logged in addition. Sedentary with 2000-3000 steps is appropriate for OP. Log the exercise and extra walking on rest days and eat back half the exercise cals. This is basic MFP process.AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
I'm really not sure you understand what "sedentary" means, then. It has nothing to do with the amount of steps you take every day, but the total amount of physical activity you do weekly. You are telling us that you work out several times a week, and do 10000 steps on days you don't work out. That's nowhere near sedentary.
what is suggested here ^^ is most simple and sound imo, but there are other ways to set up MFP as well.
Right but OP said she doesn't log her activity and eat calories back so she should not be set at sedentary.
Rather than setting activity levels higher and eventually missing activities sooner or later and messing all these calculations up, OP should tighten her logging.3 -
TenderBlender667 wrote: »I'm 5'4, 115 pounds and I'd consider myself sedentary. I eat 1500 calories per day, but I work out 3-4x a week and average 10 000 steps on my rest days. If I eat 2000 calories once a week, would this lead to weight gain?
To gain a pound = ~3500 extra calories above maintenance.
So if you ate exactly maintenance (with maintenance being 1500 calories) the rest of the week, and 500 over on one day, you would gain ~1 lb every 7 weeks.
With workouts, at 1500 cal/day: the rest of your week is probably at least somewhat below maintenance, so weight gain, if any, should be less than that.
(edit: typo)0 -
And as others have said, if you are averaging 10000+ steps on your not-doing-anything-extra days (ie your normal everyday life/job), then sedentary is probably too low a setting (as in 'teacher' rather than 'desk job' per the quick MFP descriptions).
ETA: (unless those steps come about because you intentionally take a walk on your rest days to get some exercise activity in, in which case you can optionally keep the sedentary setting and log the walk as exercise).1 -
TenderBlender667 wrote: »TenderBlender667 wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Why do you consider yourself sedentary? 10000 steps a day would be active.
I only do 10 000 steps on my rest days (3x a week). On the days that I work out, I do an hour of cardio combined with weight lifting, but otherwise average closer to 2000-3000 steps outside of the gym.
You do seem to be estimating low on everything.
That's c. average of 6,000 steps a day when averaged out.
Are you accounting for your exercise in any way? (Either TDEE or MFP methods.)
No, just eating maintenance calories set as sedentary. I don't eat any exercise calories back which backfired on me since I've developed a binge eating problem that happens a few times a month. I will definitely up my daily calorie intake and recalculate my tdee.
If you set your goal using a TDEE calculator your exercise is included - that's part of the reason why people shouldn't, or at least be cautious about, mixing the two different methods.
Hope it works out OK for you, try not to react if you get fluctuations that seem out of step with your calorie increase. Best of luck.
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TenderBlender667 wrote: »I'm 5'4, 115 pounds and I'd consider myself sedentary. I eat 1500 calories per day, but I work out 3-4x a week and average 10 000 steps on my rest days. If I eat 2000 calories once a week, would this lead to weight gain?
To gain a pound = ~3500 extra calories above maintenance.
So if you ate exactly maintenance (with maintenance being 1500 calories) the rest of the week, and 500 over on one day, you would gain ~1 lb every 7 weeks.
With workouts, at 1500 cal/day: the rest of your week is probably at least somewhat below maintenance, so weight gain, if any, should be less than that.
(edit: typo)
This is true (bold). That might not sound bad, but it would be 7 pounds gained in a year. That might not sound bad, but it adds up over the years. I managed to become 150 pounds overweight, at the rate of 5-10 lbs gained per year. (Fortunately, it's all gone now, and I've been maintaining for nearly a year. )0 -
If you consistently "eat over maintenance" you will gain weight, assuming that your maintenance # is correct. The amount of weight you will gain over what period of time depends on how much your calories-in exceeded your calories-out. This process is why what I call "bracket creep" happens to some of us - those 3-5 pounds a year that add up over time.0
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No. You're working out consistently, it's once a week. You're good.1
This discussion has been closed.
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