Nervous on bumping calories...

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honkinballs
honkinballs Posts: 34 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'll be frank, I've had arguments in here before with people with me saying "I'm on 1200 calories and I'm doing great" as far as cutting goes.

After doing that cut for so long and losing 120 pounds, which was great for the initial cut, I'm re-evaluating what I eat. I'm introducing a lot more protein and bumping the calories from 1200 to around 1800. In all honesty though, I'm nervous as hell doing this since I can only imagine myself ballooning up to a massive fatty like I used to be. Not that I'm not a fatty now, but I never want to be 300+ pounds again in my life.

I'll still be in a deficit sure as far as TDEE goes, I'm going to my CrossFit box Monday through Friday (or Saturday) per usual but now I am introducing at least two strength sessions in after the WODs on my own. I'm justified in the calorie bump, right? This will help build muscle which burns fat, right?

I'm already doing the calorie bump but mentally all I can see is me becoming huge again after depending on that massive initial deficit for so long.

If you need to know:

5'8 M
Starting weight 330
Current weight 210

Replies

  • Hrussian
    Hrussian Posts: 22 Member
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    Don’t be scared! Bumping the calorie intake up for your workouts will help! You won’t blow up!!! This will really help you have more energy and help your performance. If you want those muscle add those calories. You got this!!!
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    The good news is I doubt if you have kept this exercise program up for more than a couple of months that you are only eating 1200 calories because that is insanity. If you don't have one you need to get a food scale and figure out what you are eating currently.
  • GrantRKn
    GrantRKn Posts: 17 Member
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    I started my journey at 77kg I bulked Intensively for nearly a year and worked my way up-to 96kg, I’ve been cutting every since on a diet consisting of 2000-2500 kcal my macro ratio is 50/30/20, all I can say is if you feel the need to change your diet in any way then just do it, you know your body best, the one way to know if something will work is to just try it and experiment
  • Scottgriesser
    Scottgriesser Posts: 172 Member
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    Mostly because it is commonly accepted that men shouldn't go below 1500 and women shouldn't go below 1200.

    So you as a male on a 1200 budget are only at 80% of the minimum. That's significantly below the accepted amount.

    That isn't to say people can't survive on lower intakes than that, obviously you did, but when basically every single nutritionist and body sculpting professional agree on something, it is a reasonable assumption that they are right. You most certainly did damage to your system going on that low of an intake at your starting size. You lost weight, great, but at a higher cost than you needed to pay for it.

    To answer your question about bumping up the calories, a gradual increase is better, but you won't balloon up at 1800. That is still in the maintenance/deficit range depending on your activity level.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,702 Member
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    I'm 5'5", 62 y/o, female, sedentary outside of intentional exercise, and lost very handily (a pound or more a week) at a weight in the 150s, while eating around 1500 (+/- 100) plus eating all exercise calories. I now lose slowly in the lower 130s at 1850 calories, again eating all exercise calories. I admit I'm a good li'l ol' lady calorie burner, but still . . . !

    Do I think a 5'8" 210-pound male who looks to be 1/2 to 1/3 of my age will continue to lose at 1800 calories while weight training and doing Crossfit? Um, yeah!

    What I don't get is why a person in that demographic would be eating 1200 in the first place: I did it for a short few weeks, when MFP estimated it for me because I'm old, sedentary and not very tall, but lost way too fast and got weak and fatigued, a condition it took several more weeks to recover from. People often say 1200 is for old, small, sedentary women. It isn't even good for all of us.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    Many people, regardless of how secure they are with the math, have hangups about increasing calories. That's why maintenance can be difficult for people to adjust to. But, no, you're not going to gain by upping them. You may see a small bump due to glycogen replenishment from coming out of such a steep deficit but don't let that deter you. Expect it and then expect it to balance out.
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
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    Dude, looks at it this way: You worked REALLY hard so you could get to the point where you don't have to eat 1,200 calories a day! Why resist now that you're here?

    Maintenance is a lot harder than eating at a deficit in some ways, it takes a long time to wrap your head around NOT losing weight. The fact is though that you will be in maintenance for the rest of your life, its not a phase like losing is. You haven't done it before so it'll be new, just give yourself time to learn, adapt, and manage it.

    But if you are doing that much CrossFit, you need to be eating more than 1,200 calories brother. That's what the kids these days call "crazy"... ;)

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