Can I eat more than I burn?

Keep training hard and eating right, you’ll reach your goals/targets.

fryeralexandra313 wrote: »

Hello

I am looking for advise please!

I now weigh 7 stone 9 and I am 5ft which I am happy with and feel this weight is ideal for me height and age (27). I work out twice a day usually with one day rest and walk 10k steps a day. I burn roughly between 1850-2100 calories a day.

I have upped my calories over the last 4 weeks to 1973 (201g carbs, 65g fat and 146g protein)
However... I feel like my body is used to these calories and over the last 2 days I’ve noticed my body wants more food? If I up my calories and eat more than I burn am I going to gain weight? Ive worked so hard over lockdown to lose weight and then up my calories to start building muscle. I am now 18% body fat and I feel upping my calories will make me go back to square one.

I would really appreciate it if someone could help me please
Thank you, Alexandra

If you eat more than you burn - you will gain fat.
That is the fundamental of weight management - eat less, lose fat, eat same, maintain, eat more, gain fat.
Perhaps, just perhaps, with right strength training and just right amount extra - you could put on just muscle - very slowly. Odds are against that unless in a research study getting measured out the whazoo.

Now - add to the mix that how much you eat can effect how much you burn.
Undereating body will slow some things down if it doesn't like the deficit amount for fat reserves left.
Overeating body can cause you to move more and burn more, so you aren't eating more than you burn.

Add to that do you really know how much you are burning to nail that figure so exactly?
No.

Fat is neither lost or gained fast, always do the math.
If you truly ate 100 calories above maintenance (not your paper estimate) each day, it would take 35 days to slowly put on 1 lb of fat - and during that time water weight fluctuations would be more than that.

So you won't be back to square one unless you just turn a blind eye to slow weight gain and measurement gain.
Hence the reason to have a goal weight range - not set figure - drive yourself batty if you attempt that.
And measure the first place you gain fat. 1 lb is usually some decent inches in that first place.

You say building muscle so I'll assume a good progressive strength training workout - those could have gotten better now that you aren't in a diet - and body wants more to repair and recover and build stronger.
So eating more will still not be eating more than maintenance, your daily burn may have easily gone up.

If a woman @ really 18% BF (where did that figure come from?) - that is normally in a range the body will find stressful and fight to get out of, more BF for health reasons for female.

You'll need a month as a woman to discern anything from weight changes of course, so do a trending app, and do monthly measurements.
Perhaps eat 100 more.

Where did the daily burn figure come from?
Near the end of weight loss, rate you lost and amount you ate will give true deficit, which will then give amount you could have started eating more.
Unless workouts changed, then that's out the window.

Is your 'calorie burn' that you mentioned from just exercise that you do? In that case...you are also burning calories just by living.

Or is that your TDEE?

My suggestion would be to figure out your TDEE (use any calculator you find on Google...but maybe do a couple bc there are numerous formulas and they're all just estimates).

This *should be the amount of calories that you should eat (theoretically) and stay the same weight.

Intuitively...if you're hungry, eat more.

But to answer your question...if you eat MORE calories than your TDEE...theoretically you will gain weight.