problems after upping my calories

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Mission2Me
Mission2Me Posts: 208 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
ok recently I upped my calorie intake. I am now eating about 2060 calories a day. am I supposed to gain weight at first?? It has been over two weeks. weighed myself on a random scale today and I was up two pounds! Its driving me insane. I did recently do a three week course of prednisone, but i thought if I maintained my calories while taking those I would be fine and wouldnt gain any. also I have been eating more clean than I have in a long time. I also upped my protein and I try to keep my carbs lower. Thoughts??
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Replies

  • dmoses
    dmoses Posts: 786 Member
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    I'd love to know the answer to this also. I have increased my calories by a couple of hundred, and all I've done is gained. It has been over a month, so I'm just waiting for that magic moment to happen when the scale starts to go DOWN instead of up!
  • aj_31
    aj_31 Posts: 999 Member
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    Yes I believe after upping calories most people will see a gain for a while but then they will drop back down. It takes a while for your body to adjust.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    2060 calories sounds like a lot of calories to me. Are you sure that is leaving a deficit?

    Prednisone can cause weight gain but if you maintained your calories while taking it, it should come back off once you stop taking it.
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Op: that seems like way too many calories for a woman. What are your stats? Age, weight, height, or skip those intrusive questions, and say your bmr from mfp. How much do you workout? What types of exercise? Sedentary job?

    Same to the next person. So many people on here have found success in eating more calories because they were severely under eating. If that isn't true in your case, eating more will only cause a gain or maintenance.
  • three36love
    three36love Posts: 38 Member
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    I gained a TON of weight on prednisone.. and as soon as I stopped taking it, all that weight just fell off with literally no effort on my part.. I think it's water weight. If you're doing everything else correctly, I'd give it time.. that prednisone totally SUCKS.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    Op: that seems like way too many calories for a woman. What are your stats? Age, weight, height, or skip those intrusive questions, and say your bmr from mfp. How much do you workout? What types of exercise? Sedentary job?

    Same to the next person. So many people on here have found success in eating more calories because they were severely under eating. If that isn't true in your case, eating more will only cause a gain or maintenance.

    I agree with this. I had success with eating more to lose more twice along the way: once because I was undereating at 1200 calories when I started out. The second time I needed to change MFP to a 0.5 lb/week loss when I got to the last 10 pounds. You still need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight.

    Are you estimating calorie burns as accurately as possible? Also, as the person above noted, more info is necessary. We need at least your BMR, or ideally that plus full stats of heigh and weight if you don't mind posting them.
  • vipergts223
    vipergts223 Posts: 114 Member
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    Prednisone will def. make you gain weight.
  • Mission2Me
    Mission2Me Posts: 208 Member
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    ok I am 27.

    I am 5.5 feet tall

    I weight 291 ( according to the scale today)

    I havent worked out much the last few weeks. I have been pretty sick...hence the 3 weeks of prednisone and month and a half of antibiotics. I have done a bit of working with my resistance band when I felt ok and a little bit of wall push ups and squats. so I am pretty sedentary.

    I wasnt losing anything when I was on lower calories. It took me since december until march to lose the 6 pounds (now 4 ugh)
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
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    Yes most people do gain at first after upping cals. Give it a good solid 4-6 weeks to even back out. It's not pure fat gain, it's mostly glucose/water gain. I assume you got your TDEE? I assume you're highly active? If you've recently increased activity that will also cause water gain. It's not uncommon for women to eat 2000 cals and lose. I eat 1800-2100 cals everyday. Burn 500-800 and I lose 1-2 lbs every week. I'm primarly losing fat, maintaining muscle and building strength because I fuel myself to do so.

    ETA: I just saw your 2nd post and even with sedentary with your stats I think your cal intake is ok. You weren't where you wanted to be before so what's it going to hurt to try something different. You can alway readjust but do give it ample time before doing so. Good luck!
  • juicemoogan
    juicemoogan Posts: 999 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

    ^^ Join the group.. it will answer all your questions..

    yes a weight gain at first is normal.. If you have calculated your BMR and TDEE right and are eating at a cut of 15 or 20% after a few weeks of your body readjusting to being fed it will go down..

    Just make sure you have your calculations correct and are following the method correctly.

    Go check the threads in the group.
  • ShawnaCurley
    ShawnaCurley Posts: 82 Member
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    That does seem like a lot of calories.
  • amculver1
    amculver1 Posts: 36 Member
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    bump
  • alharbour
    alharbour Posts: 116 Member
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    Different scale might be the reason. I used to just weigh on whatever scale, but now only weigh on my scale because the readings can vary be several pounds.
  • swisspea
    swisspea Posts: 327 Member
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    I'm going through the same thing. I was on 1500, which I know may sound like a lot for some people, but for me, this felt really restrictive, and led to me "cheating" far too much than I'd like to admit. I've changed my preferences to losing 1 pound per week, which has upped my calories to 1800. This feels GREAT, but I've totally stalled, and the scale hasn't moved at all in the last 2 weeks. Logically, it has to go down sometime soon.
  • Julcandoit
    Julcandoit Posts: 9 Member
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    This post is really helpful on upping calories. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/521728-upping-cals-what-to-expect-why-you-need-patience. Also, the Eat More to Weigh Less group is very informative. Hang in there :-)
  • faithstephenson
    faithstephenson Posts: 280 Member
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    I agree, it can take some time to see the results. But also, you said you weighed yourself on a random scale. You really need to weigh yourself consistently on the same scale, at the same time of day, wearing the same clothes (or without) to really know how you are doing. Different scales will be calibrated differently, and 2 pounds would probably fall in that level of uncertainty.
  • Mission2Me
    Mission2Me Posts: 208 Member
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    thanks for the link!

    and I normally weigh on the scale at the doctors office. It is the analog scale with the parts you move by hand. I like that kind better. the one I weighed on today was an digital one In the hall of the hospital. I hope the scale is off. I feel like my pants are more loose than before.
  • Mission2Me
    Mission2Me Posts: 208 Member
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    also I weighed once without shoes and once with shoes...it gave me the same weight with shoes. shouldnt it have been a bit different with those on.
  • jemachharo
    jemachharo Posts: 144 Member
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    " weighed myself on a random scale today and I was up two pounds! "

    Random scale. I have two in my house and they give me different weights. Only be concerned if your normal scale shows a change. Also water weight and TOM cause fluctuations.
  • rmac18
    rmac18 Posts: 185 Member
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    ok recently I upped my calorie intake. I am now eating about 2060 calories a day. am I supposed to gain weight at first?? It has been over two weeks. weighed myself on a random scale today and I was up two pounds! Its driving me insane. I did recently do a three week course of prednisone, but i thought if I maintained my calories while taking those I would be fine and wouldnt gain any. also I have been eating more clean than I have in a long time. I also upped my protein and I try to keep my carbs lower. Thoughts??

    First of all you can't trust a random scale and you also have to pay attention to the time of day. I guess it depends on the shoes but they weigh something and if the scale doesn't reflect this then it may not be very accurate. Weight can fluctuate 3-4 pounds over the course of a day and it's just water. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning on the same scale (I use the Wii Fit board as my scale). I have no idea about prednisone but I think it's the net calories that matters and 2,060 is pretty reasonable if you are also exercising a fair amount to end up with a net that matches your weight loss goal. For me, it's 1,370 net calories a day to lose 2 lbs per week. A few months ago it was closer to 1,500 net calories per day but as you lose weight you readjust the calories to continue weight loss.

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