How many calories to GAIN a pound?

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maggiepz
maggiepz Posts: 141 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound. Obviously it takes less than 3500 calories over your BMR to gain a pound. Went out of town and they had a couple restaurants that my daughter and I used to go to all the time that are no longer available in our part of the state. Well of course we went and ate our favorite foods.

This morning my scale is FIVE pounds higher than it was before! WHAT THE H3LL!!! I know I would have gone above my maintenance calories but we were running around and climbing stairs at the water park with the kids. Maybe I could see a pound or maybe two but FIVE??? The calories I calculated out for Saturday were just under 2500 calories and under 2200 for Sunday. My BMR is 1555.

I don't seem to be retaining water.

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  • keaani34
    keaani34 Posts: 33 Member
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    Onless you were eating everything in sight it would be very hard for you to put on 5 pounds that fast, most likely you are holding water and food in your system, maybe you had a lot of salt. My BMR is very close to your's 1513 I think and I went out with the family on Saturday and went off my eating plan for 1 meal on Sunday I was 4 pounds heavier but today only 2 pounds heavier lol, my guess is by tomorrow I will be back to my normal weight.
  • Mommy_Time
    Mommy_Time Posts: 256 Member
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    all kinds of things change the number on the scale: the time of day, what you are wearing, if you ate anything before, if you used the bathroom, for women when it gets close to that time of month, and mine changes from where i am such as my house or my moms house.

    and your weight fluctuates normally 5lbs so don't get discouraged. try to only weigh once a week or every 10 days.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
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    It is 3500 to gain. It is also quite possible to gain 5 pounds of water weight, undigested food, and so on. Plus, your body normally fluctuates anyway.
  • keaani34
    keaani34 Posts: 33 Member
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    If I am not mistaken it takes 3500 calories over your BMR to gain a pound, so in your case you would have to eat 5055 cals.. to gain 1 pound in a day.
  • mrsdizzyd84
    mrsdizzyd84 Posts: 422 Member
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    As I understand it...

    3500 calories to gain a pound and 3500 calories to lose a pound. This is over or under your maintenance calories also known as your total daily energy expenditure.

    Calorie is short for kilocalorie. It measures energy. It doesn't change whether we are talking about your body consuming its energy stores or your body trying to process a bar of chocolate.

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