My head hurts.....

khaldrogo · 08-06-2025 05:41PM #1

..…trying to make sense of this.

If my maintenence calories are 2800 and I go into a deficit consuming 1700 but I stop losing weight while in the deficit and begin to maintain my weight for days and days on the 1700 calories.

Does 1700 calories now become my maintenence? And if not, how in God's name will I not pile the weight back on if I returned to the 2800 calories???

I am confused

igCorcaigh · 08-06-2025 08:09PM

Would maintenance calories be by definition the calorie intake level that allows you to maintain your current weight?

the_amazing_raisin · 08-06-2025 08:35PM

DISCLAIMER: I am not a nutritionist or personal trainer, seek expert advice before embarking on a diet or exercise plan

To maintain weight, calories eaten must equal calories consumed by your body

Excess calories will be stored as fat, increasing weight

To lose weight, you need to either lower your calorie intake or increase demand by exercising

Sounds like you've fairly heavily lowered your intake, I'm not sure that'll be sustainable long term as you'll just feel miserable and start eating more again

Try to focus on the big picture. Eat healthier meals before eating less. Adding fruit and veg to your diet gives you a lot of essential nutrients and also tends to give the feeling of being full at a much lower calorie density than processed foods, carbs or meat

I heard that when your calorie intake drops suddenly your body responds by going into high efficiency mode. Not sure if there's much scientific evidence behind it but it may be why your weight loss is slowing

There's also a general law of diminishing returns when losing weight, it tends to be easier to lose the first few kilos than the next few

Regular exercise will help here as well as with a bunch of other health issues. The general advice is to start with 30 mins of moderate intensity exercise 3 days a week and work up from there

What you do is up to you, walk, run, swim, do aerobics, whatever. It's good to vary up different exercises and not focus on one alone. As well as being better for general fitness it stops you getting bored

In terms of intensity, the right pace is what works for you and not what other people are doing. By the end of a session you should be sweating a bit, feeling warm, a bit tired and maybe a bit achy

You should NOT be feeling so out of breath you're about to vomit or like your muscles are jelly. That's overexercising and is very counter productive

If moderate intensity for you feels like a snails pace then just stick with it. Better to be productive than feel so awful you stop exercising, and you'll improve pretty quickly at first

Its a long road to get fit, and unfortunately one with a lot of frustrations and temptations to quit. Try to stick with it even on the days you don't want to, and if you do have a slip just cut yourself some slack and pick it up again the next day

igCorcaigh · 08-06-2025 08:41PM

Keep tracking your weight. Your rate of weight loss will naturally decrease. Up your protein intake to prevent muscle loss.

Escapees · 08-06-2025 09:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058415490/my-head-hurts

Firstly, body weight can fluctuate from day to day due to a number of factors like hydration level, constipation, etc. and should really only be monitored no more frequently than on a weekly basis. Secondly, 2800 calories is generous enough and probably not something to be thinking about returning to, especially if it was required for maintenance when you were more overweight than you are now.

CPTM · 08-06-2025 10:08PM

Days and days isn't a great timeframe. Try weeks and weeks. You should be aiming to lose 300 to 500 grams a week depending on how big you are. What are your macros? I mean how many/much carbs/protein/fat are you ingesting per day?

Mellor · 16-06-2025 03:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058415490/my-head-hurts

You maintenance calories cannot sudden switch from 2800 to 1700.

People often overestimate their maintenance. They also tends to underestimate intake. Maintaining for "days" is nothing. A few days is not a long period for weight loss. Think in weeks not days.

2800 is very high for maintenance. In that as based on body mass, why would you retrun to that number? You need to work out your new BMI.

Mellor · 16-06-2025 03:29AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123526925#Comment_123526925

To maintain weight, calories eaten must equal calories consumed by your body
Excess calories will be stored as fat, increasing weight

First line, yes. It's that simple.
Second line, probably not as the body is efficient - but doesn't actually matter.

Sounds like you've fairly heavily lowered your intake, I'm not sure that'll be sustainable long term as you'll just feel miserable and start eating more again
Try to focus on the big picture. Eat healthier meals before eating less. Adding fruit and veg to your diet gives you a lot of essential nutrients and also tends to give the feeling of being full at a much lower calorie density than processed foods, carbs or meat

Intake is measured in calories, not volume. Lowering to 1700 is the correct approach.
Eating healthy food, but not eating less won't improve weight.
Eating healthy food is positive in itself, but it does not replace eating less - intake being measured in calories.

I heard that when your calorie intake drops suddenly your body responds by going into high efficiency mode. Not sure if there's much scientific evidence behind it but it may be why your weight loss is slowing

The body does not have an efficiency mode. It's always pretty efficient.

If it were able to downregulate to match intake, there food shortage wouldn't be a issue.

There's also a general law of diminishing returns when losing weight, it tends to be easier to lose the first few kilos than the next few

Of course. If you body 50% fat mass, it is much more bioavailable than when it is 15% fat mass.

In terms of intensity, the right pace is what works for you and not what other people are doing. By the end of a session you should be sweating a bit, feeling warm, a bit tired and maybe a bit achy
You should NOT be feeling so out of breath you're about to vomit or like your muscles are jelly. That's overexercising and is very counter productive

Intensity should match capability. But that's not what overexercising is. Overexercising is throw about far too easy. Its really not a concern for most people who are not training at a high level.

Escapees · 16-06-2025 11:27AM

"Intake is measured in calories, not volume. Lowering to 1700 is the correct approach.

Eating healthy food, but not eating less won't improve weight.

Eating healthy food is positive in itself, but it does not replace eating less - intake being measured in calories."

In all fairness, the poster that you quoted mentioned about eating healthier food in the context of it having a lower calorie density but giving more satiety. This is generally true - try eating a few bowls of healthy, low calorie soup! While intake is indeed measured in calories, this is actually the product of the volume of food consumed and its calorie density.

I think a fundamental issue often is that people don't properly count the calories of food they consume. Eating healthier food in general therefore seems a good thing regardless.

the_amazing_raisin · 16-06-2025 01:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123548908#Comment_123548908

Yeah you basically nailed it

I got the impression the OP had effectively kept their diet the same but reduced portion size by around 40%

My experience of trying to do that is that you just feel miserable and tend to snack more and give up quicker

In general healthier foods tend to have lower caloric density than heavily processed foods, so switching to a healthier diet will generally yield some weight loss by itself

One of the biggest improvements I made in the past few months was to just cut out the snacking. I reckon I lost about 4kg on that alone

selenie · 20-06-2025 01:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123549472#Comment_123549472

Yeah, cutting out snacking makes a big difference, easy to overlook but adds up fast. And switching to lower-calorie, filling foods definitely helps stick to a deficit without feeling starved.

My head hurts.....

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