Maintaining weight

[Yakker04]

• I've lost 52 kg just want to know I'm trying to maintain my weight now. Sometimes I go over my calorie intake my 1500 to 2000 calories for the day not often but has been once a week for last 2 weeks. Will this put on weight

[Yakker04]

I'm trying to maintain the weight I'm now after losing 52 kg. The last 2 weeks for one day I've gone over my calorie intake for that day by 1500 to 2000 calories. Will I put on weight from doing that 

[Dominique]

First of all, congrats for your impressive weight loss!

As to your question, it is very hard to provide answers without more information about yourself and your weight loss: over what period of time did you lose 52 kg? from what starting level? did you do it in one go, or during several phases with diet breaks in-between? Your metabolism has been considerably reduced by your weight loss (though by how much depends on the information asked above). Now that you have stopped being in a deficit, you will be rebuilding your metabolism, but it can take quite some time before it’s back to normal  (that is, to the level of a person your age, your gender and your current size).

[Yakker04]

Hi thanks for your reply. It's taken me 9 months to lose that. I've been told I'm way to skinny now can't win haha. But I've worked to dam hard to put on weight now I've never been this light. So I get a bit anxious when I go over my calorie intake sometimes. Cause some days I'm just really hungry. 

[Dominique]

An average rate of 1.4 kg (3.2 lbs) per week of uninterrupted loss for nine month is a lot. I’ll point you to one of my favorite source of recommendations for weight loss, the Losing All Your Weight At Once video by Dr. Mike Israetel. Not that it any longer applies to you, since you’ve already lost all that weight, but it may help you understand the mecanisms at work (in terms of metabolism), what to expect and what mistakes to avoid.

I assume you have made quite a few qualitative improvements to your diet (in other words, you didn’t only cut calories, but also made switches from junk foods to healthy foods). I would suggest you keep these and make them a permanent part of your lifestyle.

I would also recommend you start engaging in a good resistance training program (= lift weights), in order to build muscle (you likely have lost quite a bit of lean mass, in addition to fat, hence the "skinny" look).

It’s OK, to regain a little bit after such a massive (and fast) loss. Just try to keep it under control, avoiding mindless binging. 

[Yakker04]

Ok thanks yea I do a hell of alot of cardio and a bit of resistance training not much. I'm going to get more into the resistance training. Yes I've changed my diet and have recently uped my calories to 2100 a day to maintain my weight cause I'm still losing it

[Yakker04]

Also do i count walking at work part as my excercise I walk 10 km a day but that doesn't include work. I'm on my feet walking at work for 8 hours  so do I count that as well and how do i know how many kms I walk in a min without using a fitbit etc 

[Dominique]

Looks like you live a very active lifestyle, both during and outside of work. It certainly must have helped with your weight loss. As long as your current activity level is sustainable, keep it stable and progressively increase your intake until you’re no longer losing. After maintaining your new weight for a while, you should be able to further increase your intake without regaining.

As to your question regarding distance without using a Fitbit, I’m not sure I understand it. First of all, distance isn’t such an important metrics for activity. Calories burned and active minutes would be a better proxy IMO. Secondly, if you were wearing your Fitbit all the time (except when recharging it), you wouldn’t have to worry about some of your activity not being accounted for. Or are you saying you are not allowed to wear your Fitbit at work? I know it’s the case in certain professions (e.g. medical). This would indeed cause a substantial part of your daily activity to be excluded, especially since you have a job that keeps you on your feet. 

[Yakker04]

So I won't put on weight if i up my calories and keep doing what I'm doing excercise wise yes

[Dominique]

If you continue to lose weight at your current activity and eating levels, it means you’re still in a deficit. My suggestion was to progressively up your intake until you no longer lose, i.e. reach maintenance. Once you’re there, keep eating at that level and see what happens. Adjust if necessary. What you want to avoid is give way to a reckless binge (science says there could be a huge drive to bring you back to your former weight, because you lost so much so fast). The longer you manage to maintain your new, lower weight, the more likely it’s going to "stick".

[Yakker04]

I've been eating junk food for for last 4 weeks not every day tho. Just to put on 5kg but still maintain or lose  is this because I'm under my calorie intake for week and or doing to much excercise. 

[Dominique]

I must say I don’t understand the need to rush the regain. Or are cravings after your huge loss just irresistible?

[Yakker04]

I don't want to regain but have been told by doctor and dietician and nutritionist that I'm way to skinny and I'm just curious as why I'm not putting on weight after eating rubbish and also xmas as you do ate alot didn't put on weight is it because of all the excercise 

[Dominique]

How tall are you and what was your starting weight (before the 52 kg weight loss)?

[Yakker04]

129 kg and 183 cm im now 75 kg

[Dominique]

At 129 kg, BMI was 38.5 (class II obesity). At 75 kg, it’s 22.4 (about in the middle of the normal weight range). It’s hard to see an urgency to regain a significant amount of weight from there. What would be the risks of being "too skinny", according to your doctor? FWIW, I’m currently at BMI 21 and although I may qualify as skinny according to some people, I don’t see any health issues related to it.

If you want to regain some weight, I would do it in an orderly fashion, eating primarily healthy food and focusing on resistance training, so as to make sure the majority of the gains come from lean mass rather than fat. The faster you lose weight, the most likely it is a significant portion of it will come from lean mass. And the faster you gain, the most likely it is a big part will be fat. You can’t undo the loss since it has already happened, but you still have control over how to regain (if you decide to regain).

[bikerhiker]

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@Yakker04 wrote:

I don't want to regain but have been told by doctor and dietician and nutritionist that I'm way to skinny and I'm just curious as why I'm not putting on weight after eating rubbish and also xmas as you do ate alot didn't put on weight is it because of all the excercise 

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Putting on weight requires that you go out of the energy balance.  Which means that your caloric input is higher than your caloric output.  Contrary to popular belief, eating junk food in moderation does not necessarily make you fat.  Eating too much junk food "will" make you fat only when you exceed the calories that you need for the day. Junk food contains almost zero nutritional value and that makes the body crave more of those food to try to satisfy the required nutrition.  Usually, junk food is very high on sugar and this will give you the short energy boost that addresses the low blood sugar (cravings of hunger) and that usually occurs if you exercise a lot but starve yourself by consuming less calories than you are supposed to replenish the calories lost due to exercise.  Now, if you are exercising a lot and you are at a lower weight and you have been at that weight for a long time, then your body fat setpoint would have been reset to the new weight.  When the body fat setpoint is at the new weight and not at your old weight, then your body will adjust to maintain this body fat setpoint.  So, you can eat junk food, food laced with MSG and as long as they do not exceed more than 30% of your healthy diet, then your body may gain weight, but eventually when you exercise your body will seek to reach the new equilibrium.  So, you may gain weight but you can easily shed the weight off.  

This is different from people who DID NOT reset their body fat setpoint to the new setpoint and what happens is that, once they achieved weight loss and they start eating normally again, the weight will quickly jump up and return to its former weight plus more.

So it sounds like your body has acclimatized to the new body fat setpoint.

In regards to why your doctor, dietician and nutritionist is sounding the alarm about you being skinny and why they are concerned about you.  First of all, these people are professionals and therefore they are licensed from the college of the health board.  Which means they are insured and are also liable to your health's prognosis.  So, they all have to say something to warn you, but can not force you to change your mind simply to absolve their liability of you.  

The reason is actually quite simple and it also has scientific research to back it up.

Our human body fat is our energy reserve.  Our body keeps this reserve in the event of a major illness or famine.  These days, it is an undiagnosed major illness that can kill you or shorten your lifespan.

Basically, the research that came out of China, which had a high case of diabetes related death, actually found that people who are obese and are diabetic actually live LONGER than those people who are thin and skinny without diabetes.  Even with heart diseases and diabetic related illnesses, the healthy skinny fit Chinese died early.  The research concluded that these people died because they contracted some unknown and unforeseen disease and they simply didn't have enough of the body fat to sustain them until the full course of antibiotics or antiviral medication take their full effect.

So basically this reserve is like having an insurance policy in the event of contracting a major illness and surviving through it.  If you are extremely confident that you will never contract a nasty disease in your lifetime, then I suppose it is fine to have a much lower body fat reserve.  But this is always a choice an individual will have to make.  

[Yakker04]

They reckon I should be 82 kg

[Yakker04]

Is that every day you mean about eating junk food and putting on weight cause last few weeks once a week I've been way over my calories for the day but still am losing weight as rest of week is under

[Dominique]

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@Yakker04 wrote:

They reckon I should be 82 kg

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75 and 82 kg are so close (and both well within the normal weight range) it makes no difference IMO, from a health perspective. It should really be up to you where you choose to stabilize your weight (at this kind of level). If health is the concern, I would focus more on developing/maintaining good lifestyle habits (eating, exercising, sleeping etc.), and less on whether you should weigh 75 vs. 82 kg.