I think doing this experiment has been one of the best things I've ever done for my health. My entire mindset has settled down and I'm no longer fearing weight gain or eating more food. I realized that for the first time in my life, I am eating enough food every day consistently. I was always an under-eater and it was probably only the few days of eating fast food I ate weekly that kept me at the weight I was at in the past.
I've already blogged about how medication caused my weight gain a few times in my life but my pregnancies did also, even the ones I lost. I know that my anorexia and bulimia from my late teens had a lot of things to do with why I chronically under-eat. To think here I am at age 43 still dealing with this is sad but at least I'm understanding more now!
I think I've found my magic number of 2300 calories. It took me about 10 days to feel comfortable eating this much but now I'm easily eating this and even hungry often. I'm assuming that is a sign that my metabolism has risen and my body has leveled out and I could probably go higher right now in my calories but I am going to instead do my deficit starting this Saturday. I hope I don't regret this but I do know that in 4 weeks when I go back into maintenance, I need to take a week off weight training, as I try to do every 12 weeks. At some point, I also need a week off hiking and these exercise breaks do wonders for my body! Exercise is stress on your body and causes inflammation and our bodies do better with a week of rest periodically.
I've used a lot of calculators and formulas to try and figure out my theoretical BMR and TDEE. The average for me seems to be around 1470 BMR and then add in roughly 70 calories extra for the muscle I have and I imagine my BMR is 1540. That is what I need if in a coma state to survive. Then, you have to add in NEAT, which is what you do each do like getting dressed, brushing your teeth, making food, etc. which can be around 500 more calories for me and that brings me to 2040. Then you add TEF, or the thermic effect of the food you eat. I eat a lot of foods with fiber and it takes more energy to break these down and Chronometer says I burn close to 200 calories a day TEF and that now brings me to 2240. Add on my workouts, which are almost always 250+ burned and most days I exercise I'm around 2490-2700 calories TDEE. Since I only workout 5 days a week on average, I went with 2300 calories weekly average for my maintenance. It is probably still too low (?) but I had to have something to aim for and that was more than enough for me at this point.
BMR + NEAT + TEF + EXERCISE = TDEE
1540 + 500 + 200 + 250 = 2490
I had a hysterectomy in 2016 (kept my ovaries) and I no longer menstruate. I think most of these formulas assume women under a certain age are menstruating. So, I'm thinking I probably burn 100 calories less a day than the average 43 year old woman right? I don't know but that's my guess. So, that also shows why 2300 is probably a great goal to aim for for me.
My weight was up slightly today but just 2.0 pounds up total and I expected this all-in refeed to maintenance would cause me to gain 3-6 pounds but hey, I'm happy with only gaining 2! It most likely is just the extra water, fiber, food digesting and glycogen stores.
Did I mention I love this new scale!? ;-) It has really helped me to see this daily in such low increments and even to know my evening scale weight is usually 3 pounds heavier than the morning. Data helps your mind! Gathering your own data and studying it is the absolute greatest tool in understanding your body and helping you on your weight loss journey.
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