Maintenance or what?

[Maria]

I have a question about mainteance but I need to give some background info...about three years ago, I hired a coach and was put on maintaining (2000cal). I lifted 4 days/ week, some HIIT and SS cardio.
My weight was steady but I lost inches. After a few weeks the cals went done and do did the weight...I was eating about 1600-1700/ day.

I ended up dropping about 10lbs over the course of one year but gained that back due to binges...the good thing tho, my measurements did not go up much, so I did put on muscle. I became stronger as well...

Now...I am about the same weight I was three years ago but smaller...yeah.
But I seem to be gaining on 1700 cals/ day with four days of lifting and about 200 minutes/ week of cardio...

To recap...I weigh the same but I am smaller however I am not able to eat the same amount of cals as when I was the same weight but "bigger'...

Any idea what's wrong?

[Audrey]

Is your training any different now than it were in the past (in terms of volume, sets/reps, exercises - compound vs. isolation)?

Are you including any cheats/free meals now?

Were you doing more cardio/HIIT before compared to now?

How was your nutriton/training prior to now? Were you severely restricting your calories?

[Maria]

Well, I was trying to eat around 1500cals but ended up overeating once/ week or so which brought the calorie average up to 1700. I figured I might as well eat 1700/ day to get the binges under control and that I was most likely averaging more than 1700 anyway.

I switched to 1700 at the beginning of the month and also changed my routine to drop sets. Cardio is about the same, maybe a little more.

Dietwise I have been sticking to protein and veggies during the day and p/w carbs in form of oats and energy bars. I guess you could consider them my cheats. I have been eating more carbs for the past 3 weeks but I am not sure if that justifies a four pound weight gain given the fact than I was below assumed maintenance.

[smuggie]

Has your carb intake increased a lot during the past three weeks?

Also, how much do you weigh?

[Maria]

Before I changed my routine and "formally" switched to 1700 cals, I was weighing 139.5lbs. Yesterday I was up to 143.5lbs. My carb intake did increase and I understand that you store 1-3 grams of water per 1 gram of carbs but wouldn't that result in bloating and water retention?

The other thing that I noticed is that I have not been drinking as much as water I did several weeks ago..

I normally don't experience weight jumps like that...one or two pounds up or down, I can deal with that. But this seems strange...

[Audrey]

The increased carb intake could definitely be responsible for some of the weight gain due to increased water retention.

Monitor your weight over the next few weeks. It is possible that now that your carb intake is fairly constant, your weight will stabilize.

[Espi]

As weird as it sounds, you may have faired better on 1500 kcal plus the odd cheat meal (those are now called FREE meals) than on 1700 on average.

Also: eating more carbs = more water retention.
Another aspect : going lower in carbs = improved fat burning, esp. when you're prone to highish blood sugar levels and not so optimal insulin sensitivity.

This can be why eating 1500 kcal (and less carbs) plus the incidental carb-rich cheat was more effective than eating 1700 kcal overall with more carbs on most days. You feel more proud of yourself because you 'stuck' to your diet better, but the old method may have been more effective.

Most people have good results with carb/calorie cycling.. there's a reason why.