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Do I have to eat 3500 calories to gain a pound during maintenance?
Asked by yale on Mar 21, 2008
in Weight Maintenance
If one pound equals 3500 calories, does this mean that once one reaches maintenance weight to gain a pound of weight you would have to consume 3500 calories in excess of maintenance calories?
Answer
Yes, to gain one pound you have to create a surplus of 3,500 calories beyond what you need to maintain your weight at your activity level. You create a surplus by overeating or by decreasing your activity. During maintenance, you don’t want a surplus because you don’t want to gain. You simply want to stop losing. Your calorie requirements for maintenance will be about 200 – 1000 calories more than what you eat while losing weight depending on how much you eat. Use the Burn Meter to recalculate you calorie target for maintenance.
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