How To Increase Maintenance Calories After Weight Loss

15 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this video, Eric Roberts challenges the common belief that a person’s daily calorie burn is a fixed number that must be matched exactly to maintain weight loss. He explains that metabolism is adaptive: during a calorie deficit it slows down, and when calories are increased after the deficit it not only returns to its previous level but can rise above it. Roberts illustrates this with his own experience, noting that his maintenance calories jumped from about 2,800 to roughly 5,000 after ending a diet, demonstrating the potential for a significant metabolic rebound.

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I lost weight eating 1,800 calories. I have to stay at 1,800 calories or I'll gain it all back. That is wrong. Your metabolism and how many calories you burn every day is not one fixed number. It adapts. And here's the part nobody tells you. It adapts in both directions. When you cut your calories and go into the calorie deficit, your metabolism is going to adapt and slow down. But when you get done the deficit and you increase your calories, your metabolism speeds back up. And not just to where it was before. For a lot of people, it's higher where it was before. That's how I went from 2,800 calories to 5,000 calories.