Why does increasing calories sometimes help weight loss?

00mid

for example I see people saying they went from 1200 cals to 1400 and they found they started to lose as they increased their calories. I thought it was calories in calories out?Surely eating more calories would make weight loss slower?

TimothyFish

The only reason I can see is that by allowing themselves to eat more they are less like to eat stuff that they don't log. The end result is that they end up eating fewer calories.

runnrchic

You probably have more energy to make you more active throughout the day.

MizzMaamI1

I have no idea... but when I took two weeks off the gym and let my eating choices go downhill I was dropping weight. I don't understand?

betuel75

I think its both the posts above.

diannethegeek

I went really low calorie (1200-1400 and not eating back exercise calories while working out 2x a day) for a while and stalled for two months. Increasing calories helped me to lose again. But really, I was lethargic and phoning in my workouts at that low of a calorie level and more likely to skip workouts, so I wasn't burning as much as I thought, and I was taking a cheat day and pigging out once a week, so I was eating more calories than I thought. Eating more gave me the energy to burn more calories throughout the day and I was better able to stick to my diet (also less hangry and just generally felt better). So it wasn't really about eating more to lose weight but about eating more to be able to actually stick to my routine.

CrabNebula

I think it is just coincidence. I have gotten stuck for weeks at a time where it didn't seem like I was losing any weight despite honestly eating my allotted calories for the day consistently. Then one day, the weight just wooshed off on its own without me changing anything. I lost all the water weight I was hanging on to plus I finally was able to see the loss I had made during those weeks it seemed as if I were stuck.

sheldonklein

It doesn't. Weight loss comes in spurts and stalls. Stalls end for no particular reason, but it is natural to attribute it to whatever changed at the time it ended -- their calories, their exercise, their starting juicing, their stopping juicing, whatever.

jemhh

runnrchic wrote: »

You probably have more energy to make you more active throughout the day.

I think that is a big part of it. You need a certain amount of energy to function without feeling blah. Cutting calories way low makes most people less active because they just don't have the energy to do more. They might keep working out but their non exercise activity takes a nosedive.

Abby2205

I think it's primarily coincidence. Weight loss isn't linear, so if you have truly been eating at a deficit for weeks, at some point the weight has to drop off. If in desperation the last thing you did was up your calories, you figure that must have been the cause. My other belief is that *what* you ate when you upped calories triggered a loss in water weight or a bowel movement.
I often would have my lowest weight measurement of the week on Sunday. I'm sure it's because I tend to drink more alcohol on Friday nights and drink more coffee all day Saturday. The conclusion I should draw, of course, is that booze and coffee break plateaus.