Eat More Calories to Lose Weight?

brownels

I am female, lightly active, 54, and weigh 180.5. According to MFP's Calculator, my TDEE is 1995, and my calorie goal should be 1530 to lose 1 lb a week. But I have never lost weight eating that many calories in my life. That seems ok for maintenance, but for weight loss? I am very skeptical.

I guess my question is: should I start eating more calories to meet this goal? That totally seems to contradict CICO. I have been losing slowly (!) but surely on 1300. What would you do?

BTW i use a food scale, log religiously, etc.

nutmegoreo

Eating more will not help you lose weight. MFP calculators along with all other calculators give an estimate. Real life experience gives you the most accurate picture. Are you checking the database entries you are using? These are mostly entered by users, and many are inaccurate. Are you logging all BLTs (bites, licks, and tastes)? Are you logging exercise and eating those calories back?

Orphia

Are you weighing your food? You don't have a lot to lose, and those discrepancies in measurements can add up.

KateTii

Care to open your diary so we can see if something is wrong?

Orphia

If you've been losing steadily on 1300, I don't see the problem.

Eating more is certainly not going to make you lose more.

gothchiq

Heck no, don't eat extra. I know some people have this counterintuitive wishful idea of how weight loss works, but in real life no... I have never met anyone who lost weight faster by eating more calories lol.

pstegman888

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

robertw486

brownels wrote: »

I am female, lightly active, 54, and weigh 180.5. According to MFP's Calculator, my TDEE is 1995, and my calorie goal should be 1530 to lose 1 lb a week. But I have never lost weight eating that many calories in my life. That seems ok for maintenance, but for weight loss? I am very skeptical.

I guess my question is: should I start eating more calories to meet this goal? That totally seems to contradict CICO. I have been losing slowly (!) but surely on 1300. What would you do?

BTW i use a food scale, log religiously, etc.

How often do you use a human scale?

If you weigh less often, keep in mind that the fluctuations can really throw off your average trends. There are plenty of apps for the human weight and trend.

If you already have that covered, just use the feedback loop of your weight loss and go from there. With all the estimations in most calculators, they just don't cover the different extremes, or often even those on either side of the averages.