Will upping my calories help me lose weight?
leanneconnolly975
Posts: 9 Member
I'm 5"5 140lbs, my job is active (on my feet 9hours a day) I go to the gym and strength train 5-6 times a week for 30-40 minutes. I eat 1200 and drink loads of water, I have yet to lose any weight ( 3 months in)
I've read that sometimes upping your calories will cause weight loss but I'm scared I'll just end up putting on more weight
I've read that sometimes upping your calories will cause weight loss but I'm scared I'll just end up putting on more weight
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Replies
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Eating more is never the way to lose more weight. More often the cure is more accurate logging. Be sure to use your food scale for ALL solids. Measuring cups/spoons for ALL liquids. Use accurate entries. Use the recipe builder. Log everything that passes your lips. Be careful with exercise calories (most people tend to greatly over-estimate these).19
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I'd suggest taking a long, hard look at your logging first. Are you weighing solids with a food scale and use cups/spoons for liquids? Choosing accurate database entries? Logging every food, every day, no exceptions or cheat meals or cheat days? Have you been logging the whole 3 months?10
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If you aren't losing on 1200 calories, then you're already eating more than 1200. Start logging accurately.20
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leanneconnolly975 wrote: »I'm 5"5 140lbs, my job is active (on my feet 9hours a day) I go to the gym and strength train 5-6 times a week for 30-40 minutes. I eat 1200 and drink loads of water, I have yet to lose any weight ( 3 months in)
I've read that sometimes upping your calories will cause weight loss but I'm scared I'll just end up putting on more weight
I don't think you are logging your food accurately.7 -
Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories0
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I agree with the rest of them. I'm on 1200 calories and do less physical activity than you and have lost 19lbs in 3 months. You're definitely eating more than you think. Get a food scale and weigh all solid foods, measure liquids and be sure you're tracking and logging every single bite.9
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leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
can you open up your diary?? people here are usually pretty good at spotting some issues!11 -
leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.5 -
Are you using a scale?
I've also notice that you've just joined MFP today. Where have you been logging your food?7 -
Up your calories and see what happens. The worst thing that'll happen is you'll gain a few pounds, but your question will be answered. Another thing you could try is keeping your current caloric intake and adding cardio into your workouts.0
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leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.
Hey, yeah I have been and any packages are barcode scanned0 -
leanneconnolly975 wrote: »leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.
Hey, yeah I have been and any packages are barcode scanned
so there is issue number one - packages can be waaay off - you need to weigh stuff to get an accurate amount.10 -
kpeterson539 wrote: »Are you using a scale?
I've also notice that you've just joined MFP today. Where have you been logging your food?kpeterson539 wrote: »Are you using a scale?
Ive been logging it in mvp but this is my first time using the community feature:)0 -
Muscleflex79 wrote: »leanneconnolly975 wrote: »leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.
Hey, yeah I have been and any packages are barcode scanned
so there is issue number one - packages can be waaay off - you need to weigh stuff to get an accurate amount.
And sometimes the entry associated with the barcode scan is just flat out wrong. I never trust the scanner!10 -
leanneconnolly975 wrote: »leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.
Hey, yeah I have been and any packages are barcode scanned
Depending on where you are, packaged food can be up to 20% off on what's listed on the label (sometimes more, sometimes less). Also, do you double check the nutrition facts on the label with what the scan brought up? The info is very very often user entered and can be wrong.
Your logging might be spot on, but the database entries might be wildly off (reason why people ask to look at your diary).
Edit: I'm ways to slow at typing today.
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leanneconnolly975 wrote: »leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Thanks for the replies, I assure you all I have taken great care in tracking what I eat, weighing everything. I often feel tired and lack energy throughout the day, the reason I thought I might need to up my calories
Are you also making sure the entries you choose are correct? Being mindful of how many calories you burn/eat back exercising?
If so, the next step would be ruling out any possible health issues by seeing a doctor. With an active job and at a healthy BMI, 1200 calories is very low and you should easily be losing weight.
Hey, yeah I have been and any packages are barcode scanned
But you're also double-checking that the calories/macros associated with that barcode are correct? The database can often be wrong.3 -
It's almost certainly an issue with your logging. If you open your diary, we can probably help you pinpoint it.5
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I will tell you from experience that when my trainer had me UP my calories, I lost weight!
Working out and eating too low of calories had my body all messed up.
It was hard to follow... but upping them and eating 5 times a day instead of 3 really helped.
I eat 50% protein, 30% fat and 20% carbs7 -
I disagree with most the people on here. If you are eating 1200 calories a day and are active 9 hours a day PLUS gym time and weight lifting 1200 calories is not enough. You would have to be getting close to netting only a few hundred or negative calories every day? That is way too much of a deficit. If you are logging correctly (and that means EVERYTHING you are putting in your mouth) then from what i have read, you should be eating back half your calories. I would try to log your daily activity at work, as well as the gym, and see what your net is and go from there. I'm not sure where you ever got on 1200 calories? MFP asks you when you start if you are active, and if so, they don't start you at 1200. I am eating around 1500. Sometimes i go to the gym, sometimes i dont. Sometimes i have a walk on my breaks during the day and i am averaging a 10 pound weight loss per month. I would increase your calories.1
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danigirl1011 wrote: »I disagree with most the people on here. If you are eating 1200 calories a day and are active 9 hours a day PLUS gym time and weight lifting 1200 calories is not enough. You would have to be getting close to netting only a few hundred or negative calories every day? That is way too much of a deficit. If you are logging correctly (and that means EVERYTHING you are putting in your mouth) then from what i have read, you should be eating back half your calories. I would try to log your daily activity at work, as well as the gym, and see what your net is and go from there. I'm not sure where you ever got on 1200 calories? MFP asks you when you start if you are active, and if so, they don't start you at 1200. I am eating around 1500. Sometimes i go to the gym, sometimes i dont. Sometimes i have a walk on my breaks during the day and i am averaging a 10 pound weight loss per month. I would increase your calories.
If OP isn't losing weight over a significant period of time, the problem isn't that she has too much of a deficit.13 -
If you are not losing it means you are eating more than burning.
The end.
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Are you using a gram measure food scale and also measuring liquids like oils that you cook with? Are you counting everything you drink as well as what you eat? You're verifying the labels and WEIGHTS not quantity right (if it says 1 tbsp [28g] you weigh 28g, not 1 tbsp), etc?
At 1200 calories, if you're not losing weight and are that active, something is off... you're logging incorrect, you're "eating back" exercise calories, you're eating more than 1200 calories, you're moving less than you estimate (or at less intensity), or you have a metabolic disorder. More food will not yield more weight loss.
BMR(female) = 10 * weight(kg) + 6.25 * height(cm) - 5 * age(y) - 161
BMR = 10 * 63.5029 + 6.25 * 162.56 - 5 * (age in years) - 161
So your BMR would be something akin to 1400 at age 18, 1090 at age 80.
That DOESN'T count exercise or activity level *AT ALL*.
With your food diary locked from public view, it's hard to see where you might be making likely mistakes... but eating more, if you want to lose weight, is not the answer.
("Starvation Mode" doesn't work how many people perpetuate it here. See also: http://www.nowloss.com/starvation-mode-myth.htm, http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/, etc, etc, etc.)1 -
Hi everyone, thanks for the replies. I know myself that I don't eat enough food throughout the day for all of you who think I'm overeating. In the past I have had an eating disorder that has probably caused significant damage to my metabolism. I've reached a stage where I just want to be healthy and strong so I have decided to up my calories slowly and see how it goes from there. Thank you2
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1200 calories is about the lowest you should go if you aren't very active. Since you're so active I would shoot for 1500.1
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So let me state this. At some point, when you want to maintain, you'd have to increase calories. Secondly, there are a lot of factors that can influence total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Someone blindly saying, that answer is never to eat more calories is wrong. There are a variety of factors that can influence TDEE and it's components. Severely cutting calories, while having an active job and exercising is most likely not doing you any favors and more than likely doing more harm. And while there are not a ton of studies around the topic, some of the experts like Lyle McDonald, Layne Norton, etc.. can see improvements in metabolic efficiency with their clients by removing them from a large deficit, such as in the below post: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html .
Many people look at TDEE as a static number. But it's not. In fact, it's highly variable because it not only includes metabolism (BMR), but calories burned through exericse (TEA), daily activities (NEAT) and calories burnt during digestion (TEF). As you already noted, you are often exhausted which is one indicator that you are not receiving adequate nutrients. This in turn would suppress calories burnt from TEA and NEAT; eating low calories would also decrease TEF.
So what I am getting at, if you feel that you have addressed logging accuracy and consistency, I would recommend increasing calories by another 300 to 500 calories and monitoring progress over 4 to 6 weeks (know that if you increase carbs as will replenish glycogen/water, so you might show a few lbs on the scale within the first week or two... this is why you need to evaluate over a prolonged period to do an accurate assessment). I went from 1800 to 2300 and saw more consistent increases. I attribute it to greater compliance, ability to push harder in workouts and increases to daily activity increase my TDEE a lot.
Considering all things, most women I know (especially those exercising) see good loss around 1600 to 2000 calories (some even more). So it's not too unreasonable to have a starting point at the lower end of that. Whats the worst thing that could happen, you gain a few lbs and you will have had a good diet break.16 -
So let me state this. At some point, when you want to maintain, you'd have to increase calories. Secondly, there are a lot of factors that can influence total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Someone blindly saying, that answer is never to eat more calories is wrong. There are a variety of factors that can influence TDEE and it's components. Severely cutting calories, while having an active job and exercising is most likely not doing you any favors and more than likely doing more harm. And while there are not a ton of studies around the topic, some of the experts like Lyle McDonald, Layne Norton, etc.. can see improvements in metabolic efficiency with their clients by removing them from a large deficit, such as in the below post: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html .
Many people look at TDEE as a static number. But it's not. In fact, it's highly variable because it not only includes metabolism (BMR), but calories burned through exericse (TEA), daily activities (NEAT) and calories burnt during digestion (TEF). As you already noted, you are often exhausted which is one indicator that you are not receiving adequate nutrients. This in turn would suppress calories burnt from TEA and NEAT; eating low calories would also decrease TEF.
So what I am getting at, if you feel that you have addressed logging accuracy and consistency, I would recommend increasing calories by another 300 to 500 calories and monitoring progress over 4 to 6 weeks (know that if you increase carbs as will replenish glycogen/water, so you might show a few lbs on the scale within the first week or two... this is why you need to evaluate over a prolonged period to do an accurate assessment). I went from 1800 to 2300 and saw more consistent increases. I attribute it to greater compliance, ability to push harder in workouts and increases to daily activity increase my TDEE a lot.
Considering all things, most women I know (especially those exercising) see good loss around 1600 to 2000 calories (some even more). So it's not too unreasonable to have a starting point at the lower end of that. Whats the worst thing that could happen, you gain a few lbs and you will have had a good diet break.
Thank you 4 -
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Yep, just like putting a ski jacket on will help you cool down in summer.3
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leanneconnolly975 wrote: »Hi everyone, thanks for the replies. I know myself that I don't eat enough food throughout the day for all of you who think I'm overeating. In the past I have had an eating disorder that has probably caused significant damage to my metabolism. I've reached a stage where I just want to be healthy and strong so I have decided to up my calories slowly and see how it goes from there. Thank you
I don't think you are overeating - I think you are eating at maintenance, as indicated by you maintaining your current weight at your current intake.
Given you think you may have some metabolism damage, I would echo the above poster who suggested you see a doctor to talk about why you are feeling so exhausted and not losing weight.
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