Anyone eat more to lose more?

Veganvibesss

I have lost alot of weight but now that I'm smaller It feels impossible to lose weight, I count calories, weigh and measure and I eat 1200-1500 a day. A few people have said that it's not enough and if I ate more I would lose weight again, and that eating more worked for them... I just ate a Lara bar for 230 calories and wanna throwup because it's so many calories for such a little thing but I wanna give this more calorie thing a shot if it's worked for some people...
Please let me know what has worked for you, how many calories you eat (also what height and weight you are) and anyone who has had success I would love to see pictures and know what your basic day looks like for food!
Thankyou!!!!!

kommodevaran

If you're not losing weight, you have to eat less, not more. Eating more to lose weight is a wonderful dream for everybody who loves to eat, sadly not reality.

But first, figure out if your weightloss has stopped. Weightloss slows down as you lose weight. A week's worth of weightloss is easily masked by day to day fluctuations.

If you really aren't losing weight, look at your food logging. You have to weigh everything correctly (no measuring other than weighing), log everything in the amount you're actually eating, using genuine entries (or making your own), and hitting your calorie target consistently (every day, or at least on average per week).

What you might discover, though, is that you can set a higher calorie target and lose weight more consistently, because you're eating more consistently, because you're not anxiously eyeballing and cheating and impatiently expecting to lose a lot and the same amount every week and eating more as a reward for losing weight and eating more to comfort yourself when you're not seeing a loss. Weightloss takes a concerted and consistent effort and time.

Now onto I just ate a Lara bar for 230 calories and wanna throwup because it's so many calories for such a little thing. Don't play with those kinds of thoughts. Check the calories before you eat. What's eaten is eaten.

L1zardQueen

What is your height, weight, age, and goal weight? Are you stuck right now?

When you eat more, it gives you more energy. That is what is meant by eating more. Do you eat back your calories burned for exercise?

Veganvibesss

I am 22, 155 pounds was 230lbs and have been stuck at my weight for almost 2 years eating 1200-1500.. I don't eat back my calories because Its the only exercise I get, I doubt my job burns alot I just make smoothies and clean and then I'm also in school and it's graphic design so I sit around doing projects on the computer and drawing

L1zardQueen

Maybe the weight you are at is perfect. How tall are you?

Do you use a food scale to weigh everything solid?

Sometimes diet breaks are a good thing.

Veganvibesss

I'm 5'6 and yes I weigh everything and even account for a few cherries or grapes

netitheyeti

there was only one time where upping my calories did kinda help me lose weight... BUT (big but) it was purely because I needed it to have the energy to up my exercise - so I went from 1300something kcal (and almost no exercise) to 1700-1800kcal a day (and about an hour of exercise 5x a week) to lose the last 5-10lbs (mind you, this was not my NET calories!) - I think it was mainly because I was in better shape physically and it probably increased my deficit a tiny tiny bit
If you're already maintaining and not planning to also increase your activity along with your intake, then eating more is not gonna help you lose more
Is 155lbs a normal weight for your height? I also (without exercise) maintain my goal weight (120lbs at 5'2) on only about 1400-1500kcal

AnvilHead

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

apullum

You are extremely close to an optimal BMI for your height. This means you should be very close to your goal weight. You're currently in maintenance, not a calorie deficit, but any deficit you create is going to be very small and easily wiped out with a few inaccuracies in logging. My best guess is the "1200-1500" is the problem. There is a big difference between 1200 and 1500. What calorie goal does MFP give you to lose half a pound per week?

I'm far more concerned that you say you want to throw up after eating something because you feel it has a lot of calories. This is a dangerous way of thinking that could lead to an eating disorder.

CarvedTones

No. No one does. Ever. If you think you do, please tell me at what point increasing your deficit decreases your deficit. People like to talk about it in the extremes, but in order to get between those extremes, there would have to be a crossover point. Say it is an 800 calorie deficit. that means at 799 calories you could still go down to 800, so at 800, you go back to 799 and at 799 you can go to 800; wash rinse repeat.

pinuplove

CarvedTones wrote: »

No. No one does. Ever. If you think you do, please tell me at what point increasing your deficit decreases your deficit.

As stated above, it's an energy thing. CI too low = sloth mode for me. Bump it up a little and I have more energy to fidget, clean house, play with the dogs, etc. It's that incidental increase in CO (which is much harder to measure than the CI) that *might* result in one thinking eating more = losing more.

sardelsa

pinuplove wrote: »

CarvedTones wrote: »

No. No one does. Ever. If you think you do, please tell me at what point increasing your deficit decreases your deficit.

As stated above, it's an energy thing. CI too low = sloth mode for me. Bump it up a little and I have more energy to fidget, clean house, play with the dogs, etc. It's that incidental increase in CO (which is much harder to measure than the CI) that *might* result in one thinking eating more = losing more.

Same here.

psuLemon

Sadly anyone who doesn't think one can increase calories and lose greater amounts of weight is highly misinformed and don't understand the impact of additional calories in energy output. They certainly don't understand how refeeds work or how regulation of hormomes work. If you really want to see the science look at the refeed threads. Not only am i an example of what you are describing but there are tons of people who meticulously tracked calories and increases them by as much as 1000 calories and saw equivalent weight loss as when they were eating less.

psuLemon

Also, when i was doing this i struggled on 1800 calories.. but its because i had no energy to put effort into anything to include exercise. When i bumped it to 2300, i regularly lost 1 lb or a little over for awhile.

If anything, why not bump up your calories for a few weeks to see how you respond.

Noreenmarie1234

sardelsa wrote: »

pinuplove wrote: »

CarvedTones wrote: »

No. No one does. Ever. If you think you do, please tell me at what point increasing your deficit decreases your deficit.

As stated above, it's an energy thing. CI too low = sloth mode for me. Bump it up a little and I have more energy to fidget, clean house, play with the dogs, etc. It's that incidental increase in CO (which is much harder to measure than the CI) that *might* result in one thinking eating more = losing more.

Same here.

Same thing that happened to me. I just had no energy or will to do anything on lower calories. But when I bumped up from 1600 to over 2000 I naturally had 100x more energy so was more active, thus burning more. It was easier for me to move more on higher calories making my TDEE the same even though I eat more now. I had no energy to really give my workouts my all, so wouldn't burn as much as I can now. I would park close to stores, not take the stairs, space out, not take the extra walk around to go get something, etc. It works for some but it is because it gives you the extra energy to burn more overall.

deannalfisher

I went from avg 1400csl a day to 28-3000 over the course of the last two years; relatively weight stable but sooo much energy and I sleep like the dead

CarvedTones

psuLemon wrote: »

Sadly anyone who doesn't think one can increase calories and lose greater amounts of weight is highly misinformed and don't understand the impact of additional calories in energy output. They certainly don't understand how refeeds work or how regulation of hormomes work. If you really want to see the science look at the refeed threads. Not only am i an example of what you are describing but there are tons of people who meticulously tracked calories and increases them by as much as 1000 calories and saw equivalent weight loss as when they were eating less.

Please identify the point at which increasing the number of calories consumed increased the deficit. If it crosses over, there has to be a point - a specific deficit amount or a specific number of calories - at which it does.

psuLemon

CarvedTones wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Sadly anyone who doesn't think one can increase calories and lose greater amounts of weight is highly misinformed and don't understand the impact of additional calories in energy output. They certainly don't understand how refeeds work or how regulation of hormomes work. If you really want to see the science look at the refeed threads. Not only am i an example of what you are describing but there are tons of people who meticulously tracked calories and increases them by as much as 1000 calories and saw equivalent weight loss as when they were eating less.

Please identify the point at which increasing the number of calories consumed increased the deficit. If it crosses over, there has to be a point - a specific deficit amount or a specific number of calories - at which it does.

Energy expediture is a non linear number. Often increases in CI allow for people to increase EE. If you look at the refeed studies you might understand the impacts. There is also adaptive thermogenesis as you get more lean.

strongwouldbenice

Your actual amount of calories eaten may increase, but your net calories decreases.
So yes, eat more, to burn more, to lose more. People seem to forget the middle part.

Orphia

strongwouldbenice wrote: »

Your actual amount of calories eaten may increase, but your net calories decreases.
So yes, eat more, to burn more, to lose more. People seem to forget the middle part.

Succinctly put.

More CI = more CO, where CI<CO.

nooshi713

No, eating less helps me lose more..But, eating more of my healthy snacks at work helps me avoid eating fries, donuts, and a bunch of other stuff that is always tempting.