So I get less food now??

leesh_loses_it

I need help understanding something, so the smaller I get the less calories I need to continue losing weight but when I was bigger, I could eat more? Am I understanding this correctly or not?
*Back story I'm currently 170lbs from being 216lbs, so I'm 46lbs down at the moment*

angelsja

Yes the smaller you are the less calories you need sucks but true

cwolfman13

leesh_loses_it wrote: »

I need help understanding something, so the smaller I get the less calories I need to continue losing weight but when I was bigger, I could eat more? Am I understanding this correctly or not?
*Back story I'm currently 170lbs from being 216lbs, so I'm 46lbs down at the moment*

Think about it this way...what goes through more fuel, an F250 truck or an economy car? Calories are fuel...when you're smaller, you're more fuel efficient.

shadow2soul

leesh_loses_it wrote: »

I need help understanding something, so the smaller I get the less calories I need to continue losing weight but when I was bigger, I could eat more? Am I understanding this correctly or not?
*Back story I'm currently 170lbs from being 216lbs, so I'm 46lbs down at the moment*

If you don’t change anything about your activity, than yes. Your body won’t use as much energy to do the same tasks when it’s lighter.

Alternatively you can increase your activity to balance it out some. The more active you are the more you can eat and still lose.

I personally chose to go from being Sedentary to being fairly active as I lost weight. This allowed me to eat roughly the same calories the whole time. However my weight loss did slow as I got closer to goal and that’s to be expected. I could have dropped calories lower, but that would have just left me hangry and wasn’t worth it.

leesh_loses_it

Thanks for clearing this up for me ya'll! i just wanted to clarify so i can keep this weight loss ball rolling!

cwolfman13

shadow2soul wrote: »

leesh_loses_it wrote: »

I need help understanding something, so the smaller I get the less calories I need to continue losing weight but when I was bigger, I could eat more? Am I understanding this correctly or not?
*Back story I'm currently 170lbs from being 216lbs, so I'm 46lbs down at the moment*

If you don’t change anything about your activity, than yes. Your body won’t use as much energy to do the same tasks when it’s lighter.

Alternatively you can increase your activity to balance it out some. The more active you are the more you can eat and still lose.

I personally chose to go from being Sedentary to being fairly active as I lost weight. This allowed me to eat roughly the same calories the whole time. However my weight loss did slow as I got closer to goal and that’s to be expected. I could have dropped calories lower, but that would have just left me hangry and wasn’t worth it.

Good point...and going back to my vehicle analogy, even though an economy car is going to be more fuel efficient, it's still going to go through more fuel than an F250 if the F250 is being used to make a dump run 5 miles away and the economy car is commuting 100 miles round trip daily.

The smaller you are, the more fuel efficient you are...but the more you move, the more fuel you will ultimately need.

glassyo

I have frequently thought about gaining weight so I can eat more.

Panini911

yeah this was a sad sad realization for me not too long ago (I was late to the game). i'm at the point now where i lose 10 calories a day every 2 pounds i lose (and update MFP )

it may factor in where i decide to stop (though yes, exercise can even that out).

Tacklewasher

glassyo wrote: »

I have frequently thought about gaining weight so I can eat more.

Uhhmmmmm

MikePTY

Well you don't necessarily get less "food". You may get less calories if you keep your goals the same, since your weight is part of what determines how many calories your body burns. However, you should also be adjusting your rate of loss as you lose weight. Its not considered safe to lose weight at the same pace at 170 as when you were at 216. So if you adjust your weight of loss to be at a slower pace, that will raise your calorie allowance and it could make it equal to or even greater than it was before.

Danp

Keep in mind that as you get smaller the rate at which you can (should) lose goes down so the deficit you can (should) maintain is also reduced.

For example when I first started my daily calorie goal was about 1850 per day. As I lost weight that dropped down to 1800, 1750 and eventually 1700. Then when my daily calories dropped down into the 1600's I adjusted my rate of loss from 1kg/w down to 0.75kg/w which bumped my calorie goal back up to around 1870.

Since then my calorie goal has slowly decreased to where it is today (1720) and it will keep going down until it gets to a point where It's too low (in the 1600's) at which time I'll reduce my rate down to 0.5kg/w which will bump my calories back up into the 1800's again.

noodlesno

Massive congratulations on the 46lbs loss.

I have gone from 260lbs to 163lbs currently (5'6" female). I started sedentary and then added walking, then spin classes, the resistance circuits and now heavy lifting (this is over the last 10 months)

The result of changing the exercise is that I have gone from sustaining a 1% weight loss at 1200 kcal, when I started, to now being on 2000 kcals. At 2000 kcals I think I am losing to fast at 2lbs a week, so going to up it again.

People always said that strength training was key. I am sad I didn't realise this till the end of my journey.

Anyway my point is, for the same amount of exercise, yes a smaller women will need less kcals but if you up/change the exercise you could be eating a lot more than you did when you were larger.

Personally I love food and I also love feeling strong so this tactic works for me. May not be for everyone however, I feel like I can have my cake and eat it.

Good luck.

suziecue25

Taller & younger people can reduce their calories as they lose weight but someone like me [aged 70 and 5ft] start on the lowest calorie allowance = 1200 with nowhere lower to go. I do have a strategy to overcome this though.....as I lose weight [10lbs lost and 40lbs to go] I will be able to do more and more exercise to offset the natural 'slow down'.

psychod787

glassyo wrote: »

I have frequently thought about gaining weight so I can eat more.

BULK! LOL...

Yes, you have to eat less or... exercise more. No way around it. There is some evidence that there is some rmr slowing, such as in Libeil's metabolic ward studies, and some muscle efficiency changes. Some controversy on this subject because rmr is on a bell curve. As stated above, you weigh less. Less energy is needed to move and maintain your body. Kevin Hall, hallowed be his name, lol, says that for every 10lbs we lose, we need to cut 100 calories or burn it off in activity. Just my 2 cents...

gallicinvasion

I’ve had the experience of allowing myself to eat more at each stage of weight loss. When I started trying weight loss at 230 lbs, I set my goal for losing 2lbs a week, and I was sedentary. By the time I got to around 190 lbs, I was only allowed to eat 1280 calories a day at this goal. As my weight loss continued, I changed my goal to 1 lb a week and I was naturally moving more because I felt more confident and active, so I was eating 1500 calories a day for a while. Now that I’m down to 145-150, I’ve changed my goal to a .5 lb a week loss, and this allows me to eat 1680 cals a day before exercise (and now that I’m smaller, I feel more able and willing to exercise and get myself more calories for the day). I average around 1720 total calories a day now, and I’m still losing. Excited to see what calorie level maintenance will bring me!

JohnnytotheB

Yes, you are correct with your thought process! When you go into maintenance mode, you will see the calorie count go up again to accommodate for you wanting to stay where you are with your weight (at that point).

garystrickland357

You are correct. It's good news and bad news all rolled together. The bad news is yeah, you can't go back to eating like you used to or you'll gain weight back. The bad news is your body needs less calories so you can't eat as much.

The good news is that if you have developed a way of eating during weight loss that you enjoy, all you have to do in maintenance is just bump your calories up a bit. Your weight loss experience is sort of a dress rehearsal for maintenance.

Maxxitt

The way I approach it is to estimate what my maintenance at goal weight will be, and eat about 250 calories less than that. I do consider activity calories and adjust accordingly. My weight loss was larger in the beginning (about 40# ago) and now that I am within 10# or so, it's slowed considerably.

Morgaath

The happy insanity way to avoid the change: Figure out maintenance for your ideal goal weight. Eat that. Stay at that. This trains you how to stay at your goal weight.