Has anyone increased calories eaten per day & lost more weig

NotAllWhoWanderAreLost

I was stuck on a 3 week plateau after loosing about 40 pounds (in 10 months). I was routinely falling well below 1200 net calories consumed on my workout days. I was always sure to fuel well on big hiking days, but for the smaller, more frequent workouts, i didnt bother and just thought they would be additional calories burned and would = faster weight loss. Wrong.

I now eat my "just under goal" calories on non-workout days (sick lately, so a lot of them unfortunately!) and i eat back enough calories burned thru exercise to get me back to a 1200 net calories consumed level

After stagnating (and working my @$$ off) for 3 weeks, i quickly began losing again.

If you are stuck on a plateau, its one of the areas to examine anyways! Here is a link to another thread on NET cals consumed http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/137562-net-calories-question

MassiveDelta

bump to read later.

kentlass

In the past when I had lost weight, when I did eat more I lost weight more steadily. Someone sent me this blog link yesterday that addresses this subject: http://www.debramoorhead.com/blog/index.php/how-i-lost-25-pounds-in-one-month/
It is very interesting!

i have just read this link and i am baffled by it...how is it possible?? to maintain my goal weight i'd need to eat about 1700cals...before exercise...yet mfp tells me to maintain my current weight it's onlt 1800or so....so that's only a 100ish deficit...so it's not actually possible is it!?!

tbh i'd love to give this a try as i get married in 6weeks, but do i really have time to risk a gain??

to answer the OP....i have been on 1200cals and hit a stop, have upped to 1500 and do seem to be dropping weight again

edorice

Remember you want to eat foods that are good and burn fat!

What foods burn fat in particular?

Cayenne

I used to take cayenne tablets, but can't say I got a difference. I do use cayenne pepper at work as a seasoning.

binary_jester

Remember you want to eat foods that are good and burn fat!

What foods burn fat in particular?

Cayenne

I used to take cayenne tablets, but can't say I got a difference. I do use cayenne pepper at work as a seasoning.

I used to take it in the morning before breakfast, then, when I felt it burning a hole in my stomach, I started taking it with food. One day immediately after taking it, i got the sweats and felt like I was going to puke. I stopped taking them that day. Now I am going to try them just before my workout and hope I don't puke-propel myself off the treadmill.

nellajane24

boho, i was doing 7 pm- i know its only an hour later, but it seems to be easier to start out that way. good luck!

MISTTIMG

Case in Point; Let's say a group of men were trapped in a mine below ground and were digging and scraping the sides of the tunnel leading out to freedom every day to widen it for possible rescue. burning calories galore, each man was happy with his weight and did not want to loose or gain an ounce, So food was lowered down to each man appropriately to sustain their current weight, However someone above ground thought that since the men were working so hard and burning up energy (calories) they needed more food to maintain their desired weight, however the men did not eat the extra food for fear they might loose weight, hmmmm how stupid does that sound..

LotusF1ower

Just wondering - there was an debate here last week about 'starvation mode' if its a myth or not.

I'd like to know if anyone has actually increased their calorie intake & lost more weight?

Thanks!

All I know is that I ate 1200 calories per day, exercised three times per week burning between 600-700 calories per session, did not touch my exercise calories for three and a half months and lost weight. When I started to go into my exercise calories, my weightloss slowed down and almost stopped.

I guess it is individual for everybody.

In my own case, restricting my caily calorie intake enabled me to lose weight.

rybo

Yes, I had to when I first started. The default calorie deficit was far too low and I lost no weight and felt terrible. Once I upped it, I had much more energy and lost the weight easily. (I didnt have much to lose, about 15#) I think my deficit was at less than a half pound a week, but it came off quicker than that.

pchann

I'm a big fan of cayenne it has many many benefits. I take it in capsule form usually about 2-4 pills a day. Word of caution...take it with food! In the middle of the meal preferably. Take it from me if there is one thing you don't want is cayenne pill heartburn. Been there done that and am very careful not to let it happen again.

sunshine269

I thought the starvation mode was crazy, but I must concede, it"s true. I hit a plateau and stopped losing. Once I mixed it up and went over by a little bit 1-2x a week, the weight starting coming back off. I also got in a rut with the foods I was eating and switched that up and that seemed to help as well. Also SALT is a major weight/water retention thing for me. I have a bad salt day (sodium was off th charts) and I gained 2 pounds from one day to the next so I majorly watch my sodium intake as well.

baisleac

Yup! Lost 10 lbs from 10/29/10 to 03/07/11 (or 4+ months or 1/2 lb per week). Most of that was lost in the first 5 weeks, which means I had a long plateau.

I decided to give up on MFPs numbers and do some actual research (should have done at the beginning but... *just slaps own hands*). Found that MFP put me 300-400 cals below my BMR, which is very unhealthy. Upped my cals to just above my BMR and have lost 5 lbs since 03/08/11.

I also eat most, if not all, of my exercise calories back.

mom23nuts

OMG thank you for this post....where do they come up with the base line of 1200 calories anyway....I know I put in height weight and age but 1200 a day on other websites that are health related say that is bare minimum and never go below not a great starting point.
'
I found a website that calculates bmr...basal metobolic resting rate of calories need to just survive if comatose and for me plugging in the same #s as plugging into this website is 1579 calories....then that site asks you to multiply that by whatever your fitness level catagory is and that is how much you should take in to function.

To lose weight it says subrtract 500 cal per lb a week you want to lose since 3500 cal makes up a 1lb loss and 3500 divided by 7 is 500 less you would need to see the scale move down.

I too am convinced that this is healthier than the base line of calories they give you here. Even when I tweak my #s here and say I will only lose 1.5 lb a week it only gives me an extra 90 calories go figure....if half a pound is equal to 250 calories then why didn't it give me 250 back?

In any case I workout about 45 min a day intensely and sometimes, most times 2x a day so I am giving myself 1500 cal a day baseline,

Also I went to Ruby Tuesdays and got the bbq grilled chicken and double veg grilled no potatoes and didn't put the bbq sause on my chicken and even split a dessert with the hubby and I still lost weight and went over my calories even on the healthy meal....and that was a day with breakfast, lunch and dinner no snacks at all. and a 3.1 mile run in 32 minutes....go figure.

meggonkgonk

OMG thank you for this post....where do they come up with the base line of 1200 calories anyway....I know I put in height weight and age but 1200 a day on other websites that are health related say that is bare minimum and never go below not a great starting point.
'
I found a website that calculates bmr...basal metobolic resting rate of calories need to just survive if comatose and for me plugging in the same #s as plugging into this website is 1579 calories....then that site asks you to multiply that by whatever your fitness level catagory is and that is how much you should take in to function.

To lose weight it says subrtract 500 cal per lb a week you want to lose since 3500 cal makes up a 1lb loss and 3500 divided by 7 is 500 less you would need to see the scale move down.

I too am convinced that this is healthier than the base line of calories they give you here. Even when I tweak my #s here and say I will only lose 1.5 lb a week it only gives me an extra 90 calories go figure....if half a pound is equal to 250 calories then why didn't it give me 250 back?

1200 is the baseline, not the starting recommendation, on this site. MFP will not let you go below 1200 for the day without giving you a warning about possible malnutrition. But MFP is a tool and will do what you tell it to. So if you say you want to lose a lb per week, it will try to take 500 calories off of what it estimates to be your calories burned from daily activitiy. If you select 2 lbs, it will try to take 1000. But it will never go below 1200- so MFP estimates that I burn 1710 calories a day (my BMR is 1354) So if I selected to lose 2 lbs per week, my goal would need to be 710, but this is too low, so it would auto set me to 1200; If I chose 1lb per week it would set me at 1210. Many people start at 1200 because they select to lose too much too quickly, so 1200 is the goal they get. But in reality, 1200 is kind of the sign that your loss per week should be slowing and you should be getting more calories. Since I reached that 1210 recommendation, I switched my baseline calories to roughly my BMR (some weeks I go 1300, some 1400). But that's net calories, so I eat 1300 + what I burn from exercise.