Should I been eating more?

simplysweetsasha

For about a month I have been eating my allotment of around 1400 calories, and most of my workout calories. I find though when I eat a bit more I lose a bit of weight; where as If I stick with my set calories I just maintain. I have lost close to 70lbs so far and I'm happy with my progress but I wonder if my stalling out is because I'm not eating enough? That seems crazy to me...but I don't think its just a coincidence. Ideas?

morganadk2_deleted

bump

bachooka

Totally. I had the same thing happen to me! I upped from 1200 to 1371. after two weeks I started losing steadily. I have to remember to eat back my exercise calories... I have been having troubles with that because I workout in the evening/afternoon.

LittleVikki

If you go onto the tools tab at the top of the page there is a tool called BMR which tells you roughly how many calories it takes your body to do its functions if you just layed in bed all day use that as a guideline it may help

asweetland

By adding just a few more healthy calories into your diet you will tell your body that you are not starving it. Also if you add more weight training into your exercise routine you may be able to get over your plateau.

NicNac86

Let's say you eat 1400 calories and burn 500 from your exercise.

That leaves your body with 900 calories for the day.

For a small number of people, under 1200 calories might be ok. For the majority, it isn't. If you eat like that for a sustained period your body will hold onto any food/fat you put into it as it thinks you're working too hard and will need those fat reserves later.

You've seen the results for yourself, eat a little more and you'll start to lose

bbygrl5

It's not a coincidence. We all have different caloric needs and MFP does its best to estimate your needs based on the information we input, but it still can't factor in many things that make up our individual metabolic rates. As I've gotten close to goal, I've dropped some lean muscle weight (bad, bad, bad) because I didn't increase my intake.

If you're losing more steadily on a higher intake, then that's the answer.

Miss_Chievous_wechange

I found that I lost more weight by eating more. I was at 1200 calories for the day and eating those plus my exercise calories just wasn't working for me. I was stuck in a plateau for a couple of months. I then upped my calorie intake to 1550 and I usually do not eat all my exercise calories and I am losing weight again.

simplysweetsasha

Thanks everyone! I thought it was probably the case but it seemed a little counterintuitive to eat more to lose weight...so I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy. You all are the best! Thanks again!

psunyking

Seems to work for me!