increase calories to bust a plateau???

nomex

So I have increased my daily calories from 1200 to 1300 in hopes to break this plateau I have been on.

I have actually gained weight doing this..... (YIKES!!!!!) It has been about a week at 1300..... I am getting afraid as I watch that number increase! How long wouuld you suggest I leave it to evaluate? It is rather unnerving and I am VERY tempted to decrease it again... HELP!

It is especially unnerving, because I have hypothyroidism and my rate of loss is about about 2 lbs PER MONTH!
although my diary doesn't say so, I do exercise regularly (about 3 X per week). I have small children, so most of my "exercise" is with them... dancing, tobogganing, playing, skiing. Not stuff I would typically log.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated. My diary is open.
thanks so much!

BflSaberfan

took a quick glance, youre over your carbs most days. Maybe keep the 1300 calories but try fewer carbs?

xonashwaox

Dont worry I just gained back 2 pounds after a having lost 20 pounds but I added a lean mass protein shake to my diet so the weight gain hasnt been fat its actually muscle...depending on what you are eating and how you are working out if the weight gain was small it could be you are turning fat into muscle...stay your course and try zig zagging your calories to break your plateau that should help

Naomi91

Keep at 1300, but try to eat clean. Decrease carb and sugar. Natural sugar too :]

low carb 6 days and high carb 1 day is what I do, works amazingly

Rtrue18

I personally think 1200 is just WAY too low a calorie count to stay on a normal diet. Its OK when trying to jump start a diet maybe as a very short term, but it's just unrealistic and sends your body into starvation mode and slows metabolism. My advise is to check in with WHAT your eating and when...Keep dinner low carb (you dont need energy to sleep), don't eat too late, high proteins, good carbs, veggies, etc. The usual things everyone says. Try sticking to 1300 for awhile and on days you are working out I would say to even increase it a little. Especially after working out your body needs protein to work on your muscles so make sure you eat after excersizing.

Naomi91

Dont worry I just gained back 2 pounds after a having lost 20 pounds but I added a lean mass protein shake to my diet so the weight gain hasnt been fat its actually muscle...depending on what you are eating and how you are working out if the weight gain was small it could be you are turning fat into muscle...stay your course and try zig zagging your calories to break your plateau that should help

Fat doesnt turn into muscle

Muscle is still hard to build on a calorie deficit. Just by adding a protein shake doesnt mean that you are gaining muscle

Body builders only average a 0.5-0.75 lb muscle gain a week... highly doubt many people on here are gaining that or any more

hpsnickers1

Give your body about a month to adjust.

The law of unintended consequences

Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.
Ready to change?

Right this minute, your body is the way it is because it has adapted to the lifestyle you've thrown at it, in an attempt to survive. Ever seen the directory at the mall with the little red arrow that says “you are here”? Well, fitness is the same way. You are here. You can't start anywhere else. So be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Don't worry about how much there is to do. Change your self-talk from “My body is my enemy” to “My body is my partner.” Accept where you are right now as the starting point, and start moving.

Changing your body requires more than just “going on a diet” for a few weeks. If you want to change your body, you have to make some changes to your lifestyle (which requires some discipline, but isn't as hard as it sounds). If you create the right environment, your body will adapt to it by becoming leaner, stronger, and more energetic. You can do this.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html (site has great info)

If you are set at 1200 and not logging exercise you are consuming too few calories. Your body will protect your fat and eat up your lean muscle mass (if this goes on for too long). This can slow down and even stall weight loss. You already have the thyroid issue and this can make it worse. You can eat anytime. I have a bedtime snack of skim milk and protein powder (the protein helps kick in the fat burning hormone while sleeping). We burn calories 24/7.

I'm set at 40% carbs, 35% protein and 25% fat. This works great for me. I do what I can to get most of my carbs during the day but still eat them at night.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/209559-metabolic-damage-starvation-mode-article (this might contain some helpful info)


I don't have thyroid issues. My only choice was 2lbs per month. It's still weight loss. It's still progress. And it is more likely to stay off when you lose slowly.

and also check out www.bodyrecomposition.com. There are some great articles there too.

AND unless you are lifting weights or doing some serious strength training you are not building muscle. Calorie restriction and intense cardio cause muscle loss not muscle gain. In fact the less weight you have to lose the more likely you are losing muscle (with diet and cardio). (This is why lean people have to forgo all of that cardio and switch the focus to heavy weight lifting - at least heavy enough to get in 12-15 reps to fail).

Oh one more link: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/01/unexplainable-fat-loss-plateaus-explained.php

nomex

took a quick glance, youre over your carbs most days. Maybe keep the 1300 calories but try fewer carbs?

I have custum set my carbs to much lower than what MFP suggests. I have read that carbs for me should be around 200- 240 g per day. I have set mine for much lower than that, as I am trying to reduce the carbs I think mine is set to about 170. I try to stay there, but I also don't beat myself up as long as I am below the 200. I generally eat very good carbs (whole wheat, multi grain, veggies). Does anyone know what daily intake for carbs should be? I don't really trust MFP values (I think their sodium is out of the world !)

hpsnickers1

took a quick glance, youre over your carbs most days. Maybe keep the 1300 calories but try fewer carbs?

I have custum set my carbs to much lower than what MFP suggests. I have read that carbs for me should be around 200- 240 g per day. I have set mine for much lower than that, as I am trying to reduce the carbs I think mine is set to about 170. I try to stay there, but I also don't beat myself up as long as I am below the 200. I generally eat very good carbs (whole wheat, multi grain, veggies). Does anyone know what daily intake for carbs should be? I don't really trust MFP values (I think their sodium is out of the world !)

I'm set at 40/35/25. This is by the advice from a trainer on this site. He told me 1-3 svgs of fruit and 3-6 svgs of fibrous veggies per day. 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass or goal body weight. (This is lifting/strength 3x per week and come cardio a 2-3 days per week - just enough for a happy heart). And anything else I want to eat within my calorie goal. My maintenance is set at 1470 which put my carbs at 165g. You're fine. You have to be careful about going too low on carbs. This will cause dehydration and muscle loss - the loss will slow your metabolism and when you go back to normal eating you will gain fat more quickly.

HilarieXcore

I personally think 1200 is just WAY too low a calorie count to stay on a normal diet. Its OK when trying to jump start a diet maybe as a very short term, but it's just unrealistic and sends your body into starvation mode and slows metabolism. My advise is to check in with WHAT your eating and when...Keep dinner low carb (you dont need energy to sleep), don't eat too late, high proteins, good carbs, veggies, etc. The usual things everyone says. Try sticking to 1300 for awhile and on days you are working out I would say to even increase it a little. Especially after working out your body needs protein to work on your muscles so make sure you eat after excersizing.

I don't really agree with this at all. My calorie count is at 1200 and some days I struggle to get that high.. It is not an unrealistic number to have as a diet. With my size, my body only burns 1500 calories a day and to loose weight it obviously has to be lower than that.

For you though, I would suggest giving your body time to adjust to the difference and don't believe everything you read.

nomex

thanks hp snickers. There is lots of info in there that makes sense. and I will definatly have a close look at those websites.

Intuitively I know I should wait longer than a week, and it is nice to hear you say a month, but it is also hard to watch the scale increase.

I have learned alot about my dietary requirements since being MFP and have really come to understand what I am putting in my mouth. I KNOW that I am making MUCH better choices than I used to. I also want this to be something that I will sustain for a lifetime. So I just take one thing at a time to really work on. Like overall calories, then sodium, then refined sugar, then carbs..... I work on that thing until it becomes habit and lifestyle.

If I were a size 6 and the scale were the same numbers as they are now... I honestly would have no problem with it. I hate the scale, but I use it, as it is the quickest / easiest evaluation tool. Not sure what else to use to evaluate if this was a good decision to increase my calories.

I particularly like your statement about the exercise program being a challenge. I do really exercise at times (like a program) and I do lift weights. However, most of my "exercise" is built into my life, playing activiely with my kids and doing chores (we live on a farm, so hauling pails of oats, lifting hay bales, climbing fences) - not stuff that can be easily logged. When I exercise (lift hand weights, elliptical, do the 30 day shred, I do log it (and eat back my calories) . My life doesn't really fit into MFP categories, because I have a desk job (sedentry), but on my off time, I am much more active. So it is hard to pick a good activity level category.

I will take all suggestions into consideration when deciding how to approach this, I have a feeling it will be a long period of guessing and checking and adjusting MFP for what seems to be working for me. There is just so much information out there (much of it conflicting) it is hard to know what to do.

nomex

took a quick glance, youre over your carbs most days. Maybe keep the 1300 calories but try fewer carbs?

I have custum set my carbs to much lower than what MFP suggests. I have read that carbs for me should be around 200- 240 g per day. I have set mine for much lower than that, as I am trying to reduce the carbs I think mine is set to about 170. I try to stay there, but I also don't beat myself up as long as I am below the 200. I generally eat very good carbs (whole wheat, multi grain, veggies). Does anyone know what daily intake for carbs should be? I don't really trust MFP values (I think their sodium is out of the world !)

I'm set at 40/35/25. This is by the advice from a trainer on this site. He told me 1-3 svgs of fruit and 3-6 svgs of fibrous veggies per day. 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass or goal body weight. (This is lifting/strength 3x per week and come cardio a 2-3 days per week - just enough for a happy heart). And anything else I want to eat within my calorie goal. My maintenance is set at 1470 which put my carbs at 165g. You're fine. You have to be careful about going too low on carbs. This will cause dehydration and muscle loss - the loss will slow your metabolism and when you go back to normal eating you will gain fat more quickly.

thank sooo much for the specifics! I really appreciate that! I was set at 40/30/30. So carbs the same as you. I just adjusted, we will see. I haven't heard that info on going too low on carbs before, so I appreciate that info too! I have never been even intrigued by the ATKINS diet. It didn't make sense to me to cut out an entire nutritional component.

nomex

I personally think 1200 is just WAY too low a calorie count to stay on a normal diet. Its OK when trying to jump start a diet maybe as a very short term, but it's just unrealistic and sends your body into starvation mode and slows metabolism. My advise is to check in with WHAT your eating and when...Keep dinner low carb (you dont need energy to sleep), don't eat too late, high proteins, good carbs, veggies, etc. The usual things everyone says. Try sticking to 1300 for awhile and on days you are working out I would say to even increase it a little. Especially after working out your body needs protein to work on your muscles so make sure you eat after excersizing.

I don't really agree with this at all. My calorie count is at 1200 and some days I struggle to get that high.. It is not an unrealistic number to have as a diet. With my size, my body only burns 1500 calories a day and to loose weight it obviously has to be lower than that.

For you though, I would suggest giving your body time to adjust to the difference and don't believe everything you read.

I will give my body some time to adjust, and stay at 1300 for awhile.... thanks for the advice. I am not yet sure that is the best caloric intake though. I guess only time will tell. At 1300 it only allows for .9lbs loss per week. (Which hasn't ever been the case for me on MFP - as I said before I average about 2 lbs per month!) If I can keep the 2 lb loss / month at 1300 cal and see some improvements in the way I feel. Then I guess I will stick with that....

nomex

@ xona - I realy like the zifg zag idea. maybe I will try that next month, once I figure out if this change was a good one! ha ha ha!
thanks for the advice and it is also good to know that some one is in the same boat! (not that I wish gains upon you!) It is nice to know some one gets it. You KNOW in your head that the scale isn't everything, but it is hard to watch it go UP (after all the hard work and positive changes)!!!!