Advice needed - should i up my calories?!

Hollie721

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to advise me on if i should up my calories or not? I want to lose 14lbs and i've been on this for just over 2 weeks now. Initially i lost 2 pounds but ive now put 1 back on and haven't lost any more. I have been exercising about 4 times a week and staying within my calorie limit. At the minute my calorie limit is 1210 a day and i usually make sure i am eating back my exercise calories. Is it possible that i'm not eating enough or do you think i should just keep going? Any advice would be great - i can also open up my food diary if that helps x

meggonkgonk

You arent meeting your goal! Def up your cals to 1300 or 1350 (1400 wouldn't be crazy), so that when you are under by 100 like you are still in the right ballpark.

DON'T be afraid to go over- especially if you can go over with healthy foods!

Hollie721

You don't think that if i up my calories to 1300 or 1350 i will gain? I know its silly but i'm frightened to eat more encase i gain! I guess i could give it a try for a week and see what happens. Thank you for your advice.

dls06

If you were not working out before you could be building muscle.

einnybug

yes you may need to up your calories. i was eating about 1200 a day and i plateaued and i raised my calorie intake to 1500 and started losing again.. i have since started a calorie cycling diet that is supposed to help you not to plateau. you eat the same amount of calories a week but the total per day varies. you should do some googling and see what the amount of calories per day you should have based on your age/weight/height and see what your BMR is but you shouldn't go below 1200 for sure though.

to lose a pound a week you would need to 500 calories less a week

Hollie721

I wasn't working out at all before, i was recovering from a back injury so only just started again in the last 3 weeks. Could this maybe be why?

Hollie721

I'll maybe take a look at calorie cycling, thank you!

buhller

You need to net 1200 calories a day or you run the risk of going into starvation mode. I just came out of a three-week weight loss slump, where I plateaued and then gained 5 lbs really quickly.

If your body goes into starvation mode, it holds on to fat and water instead of shedding them -- so the calories the machine says at the gym aren't really being burned, and you end up eating enough to gain. When I realized this was what was happening to me, I basically had to take a week off from weight loss: changed my calorie goals to maintain instead of lose. Yesterday was my first day back on a deficit calorie level, and I've finally lost a pound...for the first time in weeks.

So, learn from my mistakes: don't net fewer than 1200. I know that doesn't leave you a lot of margin of error, but it'll save you a lot of headache in the long run. Good luck!

bbush18

it's only been 2-3 weeks! give yourself sometime to adjust to a new lifestyle...your results will show when you least expect them.

SMJohnson27

I would definitely try it. I was at 1200 since January and lost 20 pounds in 8 weeks and then stalled for over a month. I decided to increase to 1300-1400. My calories burned from activity level is at 1700 so I still have a deficit. Since increasing over the last week, I have lost 5 pounds. I just read someone's post a few days ago, that said as you get closer to your goal weight (within 10-15 pounds, I think) you need a smaller deficit. So, instead of a 500 calorie deficit I have a 300 most days. I was scared at first to eat that much, but have had success with it. I did start weighing everyday instead of twice a month to monitor it better, and have started seeing a loss again. Good luck!!!

meggonkgonk

You don't think that if i up my calories to 1300 or 1350 i will gain? I know its silly but i'm frightened to eat more encase i gain! I guess i could give it a try for a week and see what happens. Thank you for your advice.

Don't be afraid to eat!

And you may gain the first week- you have been undereating and your body has slowed your metabolism down to cope with lack of cals. If you eat a bit more for a couple weeks, you will post a false gain for a week or two and then the scale should come back down and continue

Just for perspective, I've been losing pretty consistently at 1300-1350 calories (was about 1.5/wk then 1/wk and now about .6-.8 per week) for about 8 months. I stalled at the end of Feb and upped my cals to 1400 and started up again. It seems counter intuitive, but your body needs enough calories as well as not being inundated with too many to lose steadily.

Best of luck!
~Gonks