upping daily calorie goal

tandroes

So my calorie goal on here has been 1200 since I started (i almost always eat most of my exercise calories back). I usually do the 30 day shred and/or my elliptical. The other day i was weighed on this scale that told my weight (123lbs), bone mass (105lbs), body fat % (11%), bmr, etc. The guy that did it said I should eat no less than 1500 calories a day because that's how many i burn at rest and if i exercise i should obviously eat more. I didn't tell him i was trying to lose weight so my guess is 1500 to maintain my current weight. I decided to change my settings to "lose 1/2 lb per week" because i'm only trying to get to 120 and i haven't really seen a change for 2 months (once in a while i'll be 121 or 122) so my daily calorie goal is now 1450... i know it's only 250 more calories, but my question is do you think even this little bit of change will make me gain... or even lose? if i wasn't getting enough to begin with?
I guess i just need someone to reinforce that it will be ok to eat more calories, it's hard when it's been so long since it's been "ok"

cmmull67

I don't see the problem. If anything, you won't gain or lose, just maintain. Try it for a week or two, and see how you feel. You might have more energy to do more of a workout, and lose in the end after all (no pun intended there, seriously). I just switched to a modified maintenance setting myself. I lost 40 lbs in 4 months, and decided to slow it down for the last 10. I'm going to work on muscle tone and improving my endurance on cardio, so I'll let those areas be my weight loss, not calorie restrictions.

tandroes

good idea, i guess i don't have a time limit to lose 3 pounds haha so two weeks won't hurt

Tabs_A

I was in the same situation. Had my calories at 1200 then after a while I stopped loosing weight. I changed my goal and upped my calories and returned to losing weight. I think it has to do with our bodies becoming better fat burning machine and therefore need more to keep it going.Plus building muscle makes you burn more calories thus need to eat more so you don't starve yourself. Give the higher calories a try and see what happens! Good luck!

tandroes

thank you, that makes me feel better about it!

TheLaser

I'm interested in this answer, too, since I've been hovering at 122-125 for a month now and my goal is also 120. In the past few weeks I've been feeling hungrier and started eating a little above the calorie limit, but the weight has not budged down. I tend not to eat enough fat, so I'm trying to up my fat content first before I officially change my calories. Does anyone have experience with that combination as well?

tandroes

i usually have a lot of fat left over too... i never thought about that being a problem... more avocados for this girl!!

maeadair

Read the posts on 'starvation mode' and see if that helps you understand. Yes, eating more calories helped me get off my plateau and start burning again. Also eating something every 3 -4 hrs... cheese stix/fruit/nuts/ low cal ice cream treat etc. as snacks made a difference due to insulin regulation was better ( Not diabetic..everyone needs insulin regulation). Good luck on your journey . :-)

meggonkgonk

I think in the long term it's a good plan- but for the next week you may see a small gain as your body adjusts. Your body does adjust your metabolism around how much food you are getting, so if you are worried, you might consider going up to 1500 or more and then dropping back to 1450 (get your body used to the higher cals and then drop them so that the deficit has a greater effect) until you are ready to go into maintence.

But if you are just going to up your cals just be prepped for a small, temporary gain that will come off again.

tandroes

so do you think 1200 was a bad goal since that scale thing said 1500 so all along my body was in starvation mode? i guess i'll find out if i start losing that was the problem

aanddplusoanda

I upped mine from 1200 to about 1400-1550 and I went from not losing anything to losing about a pound per week. I really try not to go below 1400 especially when working out.

tandroes

wow! this is great news, i'm going to try it and see what happens... hopefully eating more to lose more isn't too good to be true. luckily some of you have experienced it so now i feel better about it