Eat More to Lose More, Is that Possible?

emmaleigh47

Being on a 1200 calorie diet isn't really a bad thing as long as you are maintaining a net of 1200 calories.

It's when people eat 1200 calories and burn a bunch with exercise and don't eat any of those calories back that you run into problems.

And 1200 net is more than enough to keep you from the dreaded "starvation mode".

In fact your not really at risk of starvation mode unless you are netting less that 300-400 calories on a consistence basis.


I personally do 1500 calories day but I'm only about 2 pounds overweight at this point and only 15 - 20 pounds away from my goal. I exercise 5 - 6 times a week, a combination of cardio and strength training and eat back enough of my calories to maintain a minimum net of 1000 - 1200 calories. I honestly would find it hard to get much more calories but that's just me.

Hey Ziaki,

What do you mean by 1,200 net?
you mean net-deficit?
So burn 2,500 eat 1,300?

Starvation mode takes time to really be a factor, I've had 1000 times better success eating 6 days of a calorie deficit and one day of a surplus. Having a full 24-hour day where I eat more than I need does wonders for metabolism, hormones, and "diet morale"

Plus doing this it's ok to eat low days of 1,200 calories sometimes and as long as you have a surplus (Spike Day). Starvation mode won't be a factor.

No I meant you need to have a net 1200 to the good.

So for me I eat 1500 calories generally.

If i burn 700 calories at the gym then I would need to eat 1900 (400 of my exercise) calories to maintain a 1200 calorie total.

I see so not factoring BMR just a 1,200 base. I like how you do that.

Actually I do take into account my BMR.
In fact I keep a deficit diary so at the end of the week I can see roughly how much I should have lost.

Like today I ate 1447 calories. My BMR is 1831.77.
So my deficit for food for the day is 384.77.
Now I didn't exercise today but for the sake of the example lets say I burned 300 calories.

So my total deficit for the day would be 684.77 calories and I still would have maintained a 1200 calorie food total which is the recommended minimum.

You just proved my point -- if your BMR is 1831 and you are eating under your BMR you are not doing good things for your body. Your BMR is the calories that you burn if you were in a coma ... I doubt you were in a coma yesterday ... and yet you want your body to do its daily tasks and maybe even exercise and you dont feed it.

You should never eat under your BMR .... period!

kheaudet

bump

blackchick41bb

Being on a 1200 calorie diet isn't really a bad thing as long as you are maintaining a net of 1200 calories.

It's when people eat 1200 calories and burn a bunch with exercise and don't eat any of those calories back that you run into problems.

And 1200 net is more than enough to keep you from the dreaded "starvation mode".

In fact your not really at risk of starvation mode unless you are netting less that 300-400 calories on a consistence basis.


I personally do 1500 calories day but I'm only about 2 pounds overweight at this point and only 15 - 20 pounds away from my goal. I exercise 5 - 6 times a week, a combination of cardio and strength training and eat back enough of my calories to maintain a minimum net of 1000 - 1200 calories. I honestly would find it hard to get much more calories but that's just me.

i agree with u 100%,also everyone body is different

NovemberJune

It depends on a lot of factors. I don't think I should be eating less than 1200 calories, but a 5 foot tall woman who weighs 150 might do great at that level. I eat about 1500-1700 per day and I exercise about half an hour most days and I've been losing about 1 lb to 1.5 lbs per week.

I suppose it all comes down to BMR

NovemberJune

I think eating when you are hungry is a great way to be sure you are doing things the right way

stormieweather

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj2kiI2EvgIMdHJ6QXRvY1VFWXotNllyOXF0SkVWR0E&hl=en_US&authkey=CKmEnPkJ

The above spreadsheet is my log and graph of my deficits and weight. Feel free to download and use if you think it will help.

chrisdavey

I love the numbers

How have your measurements changed?

Interesting to see that although MFP is trying to simplify things to create calorific deficits, this proves that because of various other factors 3500cal deficit over a week is never going to exactly equal 1lb lost.

Actually where are you calculating the deficit from? As the B2 column is changing each day. That should be fairly constant based on TDEE.

stormieweather

The B column figures are actual calories burned for the day based on my FitBIt. They do vary of course, based on whether I work out or sit and vegetate. One thing I've figured is that I am off about 150 calories a day somehow. Either my calories burned are lower than I think or my food is higher. Or a combination. If the deficit calculation was reduced by 150 calories per day, I'd be much closer to anticipated loss.

I've lost about 6 inches so far this year, mostly on my waist and butt. My measurements aren't changing greatly, but my shape is. I have gone from a size 8 to a loose 6 (and tight 4). A lot of my fat loss is in weird places that I don't measure...under my chin, cheekbones, calves, ribcage, shoulders, armpit area. Size-wise, I'm way ahead of where I expected to be, based on my scale weight. I'm not unhappy with my size now, considering changing to focus more on body recomposition.

chrisdavey

aaah now it makes sense.

Good work. Keep it up!