Increase Calories for Weight Loss - Link to Info?

melsinct

I bumped up my calories to get out of a long plateau. I went from 1200 to 1400 with no results. I then went from 1400 to 1700 and the weight started coming off again. Essentially I went from trying to aggressively lose 2 pounds/week to setting MFP at 0.5 pounds/week loss.

As background, I am 5'7" started MFP at 175 and currently weigh 154.

_Khaleesi_

Thanks guys. I think I am going to start this off with an increase of 150 kcals, so I would be at 1350 calories. I will give it two weeks and see what the deal is. Thanks again for all of the help and shared experiences.

psuLemon

So I think I duplicated your results on the site, lol. Do you exercise at all? If you do, then more than likely you should be more near 1500 calories. Either way, I would highly suggest you try to use the navy calculator I provided as well to get your estimated body fat and then re-run the numbers. The more precise you can be, the better your weight loss will be.

cutmd

I'm having the same problem deciding. My weight went up a bit with increased calories so I freaked out and dropped them down again, but I am thinking about giving it another shot. I went from 118 in April to 124 within a few weeks and it hasn't gone away so I assume it's fat I have to lose again. Problem is, nothing seems to work so I am tentatively trying this calorie thing. No offense, but laypeople explaining things to me with different analogies doesn't convince me, I need DATA.

Here are links to research articles I have been perusing that have done experiments on people who diet. The scientific term for the type of "starvation mode" you hear about on MFP is adaptive thermogenesis. The problem is I can't find any studies where they fixed a weight loss plateau, and there is an article that shows women losing weight on 800 cals/day and no change in the bmr (rmr, or resting metabolic rate, is the same but used more often in the literature). It does seem to be an individual thing, but the animal study is scary cause there was accelerated fat gain even during refeed:


Individual leptin levels and other factors influence adaptation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21470990
Adaptive thermogenesis causes plateau http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19660148
Evidence for adaptive thermogenesis http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11430776
RMR maintained on 800cal diet with strength training http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10204826
caloric excess can increase RMR http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8412776
Adaptive thermogenesis may persist during weight maintenance http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18842775
Energy conservation of dieting can cause fat gain in animals during refeed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2240204

Thoughts on these articles are welcome

cutmd

hmm, I post real research articles on starvation mode and the thread falls silent?

MrsJax11

I think the reason no one has replied is that these articles are filled with scientific jargon and quite difficult to understand. From what I have read 'active thermogenisis' is hitting a plateau...and means that your body gets used to burning/surviving on a certain amount of calories, and will preserve its weight/condition when it gets to a certain point. In order to prevent that, one must vary diet and exercise...at least that is what I pulled from the one article.
Starvation mode -- I pulled this from a site:
First, what is starvation mode? I found this direct answer on netwellness.org --

A starvation diet does not mean the absence of food. It means cutting the total caloric intake to less than 50% of what the body requires.

Using myself as an example, my current weight is 183 lbs. and my bmr is 1450. So, I would have to cut my calories to below 725 per day. However, if I were at my goal weight of 109 lbs., my bmr would be 1129, and so I would have to cut my calories to below 565 calories. end quote...

As far as women losing on 800 calories a day, I am sure that a smaller person could do that and lose weight. A 5'2 120 person is going to require far less energy than someone who is 5'7 and 160 lbs. A person of larger stature will need more calories on a minimum need. One of the articles also talked about the amount of energy expended after weight loss...well, of course you will expend less energy after you have lost weight. It takes less effort to move your body when you drop 5 lbs.

I think we all need to find a balance between how often we realistically work out, how much and what we honestly eat, and what size we want to maintain...again, realistically...and look at our data. We need to evaluate, reassess our eating/exercising, and make changes as we lose weight and see what does and doesn't work for us individually...
When I look at my progress report on MFP and compare it to my Net Cal reports side by side, I see the correlation between the decline of Net Cals under 1000 and the lack of weight loss...but it has only been a month for me back on the site, so I am no expert. I would rather feel good and not obsess about my food or lack there fore of or feel deprived by trying to eat less than I am. I feel like my diet is very healthy, and I will be able to maintain my lifestyle with a few indulgences when I get to my maintenance point.

spgabby86

BUMP

_Khaleesi_

Bloody hell, sorry cutmd! I didn't even see the reply that you posted. Let me check out those links and write a reply. So so sorry!

psuLemon

So it's been three weeks since you started posting. Did you decide to increase your calories?