Eat more to Lose more, explained.

akaChuck

Thank you SO much for this post!

jenlob

Hi. I am new to this site. I started a little over a week ago and have lost almost 10 Lbs. I am typically below my 1200 calorie limit. I'm not really trying to stay under. It kind of just happens that way because I am satisfied with what I am eating. I feel like I would be eating just to eat to get to the 1200 calories. What do you suggest in this case? What kind of things should I encorporate into my diet to get there? Thanks for any ideas you might have. I would like to loose a lot more weight and even though I wasn't trying to be under on calories I was happy that it was working.

h0taru

Hey,

What was posted on first message was so true.

I force myself to eat as many calories as my basic metabolism ask every day ( ~1600), even if some day I cannot do my exercice and so I will be above my calories goal.

I think it's important, loosing weigth is not so easy so why making the thing harder by slowing our body???

mommymeyersto2

This should be a "mandatory read"! Thank you!

aqua_zumba_fan

Well said! I've been seeing a lot of posts about trying to burn 1000 calories or eating 1200 calories and burning the same amount - this is just madness if you're ending up with a net of 0 calories or something very low. This needs to be said more often I think

Run4UrHealth

My only problem is I am not reaching 1200 but I am not hungry after I eat my planned meals. I just do not see the sense in eating whenever I am not hungry....isn't that what got me here in the first place? Any suggestions how I could get more calories in without making myself feel YUCK whenever I get up from the table? I know not many people have this problem but this is a problem for me. I get 900 to 1000 calories in on a good day. Should I splurge one day? Only problem with that is I ate out for my anniversary and gained a pound and it really discouraged me and I felt YUCKY after our dinner anyway. Need help please!

Jennyzfit

Well said post. There's no way I can stick to 1200 cals a day with exercising. You need to eat your exercise calories to stay nourished. Thank you for posting this.

cheers

Kagard11

I have recently either not lost weight or gained weight. Well I went to the reports section and looked at the last 30 days. The weeks that I gained or didn't lose, I was very low in calories. When I was losing, my calories were higher.

ColoradoRobin

My only problem is I am not reaching 1200 but I am not hungry after I eat my planned meals. I just do not see the sense in eating whenever I am not hungry....isn't that what got me here in the first place? Any suggestions how I could get more calories in without making myself feel YUCK whenever I get up from the table? I know not many people have this problem but this is a problem for me. I get 900 to 1000 calories in on a good day. Should I splurge one day? Only problem with that is I ate out for my anniversary and gained a pound and it really discouraged me and I felt YUCKY after our dinner anyway. Need help please!

Eating too much of the wrong kinds of foods may have been what caused you to gain weight, but usually it's a very gradual process, with a net gain of 10-15 lbs a year. To gain a pound in a month, you just have to eat about 120 calories a day more than you burn. To lose a pound a month, you eat 120 calories less than you burn every day.

If you burn 2200 calories a day just doing your normal activities (a typical number for a woman), going down to less than half of that over a long period of time is simply starving yourself. It triggers starvation mechanisms in your body that tell it to burn muscle for energy, slow down your metabolism, and hold onto every windfall calorie that comes its way. Stress hormones increase, fat burning slows down, nails and hair become brittle, and your appetite might be surpressed for awhile to help tolerate the period of famine that your body thinks is happening.

The longer it goes on, the more focused you become on food over every other aspect of your life. Once upon a time this was a message to leave the cave and go look for a mammoth to kill, but now it can exacerbate any kind of guilty feelings over food, and contribute to disordered eating.

So for several reasons your appetite is not always a reliable gauge by which to measure your caloric intake. Obese people tend to not have a good "fullness" indicator in the first place, and dieting messes with it even more. You can't reliably use it to tell you when you've eaten enough. MFP figures out about how much energy you burn every day, and then subtracts enough calories that you will lose weight. Exercise burns even more, so eating back your exercise calories is not going to slow your loss unless you are overestimating how many calories you burn. You should eat regularly, and try to eat most of your calories, even if you aren't hungry.

The way to eat more without feeling too full is to go for healthy calorie-dense foods like nuts, peanut butter, avocados, and whole grains. Eat fish like salmon or mackerel that have lots of healthy fats. Eat fruit. Enjoy a treat occasionally without feeling guilty about it, because this is a way of life, not a diet. Life includes celebrations and enjoying delicious foods.

I also wanted to say great post to the OP.

shelbygeorge29

It's wonderful that you found what works for you BUT, what about some actual research to back up these claims? I see a lot of what s called "bro science" here. People who found what works for them and they preach it in absolute terms.

Frankly, it can be dangerous. Not that this particular post is especially harmful, but it's something everyone here should be mindful of.

kdm97

Bump for future reference

SiltyPigeon

Hi. I am new to this site. I started a little over a week ago and have lost almost 10 Lbs. I am typically below my 1200 calorie limit. I'm not really trying to stay under. It kind of just happens that way because I am satisfied with what I am eating. I feel like I would be eating just to eat to get to the 1200 calories. What do you suggest in this case? What kind of things should I encorporate into my diet to get there? Thanks for any ideas you might have. I would like to loose a lot more weight and even though I wasn't trying to be under on calories I was happy that it was working.

Feeling full or not feeling full is typically THE WORST indicator of nutritional and/or caloric needs. When you regularly eat large quantities your stomach physically grows to accommodate the physical amount of food you take in. So the more you eat, the larger your stomach gets, the larger quantity of food it takes to feel full. The same is true for the opposite. When you eat small quantities of food, over time your stomach shrinks. The less you eat the less it takes to get that icky over full feeling. So even though you haven't eaten enough to sustain your body, you feel full anyways. You can counter-act this by eating for the body you want. What is the BMI for a person your height and the weight you want to be? Eat that... and your body will achieve that.

JMCade

Great post! MMMMMMMM....food! eating makes me happy

SiltyPigeon

It's wonderful that you found what works for you BUT, what about some actual research to back up these claims? I see a lot of what s called "bro science" here. People who found what works for them and they preach it in absolute terms.

Frankly, it can be dangerous. Not that this particular post is especially harmful, but it's something everyone here should be mindful of.

What part of this, exactly, do you think is "bro science"? Do you disagree that eating too little over a long period of time can be harmful to your body? Though I have done A LOT of research on this subject, I am not going to waste my time referencing peer reviewed scientific sources... some things are just plain common sense. If enough people look around and say "The sky is blue and the grass is green", well, the sky is blue and the grass is green... regardless of what armchair scientists who have never left their cubicle write in their journals.

pa_jorg

Thank you for writing this.

MrsFelton2010

This was a great read. Thank you.

momof3G8kids

Thanks I really need to keep hearing this over and over again, I'm gaining a little more weight because I've pushed my calories to 1,300, instead of the normal 1,000-1,100 I kept averaging out at. So I got depressed and ate less the last couple of days, and lost the same pounds I gained. I know it is a momentary fix, and have to remember that when I eat more, I'm going to gain a little weight since my body is used to starving itself, but I needed to read this post as a reminder, and little more encouragement. Thanks!

MissGeorgiaPeachy

Thank you so much for posting this! I was one of the confused!

ToNiBeE99

THANKS!!! This was very very very HELPFUL!!! This explains a lot!!

WhenDSu

My mother would love this. Eat! That is her solution for most general maladies.

msunset262

wow your imformation has helped me to .i have been seeing these side effects for 11years now .(WOW!!!).Well i look forward to the next 11 years of getting young again and feeding my body properly .:happy:

chosengiver

Bump for future reference!

Fridarules

Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing and for inspiring us!

dlyeates

BUMP

LisaKunz

You made this make sense like nobody else has (that I've read). Thanks! I just had a brutal workout day and burned almost as many calories as I ate today (over 1000). I was debating having a snack...now I think I need to...my body needs it.

smsawchuk

Thank you for your post, it makes so much sense!!!

TrinaCanDoThis

I love it. I've been seriously considering increasing my calories. Thanks!

lijparsons

Bump

machinegunkate

Thanks for this post!

_Nathan

bump