Eat more to Lose more, explained.

mrsepiphany

thanks for explaining this. makes more sense!

orodee

bump

Keekie51

I've done that before too and it's not good at all. I have just found this site 3 days ago, and am happy to be on 1600 calories, 165 carbs/day. I don't care that it is only 1.5 lbs/wk, because I know my body will love it.

KeriA

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.

Our BMR is the number of calories we need if we are in a coma. That isn't broscience. It makes sense to me that we need more than that even if we are trying to lose weight. If you have more to lose maybe for a short period you can get by on less. I think I want to see science that tells me it safe to eat under your BMR for long periods of time rather than science that says you should eat more. I see no need for that. As to whether ones metabolism slows when they do eat at significant deficits you are welcome to look into it. I am satisfied at what I have seen.

_Elemenopee_

Thank you for explaining this better than just "your body goes into starvation mode"!!

StarryEyed500

Great post!

StarryEyed500

^

BlaireV

Thanks for this.

marci423

bump )

jenniferpowell1980

Thanks for this great explaination. x

Natosean

I am having a problem eating more. I stopped eating fried foods, I only drink water, and I only eat lean meats. I never ate a lot, I just ate wrong. Now, I feel sated but I am only eating about 1000 calories. Yesterday, I went and ate fast food (the bad stuff) because I needed 800 kcal. I know I should be eating more but I don't want to stuff myself. Long story short, do I need to force myself to eat more or will my body figure it out and increase my appetite?

brittany17love

It happened to me trying to starve myself to lose weight. The weight dropped off but I felt incredibly sick and couldn't do much. I want to do it right this time around! Within a week before I was so nauseated from starving that I couldn't eat and it was awful. You never want to do that to yourself. Great post!

Olivia486

Bump

mcarter99

Your BMR can give you a good indication of how many calories you should be netting. MFP calculates your goal by taking your BMR and subtracting 500 with a minimum of 1200.

Isn't it

BMR + activity level calories - 500 = net?

Again with a minimum of 1200.

Yes. Most BMR calculators (at least that I have used) take your activity levels (sedentary, fairly active, active) into account.

OP- You don't even understand MFP's plan. And your anecdote, while a lovely manifesto, is meaningless theorizing.

LairaJayne

Thank you for this! :-)

betterme1291

Thanks for the post. Never really understood this :-p

Kim55555

duplicate

YoYo1951

bump to re-read

Kim55555

Some extra food for thought.... I ate an average of 900 calories per day for 3 months. I lost the same amount of weight per week as I have eating 1200 calories per day for the past 4 months.My skin is better, my nails are better, my mood is better, I have more energy. It wasn't worth it. But MAYBE being able to share my story and help others will make up for it.

To OP I like your post.... except I'm confused about the last paragraph. Did you mean to say you eat 2200 now rather than 1200? 900 is not enough thats for sure and 1200 is not enough either for that matter!!

NZsleever

Finally it makes sense! Thank you so much for putting it into terms I can understand! Here I have been complaining how hard I have been working with no results and i'm so tired and just feel so yuck! It is hard to get your head around eating more especially when my weight has now changed but in the wrong direction!!! Its keeping this up and waiting for my body to adjust and hope like hell the weight starts shifting!

Kim55555

I eat like an athlete. I exercise vigorously, do weights and play sports. I eat for performance!

I have lost 32 kg in just over 2 years eating at a small defecit. I eat between 1800 - 2400 depending on my activity levels, how hungry I'm feeling/and If my body tells me I need more fuel! I'm 5'2 currently weigh 59 kg.

Kim55555

It's funny how years of bad information given to me (eat less if you want to lose) by parents, teachers, doctors who were old-school made me fail at every diet attempt. Invariably, I hit that wall and gave up.
Yeah, I hit that plateau here, too. I increased calories which was scary because it went against everything I was taught. I was baffled, shocked and happy to find that in doing so, the numbers moved again. It's still hard to grasp with the old stuff still ingrained in my head. I still do it and I still lose!

I think it has a lot to do with the whole diet industry. Its a million dollar industry. The diets cant be sustained! People lose the weight but cant maintain it so go out looking for another quick fix fad diet and on and on it goes. Billion dollar industry actually

2BeHealthy4Life

MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.

You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.scoobyworkshop.com/calculators

What is BMR? Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE? TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise Lightly Active -light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week) Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.

So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u

If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.

SiltyPigeon

Need further proof that eating more to lose more works?

Here ya go....

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/607553-final-before-and-afters-pic-heavy

tortiz80

I would just like to take a moment to correct a logistical error I regularly see. I think it confuses people more than it helps...

Most of us who have around the MFP block a few times will tell you: You need to eat more to lose more. This is absolutely true. It's the reason WHY this is true that can be confusing and is often stated wrong by well meaning fitness palls.

When you eat too few calories (not enough to fuel your body) over a long period of time your weight loss can (and eventually will) stall. You can call it "starvation mode" or whatever you want. However, it is NOT because your body "stores more fat at lower calorie levels" Your body needs all those calories and it uses all those calories. It does not and cannot afford to store them!

The reason why you will plateau is because your body thinks you are in famine. In order to "help" you through these rough times of drought and food scarcity, your body will SLOW DOWN. The natural day to day processes your body undertakes without your conscious knowledge turn down a notch so that you can survive on less.

We're not talking about exercises and such... you can continue to force yourself to do the same amount of exercise on 500 calories as you did on 2000 calories. Your body has other, tricky, ways of slowing down that you cannot control. It expends less energy on the daily functions like mucus production, digestion, hair growth, skin regeneration, and so forth. Under normal circumstances, your brain is a major energy suck (some pplz more than others, hehe). In order to conserve energy, your brain slows down. Who wants that? You might fidget less, sit more often, and sleep in a little longer. You might have less enthusiasm when exercising. All of these things add up to requiring less (AND BURNING LESS!) calories during the day. POOF! Plateau!

Now think about what would happen to your body if all these processes were to slow down for an extended (months, years?) period of time. You'd become more prone to infection and illness. Those processes are in place for reason. They keep your body healthy and running the way its supposed to. Hair loss, brittle nails, bad skin, listlessness, and so forth are very common side effects of not properly fueling your body... ask any long-term ED. You're probably not going to die... but you can become very sick.

This doesn't happen in a day, but over a long period of time, IT WILL HAPPEN. It happened to me and to a lot of others here on MFP. So what's the solution? Well DUH! EAT FOOD!

Some extra food for thought.... I ate an average of 900 calories per day for 3 months. I lost the same amount of weight per week as I have eating 1200 calories per day for the past 4 months.My skin is better, my nails are better, my mood is better, I have more energy. It wasn't worth it. But MAYBE being able to share my story and help others will make up for it.

Well, thanks everyone for reading. I love you all! NOW EAT UP, DAMMIT!

kristalbentley

Thank you for answering the question I had about eating my exercise calories. You provided wonderful insite into my MFP experience. Take care and keep on!

irenep22

Its working for me

Kim55555

Bump... Eat more

fishshark

bravo! great post and something that everyone should read especially those that want the weight gone NOW and resort to under eating.

Noreenmarie1234

YES this is all true. I hate when some people on here are so adamant it's a "negligible" amount because it's not. I have experienced it firsthand as well as being in medical school know it is true. Great post.