people who LOST weight eating MORE

i_miss_donuts

In the same boat. Trying to up my calories. I am really active and my Fitbit tells me I earn about 500- 800 calories from exercise. I tried to eat near the amount it told me yesterday and couldn't sleep last night because I was awful, bloated and gross from overeating (maybe TMI but I eat LOADS of veggies and fiber). This week I am going to focus on eating back 50-75% of my exercise calories to stay up near 1200-1300 net and see what happens.

Reporting back on my original post. Ate back my calories to get my net calories up to the 1200 range and lost 2 lbs. Nice side benefit is that I am not freezing cold and snarly all day from being so hungry!

Reporting back again. Gained back 3 lbs., so drumroll, total weightloss for 30+ days of exercise and healthy eating? Zero lbs! Inches lost? 0! But wait - it gets better - my waist increased 1.5" and my thigh .5". I am so frustrated! :sad:

LorinaLynn

In the same boat. Trying to up my calories. I am really active and my Fitbit tells me I earn about 500- 800 calories from exercise. I tried to eat near the amount it told me yesterday and couldn't sleep last night because I was awful, bloated and gross from overeating (maybe TMI but I eat LOADS of veggies and fiber). This week I am going to focus on eating back 50-75% of my exercise calories to stay up near 1200-1300 net and see what happens.

Reporting back on my original post. Ate back my calories to get my net calories up to the 1200 range and lost 2 lbs. Nice side benefit is that I am not freezing cold and snarly all day from being so hungry!

Reporting back again. Gained back 3 lbs., so drumroll, total weightloss for 30+ days of exercise and healthy eating? Zero lbs! Inches lost? 0! But wait - it gets better - my waist increased 1.5" and my thigh .5". I am so frustrated! :sad:

What's your current weight loss goal? If it's any more than a half pound a week, as small as you are, it's too much. If you've been eating too little for a long time, it'll probably take more than a month to "reset" your body.

Also, are you taking pictures? My weight and measurements (at least in the key areas that get measured) are virtually the same as they were in July, but my body shape sure has changed. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn/view/same-weight-since-july-224635

jsjlandy

I recently met with a dietitian who told me I should eat 1600 cals/day and exercise 600 cals worth but not to eat back the cals I burnt off. That would net me only 1000/day! I thought this sounded low.

i_miss_donuts

CW 139.8
GW 133/134

I have been tinkering with the goal - originally set it for 2lbs per week. When that didn't work, read up further and adjusted it down to just .5 lbs wk.

I did take some photos last week - but nothing to compare them to yet. I will not give up. I know eating healthy, building muscle and keeping my heart strong are good for me even if I don't see "progress" in any meaningful way. My husband assures me I look great (and better since I started working out harder and more consistently). I am just terribly frustrated because I am one who always wants to do the *right* thing and I cannot seem to figure out what that is because I don't have consistent or measurable outcomes that can be tracked (yet?!).

jimmie25

I am having a hard time believing you can eat more calories than your goal and still lose weight. When I eat more calories I GAIN weight. Isn't that the reason we keep track of calories? Just sayin'

..... i wish weight issues were that black and white. they're not.

thuitema84

I think its important to know how much to eat based on your size, metabolism, and the amount of exercise you took on for that day BUT...its also really important to keep in mind how often you're eating. The balance between how often vs how much. If you're taking in your day worth of calories in one or two chunks of the day as opposed to throughout then you're not going to keep your metabolism at its optimal rate, therefore, you're not going to lose as much. Also, you should try to keep your body out of a routine....we're adaptable and so are our bodies. When you find that you're not losing as much as you anticipated, you may want to temporarily increase calories and/or exercise and then go back again.

Farhanum

I used to eat my excercise calories and didn't get results... So now I eat around 2000kcal a day on average, less during workout days (3 days a week- around 1400kcal I think) and I'm liking what I see on the scales and in the mirror! :drinker:

C00lCountry

In the same boat. Trying to up my calories. I am really active and my Fitbit tells me I earn about 500- 800 calories from exercise. I tried to eat near the amount it told me yesterday and couldn't sleep last night because I was awful, bloated and gross from overeating (maybe TMI but I eat LOADS of veggies and fiber). This week I am going to focus on eating back 50-75% of my exercise calories to stay up near 1200-1300 net and see what happens.

Reporting back on my original post. Ate back my calories to get my net calories up to the 1200 range and lost 2 lbs. Nice side benefit is that I am not freezing cold and snarly all day from being so hungry!

Reporting back again. Gained back 3 lbs., so drumroll, total weightloss for 30+ days of exercise and healthy eating? Zero lbs! Inches lost? 0! But wait - it gets better - my waist increased 1.5" and my thigh .5". I am so frustrated! :sad:

If you are doing core muscle exercise, you may be gaining more muscle then you realize.
How does your tone look verse before?

funkycamper

bump

JoanneLynn

bump

jbakerak

Some days I eat more, some days I eat less. If I'm hungry, I eat. I try to eat more protein and dense foods if I feel that I'm not eating enough to exert myself with exercise. But it's hard for me to try and eat back my exercise calories all the time. When you eat healthy, sometimes it seems impossible. I mean, who can eat that much while you're exercising off calories??? Not me, not usually. I personally tried to stuff the food down and was uncomfortably full for a couple days and decided I couldn't do it anymore! I added some other things to my diet that are naturally higher in calories, and it's still hard to eat all those calories.

i_miss_donuts

In the same boat. Trying to up my calories. I am really active and my Fitbit tells me I earn about 500- 800 calories from exercise. I tried to eat near the amount it told me yesterday and couldn't sleep last night because I was awful, bloated and gross from overeating (maybe TMI but I eat LOADS of veggies and fiber). This week I am going to focus on eating back 50-75% of my exercise calories to stay up near 1200-1300 net and see what happens.

Reporting back on my original post. Ate back my calories to get my net calories up to the 1200 range and lost 2 lbs. Nice side benefit is that I am not freezing cold and snarly all day from being so hungry!

Reporting back again. Gained back 3 lbs., so drumroll, total weightloss for 30+ days of exercise and healthy eating? Zero lbs! Inches lost? 0! But wait - it gets better - my waist increased 1.5" and my thigh .5". I am so frustrated! :sad:

If you are doing core muscle exercise, you may be gaining more muscle then you realize.
How does your tone look verse before?

Yes, I am showing more muscle definition and feel more "solid" versus squishy. I was prepared to be frustrated by the scale, but I wasn't surprised that my measurements didn't go the opposite direction. I am now focused on lifting heavier, since my goal is defined muscle.

i_miss_donuts

Reporting back on my original post. Ate back my calories to get my net calories up to the 1200 range and lost 2 lbs. Nice side benefit is that I am not freezing cold and snarly all day from being so hungry!
[/quote]

Reporting back again. Gained back 3 lbs., so drumroll, total weightloss for 30+ days of exercise and healthy eating? Zero lbs! Inches lost? 0! But wait - it gets better - my waist increased 1.5" and my thigh .5". I am so frustrated! :sad:
[/quote]
If you are doing core muscle exercise, you may be gaining more muscle then you realize.
How does your tone look verse before?
[/quote]

Yes, I am showing more muscle definition and feel more "solid" versus squishy. I was prepared to be frustrated by the scale, but I wasn't surprised that my measurements didn't go the opposite direction. I am now focused on lifting heavier, since my goal is defined muscle.
[/quote]

Oops - should have been "I was surprised"

littlelily613

Yep! I lost a lot ORIGINALLY eating 200-1000 calories per day two summers ago when I was anorexic-like (but too fat to actually be considered anorexic). Much to my excitement, I lost about 60 pounds in two months..then I plateaued and no matter how low I went, I could not lose anymore. If I went up to 1200, my weight would shoot up in a matter of days (VERY few days were 1200s as a result), and if I went up gradually to 1000, I would still stay at my plateau. Obviously it was unsustainable, and I ended up gaining back all my weight and then some.

Starting last summer, well, actually sometime in September to be more accurate, I began eating healthier but with a healthier amount of calories as well. This mean MORE. When I started, I can't remember what MFP set me at, but it was either 1400 and something or 1500 and something. I lost without plateauing. Then when I went down some I altered my calories again, and am now down to 1300 and something. Even though MFP has asked, I have not allowed it to lower my calories anymore than that because I am still losing. There is no point of me going down to 1200 a day while I am still losing at my current amount.

Other people my height and weight eat more and lose, but I should add that I have a very slow metabolism and always have. I can gain weight VERY quickly (it only took a couple years or slightly less to put on 120 pounds). If I go over my calories by several hundred several days in a row, I WILL gain. That being said, I frequently DO eat my exercise calories--I just don't get many of them right now since I am a busy student. If I burn off enough calories, I can eat up to 1800 or more calories a day and still lose, but I HAVE to exercise enough first. 1800 calories does NOT work for me unless I exercise, despite my current size. I figure when I get to goal weight, I will have to maintain a 1200 cal diet (plus exercise cals) for the rest of my life or else I will gradually regain.

smilebhappy

bump

MissTattoo

I'm learning that eating more is helping me. MFP has me set at 2170 calories a day and I found when I was only eating 1400-1600 I wasn't losing. Now that I get closer to 2170, I find the weight coming off. It's a hard concept to accept after years of being told you should eat 1200 calories to lose weight. I learned that I was starving my body and it was just holding on to anything because I wasn't fueling it properly.

Kim55555

Also, are you taking pictures? My weight and measurements are virtually the same as they were in July, but my body shape sure has changed. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn/view/same-weight-since-july-224635

This is good to hear! because at my latest 2 monthly appraisal (a month ago) the scale weight and measurements didnt move but funnily enough my clothes were getting looser and people kept commenting I was losing a lot more weight. So I'm thinking my body must've been recomposing itself but it just wasnt showing up on the scales or with the tape measure yet. This gives me more encorougment and motivation. Thanks for sharing! I'll be having a body fat test taken soon so I'll be curious to compare my results to that from 3 months ago!

I'll check out your blog! I'm about 2 or 3 kgs from goal weight. I expect it will take quite a few months as I'm going through a recomp and adding muscle/losing fat. I'm 5 foot 2 and currently hovering between 61 and 62.5 kgs. I do weights and im toned. I'm looking good at this weight so maybe now I just need to throw out the scale lol and concentrate on lowering my body fat % I'd like to lose a bit more off my tummy so its not so rounded in appearance but more flat. I can start to see some tummy definition on my left side. I'm getting excited.

silkandsugar

I have lost eating more only because what I was eating before was like 1 big meal a day which is horrible already. I would eat one pretty bad high cal meal a day and be set. Now I eat throughout the day averaging 1300 or so of ONLY GOOD CALORIES and I have lost quite a bit. I have definitely seen the difference in my tummy area which has flattened thank god. That 1 big meal I used to eat would be around 1000 calories and that would basically be it for me. Tsssk tsssk old habits die hard but this is much better and I can definitely feel an increase in my energy as well and overall health of course

psuLemon

Yep! I lost a lot ORIGINALLY eating 200-1000 calories per day two summers ago when I was anorexic-like (but too fat to actually be considered anorexic). Much to my excitement, I lost about 60 pounds in two months..then I plateaued and no matter how low I went, I could not lose anymore. If I went up to 1200, my weight would shoot up in a matter of days (VERY few days were 1200s as a result), and if I went up gradually to 1000, I would still stay at my plateau. Obviously it was unsustainable, and I ended up gaining back all my weight and then some.

Starting last summer, well, actually sometime in September to be more accurate, I began eating healthier but with a healthier amount of calories as well. This mean MORE. When I started, I can't remember what MFP set me at, but it was either 1400 and something or 1500 and something. I lost without plateauing. Then when I went down some I altered my calories again, and am now down to 1300 and something. Even though MFP has asked, I have not allowed it to lower my calories anymore than that because I am still losing. There is no point of me going down to 1200 a day while I am still losing at my current amount.

Other people my height and weight eat more and lose, but I should add that I have a very slow metabolism and always have. I can gain weight VERY quickly (it only took a couple years or slightly less to put on 120 pounds). If I go over my calories by several hundred several days in a row, I WILL gain. That being said, I frequently DO eat my exercise calories--I just don't get many of them right now since I am a busy student. If I burn off enough calories, I can eat up to 1800 or more calories a day and still lose, but I HAVE to exercise enough first. 1800 calories does NOT work for me unless I exercise, despite my current size. I figure when I get to goal weight, I will have to maintain a 1200 cal diet (plus exercise cals) for the rest of my life or else I will gradually regain.

There is a good chance that you killed your metabolism due to your ED. When you eat so little calories, your body can't function probably, it starts to cannibalize your lean muscle mass for the amino acids to convert to energy. This is more than likely why people your age and size can lose more while eating the same calories. If you would look at your body fat as compared to your weight to get your lean body mass, you would probably be surprised that you have very high body fat and little weight. The best thing to do though is heavy weight training and stay away from cardio. If you want a cardio effect, then do compound moves where you do a lower body and upper body exercise at once which will go into your anaerobic threshold. But to gain lean muscle mass, you need to eat close to maintenance.

katie133

Just thought i'd share my success for anyone on the fence about eating more.. I went from eating 1200 cals a day, and ended up not losing weight anymore, and feeling pretty darn tired all the time.. upped my cals to 1600 and the weight is coming off every week, and i feel great

katie133

all thanks to lemon ^^

psuLemon

all thanks to lemon ^^

Thanks, I am glad I can help. Do you remember how much you lost so far since we changed your thinking and eating habits?

katie133

all thanks to lemon ^^

Thanks, I am glad I can help. Do you remember how much you lost so far since we changed your thinking and eating habits?

ive only been eating more for two weeks but lost 2 lbs the first week and this week 1... i was stuck at the same weight for weeks eating 1200

mysticwonder

I'm 5'4", started at 176. I ate 1200 net month 1 and did home workouts + ate better food. I usually ended up at 1100 total calories per day. I lost 8.5lbs Month 2 I joined a gym. Stayed at 1200 net, which ended up being around 1300-1500 total cals after inputting my exercise calories. I lost 8.5 lbs. Just started month 3 about 2 weeks ago. Upped my calories to 1300 net, which ends up being close to 1600-1700 total after exercise. For the last two months I've been burning an average of 600 calories a day. I've now lost 18.1lbs.

phatmess

Bump.
Very interesting.

mtcHavingItAll

Bump

Cheri_Moves

I'll try to make this short:
I used to eat 1200 a day lost apx 70 pounds in 7ish months. I've slowly increased my daily intake to between 16-1700 over the past 2 months with a roughly once a week "cheat" day of apx 2000. I am doing NRofLFW 2-3xwk and cardio triathlon/marathon training 3-4 days a week.
I have 15 pounds to loose and the scale hasnt budged. yet.

Do I just need to be more patient? I want to gain muscle as well, but I am still struggling to make the daily calorie goals as is. For now, Im just focusing on making the muscle I have stronger and *hoping* it will help shed more of the fat/ increase my TDEE in the long run.

Anyone have advice for me? I have gotten some advice from Lemon and I am trying to increase the calories... main question is basically, DO I NEED TO WAIT LONGER TO SEE THE SCALE GO DOWN???

chestnutbrown

bump

Dch2012

Bump

kah2606

bump for later reading