people who LOST weight eating MORE

shedoos

bump for later

Laceylala

Week three of eating more and week three of weight loss! Woohoo!!

zoe4friends

I recalculated my goals this week and planning to eat more. Even though I am afraid to eat more. I feel like once I start eating more I will start gaining. So I am working on it, by adding sbacks in between my main meals. Hopefully I will starts seeing better results.

cdemoura14

I began eating 1200 calories for about 3 months - never ever eating back my exericse calories, easily dropping almost 25lbs. Then when I hit the point where I wasn't loosing any more weight, I started to realize that I was working out and consuming not even 500 calories a day. So I started eating back the exercise calories along with the deficit MFP already gave me, and I lost another 20. But the plateau lasted about 1 1/2 months, and it took a week or two to start noticing the difference. I had more energy, I wasn't tired all the time & I had more energy at the gym to go for longer, which was my initial problem. So honestly, I think that if you create a deficit when you are over weight, you are going to loose no matter what because your body wants to get rid of that fat. But when your body starts going into starvation mode because of the deficit, then you have to up the calories naturally because you weigh less & your body is requiring more fuel. Just my logic, everyone is different.

aregensb

bump

Beeps2011

I'd like to hear reports from the folks who started this in october or november, please...

SLaw4215

Before I started using MFP, I wasn't eating enough calories and struggled with my weight my entire life. It wasn't until I started documenting what I ate and calculating my caloric intake that I realized that on most days I ate less than 1100 calories. I wasn't even eating enough to match my BMR! I increased my calories to 1300-1500 daily and dropped about 40lbs since this past July. I eat back some of my exercise calories now and make sure I never eat below 1300 calories per day.

WOW! I have been doing this since last January and I've seen posts about people playing around with the calories Up/Down and I figured that sounded too much like my rollercoaster diet lifestyle.

veganbaum

Bump

BeccaB1981

I began eating 1200 calories for about 3 months - never ever eating back my exericse calories, easily dropping almost 25lbs. Then when I hit the point where I wasn't loosing any more weight, I started to realize that I was working out and consuming not even 500 calories a day. So I started eating back the exercise calories along with the deficit MFP already gave me, and I lost another 20. But the plateau lasted about 1 1/2 months, and it took a week or two to start noticing the difference. I had more energy, I wasn't tired all the time & I had more energy at the gym to go for longer, which was my initial problem. So honestly, I think that if you create a deficit when you are over weight, you are going to loose no matter what because your body wants to get rid of that fat. But when your body starts going into starvation mode because of the deficit, then you have to up the calories naturally because you weigh less & your body is requiring more fuel. Just my logic, everyone is different.

The begining of this sounds just like what I have been doing and I feel like I have hit that plateau so I tried to up my calories a little and the scale started going up and I got worried that maybe eating back my exercise calories wasn't a good idea for me. It is good to hear that it might take a little while, more than the 2 days that I tried it, to see results. It makes total sense to me to eat back the exercise calories but for some reason it causes a lot of anxiety for me.

MrsRipdizzle

I'd like to hear reports from the folks who started this in october or november, please...

I stumbled upon the women who eat 2000+ cals thread back in October and I was just desperate for some change. I had stalled for a month, losing nothing, but eating at 1200-1500 cals a day (higher cals on days I exercised). I decided I'd give this a go for a month...I really had nothing to lose at that point. Well, since increasing my cals to 1600-2000+ (again, higher on days I workout), I began losing - consistently, just over a pound a week! I broke through my stall and am steadily moving down. It really does work. My body is nourished now and it's being good to me, as I be good to it.

I also invested in a BodyMedia Fit and sure enough, it confirmed what was going on with my body. I was simply not eating enough given my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). You'd think with the deficit I had been leaving that I would have been losing at least two pounds a week...but that was simply not the case. So now...I eat more, I feel better, and I'm losing weight at a better rate I was before. WIN!

tish30930

Bump, Bump, Bump!!!

hml1976

I've been eating a lot more since starting MFP. One thing that I do too is have a cheat day where I go over my calories and don't work out. And then I follow it with a big workout day where I don't eat all of my calories. And then the rest of the time I eat all of my calories.

I eat more now than when I was fat!

CouleeRunner

I'd like to hear reports from the folks who started this in october or november, please...

Keep an eye on me. I weigh in on Friday's. I had stalled to 1 lb a month loss once I hit a healthy weight. Upped my calories just this week.

Blueberry09

I'm only halfway through but have to go back to work bumping for later.

albayin

This is definitely not me. I have been eating over 1200 calories for months since I hit the plateau and I slowly gained 2 pounds. I recently dropped back to 1200, and my scale moves again to the right direction. Guess it really depends on each one's magic number. More is not merrier in my case. Good luck to everybody and Happy Holidays

kbean33

BUMP

rb16fitness

bump to track...

_GlaDOS_

I'd like to hear reports from the folks who started this in october or november, please...

I had been stuck at the same weight for about 4 months until I got a Bodymedia Fit. After a little over a week or so of using it and maintaining a healthy deficit, I lost almost 2 lbs. I started using it the beginning of November.

So, my BMF tells me I burn a total of 2200-2800 calories per day, depending on activity level/exercise. I sit on my butt most of the day at work. Even on a weekend day of doing nothing but sitting and playing video games and getting up only to pee and eat, I burn a total of about 2300 calories. Imagine, someone who burns 2800 calories total, eating at 1200 calories total, all while doing nothing but intense cardio. This is what I did for several months without even realizing it, before I even came on here to track my calories. Even when I was trying to net 1200 calories, I still wasn't eating enough. Obviously, eating this much doesn't work for everyone, but I think a lot of women on here are really not doing themselves any good by consistently eating so little (1200 calories or less) because they want to lose the weight so quickly.

And it makes sense that if you're eating so little, and immediately increase your calories, you are going to see some weight gain. You have to give it some time.

Kim55555

I'd like to hear reports from the folks who started this in october or november, please...

I had been stuck at the same weight for about 4 months until I got a Bodymedia Fit. After a little over a week or so of using it and maintaining a healthy deficit, I lost almost 2 lbs. I started using it the beginning of November.

So, my BMF tells me I burn a total of 2200-2800 calories per day, depending on activity level/exercise. I sit on my butt most of the day at work. Even on a weekend day of doing nothing but sitting and playing video games and getting up only to pee and eat, I burn a total of about 2300 calories. Imagine, someone who burns 2800 calories total, eating at 1200 calories total, all while doing nothing but intense cardio. This is what I did for several months without even realizing it, before I even came on here to track my calories. Even when I was trying to net 1200 calories, I still wasn't eating enough. Obviously, eating this much doesn't work for everyone, but I think a lot of women on here are really not doing themselves any good by consistently eating so little (1200 calories or less) because they want to lose the weight so quickly.

And it makes sense that if you're eating so little, and immediately increase your calories, you are going to see some weight gain. You have to give it some time.

Great post!

And yes ditto I agree with your last paragraph. If you want success with this then you need to give it a good 4 - 6 weeks!! Throw away that scale for 6 weeks !!

keiraev

More evidence that eating more makes you lose- today I weighed in after two weeks on "maintenance" and I had lost 1.25lb.

My average NET calories over these 2 weeks was 1600 calories.

denorios

Bumping!

lilyinlove

Bump

And yes I was at a plateau and upper my calories and have finally started to lose weight again! I feel more energetic and the stress of oh no I only have ..... Calories left to eat... Is gone!

castadiva

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'

Don't forget that the net calories goal MFP provides already represents a significant deficit - 1000 calories, in my case - so eating more, unless we're talking a LOT more, on a regular basis, will still allow you to lose weight. It may be slightly slower progress for some, while for others, whose body may go into starvation mode at a higher caloric level than average, it may actualy speed the process up.

This built-in deficit is also the reason why I believe it's important to eat back exercise calories - if you are creating a situation where your deficit is 1500 calories, by eating strictly to the gross calories goal, and then exercising off another few hundred, so that your net intake is well under 1200, that's not going to be good for your body.

CouleeRunner

Week one done and I've lost 0.5lbs(keep in mind I am a healthy weight and working on last 10 lbs). Wow, I expected to gain for a little while. Yesterday I ate 2500 calories....today will be about 2000.

lmelangley

I started out eating just over 1300 cals and lost about a pound a week. Maybe a little less. Toward the middle of the summer, I updated my goals to include the weight I'd lost and MFP put me down to 1200 cals. I stopped losing weight within 3 weeks and plateaued for a month. I then upped my cals to just over 1300 again and began to lose. I'm convinced my body just isn't meant to consume less than an average of 1300 cals a day.

CyberEd312

I think that eating back exercise calories is a must especially if you workout alot and burn a ton of calories. My MFP is set to 1.5 lbs. a week lost so there is a built in 750 calories a day deficit and then I can avg. 1000-2000 calories burned a day (2 workouts morning/evening x 5days a week, 1 workout x 1 day a week, 1 rest day) so in my case if a don't eat back atleast 60-70% of my calories I easily put myself into starvation mode and hit plateau's left and right... I have to eat to fuel my workouts.... You have to find what works best for you, everyone is going to be different. This week I am eating everybit of my net (with my exercise calories) to give myself a good carb/calorie load this week and then next week drop back to my normal net plus 60-70% of exercise calories... Will I gain this week?? More than likely but next week it will begin to balance out again. But sometimes the weeks a carb/cal load have been my bigger weightloss weeks lol.... I just chalk those weeks up as a bonus and move on..... :-)

TrophyWifeSass

BUMP to read when I'm not so tired...and, gasp, hungry!

Kim55555

bumping back to page 1

chevy88grl

I was following all the recommendations out there for someone my height/starting weight/goal weight. After many months of NO weight loss (or very slow loss), I started doing my own research. I found a ton of articles, charts, calculators, etc that pretty much convinced me that eating 1600 or 1700 calories wasn't enough for me.

I initially upped to 1800 - and nothing happened. Then I went to 1900 - and I lost like 1lb. Upped again to 2000 and went from 167lbs to 150lbs in like 5 weeks. I upped them again to 2200 calories and dropped another 5lbs.

I'm proof that depending on your lifestyle - sometimes eating more is the key to weight loss success.

Perhaps I should mention that I work on my feet 4 days a week (3/9 hour days and 1/6 hour day). Other than breaks (15 mins) and lunch - I am in CONSTANT motion while at work. Even on slow days, I am still on my feet -- doing something.

I don't consider my job any form of exercise since my body is used to doing it - but I know that I burn a ton of calories doing it. I realized that I wasn't giving my job enough credit when it came to calories I was burning in a day. I have a pretty low BMR, but my activity level definitely gives me a high TDEE.

Rachiepie6

Bump (don't have time to read all of this yet )