Upping cals?

running_mom

I am only 10 lbs away from my goal. I did have my weight loss set at 2 lbs per week but that wasn't happening so I changed it to 1 lb per week and I lowered the amount of workouts. It upped my cals...why? How can I eat more and work out less and still lose weight?

On a side note I am trying to lose an additional 5 lbs and tone up. Any suggestions on things that work at home? I might have to cancel my gym membership.

scgoldman

Maybe -- after factoring in your workouts -- you were consuming too few calories, and had fallen into a sort of starvation mode so your body wasn't letting go of any more weight ...? I myself am experiencing a (similar) plateau, and suspect the same sort of thing is going on (though I don't have the nerve to up my calories or decrease my exercise, for fear I'll gain ...)

leomom72

it sounds bass-ackwards, but i upped my cals, and lowered my workouts just a touch a few times in the past, and it has always worked for me..it sorta gives your body an extra boost, switching it up a little..it gets used to things after a while, so it needs the switch to kick back into gear..good luck

jenalderman

Your calories would have gone up because you lowered the amount that you want to lose per week. Even though you set goals for workouts, those calories are not added in until you actually log your workouts. So lowering your workouts wouldn't have had an impact on your recommended daily allowance. MFP is simply taking your calories per day with based on your weight and subtracting the 500 calories per day that you would need to restrict in order to lose 1 lb. Any exercise that you do (that you do not eat back calories for) should, in theory, increase that deficit and therefore your weight loss.

Pandorian

Lowering your workouts on your "profile" does NOTHING to your calorie goal. They aren't factored in to your calories until you log them.

Just changing from 2lbs a week loss to 1lb a week will give you 500 extra calories a day.
MFP gives you a calorie goal to lose your weight goal before you lift a finger in exercise.

Which is why we're supposed to eat our exercise calories. It keeps our daily deficit at the desired level to lose the weight we intend to in a week

Blueberry09

(though I don't have the nerve to up my calories or decrease my exercise, for fear I'll gain ...)

This is me too - I've been on this plateau since June! I upped my calories to 1600 in September but it doesn't seem to be working either. I changed my exercise every two weeks starting in October and still no budge. I've only got 5 lbs to go to hit my BMR and 15 to my ultimate goal - I just may accept my BMR weight (if I can ever get there!).

DKing33

You are now trying to lose less weight per week, therefore more cals. Remember that exercise cals are not factored into your net cals.

psuLemon

I would recommend searching eating exercise calories. Simply put, the less you have to lose the more you need to eat. In fact, i created a thread on body fat and calorie consumption. Simply put food is fuel. You need o eat more to burn more.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395948-caloric-intake-results