Eat more...scared

Carrot1971

So I've been reading alot of posts about eating more than 1200 calorie diet if you only need to lose 10-15lbs and making sure you eat your exercise calories back. I have to tell you I'm scared to death to do this. In my experience, I don't lose unless I exercise without eating the calories back. I'm down about 21lbs right now and still have at least 10-15 more to go before I'll be "happy" with the results. I'm still on a 1200 calorie diet and the weight loss has stalled the last two weeks. Although admitedly I've not been very dilligent about eating "clean" and ocassionally enjoy a glass of wine at night. I figured it was my poor choices make the weight stall. Now I'm not sure. I've still stayed within my calorie range without eating my exercise calories back. I'm thinking about upping my daily calorie goal but, quite frankly, I'm scared to death I will gain the weight back!!!

purpleipod

If what you're doing isn't working, why would you be afraid to try something different?

TavistockToad

if you are really that scared to eat more, i think you should speak to your doctor about your relationship with food... being scared to nourish your body is not good and not healthy for you.

breeanreyes

Sometimes just changing things up a bit will get you past a plateau, at first just try 100-200 more calories a day, just make sure it's healthy food.. a handful of nuts, etc. You could also try changing up your exercise, try something new that challenges your body differently.. I started doing Zumba when I got bored with the gym and I love it! Up your water intake and make sure you're taking in at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces (i.e. 150 lbs = 75 ounces or just under 10 cups). Cleaning up your diet could also help, your body may be holding onto processed foods, remember that anything created in lab won't be recognized by your body as food! Hope this helps

Captain_Tightpants

21 lbs is 73,500 calories.

That's a LOT of eating to gain that back. We're talking a Big Mac every day for four months straight!

If you're eating at 1200 now why not bump it up to 1500 for just one week. That's only 2100 calories extra over the course of the week - less than one pound in potential weight gain. See what happens... you might kickstart your weight loss again, you might have more energy... you certainly won't gain 21 lbs back - it's mathematically impossible.

If you weigh in next week and you've put half a pound or a pound back on, then you'll know it wasn't for you and you can drop the cals again.

Carrot1971

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

Carrot1971

21 lbs is 73,500 calories.

That's a LOT of eating to gain that back. We're talking a Big Mac every day for four months straight!

If you're eating at 1200 now why not bump it up to 1500 for just one week. That's only 2100 calories extra over the course of the week - less than one pound in potential weight gain. See what happens... you might kickstart your weight loss again, you might have more energy... you certainly won't gain 21 lbs back - it's mathematically impossible.

If you weigh in next week and you've put half a pound or a pound back on, then you'll know it wasn't for you and you can drop the cals again.

Thanks for breaking it down for me. I never thought of it like that. I am going to try this starting today!

grinch031

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

If you get accustomed to a 1200 calorie diet, then any increase is going to lead to weight gain.

People need to stop fixating on calorie numbers. The least important factors in weight loss are calorie count and exercise. The most important are quality of the diet. You have to eat foods that are produced naturally. If cavemen didn't eat it, then you shouldn't eat it. That is how you lose weight.

3dogsrunning

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

If you get accustomed to a 1200 calorie diet, then any increase is going to lead to weight gain.

People need to stop fixating on calorie numbers. The least important factors in weight loss are calorie count and exercise. The most important are quality of the diet. You have to eat foods that are produced naturally. If cavemen didn't eat it, then you shouldn't eat it. That is how you lose weight.

How have millions of other people lost weight by counting calories?
Cavemen did not need to count calories, most weren't lucky enough to have too much food. It was still calories in vs calories out. They had less reliable access to food and worked a whole lot harder than we do. You can still get fat eating the same things a caveman ate.

grinch031

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

If you get accustomed to a 1200 calorie diet, then any increase is going to lead to weight gain.

People need to stop fixating on calorie numbers. The least important factors in weight loss are calorie count and exercise. The most important are quality of the diet. You have to eat foods that are produced naturally. If cavemen didn't eat it, then you shouldn't eat it. That is how you lose weight.

How have millions of other people lost weight by counting calories?
Cavemen did not need to count calories, most weren't lucky enough to have too much food. It was still calories in vs calories out. They had less reliable access to food and worked a whole lot harder than we do. You can still get fat eating the same things a caveman ate.

Couple ways to look at your question. Its true that counting calories will temporarily lose weight. But if you don't do it forever, you will eventually regain the weight. So why do it if its only temporary? If you need to lose weight for a boxing weigh-in or just to look your best at the beach, it makes sense. But its a temporary solution either way.

I think the cavemen point is to show that you should eat the foods that humans were designed to eat. Cut out the food products that were invented by humans and you have a healthier metabolic system that requires less manual intervention. By that your body will regulate itself without becoming obese.

Captain_Tightpants

If you get accustomed to a 1200 calorie diet, then any increase is going to lead to weight gain.

Not true at all. If her daily calorie intake remains lower than her expenditure she will lose weight.

People need to stop fixating on calorie numbers. The least important factors in weight loss are calorie count and exercise. The most important are quality of the diet. You have to eat foods that are produced naturally. If cavemen didn't eat it, then you shouldn't eat it. That is how you lose weight.

You can eat paleo and still gain weight if your calorie intake exceeds your expenditure. It's just a game of numbers. The only reason paleo diets work is because it's harder to consume surplus calories because the foods you're eating aren't as energy dense. You're still playing the numbers, you just don't know it.

3dogsrunning

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

If you get accustomed to a 1200 calorie diet, then any increase is going to lead to weight gain.

People need to stop fixating on calorie numbers. The least important factors in weight loss are calorie count and exercise. The most important are quality of the diet. You have to eat foods that are produced naturally. If cavemen didn't eat it, then you shouldn't eat it. That is how you lose weight.

How have millions of other people lost weight by counting calories?
Cavemen did not need to count calories, most weren't lucky enough to have too much food. It was still calories in vs calories out. They had less reliable access to food and worked a whole lot harder than we do. You can still get fat eating the same things a caveman ate.

Couple ways to look at your question. Its true that counting calories will temporarily lose weight. But if you don't do it forever, you will eventually regain the weight. So why do it if its only temporary? If you need to lose weight for a boxing weigh-in or just to look your best at the beach, it makes sense. But its a temporary solution either way.

I think the cavemen point is to show that you should eat the foods that humans were designed to eat. Cut out the food products that were invented by humans and you have a healthier metabolic system that requires less manual intervention. By that your body will regulate itself without becoming obese.

I don't agree that eating "clean" is the solution to weight loss alone. Yes, I have cut out the majority of processed food myself.

My opinion, which is just that, my opinion, is that we eat far too much and are far too inactive. Most people have no clue how much they really eat and way overestimate how hard they work. Counting calories teaches us proper portion sizes and what a healthy amount of food is. Counting exercise calories shows us how much work we are and aren't doing. I don't believe it has to be a constant, forever thing. You are right though, counting calories alone won't be successful long term unless we learn from it and change our relationship to food.
I still believe calories in vs calories out. It is a little more complicated when trying to lose weight, but essentially that is what it comes down to. If you eat to much, natural food or not, you will gain weight.

grinch031

Not true at all. If her daily calorie intake remains lower than her expenditure she will lose weight.

You can eat paleo and still gain weight if your calorie intake exceeds your expenditure. It's just a game of numbers. The only reason paleo diets work is because it's harder to consume surplus calories because the foods you're eating aren't as energy dense. You're still playing the numbers, you just don't know it.

But if you are losing weight on 1200 calories, your body will eventually adapt and your metabolism will slow down, especially when hitting a lean state. At some point the goal weight is reached and the diet ends. Then what? Increase calories or stay at 1200 for life? Point is in most cases the balance will swing in the other direction and weight will come back.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but a paleo diet is better than a calorie restricted one because your body is much better at regulating your calorie consumption to what it needs without leading to a positive energy balance. A paleo diet is simply more fulfilling than a food pyramid type diet because of its higher content of fat and protein.

grinch031

I don't agree that eating "clean" is the solution to weight loss alone. Yes, I have cut out the majority of processed food myself.

My opinion, which is just that, my opinion, is that we eat far too much and are far too inactive. Most people have no clue how much they really eat and way overestimate how hard they work. Counting calories teaches us proper portion sizes and what a healthy amount of food is. Counting exercise calories shows us how much work we are and aren't doing. I don't believe it has to be a constant, forever thing. You are right though, counting calories alone won't be successful long term unless we learn from it and change our relationship to food.
I still believe calories in vs calories out. It is a little more complicated when trying to lose weight, but essentially that is what it comes down to. If you eat to much, natural food or not, you will gain weight.

Where we differ is the reason for overeating. You think its psychological, I say its physiological. I think that any diet that requires me to restrict portions (ie. starve myself) is a diet I am doomed to fail because my body is relentless at telling me how much food it wants. Magically when I cut out carbs (mainly wheat products) and eat more natural, I don't need to restrict my portions as long as they are on the 'free to eat' list, and somehow I still lose weight without even thinking about calories.

3dogsrunning

I don't agree that eating "clean" is the solution to weight loss alone. Yes, I have cut out the majority of processed food myself.

My opinion, which is just that, my opinion, is that we eat far too much and are far too inactive. Most people have no clue how much they really eat and way overestimate how hard they work. Counting calories teaches us proper portion sizes and what a healthy amount of food is. Counting exercise calories shows us how much work we are and aren't doing. I don't believe it has to be a constant, forever thing. You are right though, counting calories alone won't be successful long term unless we learn from it and change our relationship to food.
I still believe calories in vs calories out. It is a little more complicated when trying to lose weight, but essentially that is what it comes down to. If you eat to much, natural food or not, you will gain weight.

Where we differ is the reason for overeating. You think its psychological, I say its physiological. I think that any diet that requires me to restrict portions (ie. starve myself) is a diet I am doomed to fail because my body is relentless at telling me how much food it wants. Magically when I cut out carbs (mainly wheat products) and eat more natural, I don't need to restrict my portions as long as they are on the 'free to eat' list, and somehow I still lose weight without even thinking about calories.

I don't feel counting calories necessarily means starving myself or restricting portions. I have learned to make better selections that keep me satiated without having an enormous calories intake.

rawardle

I would definitely increase your calories a bit. 1200 calories is simply not enough and if that is all you are eating your body can go into starvation mode and hold onto calories causing the plataeu.

grinch031

I don't feel counting calories necessarily means starving myself or restricting portions. I have learned to make better selections that keep me satiated without having an enormous calories intake.

So we're not completely on different pages. I learned a hard lesson that quality beats quantity. I used to consume 3500-4000 calories a day of pure garbage (pizza, pasta, desserts, sandwiches) and still go hungry (of course I was running 6-8 miles those days), but now I can eat ~2500 natural foods of mostly fat and protein and I'm fine. And the 2500 doesn't require any manual regulation, it takes care of itself. That's a lot compared to people here, but i'm also training for a marathon.

katcod1522

had this discussion with my dr today. I am 16lbs from goal. She said to drop my cals to 1100 for 3 -5 days then back to the 1200. Now..I know this is going to catch grief....but she said to do the opposite that everyone always says (upping). Im going to try it a few days this week...but not consecutive.

MB_Positif

I am on my last 10ish pounds. I haven't lost much in forever, so I did up my calories from 1400 to 1500 a few days ago and I lost .4 pounds the first day, and another .2 this morning that I didn't log. I really don't think of it as coincidence, since my scaled hasn't budged in a few weeks!

LeanMeanFitnessMachine

I dropped 5 pounds within a week and a half of upping my cals by just 190 cals. I also always eat my exercise cals back. Good luck!

tuffytuffy1

had this discussion with my dr today. I am 16lbs from goal. She said to drop my cals to 1100 for 3 -5 days then back to the 1200. Now..I know this is going to catch grief....but she said to do the opposite that everyone always says (upping). Im going to try it a few days this week...but not consecutive.

Interesting, thank you for saying that. I am on a 1260 calorie plan, and I haven't been losing weight for a long time. I think I will try one week at both a bigger deficit, and one week eating a couple of extra hundred calories, and see what happens.

Ephena

I went thru the same thing a few months back. The increase in calories, a little to start with is a good idea. Go for protein, 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight but no more than 175 grams per day. It helped me out a lot.

sixisCHANGEDjk

Maybe it's primarily the change up the kick starts the body again. I don't think 100 calories up is going to be a deal breaker and if the Doc says go down 100 I don't think that's a deal breaker either. You can always change next week without the potential of harming progress.

had this discussion with my dr today. I am 16lbs from goal. She said to drop my cals to 1100 for 3 -5 days then back to the 1200. Now..I know this is going to catch grief....but she said to do the opposite that everyone always says (upping). Im going to try it a few days this week...but not consecutive.

ArroganceInStep

Take small steps. If you increase your daily calories by say 250, you're not going to suddenly gain 100 lbs. Try a small increase and gauge the results.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

When I upped my cals from 1200 to 1400 I didn't gain an ounce. Now, when I went from 900 to 1200 when I first joined MFP, I did gain 2 lbs in 2 weeks before I started losing. But that's because my body needed to readjust. If you go up slowly, in increments of a hundred calories or so, you shouldn't have trouble with gaining. If you do gain a half pound or a pound, don't freak out. Just give it some time for your body to adjust. It seemed very scary to me too but I'm so glad I did it.

sbeisel1

I think personally that its hard to get over the idea that to lose weight you need to eat less or starve. It is a lesson that has been ingraned in us from years of media and mis-information. Yes we are also told to eat healthy and excercise but the education is just not as thorough but the media and social aspect always say to eat less or starve yoruself to lose weight. and the problem is that eating less does work. Unfortunealty it is not easy to always starve and keep it up, the yo-yo or rebound is usually a result and the weight comes back with a vengence (natural body reaction to starving then eating) I personally find that the very correct concept of eating well and nourishing our bodies makes perfect sense and does work but there is still that nagging voice from the past telling me to not eat and it will go faster....

Ephena

Not true at all. If her daily calorie intake remains lower than her expenditure she will lose weight.

You can eat paleo and still gain weight if your calorie intake exceeds your expenditure. It's just a game of numbers. The only reason paleo diets work is because it's harder to consume surplus calories because the foods you're eating aren't as energy dense. You're still playing the numbers, you just don't know it.

But if you are losing weight on 1200 calories, your body will eventually adapt and your metabolism will slow down, especially when hitting a lean state. At some point the goal weight is reached and the diet ends. Then what? Increase calories or stay at 1200 for life? Point is in most cases the balance will swing in the other direction and weight will come back.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but a paleo diet is better than a calorie restricted one because your body is much better at regulating your calorie consumption to what it needs without leading to a positive energy balance. A paleo diet is simply more fulfilling than a food pyramid type diet because of its higher content of fat and protein.

Not going to argue one way or the other about different weight loss methods but the point about your body adjusting to a certain amount of food (1200 calories) is true. Your leptin levels drop and you have trouble losing weight and can even risk gaining weigh back. The trick for me was to do a re-feed. I ate at maintenance level for 2 weeks then went back to 1200 calories a day and it really worked well for me.

psuLemon

had this discussion with my dr today. I am 16lbs from goal. She said to drop my cals to 1100 for 3 -5 days then back to the 1200. Now..I know this is going to catch grief....but she said to do the opposite that everyone always says (upping). Im going to try it a few days this week...but not consecutive.

Thats because most doctors dont know crap when it comes to nutrition.

jillica

Do what you feel is right but nobody would fault you if you hung on a full month before upping your calories.

You've already had some great success - 2 weeks with no weight loss could be due to you actually losing inches or maybe your hormones.

Another gauge is how you feel during your workouts, do you have energy?

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Not true at all. If her daily calorie intake remains lower than her expenditure she will lose weight.

You can eat paleo and still gain weight if your calorie intake exceeds your expenditure. It's just a game of numbers. The only reason paleo diets work is because it's harder to consume surplus calories because the foods you're eating aren't as energy dense. You're still playing the numbers, you just don't know it.

But if you are losing weight on 1200 calories, your body will eventually adapt and your metabolism will slow down, especially when hitting a lean state. At some point the goal weight is reached and the diet ends. Then what? Increase calories or stay at 1200 for life? Point is in most cases the balance will swing in the other direction and weight will come back.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but a paleo diet is better than a calorie restricted one because your body is much better at regulating your calorie consumption to what it needs without leading to a positive energy balance. A paleo diet is simply more fulfilling than a food pyramid type diet because of its higher content of fat and protein.

Not going to argue one way or the other about different weight loss methods but the point about your body adjusting to a certain amount of food (1200 calories) is true. Your leptin levels drop and you have trouble losing weight and can even risk gaining weigh back. The trick for me was to do a re-feed. I ate at maintenance level for 2 weeks then went back to 1200 calories a day and it really worked well for me.

I did this as well with very good results, even if it was an accident lol

katcod1522

had this discussion with my dr today. I am 16lbs from goal. She said to drop my cals to 1100 for 3 -5 days then back to the 1200. Now..I know this is going to catch grief....but she said to do the opposite that everyone always says (upping). Im going to try it a few days this week...but not consecutive.

Thats because most doctors dont know crap when it comes to nutrition.

see? told ya it would catch grief..lol
Its the internet..youre allowed to be mean