Major sucess with higher calories!

Mallory0418

No matter how far you've come or have to go, this is a constant learning process. Keep educating yourself and learning your body. I've also had a lot of success after I upped my calorie intake, just be sure as you consume more, that you consume more of the right kind of food. It's easy to become desperate for calories when you've been depriving yourself for so long and gotten in the mind set of "I can't eat this much! I'll never lose weight eating this much!" Just eat more servings of the good stuff! So glad you found success!

Tina180130

bump, thx

kimr41

Who Helloitsdan?

cmriverside

Who Helloitsdan?

He's just another member. You can find this info yourself in any number of online calculators.

funkycamper

MFP set me a goal of 1,430 which for me is pretty low compared to how I can eat. I love to eat But when I WORKOUT I earn extra calories which now I will be eating them for sure. ONE QUICK ? to eat back my calories I earned adding extra fruit or vegis can I also add like maybe a snack like: nutella toast or cheese and crackers or sumthing good??

You betcha! It can be anything you want. While healthy eating most of your calories is best to properly fuel your body, there is absolutely nothing wrong with treating yourself to something yummy for part of your calories. Go for it and enjoy!

allisshiney

Ok, I'm convinced. Upping my calories.

warmachinejt

Good morning! I just had to post about the sucess I have had with eating a higher calorie diet!

I started here at MFP the 1st of January and was given the 1200 calorie plan most of us get set up with. I exercised 4 times a week and at the end of the month, I had gained 3#! Sooo discouraged!

I read through the forums, looking for clues. Looking for hope. I read a few peoples posts about eating enough to lose weight and I thought they had lost their minds. I mean, you have to starve to lose weight right? Even at 1200 calories, I was only netting about 800-900 because I wasn't eating back my exercise calories. In my mind, I figured the weight ought to be falling off of me! How wrong I was!!

I contacted hellitsdan and had him run my numbers to see what was up. He immediately set me up with the minimum of 1800 calories and said my TDEE was 2250. No way! I cried most of the night. It seemed so absurd to think that if I wasn't losing wieght at 800-1000 calories a day, that I would at 1800. Thankfully, I listened and was a good student!

Today marks my 1 month of eating this higher calorie diet and I won't ever go back! As of today, I have lost 4.4#, 6" off various measurements, most off my hips and thighs, and my BF% went from 28% to 24.6%!! Just think what next month may hold!

Anyone who is struggling with a VLCD and isn't finding sucess, please up your calories. You'll have more energy to work out and you won't be hungry!

Good luck to all of you on your weightloss and fitness journeys!

Kathy

I would think over 90% of the girls on this site are undereating...I end up telling most that they're undereating and won't lose. Not many believe me and continue to undereat...
follow these basic guidelines...you should be eating more than 1200 calories if you are over 5 feet tall and exercise 4 days a week burning more than 300 calories every workout. (this is a quick made up way of figuring it out myself)

jsenecal12

My first month of MFP was spent at 1200 calories a day, too... and I gained a pound! So annoying! So these past two weeks I upped my caloric intake to about 1500 a day and not only did I go back to what I weighed before, but I lost an extra pound . Very happy about this development, definitely going to keep it up!

lisakyle_11

wonderful news -- thanks for posting!! happy for you. :happy:

Jennical

Bump!

runbyme

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful responses and encouragement.

The gentleman who ran my numbers is helloitsdan. He basically runs numbers off of a website called Fat To Fit Radio. There is a military BMI calculator there that he uses.

Dan has also started a new group here on MFP called Fuel The Machine. If you don't feel comfortable running your own numbers, PM Dan or any one of the admins at the group and they can do it for you!

This truly has worked for me and am so glad! Good luck to each of you and thanks again for your support!

Kathy

runbyme

Add me to the list - I had my numbers ran by Helloitsdan on the 18th Feb, and I went from 1200 to 1750.

I thought - HUH???? I'm just about 5ft, how am I going to lose weight on that many calories?

But I was prepared to give it a go, and I am so glad I did. in 3 weeks I have lost over 5lb, but I am more excited about the inches off my waist.

Apparently your body needs fats to burn fat.

According to MFP I should be maintaining at this level of calories.

I'm so glad you have found success with this! There are still times I have to stop and remind myself that it's okay to eat! Good luck to you!

runbyme

One question... does anyone have something more than anecdotal reports on how hormonal fluctuations affect that?

Perimenopausal women have a hell of a time losing weight and can even gain weight on less food than you'd ever expect to make a difference. I can say that anecdotally, but also, I've been doing some reading on the issue.

From what I've been reading, this has to do with the body's imperative to retain estrogen stored secondarily in fat cells when your ovaries stop producing it. It wouldn't have crossed my mind if I hadn't run into an article on it. I don't know how reliable that information is, given it's not my area.

On the up side, when you go full meno apparently it stops being an issue but that transitional period might just be the exception to the rule.

Mirii

That's a wonderful question I don't have an answer to! LOL! I perimenopausal at this time. TOM comes by about every 4 months! Every time, I think it will be my last! It may very well have an affect on weight loss but it would only be a guess on my part!

Helloitsdan

Hello! These are very exciting posts!! My question is, how do you determine what calorie range you should be eating each day?

Go to Fat to Fit tools and do the Military Body Fat Calc THEN the BMR tool.

The BMR tool will give you EXACT calories to eat daily determined by your activity level.
Add 20% to this number to figure out your TDEE.

So by knowing:

TDEE
BMR
Body Fat

Youll be able to manipulate any diet you use to lose/gain weight.

And for the "I cant wrap my head around how this works..."

I'll give you a 20 year old car with 1/8th tank of gas and a drop of oil.
Now drive 200 miles!

punchieprincess

Congratulations! That is awesome!!!

Birder150

Thank you for posting your success! :flowerforyou:

I had increased my calories to 1600 this past Saturday and was feeling so much better than before but I'm going to go all the way after doing the calculations and raise it to 1850.
I have not binged in a week which is miraculous and all it took was eating more overall. Duh.

Jennyisbusy

I have been using this spreadsheet and calculator from here:

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

and I set my MFP level to sedentary and started adding back ALL activity. (Even light house work that I used to ignore) The totals come in pretty close most days. To be honest the spreadsheet has been more valuable than the calculator. Then I try to figure a 15% deficit.

I have only been doing this a few days but I wanted to share that link and how to figure the calories.:flowerforyou:

Daphnemomof9

I was one of those that ate too little at the beginning until I gained almost 2 pounds, so I went for it, eating more. I have a fitbit and have set my MFP goals to lose one and half pound a week at a sedentary level. They have me at 1300 calories to start, then I add in my exercise (by HRM) and fitbit adds my additional daily activity and I try to have somewhere between a 750 and 1000 calorie deficit from what fitbit says I've burned in calories for the day. It's been working for a few weeks now for me. I've lost what I gained plus a pound the first week and have since lost somewhere around a pound and a half a week. I feel pretty confident knowing how many calories I'm burning everyday. I love it!

spinqueen72

Dumb question...but what is VLCD?

spinqueen72

Add me to the list - I had my numbers ran by Helloitsdan on the 18th Feb, and I went from 1200 to 1750.

I thought - HUH???? I'm just about 5ft, how am I going to lose weight on that many calories?

But I was prepared to give it a go, and I am so glad I did. in 3 weeks I have lost over 5lb, but I am more excited about the inches off my waist.

Apparently your body needs fats to burn fat.

According to MFP I should be maintaining at this level of calories.

Seriously....who the heck is this Helloitsdan person?

jaabee11

Thank you , this is great. I'm going to get onto this. Your a good guy Dan, looks like you've been helping out a lot.

Hello! These are very exciting posts!! My question is, how do you determine what calorie range you should be eating each day?

Go to Fat to Fit tools and do the Military Body Fat Calc THEN the BMR tool.

The BMR tool will give you EXACT calories to eat daily determined by your activity level.
Add 20% to this number to figure out your TDEE.

So by knowing:

TDEE
BMR
Body Fat

Youll be able to manipulate any diet you use to lose/gain weight.

And for the "I cant wrap my head around how this works..."

I'll give you a 20 year old car with 1/8th tank of gas and a drop of oil.
Now drive 200 miles!

AmyRhubarb

Dumb question...but what is VLCD?

I believe it stand for very low calorie diet. And helloitsdan is a member here on the boards.

pamelapeldo

bump

pinkita

bump

Jennyisbusy

I am REALLY excited. I got out my old data, (last spring and summer) and looked for months with big losses or gains and compared that to food diaries of roughly the time frame that I thought should be appropriate.

*Last June I lost 6 lbs and a good many of those days were around the 1900ish calorie range with a couple of 2200ish highs thrown in!
*In September I lost 5 lbs and there were 3 days where I ate over 3000cals, I had a few in the 1200ish and a lot in the 1900ish range.
**and for the grand finale-- In May I buckled down and stay very low calorie all month long and gained 1 pound!!!

(why couldn't I see this then? I think I probably spanked myself for those higher days thinking I had ruined everything)

CMD76

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story.

diggly

Hmmm.. I must be a real anamoly then. I lost weight MORE when I was on a VLCD. I'm now on 1600 to 1800 a day (net above 1300) and losing consistently but much slower than before. Granted I'm down to my last few pounds before GW but still... *shrug*

pattan59801

VLCD??????????

iwannablean

Congratulations on your success! I went through your exercise diary to see what kind of work outs you do, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that you have been walking a lot! I love walking! I am planning to ditch the gym and start walking more and maybe even try running! I am so glad to see that it worked for you, which goes against what some people have been telling me--only walking as an exercise won't show me striking weight loss results! Best luck to you in your journey ahead!

heybales

That's awesome! It's a mind-game because eating more calories - isn't that what got us here in the first place? I have had slow but good success since Jan 1 (10 lbs) but that's on the 1200. But how long can I sustain this? I am just starting to work out now, and am hungry! Think I will up my calories and give it a try! Thanks for the info!

You can go to MFP Tools - BMR calculator.
If you are eating below that, especially netting below that, constantly, you'll stall or just burn off muscle.

At least if you are hungry, you haven't lowered your BMR more yet.

There is an easier way, Dan and I are both firm believers in never netting below your estimated healthy BMR on avg.

If you have decent estimates of calorie burn, and don't mind eating different amounts each day, you can use MFP with tweaks for safety.

Or, if you would rather just eat at the same level every day, and what you would eat at when you reach goal weight, I was asked to create a group and I made a spreadsheet to allow you to run your own numbers with much better accuracy than 4 wide levels of daily activity give you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/477666-eating-for-future-you-method