Eat more, lose more question

taylmarie

I am reading lots of posts about increasing calories to lose weight. I fully believe in making sure that my body gets everything it needs to function well and perform.

I am new, so please forgive my ignorance. Just so I am clear:

When you say increase your calories, does that mean going over the goal that MFP has set for me? For example if is set at 1200 (and I don't workout that day), eat 1400 instead? Or does it just mean to eat back all of my exercise calories as opposed to trying to maintain a larger than necessary deficit?

Thanks! in advance for clarification!

dreamchaser12

The way I understand it, it means eat back your workout calories. If you are set at 1,200 a day and don't work out you won't want to eat over. But if you workout and burn say 400 calories, you will want to eat all or part of those 400 calories back.

MOTH477

I am curious about this too. I guess all along I've been doing it wrong. I eat 1700 calories and workout. I guess that explains why I haven't lost weight in the past. MFP calculates I need 1900 does that mean if I workout I increase what I eat?

GB333

You need two magic numbers to figure this out - BMR and TDEE. Google 'em and you'll find lots of calculators to figure out what yours are.

BMR is what your body naturally burns just by living. so if you stayed in bed all day, this is what you would still burn.

TDEE is what you burn on a normal day - going to work, brushing your teeth, making dinner, etc... If you exercise a few times a week, this will be accounted for in your TDEE number. If you sit at a desk all day and rarely workout, your TDEE will probably be fairly low. If you work in a warehouse moving boxes all day and run a few miles a week, your TDEE will be significantly higher.

"They" say you should never eat below your BMR. Instead, aim for somewhere inbetween your BMR and TDEE -- 15% to 20% less than your TDEE.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories, but I manually adjusted my calories to be at 1450 because that is just above my BMR. I'm hoping this will pull me out of this serious stall!

(I'm NO expert - I just started with this. So google it and read more!)

MOTH477

You need two magic numbers to figure this out - BMR and TDEE. Google 'em and you'll find lots of calculators to figure out what yours are.

BMR is what your body naturally burns just by living. so if you stayed in bed all day, this is what you would still burn.

TDEE is what you burn on a normal day - going to work, brushing your teeth, making dinner, etc... If you exercise a few times a week, this will be accounted for in your TDEE number. If you sit at a desk all day and rarely workout, your TDEE will probably be fairly low. If you work in a warehouse moving boxes all day and run a few miles a week, your TDEE will be significantly higher.

"They" say you should never eat below your BMR. Instead, aim for somewhere inbetween your BMR and TDEE -- 15% to 20% less than your TDEE.

Thanks for posting this. It kinda opened my eyes somewhat. In the past I would workout and burn 600 calories plus I'd eat 400 less than what MFP calculates. Evidently this was the wrong approach since I haven't lost. I will try this idea of eating more and hopefully I start seeing results.

GB333

I've found a lot of great info in this group - check out the stickies at the top!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

taylmarie

Great! Thanks for the info, I'll check out the calculators and the group!

nickyrobinson

For a lot of people, it means just select a low weight loss rate... Unless you are already at the minimum MFP gives you (.5 lb/week), a lower rate means more calories to consume. It is apparently common for new MFP'ers to pick 2 lb/week (i.e. a 1000 calorie per day calorie deficit, with a minimum of 1200 calories no matter what).

jlr_12

Eating more is a way of ensuring that your metabolism won't get slowed down during the weight loss. If you only ate 1200 calories and lost all your weight...then bumped up to say 1800 for maintenance...obviously there would be quite the period of gain there before your body adjusts again because it has gotten used to such low calories. I've got mine currently set at 1480 which is about my BMR and 20% less than my TDEE. Either way...whether you go with lower or higher calories, you should eat back most of your exercise calories. If you don't, you'll end up with a greater deficit than is healthy or helpful.

taylmarie

Thanks for the replies, very helpful.

Birder150

Here's another thread that I found helpful as well ...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

ebaymommy

You need two magic numbers to figure this out - BMR and TDEE. Google 'em and you'll find lots of calculators to figure out what yours are.

BMR is what your body naturally burns just by living. so if you stayed in bed all day, this is what you would still burn.

TDEE is what you burn on a normal day - going to work, brushing your teeth, making dinner, etc... If you exercise a few times a week, this will be accounted for in your TDEE number. If you sit at a desk all day and rarely workout, your TDEE will probably be fairly low. If you work in a warehouse moving boxes all day and run a few miles a week, your TDEE will be significantly higher.

"They" say you should never eat below your BMR. Instead, aim for somewhere inbetween your BMR and TDEE -- 15% to 20% less than your TDEE.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories, but I manually adjusted my calories to be at 1450 because that is just above my BMR. I'm hoping this will pull me out of this serious stall!

(I'm NO expert - I just started with this. So google it and read more!)

I totally agree with this!

Unfortunately, MFP estimates way too low for me. If (give my current weight) I set it to MAINTAIN my weight and put it at the highest activity level, it still only gives me about 1900 calories/day. To maintain my weight in reality I would need to eat more like 2400-2500/day. So it's really important to figure out YOUR OWN numbers for BMR and TDEE and base a deficit off that. Also you don't want to set too aggressive of a weight loss goal or MFP practically defaults everybody to 1200 calories which is just too low most of the time.

I also manually adjusted my calories on MFP to the goal I know I need to shoot for based on my TDEE.

ejortega

bump

ejortega

bump

ImRadical4Jesus

Bump

neanderthin

Most of the related answers are in regards to people eating too few calories and not progressing. Eating more has been the popular answer where a jump start repairs metabolism. Personally for me, the less I eat the more weight I lose, regardless of how few calories I eat.

taylmarie

You need two magic numbers to figure this out - BMR and TDEE. Google 'em and you'll find lots of calculators to figure out what yours are.

BMR is what your body naturally burns just by living. so if you stayed in bed all day, this is what you would still burn.

TDEE is what you burn on a normal day - going to work, brushing your teeth, making dinner, etc... If you exercise a few times a week, this will be accounted for in your TDEE number. If you sit at a desk all day and rarely workout, your TDEE will probably be fairly low. If you work in a warehouse moving boxes all day and run a few miles a week, your TDEE will be significantly higher.

"They" say you should never eat below your BMR. Instead, aim for somewhere inbetween your BMR and TDEE -- 15% to 20% less than your TDEE.

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories, but I manually adjusted my calories to be at 1450 because that is just above my BMR. I'm hoping this will pull me out of this serious stall!

(I'm NO expert - I just started with this. So google it and read more!)

I totally agree with this!

Unfortunately, MFP estimates way too low for me. If (give my current weight) I set it to MAINTAIN my weight and put it at the highest activity level, it still only gives me about 1900 calories/day. To maintain my weight in reality I would need to eat more like 2400-2500/day. So it's really important to figure out YOUR OWN numbers for BMR and TDEE and base a deficit off that. Also you don't want to set too aggressive of a weight loss goal or MFP practically defaults everybody to 1200 calories which is just too low most of the time.

I also manually adjusted my calories on MFP to the goal I know I need to shoot for based on my TDEE.

Awesome!! Thank you so much, I have a better understanding now. On days that I don't work out and need to aim for 1200 cals according to MFP, I feel like i need to measure every morsel that I eat and that just doesn't seem like a sustainable lifestyle, there is no wiggle room! Of course I plan to workout and eat my exercise calories and I will make adjustments based on the info you all have provided. For me, my days vary so much as far as what type of workout I get in that I feel like it's best for me to set it at a sedentary base TDEE and then add in my exercise and determine my deficit from there. Thanks again!! Much appreciated!!

taylmarie

Most of the related answers are in regards to people eating too few calories and not progressing. Eating more has been the popular answer where a jump start repairs metabolism. Personally for me, the less I eat the more weight I lose, regardless of how few calories I eat.

For me as well, the less I eat the more I lose, usually. But I just don't feel like I can sustain a lifestyle eating that way. So I feel like if eating more is working for people I would rather try that and lose at a slow steady pace. I got in amazing shape a few years ago working out and eating net 1200 but I had a problem maintaining and gained it all back. I believe it's because I had a diet that was very restrictive and unrealistic for me in the long haul. I am still learning, so I guess I just need to find what works for me, eating more or eating less. I will need to experiment. Thanks for your response!

rmh84

Wow - thank you for that.

I've spent the last 2 weeks following the 1200 cal thing as laid out here, weighed in this morning.... and didn't drop a single 10th of a lb. It was exactly the same as the last weigh in in fact. I just went and did a BMR calculation from this site http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ which shows just a BMR of 1517 cal, and a with excersize rate of 2300 - 2500 (I fall between two of the daily fitness specifications for the caculation). The BMR calculator on here came in at just under 1400.

This week I think I'm going to raise it to 1400 ish just for a nice round number and see what happens.

I do feel a TON better the last few weeks then I have before, though I haven't lost any weight or inches (according to how my pants feel - haven't done any specific measurements).