For the 500,000 time EATING MORE WORKS

Lab2809

Ok I just don't buy it....everyone in this thread who had 'success' with upping their calories has less than a few pounds or weeks worth of proof. No long-term people (on this particular thread) are saying it worked for them...long term as in 20 pounds or over a few months. I have tried it...got stuck after losing 40 pounds on 1200 calls a day for 4 months...so tried 1450 for 2 whole months...lost 3 pounds in three days and not a half pound a month since then. I am actually back on here looking for motivation to kick back to the 1200 calls which worked for me....until a huge plateau. Which now I am wishing I had just worked through at the 1200. Ugh

So nope...doesn't work for everyone...give it time...it may work for way less people than you think.

I lost 104+ pounds in about 2 years time upping calories. Kept it off and maintained for a year and a half after that. I gained 19 because of a pregnancy and that's why I'm here now...

nz_deevaa

Okay so my BMR is 1304 cals. I lost 8 pounds while eating under 1200 - 1200 calories and it was hard. I have upped my cals. to 1270 cal. I hope this works. I stopped losing weight 2 weeks a go so i hope by upping my calories i can start it again. Also whenever I have time i exercise. If there is some thing i should change can you tell me. Also I am 5"1 and weigh 134 pounds. my goal is 110-100 pounds.

Also my BMI is 25.3 so i am really close to a healthy BMI but I want to get rid of my fat, which when i Poke spreads waves.

You should eat more than your BMR, you need to up your calories more than to 1,270.

the site told me to eat 1270 cal. to lose 1 pound per week.

And that's the problem. The site doesn't tell you what healthy weightloss is - it just does as you ask of it. At 24 pounds to lose, you should consider 0.5lbs a week.

I agree, you are too close to your target to lose 1lb a week, try .5lbs a week for a 4wks and see how you go.

tradingfoods

Your so right you have to eat to loose. I was going days at work and not eating all day, and very little for supper but kept gaining. Now and I had to make myself do it, but I eat 3 small meals a day and my snacks. And of course watch what I eat and how it's cooked ect.... but weight started coming off. Slowed down to 7 and 8 pounds a month but I will take that.

Continue success everyone. I love reading everyone's stories and ideals, very encouraging.

jwil1231

Okay, it does sound scary to eat more especially since I worked so hard to cut back calories..but, I think I will try it too..I have lot 1 pound in 2 weeks...yuk

abouck

Bump

abouck

So just to absolutely clarify...if I'm increasing my cals from 1290 to 1400 - I should be eating all my exercise calories back to achieve 1400 NET. This is correct yes?

My BMR is 1429 and my TDEE is 2,386. I exercise 5 times a week. I'm 5'6" and age 53

Would appreciate someone clarifying this for me. Thanks.

You should eat above 1429 and less than 2,386 NET. Try 1,886, net.

abouck

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Sarauk2sf

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Which activity level was the 1770?

abouck

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Which activity level was the 1770?

1770 was lightly active 1-3 days per week

abouck

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Which activity level was the 1770?

Chart on fat2fit with my information.

1770 was lightly active 1-3 days per week

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1544
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1770
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 1995
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2220
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

Sarauk2sf

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Which activity level was the 1770?

Chart on fat2fit with my information.

1770 was lightly active 1-3 days per week

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1544
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1770
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 1995
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2220
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

You may want to be between lightly active and moderately active, depending on how intesnse you workouts are. However, assuming lightly active, you should be going with 1,770. Remember, this includes exercise so you do not 'eat your calories back' if you log them in MFP as they are already baked into the 1,770.

You may want to increase by 100-200 a week until you get to the target - this seems to work better for folks than all of a sudden increasing. .

RonneyMichelle

Ok question here. My
BMR 1476
TDEE 2288
So cals should be 1831 a day.
I recently bought and started using a BodyMedia Fit Link.
It tells me to lose 1 pound a week my goals should be
Target to burn daily 1847
I should consume 1347 calories a day
Goal to have a calorie deficit of 500
I'm sitting here with a calorie deficit of 583 at 11:40PM.
I've consumed 1610 calories today, but with the deficit my net would be that minus 500.
I did my first day of Couch to 5K, rode bike for 20 minutes and lifted weights for 20 minutes.
I have burned according to the body monitor 2194 calories today.

Ok, so my question is, is this ok? I mean I didn't reach my 1831 calories, but I'm close to spot on with the body monitor on what it says I need based on my stats etc.
I've been on 1200 calories a day since the third week of January of this year and lost 27 pounds. My net cals are usually under 1200 though.
I'm afraid to go by the body monitor but also afraid to eat 1800 calories, LOL

JeanetteButler

Thanks, your post is very informative!!

JeanetteButler

bump

marbly

Ok question here. My
BMR 1476
TDEE 2288
So cals should be 1831 a day.
I recently bought and started using a BodyMedia Fit Link.
It tells me to lose 1 pound a week my goals should be
Target to burn daily 1847
I should consume 1347 calories a day
Goal to have a calorie deficit of 500
I'm sitting here with a calorie deficit of 583 at 11:40PM.
I've consumed 1610 calories today, but with the deficit my net would be that minus 500.
I did my first day of Couch to 5K, rode bike for 20 minutes and lifted weights for 20 minutes.
I have burned according to the body monitor 2194 calories today.

Ok, so my question is, is this ok? I mean I didn't reach my 1831 calories, but I'm close to spot on with the body monitor on what it says I need based on my stats etc.
I've been on 1200 calories a day since the third week of January of this year and lost 27 pounds. My net cals are usually under 1200 though.
I'm afraid to go by the body monitor but also afraid to eat 1800 calories, LOL

IF things are working for you the way you are doing it now, continue on with it (but try to eat net BMR if you are not very overweight or obese).

If things are NOT working for you and you are looking at breaking a plateau, then you can try upping your calories to at least NET of your BMR. If your plateau does not break after around 4 weeks of upping your cals, then you can try something else to break it. Eg, more weight lifting, less weight lifting, less cardio, more cardio etc etc.

watboy

SO true, so very very true.

I never understood why people say they feel like they are starving on 1200 calories. I feel completely satisfied, eat every 2 hours, and always stay within my calorie range. PLUS, I've lost 68 pounds doing this for 5 months. I guess this just goes to show you that really everyone is different!

watboy

EATING MORE doesn't work for me

ji225

I have to say, I did no exercise last week at all really, ate about 1500 cals per day no snacks and good food with a couple of glasses of wine, and lost the most I have lost since I started last July, and in the meantime before this I was trying to stick to a net of 1200 cals per day! Insane I think!

So..... to carry on this experiement, I am trying to not exercise too much (3 x 50 mins bike rides per week, 80 mins of walking per week, and 20 mins of pilates per day), and stick with 1500 per day approx for the next 2 weeks, will report back with findings in 2 more weeks

Jenny

abouck

I am 34 and 5'2" and my BMR is 1396 according to fat2fit. Not sure what my TDEE is. I.work out 3-5 times per week for about 30 minutes. Fat2fit says I should be eating around 1770 calories. This sounds way to high. I was eating 1200 calories a day plus my workout calories and increased to 1300 calories. I have had only a 1 pound loss in the last 30 days. I think I need to increase my calories but not sure how much. Please help!

Which activity level was the 1770?

Chart on fat2fit with my information.

1770 was lightly active 1-3 days per week

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1544
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1770
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 1995
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2220
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

You may want to be between lightly active and moderately active, depending on how intesnse you workouts are. However, assuming lightly active, you should be going with 1,770. Remember, this includes exercise so you do not 'eat your calories back' if you log them in MFP as they are already baked into the 1,770.

You may want to increase by 100-200 a week until you get to the target - this seems to work better for folks than all of a sudden increasing. .

So let's see if I have this right.....My current BMR is 1396 and my TDEE with Moderate activity 3-5 days per week is 2163.80. So if I subtract 500 calories from my TDEE then I should consume 1663.80 calories per day. Plus eat back my exercise calories to come up to the recommended moderately active calories of 1995 by the fat2fit chart. Do I have this correct? I am currently working out 4-5 days per week and aiming for 6 days per week and I average 200 calories burned but would like to increase to get at least 300 calories burned per day. And how much protein/carbs/fat?

leahhugh

Can someone help me?

My TDEE is 2050, BMR is 1497. I've been doing 1290 calories, and haven't lost any.. How many should I eat?? I burn about 600 calories a week at least.

I have NO clue!!

Justacoffeenut

bump

ladyraven68

EATING MORE doesn't work for me

Eating more than what? eating more than TDEE won't work for anybody.

But eating less than TDEE has to work for everyone - if it doesn't you have calculated it wrong.

watboy

Pringles.

EATING MORE doesn't work for me

Eating more than what? eating more than TDEE won't work for anybody.

But eating less than TDEE has to work for everyone - if it doesn't you have calculated it wrong.

legnarevocrednu

I never understood why people say they feel like they are starving on 1200 calories. I feel completely satisfied, eat every 2 hours, and always stay within my calorie range. PLUS, I've lost 68 pounds doing this for 5 months. I guess this just goes to show you that really everyone is different!

If you can feel satisfied on so few calories, why do you think you had so much weight to lose in the first place? Surely you had to have been eating way more than 1200 calories when you were gaining weight.

I'm eating better...eating more protein rich foods which therefore keeps me full longer. I honestly don't think it's how much you eat, but WHAT you eat. I used to eat extremely unhealthy and probably easily ate 3000 calories a day. It did take some adjusting(for me, it was about 3 days) to get used to it, but now I'm cruising along. I'm happy, satisfied, and healthier. I don't know if your response was supposed to be snooty, but I'm going to pretend that it doesn't sound that way. Have a great day! :-)

legnarevocrednu

I never understood why people say they feel like they are starving on 1200 calories. I feel completely satisfied, eat every 2 hours, and always stay within my calorie range. PLUS, I've lost 68 pounds doing this for 5 months. I guess this just goes to show you that really everyone is different!

I'd Just like to say, that your weight loss may stall, that's when you should up your calories, not lower it. I lost 20kg at 1,200 plus my exercise calories, then my weight loss stalled... I started lifting heavy weights and upped my calories (to 1,700 plus exercise) and I'm losing again.

Every one is different, but if your weight loss stalls, give it a go. Not for just one week though, you might put on in the first week.... Do it for at least a month.

I do agree that once I get closer to goal, that I will have to up my calories. I have had a steady weightloss for 5 months (at least 2 to 3 pounds a week) and still have 47 more pounds to lose. I'm not really close and so far, what I'm doing is working. If I do stall, of course I will look in to changing things up. :-)

ladyraven68

you can even eat more Pringles as long as they fit your calories and macros.

Pringles.

EATING MORE doesn't work for me

Eating more than what? eating more than TDEE won't work for anybody.

But eating less than TDEE has to work for everyone - if it doesn't you have calculated it wrong.

Michael164

Good Job

RonneyMichelle

Actually things were working just fine for me at 1200 or less calories and not eating back my exerecise calories so far. I've lost 27 pounds since the second week of January this year. But, I'm not satisfied with that low calories. I'm still neededing to lose 76 pounds. I haven't really had problems losing, but have went up a little when I've gone over on my cheat meals. I still lose a few ounces daily.

Ok question here. My
BMR 1476
TDEE 2288
So cals should be 1831 a day.
I recently bought and started using a BodyMedia Fit Link.
It tells me to lose 1 pound a week my goals should be
Target to burn daily 1847
I should consume 1347 calories a day
Goal to have a calorie deficit of 500
I'm sitting here with a calorie deficit of 583 at 11:40PM.
I've consumed 1610 calories today, but with the deficit my net would be that minus 500.
I did my first day of Couch to 5K, rode bike for 20 minutes and lifted weights for 20 minutes.
I have burned according to the body monitor 2194 calories today.

Ok, so my question is, is this ok? I mean I didn't reach my 1831 calories, but I'm close to spot on with the body monitor on what it says I need based on my stats etc.
I've been on 1200 calories a day since the third week of January of this year and lost 27 pounds. My net cals are usually under 1200 though.
I'm afraid to go by the body monitor but also afraid to eat 1800 calories, LOL

IF things are working for you the way you are doing it now, continue on with it (but try to eat net BMR if you are not very overweight or obese).

If things are NOT working for you and you are looking at breaking a plateau, then you can try upping your calories to at least NET of your BMR. If your plateau does not break after around 4 weeks of upping your cals, then you can try something else to break it. Eg, more weight lifting, less weight lifting, less cardio, more cardio etc etc.

marbly

Actually things were working just fine for me at 1200 or less calories and not eating back my exerecise calories so far. I've lost 27 pounds since the second week of January this year. But, I'm not satisfied with that low calories. I'm still neededing to lose 76 pounds. I haven't really had problems losing, but have went up a little when I've gone over on my cheat meals. I still lose a few ounces daily.

Ok question here. My
BMR 1476
TDEE 2288
So cals should be 1831 a day.
I recently bought and started using a BodyMedia Fit Link.
It tells me to lose 1 pound a week my goals should be
Target to burn daily 1847
I should consume 1347 calories a day
Goal to have a calorie deficit of 500
I'm sitting here with a calorie deficit of 583 at 11:40PM.
I've consumed 1610 calories today, but with the deficit my net would be that minus 500.
I did my first day of Couch to 5K, rode bike for 20 minutes and lifted weights for 20 minutes.
I have burned according to the body monitor 2194 calories today.

Ok, so my question is, is this ok? I mean I didn't reach my 1831 calories, but I'm close to spot on with the body monitor on what it says I need based on my stats etc.
I've been on 1200 calories a day since the third week of January of this year and lost 27 pounds. My net cals are usually under 1200 though.
I'm afraid to go by the body monitor but also afraid to eat 1800 calories, LOL

IF things are working for you the way you are doing it now, continue on with it (but try to eat net BMR if you are not very overweight or obese).

If things are NOT working for you and you are looking at breaking a plateau, then you can try upping your calories to at least NET of your BMR. If your plateau does not break after around 4 weeks of upping your cals, then you can try something else to break it. Eg, more weight lifting, less weight lifting, less cardio, more cardio etc etc.

Yes, if you feel that way, it's time to change the routine.

I think many of us WANT a change because we're just frustrated and fed up with having to subsist with such low intake in food. Sure, if we eat nutrient dense foods, 1200 can go a long way BUT heck, we want butter, pizza and all those yummy food made up of refined carbs which if we ate them on a 1200 diet, is just too much calories in one go so many of us (IME) DON'T give in. How long do we last though?

As for how you up your cals, some may suggest that you up your calories slowly to see if it works or not. IME, though, sometimes, the body needs a shock treatment and if you upped to say, 1800 immediately, you may see results faster and not feel that upping your cals is not working. But then again, everyone is different... you can only try and DON'T give up!

upnorthtim

I had exactly the opposite experience.and am back to restricted calories. I would not base a big conclusion on one week's weight loss in any case..............