how your body actually loses weight with higher net cals

theredcliche

Hey guys - I'm new to this group after beginning Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution and following a 1200 calorie meal plan + burning around 250 cals a day (averaging a net calorie intake of 850 for the first month). I fortunately was super grouchy and hungry, so I knew I needed to up my calories. I've been reading a lot on this forum and I've used the BMR and TDEE calculations and set my MFP calorie goal to 1800 which is my cut value. I understand that if you eat below your BMR for a substantial time (are we talking 1 month, 6 months, 3 years?? Does 1 month affect you tremendously?), your body will compensate and burn muscle and lower your metabolism. My question is HOW do you still lose weight by increasing your calories. I guess I'm thinking too much into this, but if I've been eating too few calories and then I up my intake, HOW do I still lose? In my head, I feel like my metabolism has slowed and my body is operating on less calories + hanging on to all the fat it already has, so I won't lose. I guess that's the whole metabolism reset thing, though right? I'm gonna stick this through for the rest of the program (I have 6 weeks left and then I want to begin pure strength training). I just don't understand how my body turns around and says, "oh yeah - we DO burn a lot and we have enough energy coming in, so fat, you can peace out."

JMarigold

Bump!

Curious what others have to say about this.

amysj303

If you are eating at your TDEE you wouldn't lose. But anything less than TDEE is eating at a deficit. For a strength program you might initially eat above maintenance to gain muscle, since it is hard to lose fat while gaining muscle. Depends on how much you have to lose, heavier people might be able to do this better than relatively lean people.

kelmax

I need to lose roughly 40lbs. I figured my TDEE to be 2407 and RMR 1536...I too am doing the Jillian Michaels program, but I'm confused as to how I will lose weight eating 2000 cal/day.

31prvrbs

Perhaps this will help:

http://fitnesswithnatalie.blogspot.com/2011/05/most-dreaded-word-in-weight-loss.html?m=0

tangiesharp

That article was great. Thanks for posting it.

ANewLucia

Thanks for the article Kiki, it was that article that caused me to go up another 100 cals when I was stuck for 4wks eating my 1800 calories. It took a month of adjusting to see a net loss, but I did lose going up. Where am I now is the question? No scale for 2wks...that is a long time. But so glad to be rid of that scale for a bit.

beachdiva2010

Bump for later