How will upping my calories help me lose weight (serious que

Sl1ghtly

Arbitrarily raising or lowering your intake based on only one weeks results is nonsense.

The deficit should be based on your current maintenance calories minus a deficit appropriate to the amount you need to lose. The less you wish to lose, the less the deficit should be.

SaketoKim

This is a little tricky, but I will try to explain it. If you are burning 2200 calories a day (which is what I burn on work out days) you can eat up to 1450 calories. A week of eating with a minimum of 750 calorie deficit should help you lose at least 2 pounds a week and you won't starve. So make the adjustments to your daily burn on calorie intake and see if that works. I eat clean - Mon thru Thurs.. I tend to let go Fri to Sun on how strict I am but still meet my deficit. Let us or me know how that goes if you try it! Good luck!

tiffjeff69

The logical way to think of it is fuel for a car. (I am no expert here!). You can put in just enough petrol to get you from A to B, but you will not be able to put you foot down on the motorway as you will have to coserve the fuel (and if you get stuck in a traffic jam you could be in trouble).

If you have a "full tank" you will not only get from A-B, but you will be able to enjoy the drive without worrying and may be able to go a bit faster.

Your body wont be "conserving" fuel - it "knows" that the tank is full so can use those calories to burn!

In people terms, you should have more energy to excercise "harder" and have more energy in your day to day life. It has got to be "good" calories (NOT MCFLURRY!). Does that make sense?

Makes loads of sense!! Thanks

kbcarey111

Be careful using the calories posted on the site for various exercises. Everyone's body is different, and so burn calories differently. If you really want to know how much you're burning, and therefore know how much to add back to refuel, I suggest getting a heart rate monitor and getting a cardio assessment done to input your personal results. This will give you a much more accurate calorie burn calculation. Otherwise, you'll just be using the average for your general age, gender and weight. Also, when doing cardio don't forget to keep your heart rate at the right level for weight loss. Getting it up too high may give you an aerobic workout, but won't do much to increase your weight loss. I only know all of this because I was doing it all wrong!! Now, I'm working out and eating smarter.

Awkward30

Arbitrarily raising or lowering your intake based on only one weeks results is nonsense.

The deficit should be based on your current maintenance calories minus a deficit appropriate to the amount you need to lose. The less you wish to lose, the less the deficit should be.

This. Although I would add that if you have less than 30 lbs to lose, a 1 lb per week loss is prob best. So, if mfp says you burn 1700 cals a day sedentary, then you workout 400 cals a day, you are burning 2100 cals, 2100-500 is 1600, that should give you a loss of 1 lb per week. Or as mfp would think about it, you should eat 1700-500 is 1200 cals a day PLUS whatever exercise cals you get, in this case, 400, you should eat 1600 to net 1200

AEJhoi

I am kind of having the same problem. What I a,mstill not getting is, is is better to eat your exercise calories or to save some calories at the end of the day?

MysteriousWays

If you decide to do it, do it right. If you eat 1200 calories, you most likely are too low. Sure, that works for awhile because before you started tracking - you might have been eating more than you realize. Here is what I did. I figured out my BMR and TDEE here - http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

My BMR is around 1450 which is what my body needs to pump blood, breathe, digest food. That doesn't include walking around my office, running after my daughter, doing laundry or catching the train. With my TDEE factored in - I was around 1800. I set mine for 1750 and then did not weigh myself for 3 weeks. I didn't want to be discouraged by no weight loss. I know you can gain before you lose. Now granted, I went on vacation - but before I did, I lost 4 pounds. Originally it was 2 pounds and I was disappointed. I vowed to keep with it because after months and months of meticulously counting and only eating 1200-1300 calories and burning at least 300 - nothing was happening. I had to try something new.

cannonsky

Arbitrarily raising or lowering your intake based on only one weeks results is nonsense.

The deficit should be based on your current maintenance calories minus a deficit appropriate to the amount you need to lose. The less you wish to lose, the less the deficit should be.

no one is saying raise your calories willy nilly... you have to calculate it based on your BMR and TDEE

sweetpea129

I was eating very low cal 1000-1100 and dropped 18 lbs in 6 weeks. I was pretty much consistently losing 3 lbs a week. Yes, no need to lecture, i know its not good but it was working for me. I think it was a huge shock to my body. Then it just stopped for 2 weeks. Scale didnt move at all. So, thanks to the lovely people here, I started eating 1400 cal a day and i lost 3-4 pounds in the past 10 days. I'm going to keep at this rate until i stop and just keep switching things up i guess. I think everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. But definitley give it a try

tiffjeff69

I am kind of having the same problem. What I a,mstill not getting is, is is better to eat your exercise calories or to save some calories at the end of the day?

Ok this too had me stumped???

ladyfingers39

Ta-Da, here I am !

Good advice!

You know my story. I was starving myself, I'm doing 1800 cals (was doing 1400-1500) now I am doing so much better!

tiffjeff69

Ok so I went on a website that was recommended to me and based on the final calculation it's suggested that I eat 1,824 calories a day if I'm aiming to lose a 1lb per week (which was recommended).....I was surprised that the number was that high but I think I may give it a try. I know that everything needs an adjustment period before truly seeing results though so I'm not sure how long I should continue but I guess I'll just listen to my body! Thanks so much for all of the positive and helpful feedback! Things are begining to make sense!

jessie1480

I think that you have to up slowly. 100 to 200 calories at a step. And you have to make a counsous effort to make all of your calories good ones. It's better for you in the long run. And if you work on making your body a calorie burning macheene how much fun could that be? Yum eventually you could have a (one) mcflurry once in a while, and it won't matter.

sammys1girly

I was at 1200 for a long time, close to a year, and stopped losing. Since I upped to about 1340 (days I don't work out), I have lost...it's amazing but it works!