Does eating more to weight less work for everyone?

RMSchofer

I already lost 60lbs on my own before using this program. I tried this because I quit loosing and couldn't figure out why. I am loosing again (but slowly) and I believe it is from eating more "of the right foods". I eat constantly but I eat salad, fruit etc.... I log in my workouts and follow the suggested calories for the day. I just eat a lot of raw fruits and vegies outside of my main meals. I have also noticed that when the computer *kitten* how many calories I have burnt in a workout, it is no where close to what my treadmill says. I change the calorie count to match my tradmill. This program is usally about 300 calories more than I have actually burned so now I am more accurate. Good luck to everyone.

pinkita

Mr. Smart Azz you do you think you are? What degree do you have in Medicine? What makes you such an expert? Cause you came on some forum and lost some weight?

If you think that you really are a dumb azz! Charts, math, etc. is that to make you think you are smarter than everyone else.

Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions. Mine is actually based on MEDICAL PROVEN ADVICE!

ASK YOUR DOCTOR NOT AN IDOIT ON A FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions"

Is it only me that finds this ironic??

No, ma'am!

Ironic, and hypocritical in the extreme. I could actually picture her stomping her foot to emphasize her sentences.

Maybe Stronglifts wasn't for me then. I wanted to lose fat by lifting heavy and saw several before & after photos in the Success Stories threads from women who were successful with it. Now have a weight bench, weight plates, and Olympic barbell in my garage collecting dust... I cringe everytime I see them

There is no reason it wouldn't have worked for you. The only time these things don't work for people (barring medical issues...God I'm getting tired of saying that), is when the people doing them don't have a complete handle on their diet, and/or have unrealistic expectations about what the scale is going to say over the short term and give up.

I am currently training a young lady. She'd lost a reasonable amount of weight using a gym provided personal trainer, who had her on a regimen of substantial cardio, one day a week of lifting (if you want to call it that, I don't call 20 reps plus of anything 'lifting'), and her own free days hiking (1-2 a week if I recall). Her diet was all over the place, she works 3x 12-14hr shifts as a nurse in a hospital...and anyone involved with hospital medicine knows exactly what that means for a diet.

She came to me...unhappy with her results (she still felt 'fat' at 5'3" and 150-155ish lbs), and I only changed everything.

I put her on a 5x5 heavy lifting program (different than Stronglifts...these are full body workouts...dumbbell/machine/barbell based, 3x a week for about an hour) in which the loads are progressively increased on a daily basis as her strength improves. I killed the cardio, she now only does 10min of warmup cardio pre-lifting. She is free to hike as much as she wants. I set her up on an intermittent fasting regimen, which helped her start getting her calories in every day. I gave her a macro goal for protein, and told her to ignore the rest for now (excessive tracking of macros often leads to adherance issues when it comes to a diet). I also increased her calories substantially (a 20% WEEKLY deficit from calculated TDEE...which I also increased as she had it set to sedentary, and it should have been moderately active). All of these things have helped her immensely with her eating habits on work days.

We have had ups and downs. She wasn't a natural to lifting. It felt awkward and unnatural to her. At first, she didn't feel like she was working at all...and while that's changed, she's still amazed at how energized she is compared to the 'drained' feeling she had with her old trainer. She's been INCREDIBLY frustrated with the scale...she shot up to 160lbs plus...and has stayed there until this week (it's been just over a month). Her major measurements gave up an initial drop, but haven't changed much since.

Now, the flip side. The people at her work CONSTANTLY come to her telling her she looks INCREDIBLY different (I tell her too, because I see it...but I'm sure she thinks I'm biased lol). She's lost 3 sizes in scrubs (from XL to S...and she needs to go down again). She's fitting into clothes she hasn't worn in YEARS. Her personal progress pictures (which I haven't seen), show huge changes as well...though she's not completely pleased with them all lol...they ARE all positive.

All of this in a month, with weight GAIN on the scale.

Now, here's the thing. She has me pushing her HARD at the gym THREE times a week (she's making HUGE improvements, but its taken her this entire time to realize it...and because of this I see the REAL CHANGES coming in the next few weeks). She also has my ear on a daily basis to help her get through the psychological stranglehold the scale seems to exert on you women. She's had a lot of external stress as well, and this hasn't been helping her. But this past week...saw a very interesting shift in her point of view. She used to hate the gym...but she's seeing the progress and seeing her abilities improve, and I can sense her eagerness now. All of the benefits are starting to sink in, and as I said...due to that, the real changes are still to come. The reason I bring these things up, is that without them, without me or someone like me pushing her...she very likely would have given up on my program very quickly.

Six weeks is not enough to gauge your results unless you had a very tight hold on all of the parameters, and were able to push yourself hard with the weights.

Oh, and she's showed a 2lb loss this week. I got the 'I love you sooooo much' text yesterday lol.

My TDEE according to my BodyMedia Fit (and who knows how accurate these devices really are) was about 2200 (I averaged 7 days' worth to get my baseline). I only did SL 5x5 for 6 weeks and from what I've readheard it's extremely unlikely that I gained muscle in such a short time. I had really high hopes I'd be successful with heavy lifting for fat loss. Once my job stress settles down I'm probably going to hire a personal trainer. I always told myself that would be my last resort (because of the cost) but I think I might have to go that route sooner rather than later.

Indeed, you didn't gain appreciable muscle in those six weeks. But there are definite explanations for your weight gain. Lifting does crazy things to your hormones, particularly initially. You're using systems in your body that haven't been used to any real level, probably ever. You're storing glycogen/water. I didn't catch what your diet was like during, but if you were eating AT TDEE (which means at maintenance), your body could very easily be putting on weight in the form of some fat. It really has NO idea what you're going to do to it next. Add in any reasonable margin of error at any point in the system (diet, weighing process, etc), and 20lbs on the scale in 2mos or less wouldn't surprise me.

My suggestion is to KEEP AT THE WEIGHTS! Get your form set, and hit them HARD. Every rep is fat melting from your body. Every increase in weight, that much more weight you're going to shed. It's ENTIRELY possible to lift yourself slim, rep by rep by rep. Set yourself up on a deficit, get your protein in...and throw your scale in a closet for a couple months.

I promise you...it can still work.

I wish I could hire YOU to train me too! I reluctantly stopped weighing myself during that time, but if I had I could've caught myself in time to have avoided my current situation. I feel really lost on how to proceed. Lack of sleep has definitely been an issue lately, mostly from work-related stress (I'm an RN in a busy clinic), and I do notice that I crave and/or give into my cravings when I'm sleep deprived. Guess I need to take Melatonin more often!

I'm going to re-read your post later and through the weekend... maybe I'll find my mojo again.

Thanks.

tobnrn

Maybe Stronglifts wasn't for me then. I wanted to lose fat by lifting heavy and saw several before & after photos in the Success Stories threads from women who were successful with it. Now have a weight bench, weight plates, and Olympic barbell in my garage collecting dust... I cringe everytime I see them

There is no reason it wouldn't have worked for you. The only time these things don't work for people (barring medical issues...God I'm getting tired of saying that), is when the people doing them don't have a complete handle on their diet, and/or have unrealistic expectations about what the scale is going to say over the short term and give up.

I am currently training a young lady. She'd lost a reasonable amount of weight using a gym provided personal trainer, who had her on a regimen of substantial cardio, one day a week of lifting (if you want to call it that, I don't call 20 reps plus of anything 'lifting'), and her own free days hiking (1-2 a week if I recall). Her diet was all over the place, she works 3x 12-14hr shifts as a nurse in a hospital...and anyone involved with hospital medicine knows exactly what that means for a diet.

She came to me...unhappy with her results (she still felt 'fat' at 5'3" and 150-155ish lbs), and I only changed everything.

I put her on a 5x5 heavy lifting program (different than Stronglifts...these are full body workouts...dumbbell/machine/barbell based, 3x a week for about an hour) in which the loads are progressively increased on a daily basis as her strength improves. I killed the cardio, she now only does 10min of warmup cardio pre-lifting. She is free to hike as much as she wants. I set her up on an intermittent fasting regimen, which helped her start getting her calories in every day. I gave her a macro goal for protein, and told her to ignore the rest for now (excessive tracking of macros often leads to adherance issues when it comes to a diet). I also increased her calories substantially (a 20% WEEKLY deficit from calculated TDEE...which I also increased as she had it set to sedentary, and it should have been moderately active). All of these things have helped her immensely with her eating habits on work days.

We have had ups and downs. She wasn't a natural to lifting. It felt awkward and unnatural to her. At first, she didn't feel like she was working at all...and while that's changed, she's still amazed at how energized she is compared to the 'drained' feeling she had with her old trainer. She's been INCREDIBLY frustrated with the scale...she shot up to 160lbs plus...and has stayed there until this week (it's been just over a month). Her major measurements gave up an initial drop, but haven't changed much since.

Now, the flip side. The people at her work CONSTANTLY come to her telling her she looks INCREDIBLY different (I tell her too, because I see it...but I'm sure she thinks I'm biased lol). She's lost 3 sizes in scrubs (from XL to S...and she needs to go down again). She's fitting into clothes she hasn't worn in YEARS. Her personal progress pictures (which I haven't seen), show huge changes as well...though she's not completely pleased with them all lol...they ARE all positive.

All of this in a month, with weight GAIN on the scale.

Now, here's the thing. She has me pushing her HARD at the gym THREE times a week (she's making HUGE improvements, but its taken her this entire time to realize it...and because of this I see the REAL CHANGES coming in the next few weeks). She also has my ear on a daily basis to help her get through the psychological stranglehold the scale seems to exert on you women. She's had a lot of external stress as well, and this hasn't been helping her. But this past week...saw a very interesting shift in her point of view. She used to hate the gym...but she's seeing the progress and seeing her abilities improve, and I can sense her eagerness now. All of the benefits are starting to sink in, and as I said...due to that, the real changes are still to come. The reason I bring these things up, is that without them, without me or someone like me pushing her...she very likely would have given up on my program very quickly.

Six weeks is not enough to gauge your results unless you had a very tight hold on all of the parameters, and were able to push yourself hard with the weights.

Oh, and she's showed a 2lb loss this week. I got the 'I love you sooooo much' text yesterday lol.

My TDEE according to my BodyMedia Fit (and who knows how accurate these devices really are) was about 2200 (I averaged 7 days' worth to get my baseline). I only did SL 5x5 for 6 weeks and from what I've readheard it's extremely unlikely that I gained muscle in such a short time. I had really high hopes I'd be successful with heavy lifting for fat loss. Once my job stress settles down I'm probably going to hire a personal trainer. I always told myself that would be my last resort (because of the cost) but I think I might have to go that route sooner rather than later.

Indeed, you didn't gain appreciable muscle in those six weeks. But there are definite explanations for your weight gain. Lifting does crazy things to your hormones, particularly initially. You're using systems in your body that haven't been used to any real level, probably ever. You're storing glycogen/water. I didn't catch what your diet was like during, but if you were eating AT TDEE (which means at maintenance), your body could very easily be putting on weight in the form of some fat. It really has NO idea what you're going to do to it next. Add in any reasonable margin of error at any point in the system (diet, weighing process, etc), and 20lbs on the scale in 2mos or less wouldn't surprise me.

My suggestion is to KEEP AT THE WEIGHTS! Get your form set, and hit them HARD. Every rep is fat melting from your body. Every increase in weight, that much more weight you're going to shed. It's ENTIRELY possible to lift yourself slim, rep by rep by rep. Set yourself up on a deficit, get your protein in...and throw your scale in a closet for a couple months.

I promise you...it can still work.
[/quote]

I wish I could hire YOU to train me too! I reluctantly stopped weighing myself during that time, but if I had I could've caught myself in time to have avoided my current situation. I feel really lost on how to proceed. Lack of sleep has definitely been an issue lately, mostly from work-related stress (I'm an RN in a busy clinic), and I do notice that I crave and/or give into my cravings when I'm sleep deprived. Guess I need to take Melatonin more often!

I'm going to re-read your post later and through the weekend... maybe I'll find my mojo again.

Thanks.
[/quote]

Dont give up. Like cris said there have been lots of ups & downs. I have never had to work this hard at weight loss. When Cris changed everything I was skeptical. We worked out my TDEE. He got the same number I did. I didnt believe it to be true. Thats way too many calories. I even told him that if I ate that I would blow up bigger than a house. He laughed at me & said I was underestimating my activity. I know my body was my response. He asked me to trust him. I told him the challenges at work. How I hate breakfast but had been forcing it. Refuse to give up flavored creamer in my coffee etc. We started with changing my diet. I started doing intermittent fasting mixed with eat stop eat. I went from 7000 cal/week to 9500 cals/week. Saw a dra change and decided IF was for me. I started to get frustrated again. We talked about my food & exercise. He face palmed himself, started shaking his head & said you have to eat to fuel your body. You are so active. I insisted I did. Look Im eating 9800/week. Another face palm. I am now eating between 11,500-13,500/week.

We started lifting together. It felt horrible. I knew I had bad form. I told him my form stinks. I went & did what I was told. Researched the compound lifts. Really dove into articles about heavy lifting for women. Started looking into this riptoe guy, berkham, and some others. Would send articles with questions. I was excited to try something new but skeptical. I mean all those before & after girls werent big to begin with. There befores were what I wanted for my after. I expected to gain the first week. I think I maintained. Then how discouraging. My measurements were going up. UP. There suppose to go down. The scale was going up. I wasnt seeing changes. I was told to take pictures every week so I could see the progress. UGH. WHAT. I did not want pictures of me in my skivies and lumps and bumps documented somewhere. I did it for me. No one will ever see them. I kept going. Struggled week after week with my squats. Felt spastic. Stiff. Uncoordinated. Then we figured out its my balance. We moved to the smith machine & I beasted my squats for the first time. I was so excited.

I am realizing that my perception of me is warped. I look in the mirror and see the same person even though my clothes are smaller. People tell me all the time how fabulous I look. How my body is changing. I think yeah right. Your just telling me what you think I want to hear to keep me motivated. The truth is things are changing. My comparison photos show it. My clothes show it. Everyone sees it. So the scale has been mean. The tape not forgiving. But it is happening. I have to remind myself its happening. It may not be as fast as I would like. (Im very impatient) but it is happening.

Dont give up before the miracle happens. Get some good friends that will encourage you along the way. I did and it makes all the difference when I want to quit.

crisanderson27

Maybe Stronglifts wasn't for me then. I wanted to lose fat by lifting heavy and saw several before & after photos in the Success Stories threads from women who were successful with it. Now have a weight bench, weight plates, and Olympic barbell in my garage collecting dust... I cringe everytime I see them

There is no reason it wouldn't have worked for you. The only time these things don't work for people (barring medical issues...God I'm getting tired of saying that), is when the people doing them don't have a complete handle on their diet, and/or have unrealistic expectations about what the scale is going to say over the short term and give up.

I am currently training a young lady. She'd lost a reasonable amount of weight using a gym provided personal trainer, who had her on a regimen of substantial cardio, one day a week of lifting (if you want to call it that, I don't call 20 reps plus of anything 'lifting'), and her own free days hiking (1-2 a week if I recall). Her diet was all over the place, she works 3x 12-14hr shifts as a nurse in a hospital...and anyone involved with hospital medicine knows exactly what that means for a diet.

She came to me...unhappy with her results (she still felt 'fat' at 5'3" and 150-155ish lbs), and I only changed everything.

I put her on a 5x5 heavy lifting program (different than Stronglifts...these are full body workouts...dumbbell/machine/barbell based, 3x a week for about an hour) in which the loads are progressively increased on a daily basis as her strength improves. I killed the cardio, she now only does 10min of warmup cardio pre-lifting. She is free to hike as much as she wants. I set her up on an intermittent fasting regimen, which helped her start getting her calories in every day. I gave her a macro goal for protein, and told her to ignore the rest for now (excessive tracking of macros often leads to adherance issues when it comes to a diet). I also increased her calories substantially (a 20% WEEKLY deficit from calculated TDEE...which I also increased as she had it set to sedentary, and it should have been moderately active). All of these things have helped her immensely with her eating habits on work days.

We have had ups and downs. She wasn't a natural to lifting. It felt awkward and unnatural to her. At first, she didn't feel like she was working at all...and while that's changed, she's still amazed at how energized she is compared to the 'drained' feeling she had with her old trainer. She's been INCREDIBLY frustrated with the scale...she shot up to 160lbs plus...and has stayed there until this week (it's been just over a month). Her major measurements gave up an initial drop, but haven't changed much since.

Now, the flip side. The people at her work CONSTANTLY come to her telling her she looks INCREDIBLY different (I tell her too, because I see it...but I'm sure she thinks I'm biased lol). She's lost 3 sizes in scrubs (from XL to S...and she needs to go down again). She's fitting into clothes she hasn't worn in YEARS. Her personal progress pictures (which I haven't seen), show huge changes as well...though she's not completely pleased with them all lol...they ARE all positive.

All of this in a month, with weight GAIN on the scale.

Now, here's the thing. She has me pushing her HARD at the gym THREE times a week (she's making HUGE improvements, but its taken her this entire time to realize it...and because of this I see the REAL CHANGES coming in the next few weeks). She also has my ear on a daily basis to help her get through the psychological stranglehold the scale seems to exert on you women. She's had a lot of external stress as well, and this hasn't been helping her. But this past week...saw a very interesting shift in her point of view. She used to hate the gym...but she's seeing the progress and seeing her abilities improve, and I can sense her eagerness now. All of the benefits are starting to sink in, and as I said...due to that, the real changes are still to come. The reason I bring these things up, is that without them, without me or someone like me pushing her...she very likely would have given up on my program very quickly.

Six weeks is not enough to gauge your results unless you had a very tight hold on all of the parameters, and were able to push yourself hard with the weights.

Oh, and she's showed a 2lb loss this week. I got the 'I love you sooooo much' text yesterday lol.

My TDEE according to my BodyMedia Fit (and who knows how accurate these devices really are) was about 2200 (I averaged 7 days' worth to get my baseline). I only did SL 5x5 for 6 weeks and from what I've readheard it's extremely unlikely that I gained muscle in such a short time. I had really high hopes I'd be successful with heavy lifting for fat loss. Once my job stress settles down I'm probably going to hire a personal trainer. I always told myself that would be my last resort (because of the cost) but I think I might have to go that route sooner rather than later.

Indeed, you didn't gain appreciable muscle in those six weeks. But there are definite explanations for your weight gain. Lifting does crazy things to your hormones, particularly initially. You're using systems in your body that haven't been used to any real level, probably ever. You're storing glycogen/water. I didn't catch what your diet was like during, but if you were eating AT TDEE (which means at maintenance), your body could very easily be putting on weight in the form of some fat. It really has NO idea what you're going to do to it next. Add in any reasonable margin of error at any point in the system (diet, weighing process, etc), and 20lbs on the scale in 2mos or less wouldn't surprise me.

My suggestion is to KEEP AT THE WEIGHTS! Get your form set, and hit them HARD. Every rep is fat melting from your body. Every increase in weight, that much more weight you're going to shed. It's ENTIRELY possible to lift yourself slim, rep by rep by rep. Set yourself up on a deficit, get your protein in...and throw your scale in a closet for a couple months.

I promise you...it can still work.

I wish I could hire YOU to train me too! I reluctantly stopped weighing myself during that time, but if I had I could've caught myself in time to have avoided my current situation. I feel really lost on how to proceed. Lack of sleep has definitely been an issue lately, mostly from work-related stress (I'm an RN in a busy clinic), and I do notice that I crave and/or give into my cravings when I'm sleep deprived. Guess I need to take Melatonin more often!

I'm going to re-read your post later and through the weekend... maybe I'll find my mojo again.

Thanks.

Dont give up. Like cris said there have been lots of ups & downs. I have never had to work this hard at weight loss. When Cris changed everything I was skeptical. We worked out my TDEE. He got the same number I did. I didnt believe it to be true. Thats way too many calories. I even told him that if I ate that I would blow up bigger than a house. He laughed at me & said I was underestimating my activity. I know my body was my response. He asked me to trust him. I told him the challenges at work. How I hate breakfast but had been forcing it. Refuse to give up flavored creamer in my coffee etc. We started with changing my diet. I started doing intermittent fasting mixed with eat stop eat. I went from 7000 cal/week to 9500 cals/week. Saw a dra change and decided IF was for me. I started to get frustrated again. We talked about my food & exercise. He face palmed himself, started shaking his head & said you have to eat to fuel your body. You are so active. I insisted I did. Look Im eating 9800/week. Another face palm. I am now eating between 11,500-13,500/week.

We started lifting together. It felt horrible. I knew I had bad form. I told him my form stinks. I went & did what I was told. Researched the compound lifts. Really dove into articles about heavy lifting for women. Started looking into this riptoe guy, berkham, and some others. Would send articles with questions. I was excited to try something new but skeptical. I mean all those before & after girls werent big to begin with. There befores were what I wanted for my after. I expected to gain the first week. I think I maintained. Then how discouraging. My measurements were going up. UP. There suppose to go down. The scale was going up. I wasnt seeing changes. I was told to take pictures every week so I could see the progress. UGH. WHAT. I did not want pictures of me in my skivies and lumps and bumps documented somewhere. I did it for me. No one will ever see them. I kept going. Struggled week after week with my squats. Felt spastic. Stiff. Uncoordinated. Then we figured out its my balance. We moved to the smith machine & I beasted my squats for the first time. I was so excited.

I am realizing that my perception of me is warped. I look in the mirror and see the same person even though my clothes are smaller. People tell me all the time how fabulous I look. How my body is changing. I think yeah right. Your just telling me what you think I want to hear to keep me motivated. The truth is things are changing. My comparison photos show it. My clothes show it. Everyone sees it. So the scale has been mean. The tape not forgiving. But it is happening. I have to remind myself its happening. It may not be as fast as I would like. (Im very impatient) but it is happening.

Dont give up before the miracle happens. Get some good friends that will encourage you along the way. I did and it makes all the difference when I want to quit.

This folks, is the definition of character.

Edited to fix quotes.

cressievargo

Mr. Smart Azz you do you think you are? What degree do you have in Medicine? What makes you such an expert? Cause you came on some forum and lost some weight?

If you think that you really are a dumb azz! Charts, math, etc. is that to make you think you are smarter than everyone else.

Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions. Mine is actually based on MEDICAL PROVEN ADVICE!

ASK YOUR DOCTOR NOT AN IDOIT ON A FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol I Imagine Ladywindchase doing this...



And it makes me do this....


About this random stranger.....

First off I started on the 1200 calorie diet when I first started...that lasted 2 days.
**** that!
Something needed to change.
I read 2 books in 2 days and was eating 1600 cals a day with high fats, moderate carbs, high protein.
Dropped from 172 down to 150lbs in about 2-2.5 months.
Then discovered Fat 2 Fit and another handy calculator.
Figured out I had a TDEE of about 2500 daily.
Cut calories to 2k and was losing the same amount of weight as before.

January I stared doing numbers for other people.
My list of successful dieters eating between 1600-2200 cals grew to about 100 within a few weeks.
Then we started the Fuel The Machine Group.
I hired number monkeys to do the numbers.
We now have over 200 people losing weight eating between 1600-3k a day.
I have personally come across 2 people who this didnt work for and turns out they had medical issues that stunted the losses.
So
Yes
You TOOL!

I will say that beyond a shadow of a doubt!
That this works!

I preach it because I get 10-15 PMs every day and wall posts from people on MFP thanking me for helping them lose weight.
They dont have to stop eating the foods they like!
They have to adopt a strong sense of eating in moderation.
YOU are not a unique snowflake.

So you can take this advice from this random guy and use it to your best ability.
Or
Head over to http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Anger-Management/forum and scream all you want.
Me?
My group and the countless other strangers living off this random guys advice....were going to continue to thrive and lose weight and be healthy.

Awesome.

And for the record, I am one of "those people" that he helped. At 1200 I was hungry all the time, obsessed with "OMG I cant eat this or I will go over..." Dan ran my numbers, helped me with my macros and I'm 39 lbs lighter than I was this time last year, 23+ inches lost, much more energy, etc.

Oh and for the record, I have met with a dietitian - and we discussed the information Dan had given me. Her response - "What do you need me for? You already know what you are doing!"

Maurice1966

It worked for me, I average 2200-2400 cals per day which is maintenance for my BMR (including my exercise calories) and with a combination of lifting and a small amount of cardio, I have not only maintained my weight but have managed to shrink 4 inches in the waist but maintain size in arms and legs (muscle) and shoulders. At first I was worried that it wouldn't work but I also weighed (again no pun) up information I got from DAN and others and tried eating the extra calories and it's paid dividends.

10kaday

It's simple.... eat more....but eat healthy. End of story.

SairahRose

I eat between 1500 and 1800 most days. Without exercise I lose 1lb a week. When I get better, I'll be exercising and losing about 10-12lb a month, which I'm happy with. For every 14lb loss, I increase my cals by 100-200 (depending on the difference in losses at the ends of that amount). It worked well before, and it's working really well now.

charlena48

I've tried it both ways. Eat exercise calories and not eat them. I do best to eat most of them back right now. My body was in starvation mode for years and it has been really hard to get my body back in the mode to shed any weight. It says I've lost 9 lbs., but actually I've lost 16 since the first of the year - I just used a different website in the beginning. I am not on a diet, I have changed my lifestyle. Good luck!!

moss11

^^^^^ what she said!

crisanderson27

By the way, just so you guys get a clear picture. THIS:



Is the young lady I was talking about. That's FOUR weeks, zero cardio, heavy lifting, eating 11.5k-13.5k calories a week. That averages to about 1800cal/day. Those pants fit her when we started.

She's 5'3" tall. I won't tell you her age.

It works.

FroggyBug

I don't post much but wanted to chime in and say that it seems to be working for me. I've only been on this site since June 19 but I read through HelloitsDan's threads while doing research on these forums to see what works for people. I don't do well on low calorie diets (I get grumpy and I also get bad heartburn if I don't eat). I probably wouldn't stick with it for long.

I did the recommended calories from the fat2fit and scooby sites and I kept the same scale weight for about 24 days. I wanted to give up at times but kept with it since I would rather do it this way if it works. This weekend the scale dropped 2 pounds. I am hoping this will conitinue and as of right now I believe that this really will work. I am eating 2200-2300 cals a day and feel healthier overall. I walk 5 days a week for 30 mins but don't do any weights yet. I will be adding them in soon though.

So as of right now, I have to thank HelloitsDan for the advice as well.

Oh and my ticker includes anything I lost prior to this site since I just put my real start weight (motivation!). I started losing some weight since I've been walking most the year but have had a lot of plateaus to get through.

tigerblue

I've gotta say, every BODY is different.

I decided to try this. I thought maybe I needed to re-set my metabolism or something. I added 200 calories a day to my diet. I kept my exercise about the same.

At first, it looked like it might work. I lost a pound, then stabilized. Three weeks later I am up 3 lbs. This is not working for me. Sure wish it would!

So now I have to cut back to "diet calories" for six weeks to lose what I gained. Not my idea of fun.

I just hope I can figure out what works to maintain, and I wish it were more calories than it probably will be!

Helloitsdan

I've gotta say, every BODY is different.

I decided to try this. I thought maybe I needed to re-set my metabolism or something. I added 200 calories a day to my diet. I kept my exercise about the same.

At first, it looked like it might work. I lost a pound, then stabilized. Three weeks later I am up 3 lbs. This is not working for me. Sure wish it would!

So now I have to cut back to "diet calories" for six weeks to lose what I gained. Not my idea of fun.

I just hope I can figure out what works to maintain, and I wish it were more calories than it probably will be!

How long have you been dieting?

Whats your TDEE?
BMR?
What kind of routine do you have?
Do you have any type of insulin resistance or metabolic disease?

I can tell you it works.
All my clients eat more to weigh less.
You just didnt factor in everything.

Ivana331

I struggle with this simply because I cannot find enough healthy foods to fit a higher calorie intake! I can barely net 1200 a day with lots of fruits, veggies, leans meats, and fish. If I upped my calorie intake, I wouldn't know what to eat! So for me, eating 1500-1600 a day but netting around 1100-1200 works for me. I feel satisfied, I eat enough throughout the day and eat healthy. Last night after 3 meals and a few snacks, I still had over 600 left for the day, I had no idea what to eat and ended up eating a microwave burrito just because I wasn't hungry, but it had over 300 calories, so I could net a good amount, still. I feel like I shouldn't leave more than 150 calories left over, more than that and I start stressing about not eating enough.

Thisprincesswearsrunningshoes

I think like anything else it will depend on the individual person. This only works for me if I up my calories once a week. I stay on track with what I should have then then have a spike up day and it helps.

kiminikimkim

Eating more didn't work for me. I stuck with the 1200 calories per day plan and I reached my goal.

jpkramer73

It can work if you're not eating enough based on your level of exercise, etc. Your body also tends to plateau occasionally, and you'll weigh the same thing for several weeks and then start dropping again. Unless you have substantially upped your exercise level recently and not upped your calorie intake, i would recommend staying with what you're doing and giving it another week or two.

tigerblue

I've gotta say, every BODY is different.

I decided to try this. I thought maybe I needed to re-set my metabolism or something. I added 200 calories a day to my diet. I kept my exercise about the same.

At first, it looked like it might work. I lost a pound, then stabilized. Three weeks later I am up 3 lbs. This is not working for me. Sure wish it would!

So now I have to cut back to "diet calories" for six weeks to lose what I gained. Not my idea of fun.

I just hope I can figure out what works to maintain, and I wish it were more calories than it probably will be!

How long have you been dieting?

Whats your TDEE?
BMR?
What kind of routine do you have?
Do you have any type of insulin resistance or metabolic disease?

I can tell you it works.
All my clients eat more to weigh less.
You just didnt factor in everything.

Okay, a quick history. Started this approximately 3 years ago. It took me about 11 months to lose 40 lbs. I kept it off by continuing to log for another 16 months or so. Then about a year ago, I started gaining, very, very slowly. I don't think it is all muscle, although I certainly hope some of it is. I've now gained back about 6 lbs total.

I lost eating from 1200-1260 net calories. I logged my exercise, and I ate back my calories if I wanted them, which often I did! After consulting several online calculators, I decided that maintenance (TDEE not including exercise) was about 1380-1480 net calories. (I am short, small boned, female, and past 40, thus the small number. My BMR is about 1150. My BMI is about 20). I try to get some type of exercise most days. I rest when my body tells me to (usually about every 10th day), or when my schedule forces me to. I run about 15-20 miles a week most weeks. That is my best discovery--I love running! I try to do some strength training a couple of times a week, but I DO NOT love strength training, so it doesn't come as easily. Most days I eat most of my exercise calories back. So usually I am eating about 1600-1800 total calories per day.

I thought at first that the reason I was gaining was because I was overestimating my exercise calories. After all, I'm in really good shape cardiovascularly, so now I'm not burning as many calories as I did at first. But even changing that has not seemed to help. (I used a HRM to get the calories, so it was at least somewhat accurate)

As far as I know there are no metabolic issues, but diabetes runs in my family--that's one of the main reasons I wanted to lose in the first place.

So, any ideas? Am I doomed to be on a diet forever??

Helloitsdan

I've gotta say, every BODY is different.

I decided to try this. I thought maybe I needed to re-set my metabolism or something. I added 200 calories a day to my diet. I kept my exercise about the same.

At first, it looked like it might work. I lost a pound, then stabilized. Three weeks later I am up 3 lbs. This is not working for me. Sure wish it would!

So now I have to cut back to "diet calories" for six weeks to lose what I gained. Not my idea of fun.

I just hope I can figure out what works to maintain, and I wish it were more calories than it probably will be!

How long have you been dieting?

Whats your TDEE?
BMR?
What kind of routine do you have?
Do you have any type of insulin resistance or metabolic disease?

I can tell you it works.
All my clients eat more to weigh less.
You just didnt factor in everything.

Okay, a quick history. Started this approximately 3 years ago. It took me about 11 months to lose 40 lbs. I kept it off by continuing to log for another 16 months or so. Then about a year ago, I started gaining, very, very slowly. I don't think it is all muscle, although I certainly hope some of it is. I've now gained back about 6 lbs total.

I lost eating from 1200-1260 net calories. I logged my exercise, and I ate back my calories if I wanted them, which often I did! After consulting several online calculators, I decided that maintenance (TDEE not including exercise) was about 1380-1480 net calories. (I am short, small boned, female, and past 40, thus the small number. My BMR is about 1150. My BMI is about 20). I try to get some type of exercise most days. I rest when my body tells me to (usually about every 10th day), or when my schedule forces me to. I run about 15-20 miles a week most weeks. That is my best discovery--I love running! I try to do some strength training a couple of times a week, but I DO NOT love strength training, so it doesn't come as easily. Most days I eat most of my exercise calories back. So usually I am eating about 1600-1800 total calories per day.

I thought at first that the reason I was gaining was because I was overestimating my exercise calories. After all, I'm in really good shape cardiovascularly, so now I'm not burning as many calories as I did at first. But even changing that has not seemed to help. (I used a HRM to get the calories, so it was at least somewhat accurate)

As far as I know there are no metabolic issues, but diabetes runs in my family--that's one of the main reasons I wanted to lose in the first place.

So, any ideas? Am I doomed to be on a diet forever??

Well if you crashed dieted down to where you are and reduced RMR below whats normal for a woman your size, age, weight then you will gain when eating more.
But that changes once the body realizes theres food and its okay to adjust.

Join the group and jump in.
We have plenty of people who have experienced the initial issues that you speak of and after a time of adjustment youll jose the weight and maintain at a regular level.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8017-in-place-of-a-road-map