I dont understand the eat more weigh less at all

teresadutton
teresadutton Posts: 217 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know this subject has been hammered to death but I am really just so confused. I understand the whole concept ( not sure I believe it) but I dont understand how many calories I would even eat if I tried this. The whole BMR and TDEE thing is confusing and then do I eat excerise calories or not, what would I net on MFP after entering my food. I have been eatting pretty low cal for the last 12 weeks and now things have really slowed, I still have 25 pounds to lose. Hard to believe that upping my calories by 700 or more caloreis a day is gonna help me lose but I am willing to listen. Anyone willing to help me out?

here are my stats:
female
5'3"
39
173
4-5 hours a week cardio and weights

Replies

  • ChappyEight
    ChappyEight Posts: 163 Member
    Bump for curiosity.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Eating more to weigh less will positively affect those people that are currently eating too little. Basically, your body NEEDS certain nutrition in order to function properly. Without that nutrition, it can't do things normally.

    For example...

    Say my body NEEDS 100g of protein a day and will spend 1000 calories utilizing that protein (repairing cells, etc). But, I decide to go way under my calorie needs by 200 and reduce my protein by half in doing so. Now my body gets 50g of protein and spends 500 calories using it. So, I am getting 200 less calories, but using 500 less... so that's a 300 calorie surplus, which is NOT what you want for weight loss!

    These numbers are completely made up, as I do not know the actual amount of calories it takes to utilize each gram of protein properly.

    As well, if you don't get the protein you need, your body DOES have stores of it! Your muscles. It will break down your muscles very quickly to use the protein there to fuel cell repair. As having a properly functioning kidney and heart matter MUCH more to your body than lifting an extra couple of pounds in the gym.

    Anyway, it is much more complex than I am stating here, I am just trying to make it easy to understand. In doing so, I may have misstated something.
  • teresadutton
    teresadutton Posts: 217 Member
    bump
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    female
    5'3"
    39
    173
    4-5 hours a week cardio and weights

    Your sedentary daily energy expenditure is around 1650 calories, 5 hours a week of exercise say another 1850 per week or 265 per day. Estimated burn rate TDEE averages about 1900, let's say 1700 - 2100 given the inaccuracies built in to all this.

    So if you eat 1600 you should see progress, at a modest rate. How would that sound ? The all American diet would put you at 200g of carbs (50%) 100g of protein (25%) and 44g of fats.
  • mizkitty22
    mizkitty22 Posts: 14 Member
    You have to eat enough calories a day otherwise your body goes into starvation mode and starts storing fat. Too few calories causes your body's metabolism to slow down, making it hard to burn calories.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    You have to eat enough calories a day otherwise your body goes into starvation mode and starts storing fat. Too few calories causes your body's metabolism to slow down, making it hard to burn calories.
    > sigh <
  • almc170
    almc170 Posts: 1,093 Member
    There's a lot of info here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

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