"Eat More To Weigh More"

debussyschild

I know I'm not the only one that agrees.

Don't be afraid of all those "Eat More To Weigh Less" bullies. Speak your mind!

Eat more to weigh less doesn't work if you eat like an idiot. Enjoy your 1200 calories a day, I'll enjoy my 1,900 + 10lb/month loss.

FlaxMilk

They are saying to stop being an idiot trying to live on 1000-1200 calories/day, and pick a reasonable deficit.

And a lot of us get frustrated with this because for some of us, that is the reasonable deficit. 1200 is what MFP sets many of us at. And it's fine. It really is. I'm not an idiot for eating this way. I'd be an idiot for eating a lot more than my body needs and expecting to lose.

I don't think the irritation with EM comes from the group itself or their formulas or information. I think it's the condescending and misguided way some people apply it. Much as people get irritated with those who eat way too little.

When a person asks for help because she isn't losing, and without knowing her stats or activity, just the number of calories she eats (a reasonable number), at least a few people will say, "You aren't eating enough and are in starvation mode. You need to eat more." This, IMO, is what people are really frustrated with, besides what I mentioned above. Then, when we voice our frustration on this, people will say, "Everyone knows it's eat enough. Some people do need to eat 1200. If that works for you, do it." That's fine! But no, not everyone knows that, and when people are called idiots or assumed to be at unreasonable deficits because they eat 1200 (when they site they are using recommends that), people get a little irritated. I also get irritated when everyone assumes the people on 1200 are too ambitious in their rate of loss. I don't have mine set at 2 lbs a week--MFP gives me 1200 no matter what I'm set at and predicts about .2 lb a week loss on that. If I were very active, a construction worker, they still set me calories very close to 1200.

FlaxMilk

i can lose weight without feeling like my stomach is eating m other organs.

So can I, on 1200. :flowerforyou:

CoffeeNBooze

I see it work for other people but it doesn't work for me. All it did was put on the 3 pounds I lost, and yes, I was doing it for longer than a couple weeks. I think it can work for heavier people because they don't necessarily need a large deficit but... I really didn't care for my outcome. I did learn some things though! I shouldn't eat below my bmr, and now I have a better handle on when I am actually hungry and when I'm not, as opposed to staying within a certain calorie range.

I also think it's a great concept for those who exercise often. You need to eat more, for sure!! And the eat more to weigh less are a great guideline to let you know what you should be eating.

VGomez22

I was on the world's biggest plateau from end of january till June eating 1,500 calories a day. Lowered it to 1200 and I got out of my plateau! every body is different. just do what works for you. end of story.

jjl0412

Dang it!! You mean I have been doing it wrong the last 3 years!! Crap..... Well to late now might as well stay the course and keep Eating more to weigh less........... If only I knew...... Crap Crap Crap!!! :drinker:

HELLO......It takes 4500+ calories per day to maintain a body weight of 500+ lbs...are you saying that you continued to eat more than 4500 calories or are you saying that you dropped your calorie consumption below 4500 calories per day? If you dropped your calorie consumption below 4500 calories per day...then YOU DID NOT EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS than 500lbs!

Haha I just shot milk out my nose literally.... Lol. 4500 calories a day at my height before my AHA moment I was consuming well over 8000 calories a day..... my nutritionist started me out on a meal plan 2400 calories a day... Fast forward 38 months and I am still eating in a caloric deficit to lose 1/2 lbs. a week and currently am it 3400 calories a day. (Yes I am in the camp of eating my exercise calories back) So yes I eat more to weigh less........ Best of Luck

Regardless of the 'argument'.. WOW!! Good for you!!!

fteale

I tried eating more (than my 1500 cals for maintenance - I tried going up to 1600) and put on 3 lbs in a couple of months. I have now gone back to eating less and am ok.

dandaninc

All I have to say about this chit-chat fun and games is...


dung bucket, crab basket, poop container

debussyschild

i can lose weight without feeling like my stomach is eating m other organs.

So can I, on 1200. :flowerforyou:

And once you continue to eat more, you'll probably lose weight faster. That is if you actually workout. 1,200 calories doesn't provide enough energy for a decent workout. So, if you start eating more i.e. you've only been losing through diet alone, you'll gain weight like whoa. That's why people who use systems like Jenny Craig that restrict calories and don't encourage exercise put all the weight back on once they stop eating 1,200 and start eating like they used to.

SPNLuver83

So my question is this..

If you eat more to weigh less, what's up with all the skinny people in Ethiopia? Are they all just eating so much that they get real skinny?

I don't know if you know this, but those people DIE from MALNUTRITION daily. And not just one or two. Skinny doesn't always = healthy.:grumble:

PrincessNikkiBoo

bump

meli_medina

Dang it!! You mean I have been doing it wrong the last 3 years!! Crap..... Well to late now might as well stay the course and keep Eating more to weigh less........... If only I knew...... Crap Crap Crap!!! :drinker:

In short... Yes. You could have done it in 2!

Because the fast way is always the right way, even though in the long run you could end up reversing what you've done because you can't maintain that lifestyle forever. My bad... I thought eating my TDEE for my goal weight would be the best, so I don't have to worry about finding maintenance, since I'd already be there. What can I say? I guess I don't mind that slow and steady wins this race, since I won't have saggy skin, I won't have lost a crap ton of muscle mass, and I won't be obsessing over my food so much that I want to scream daily. I also have room for splurges, if I want. And... if I don't exercise, it's OK, because I'm eating my TDEE for only slightly active!

Wow. I guess I'm doing it all wrong, too.

musiche

I think you're totally misinterpreting the logic here...

There is a lot of validity to the statement "Eat more to weigh less". But it isn't just about eating more and more and not doing anything to compensate or balance things out.

Let's take some real life application of the theology and look at this rationally:

I used to weight 265 pounds, 3 years ago. I committed myself to weight loss the 'conventional way' - eating less, exercising more. I lost 65 pounds. Here was my life in a nutshell:
- desk job, sitting on my butt
- worked out for about an hour 3-4 times per week
- consumed (on average) between 1200-1500 calories (regardless of activity, none of this eating back your calories)

I lost the excess weight fairly easily, it was straightforward. Once I lost the weight and plateaued (close to my goal weight) I maintained that lifestyle for the last 3 years easily, it became normal to me and I felt much healthier.

Last year, I decided I would like to try and drop another 20 pounds and tone and build some muscle. I started working out more and didn't change my eating habits, eating on average, 1400 calories per day. When I didn't get any results after a few months, I tried to decrease my calories more. Still no results. I tried to increase my workouts, tried to life more, run longer and harder and worked out 6 days per week. I struggled this way for a year and I didn't progress at the gym no matter what I tried.

A few months ago I got a BodyMedia Fit armband and it really opened my eyes. As it tracked my caloric burn each day, it became apparent to me that I was burning around 3200 calories per day. I was consuming about 1400, which was normal for me. But as I increased my physical activity, my body put up a huge resistance. Eventually, I got really moody and *****y, especially after workouts, I had no energy after my workouts either. I was never hungry though (my body had lived on that diet for 3 years).

I researched 'starvation mode' and caloric deficits and learned a lot. I realized I needed to increase my calories. There was no way I could eat less, I was already suffering subtle huge caloric deficit symptoms ('starvation') and I was not seeing any progress in the gym.

Over the last 3 months, I have increased my calories from 1400 to 3000+ every day.

I HAVE NOT GAINED ANY WEIGHT!
My clothes fit better.
My muscle tone is showing up.
I have increased my weight stacks 3x since increasing my calories (compared to not even once in the year prior)
I find cardio easier than ever and it is getting increasingly hard to get the burn I used to at the intensities that I used to .

I am getting STRONGER, and smaller, but I am not 'losing weight'. I am losing fat and gaining muscle which is increasingly evident, visually and in the gym. People are commenting. The NSV's are through the roof!! I am so happy.

If you do your research, you will see the evidence. People start at one weight, they eat to be healthy and build muscle, they very obviously shrink and lose fat, and yet they gain 20 pounds.

Eating more ONLY makes sense if you are going to USE those calories. If you are eating more and sitting on you butt all day, you're going to store those calories and you will grow fat. If you eat more calories, work your muscles in a big way, put in the work, time and effort, then you will grow muscle.

The other consideration: Eating too little for too long WILL NEGATE YOUR EFFORTS. My body adapted to a low calorie diet, I plateaued and stayed there for a couple of years. I lived with a constant caloric deficit (eventually eating less than half of my expenditure) and couldn't lose even 0.1 pounds over many months. My body refused to spend any more calories because it wasn't getting enough to begin with.

If there is no logic to "Eat more, weight less", then how is it possible that I go from:
- eating 1400 calories, burning 3200 and not losing ANY weight
to
- eating 3000 calories, burning 3200 and still not 'losing any weight' (if we're going based solely on the scale)

???

My success came purely from eating 1600 MORE calories per day. Period.

musiche

She GAINED 10 pounds in the picture on the right. (this isn't me, this pic is from a group called "eat more to weigh less" on FB and on MFP)

This wouldn't have been possible without eating MORE.

She is obviously smaller, obviously lost fat and looks way better. THIS is the goal, NOT weighing less.

Losing pounds of fat is the goal, not just losing pounds.

FlaxMilk

i can lose weight without feeling like my stomach is eating m other organs.

So can I, on 1200. :flowerforyou:

And once you continue to eat more, you'll probably lose weight faster. That is if you actually workout. 1,200 calories doesn't provide enough energy for a decent workout. So, if you start eating more i.e. you've only been losing through diet alone, you'll gain weight like whoa. That's why people who use systems like Jenny Craig that restrict calories and don't encourage exercise put all the weight back on once they stop eating 1,200 and start eating like they used to.

Are you basing the above on stats I posted earlier or just because of the number of calories I posted? I lose 1-2 lbs a week on 1200 calories a day at 108-111 lbs. I'm not thinking I'm going to lose more than that eating more. And it's fine for a decent workout, because of my height and weight. Until recently, when I had to stop exercising due to a medical issue, I could eat 1200-1500 on exercise days, depending on what I needed/wanted. But I often "net" below 1200 and lost weight just fine. I put on a ton of weight from a medicine and lost about 30 lbs at the rate people are recommended to at 1200. No starvation mode, no plateaus. Recently I've not been counting much at all, which is why my ticker shows a slower rate of loss. I've not been consistent since about early June. But it wasn't inability that contributed to my inconsistency, it was a number of factors including loss of interest/motivation to count and track--whether I was eating 1200 or 1800.

Your post is exactly what people get frustrated about. What you posted is untrue for me. Like I said earlier, MFP recommends that I eat about 1300 calories *if* I were a construction worker, which I'm far from. And at 1200, they predict a loss of about .2 lbs a week. That means not only is that fine for me, but that I can NOT eat back my exercise calories and still be fine, because my calculated deficit is not really accurate in the number they gave me--they don't go below 1200.

I also quadrupled the amount of weight I could lift in about three months, so I wasn't eating away all my muscle.

meli_medina

Losing pounds of fat is the goal, not just losing pounds.

Word.

FlaxMilk

Plus, if anyone, regardless of calorie intake, goes back to "what they were doing before" to cause them to gain weight, they will gain weight. That's the point of a deficit to lose it and a maintenance goal to maintain it.

kuger4119

You will lose weight and feel good but once you start eating like a frickin' pig again, you will pack on the pounds like you will never believe. My wife has a friend who used phentermine to lose weight. She looked awesome and I couldn't believe that she had ever been fat. She has gained 100 lbs since I met her three years ago. A starvation diet is great but it is more likely to fail in the long run. A moderate diet that involves exercise that is closer to your normal food intake after the diet is done is far more sustainable.

Um, yeah...if you start eating "like a pig again" you are going to gain the weight back no matter how you had taken it off. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." Phentermine can be a good tool, when used under a doctor's close supervision, but it is only a tool. Of course you will gain weight back if you go back to eating like you did before losing. To think otherwise is ludicrous!

I was being melodramatic with the "eat like a pig again" but I was just wanting to point out the problem with any kind of radical diet plan. They aren't developing sustainable habits.

DoomCakes

First off, the OP is obviously either trolling OR just did it wrong.

The concept of eat more to weigh less doesn't mean stuff yourself and think you'll lose weight. It involves two things.

One, eating small meals MORE in the day. So instead of your 3 big meals, you break them down to smaller meals and eat 6 a day. Key word, SMALL meals. Not your normal sandwich, soup, and other junk. Maybe JUST a half sandwich, or JUST your soup, then eat something small again later.

Second thing it depends on is your choices of what you're eating. Eat MORE good food, whole food, fruits and veggies. Not chips, cookies, and pizza. Otherwise, yea, you'll gain weight.

Eating 6 small meals a day is beneficial because it assists your metabolism in being active through out the day rather then in spurts. But just be smart... if it's bad for you, it's bad. Don't eat it. If it's good for you and you're hungry, eat it till you're satisfied. Not full. There's no secret... eating to a better life style is just common sense.

AbbsyBabbsy

Ive lost 16 pounds EATING MORE TO WEIGH LESS! in 76 days so far. You are obviously Uninformed. I just feel so sorry for people like you. Go ahead continue to be hungry. Lose your weight and muscle. Gain it all back and you will!! When you do, come back to these forums, actually take the time to do your research. Read what Eat more to Weigh Less is actually about. Then you can lose weight the right way and keep it off. Till then STARVE

What's up with the eat more group thinking they're immune from regaining the weight?

You are just as likely to regain the weight as I am, if we go back to our old habits and eat above maintenance. You are deluding yourself to think otherwise.