Eat More to Lose More? Really?

jenay26
jenay26 Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I keep seeing posts about eating more calories to lose more and to use your TDEE. Has anyone really tried this? Is this really right? If I ate my TDEE calories that would be just over 2000 per day! I've read the topic by Helloitsdan (In Place of a Road Map 2.0) and I'm just curious if anyone has tried this with success. Maybe I figured it out wrong....
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Replies

  • Jaulen
    Jaulen Posts: 468 Member
    You eat your TDEE -20%.

    Or you eat your BMR + exercise calories.

    That's my understanding.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    Read it again. You're supposed to figure out your TDEE and eat 10-20% under that figure.
  • jonesin_am
    jonesin_am Posts: 404 Member
    YES it does work and is more sustainable than a "diet". It's more of a lifestyle change and something I can continue with through my weight loss and even after I reach goal.

    But it is TDEE minus 20% (or whatever your goal is but no more than 20%). You eat AT TDEE when you are maintaining.
  • DrBroPHD
    DrBroPHD Posts: 245 Member
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated
  • chimp517
    chimp517 Posts: 185 Member
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated

    right on DrBro, haha
  • underwater77
    underwater77 Posts: 331 Member
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated

    hahahaha


    i workout pretty hard everyday, so my TDEE -20% is something like 2600 cals/day. there is no way i could eat that if i tried while still eating healthy. i just stick with my appetite. i eat when i am hungry. i would be terrified to try to eat 2600 calories in a day.
  • estrange22
    estrange22 Posts: 210 Member
    listen to Dan.
  • sarafil
    sarafil Posts: 506 Member
    Yes, it works, if you are eating at TDEE minus 20%. You eat at TDEE if you want to maintain your weight.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated

    hahahaha


    i workout pretty hard everyday, so my TDEE -20% is something like 2600 cals/day. there is no way i could eat that if i tried while still eating healthy. i just stick with my appetite. i eat when i am hungry. i would be terrified to try to eat 2600 calories in a day.

    Why would you be terrified to eat that much? That's how much I eat. It's easy. Wish I could eat more in fact.
  • seena511
    seena511 Posts: 685 Member
    keep in mind that if you're basing your calorie intake off your TDEE (whether you're eating your TDEE exactly or TDEE-20%), you're not eating back your exercise calories. on the other hand i'm eating at around my BMR so i eat all my exercise calories back...at the end of the day i usually end up eating closer to 2000 total even though i've only got about 1500 net.
  • fiferize
    fiferize Posts: 141
    eat more to lose more doesnt mean eat lots and lots more calories. it means that you need to eat smaller meals more often. Time intervals should be more like no more than 4 hours apart. I had Dr. in a wt loss clinic tell me that eating some small amount of protein every few hours helps keep the hunger under control and helps keep your blood sugar from spiking which in turn causes insulin issues. Good luck with your journey. You will get lots of advice from your peeps here, but do whats right and working for you!
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    Yes! I'm at 1800+ calories a day, losing fat and inches and needing to buy new jeans AGAIN because my 4's are getting loose. Food is fuel!

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • Micahroni84
    Micahroni84 Posts: 452 Member
    I was a skeptic but i tried it last year before falling off the wagon completely. Yes, it works. Before i was losing about a pound a week, after 2-3 pounds. Now that Im back in the game I'm trying to remember this. Its hard to work out and then eat back those calories but it works. You may have to tweak it a bit to find a good number for you though so it does take patience.
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
    Yes, it works, if you are eating at TDEE minus 20%. You eat at TDEE if you want to maintain your weight.

    Not really. I am on maintenance and I don't eat at TDEE. I eat around 10 to 15% below, and doing fine.
  • Noor13
    Noor13 Posts: 964 Member
    I was eating 2600 (increased from 2400) for the last two and a half weeks (trying to do my first bulk) and as of last week I was losing 2 lbs. The metabolism adapts to what you put it through. A year ago I would live off 1200 kcal and gain if I ate more.
    I revved up my metabolism by doing a reset for about 16 weeks. Yes I initially gained some lbs. but in combination with lifting heavy it worked out to my advantage.

    If you work out hard, you have to fuel your body. And the 2600 kcal I eat are clean. I do not eat junk of any kind.
  • Katbody10
    Katbody10 Posts: 369 Member
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated

    lmao .. me too! :drinker:
  • juicemoogan
    juicemoogan Posts: 994 Member
    Largest group on MFP cant be wrong.

    The "more" is relative.

    Read the details first.. join the group..
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    eat more to lose more doesnt mean eat lots and lots more calories. it means that you need to eat smaller meals more often. Time intervals should be more like no more than 4 hours apart. I had Dr. in a wt loss clinic tell me that eating some small amount of protein every few hours helps keep the hunger under control and helps keep your blood sugar from spiking which in turn causes insulin issues. Good luck with your journey. You will get lots of advice from your peeps here, but do whats right and working for you!

    no.

    Eating more is not just that.

    Also, OP, YES.. it works.
  • 52in13
    52in13 Posts: 38 Member
    a lot of people have lost weight with Helloitsdan's advice, but I couldn't bring myself to try. Too scared of gaining instead.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    a lot of people have lost weight with Helloitsdan's advice, but I couldn't bring myself to try. Too scared of gaining instead.

    Yeah, I was too. Then I realized that if I was eating under my BMR, I wasn't doing myself any favors. You can't expect a car to keep rolling without gas in the tank.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    a lot of people have lost weight with Helloitsdan's advice, but I couldn't bring myself to try. Too scared of gaining instead.
    You're missin' out! :bigsmile: Best move I ever made was switching to the Road Map plan - sure wish I had found it when I first started my fitness journey three years ago.
    If eating more caused you to lose more I'd be emaciated
    lmao .. me too!:drinker:
    It basically means get off the 1200 coma calorie train and fuel your body & workouts properly. :tongue:
  • Fr3shStrt
    Fr3shStrt Posts: 349 Member
    This is a great read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833500-what-do-i-do-common-sense-cliff-notes

    This one too: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/859495-if-only-i-had-known
  • nzfoxz
    nzfoxz Posts: 14 Member
    I have been reading as much as I can on these boards about this, and would love some advice too. There seem to be some really great people here who know a lot about this, and I feel like I may have been on the wrong path for many years. Might put up another post to try and get some advice too!
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    If you figure out your TDEE correctly, TDEE minus 10-20% works for everyone*.

    *with the exception of those with metabolic disease.
  • eyeshuh
    eyeshuh Posts: 333
    It works! I lost another 1.5" off my waist last week and I'm closing in on my goal!
  • underwater77
    underwater77 Posts: 331 Member

    Why would you be terrified to eat that much? That's how much I eat. It's easy. Wish I could eat more in fact.

    Perhaps terrified is the wrong word. I'm just not a crazy hungry person. I am definitely satisfied at 1600/day. I tried to up my calories a few days ago with nuts and avocado - hit nearly 2000 and was incredibly and uncomfortably full. My diary is open. I eat all the time. I drink wine. I eat chocolate. I'm not starving by any stretch of the imagination. So to think of adding 1000 calories a day just doesn't seem feasible while still eating a healthy diet.
  • BCSMama
    BCSMama Posts: 348
    I can see how it might work if you're pretty close to your goal, but if you have a significant amount to loose, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I guess because as you get smaller, your BMR and TDEE get lower, so you would have to adjust your calories down as you get closer to goal, which doesn't sound like much fun to me, lol. Something I have heard that makes sense is to take the stats of your goal weight (weight, height, etc.) and plug those numbers into the TDEE calculator. Then just eat that, or plug them into the BMR calculator and eat that plus exercise calories. I didn't really figure all this out in time though and just went with the MFP recommendations and adjusted up as I got closer to my goal. I am now working on maintaining and it's been nice to be able to increase my calories as I lost weight rather than decrease them.

    All that being said, I guess it would work as long as you continued to reduce the calories as you got smaller.
  • lgblack
    lgblack Posts: 73 Member
    I work at a fitness facility (in administration) and workout with programs created for me by my Personal Trainer. I asked him this question, and he said yes, eat the calories, as you need to fuel your body for the exercise. That being said, when I workout and input my exercise, which in turns adds the calories to my daily allotment, I don't usually eat ALL the calories. But I try to do justice to my body by giving it more than the 1200 cal/day that I would otherwise be allowed to eat if I wasn't exercising that day.
  • clairecandoit11
    clairecandoit11 Posts: 62 Member
    PLEASE HELP!
    I am SO confused now.

    So I had a Metabolic test done back in Jan 2011 and it said my resting metabolic rate is around 1095 and Helloitsdan's advice I would be eating around 2,000 calories a day! How does that make sense??

    I work as a medical assistant which I am on my feet a lot of the day and then I work out (running usually) 5 days a week.

    My trainer recommended eating 1200 on non-workout days and then add in however many calories I burn on my workout days to that. So I would be eating around 1400-1500 calories a day correct?? Are you guys saying I should eat more than that??
    I am 5'4" and 155 lbs trying to reach my goal of 130!

    I need help!!
  • lilmissbamaqueen
    lilmissbamaqueen Posts: 184
    The thing that confuses me is a lot of the people that preach about eating TDEE numbers are the same ones that talk about doing "heavy lifting" for their exercise. Well, I'm trying to eat at TDEE -20% (which for me is 1740), but I have symptoms of fibromyalgia (no official diagnosis yet), and I do well to go home at night and use my Wii Fit for 30 minutes. So, should I not do TDEE -20? I'm really afraid of gaining a whole bunch of weight because I'm not doing the same high-impact exercise as the ones that are seeing good results.

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