why does eating more = weight loss?

myofibril

eat more = more fat loss as opposed to weight loss (although it could trigger a whoosh and cause water to be released as well...)

Find the calorie sweet spot and you keep your metabolic rate sufficiently elevated to ensure no unconscious decrease in NEAT more than anything else, unaccounted binging etc

SnicciFit

Your metabolism will adjust to the lower calorie intake in a matter of weeks. Check this out:

http://fueledfitness.ca/fat-loss-the-right-way/

ldrosophila

My theory and I have nothing to base this on just my own little thought bubbles...

When people cut back below 1200 they usually cut out most essential nutritients especially essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. When they add back calories they put more nutrients into their diet and those are usually nutrient dense foods which is needed to aid in metabolism ie more efficient ability to catabolise maconutrients and micronutrients.

Man cannot live by protein shake, protein bar, salad with nothing but a squeeze of lemon, chicken breast, and broccoli alone. To quote someone I guess.

But thats my moment of zen. Ouch my brain hurts.

ericahassinistermotives

Edit: My bad, not relevant.

The best answer I have is that people metabolize at different BMRs and need different amounts.
I've seen women who eat 1200 and lose their desired amount of weight and maintain, and I've seen them eat 1800-2100 and lose and maintain.

Greenrun99

Perhaps... but you are still burning cals all day, so you are still in a deficit, so shouldn't you still be losing weight?
..

Again, you are still burning cals, and as such still in a deficit. Perhaps you're burning more muscle than fat at really low cal levels, but you're still burning which should translate to weight loss, no?

If your just looking for scale weight loss, eat with a huge deficit until the scale stops moving or until your where you want to be.. When the scale stops, more than likely your body has adapted to your deficit. Of course during that time period your BF has went up due to loss of muscle.. but hey the scale went down right? (Not to mention when you start eating more, your going to gain weight)

If your at the gym 6 days a week busting your butt.. If you can eat 2000 calories and still lose 1.5lbs a week, would you rather do that.. or would you rather eat 1200 calories to lose 1.5lbs a week.. which do you think is better for your body?

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

eat more = more fat loss as opposed to weight loss (although it could trigger a whoosh and cause water to be released as well...)

Find the calorie sweet spot and you keep your metabolic rate sufficiently elevated to ensure no unconscious decrease in NEAT more than anything else, unaccounted binging etc

You mean an unconscious increase in NEAT? I think maintaining your pre-deficit NEAT is more likely than increasing it in any case.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

Because it's not always how much you eat, it's what you eat.

Say you're kind of a nibbler, and you don't eat big portions.
But you eat McDonald's everyday. You get a McDouble and fries.
That's 750 calories per meal. That's 2100 calories a day if you mow down on it 3x a day.

Now say you switched to eating salads and a yogurt. That's about 400 calories per meal if you add meat to your salad. That's 1200 calories a day, and I can guarantee you, the salad is more filling than the burger.

:

ericahassinistermotives

Because it's not always how much you eat, it's what you eat.

Say you're kind of a nibbler, and you don't eat big portions.
But you eat McDonald's everyday. You get a McDouble and fries.
That's 750 calories per meal. That's 2100 calories a day if you mow down on it 3x a day.

Now say you switched to eating salads and a yogurt. That's about 400 calories per meal if you add meat to your salad. That's 1200 calories a day, and I can guarantee you, the salad is more filling than the burger.

:

Yeah, that's what I get for skimming! I missed the context by like...1000 miles! xD

SassyCalyGirl

it doesn't (for EVERYONE).

ldrosophila

I'm no expert, but to me based on anecdotal evidence of myself and people I've interacted with online, as well as what I learned in the biology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology and nutrition classes I've taken, if you are only, say, 20% over a normal weight, it is counterproductive to have greater than a 1000 calorie deficit per day. If you truly burn 2200 calories on an average day, but regularly only feed it less than 1200 calories, then your body will begin to produce hormones/signals that tell the cells to slow down their consumption of energy and hold onto any lipid cells. I don't think any of my textbooks called this "starvation mode." Just a normal, temporary metabolic/energy decrease in response to less available food, the kind of thing that happens to hunter/gatherer humans during Winter months. You have less energy, sleep more, fidget less... basically you go into a light hibernation mode where you stop needing the 2200 calories per day for the same "activity" level (even though your "activity" has, in fact, changed imperceptively. You simply don't realize you fidget less and sleep more).

Youre kitty picture is cute been meaning to tell you that. I wish I could hibernate for the winter. Fatten up during the summer and come out lean and mean in the spring. Sigh I hate bears and chipmunks they got it made.

Bumbeen

They say that cause they don't know what they are talking about basically. Very few folks on here are already very lean individuals and as such should not be worrying about muscle loss from eating too few calories. Presuming you are lifting and consuming adequate protein, you can easily lose more than 2lbs/week and keep your muscle tissue. The bigger you are the faster you can drop the fat. Fact is your metabolism doesn't slow very much, maybe 20% at most, it isn't like your body just shuts down. The only time you need to start being paranoid about muscle loss is when you are already lean.

Arianwyn_T

The more weight you loose the faster your metabolism runs which burns more fat.

You should adjust your calorie intake after some weight loss see where your numbers sit.

If you do not eat enough calories the body will go into starvation mode and hold on to fat no weight loss.

Eat more the body will begin metabolizing again at rate for your current weight and will burn off the fat stores once again as it is no longer in starvation mode..

Very simplistic explanation but get the point over.

I think there are people all over the world that would disagree with this. They eat very little calories and their bodies do not hold on to fat. Starving people do not have lots of body fat.

starving people have no fat to hold on to -- you cannot compare a person who has never had enough to a person who has been over-indulging and then suddenly cuts themselves off. It's particularly harmful to under-eat most of the time, and then occasionally binge as then the body will convert as much as it can from the binge into fat to be stored for the next long stretch of under-consumption.

iamjude17

Wow. Very confusing to read all the different views on caloric intake and metabolism! Basically, on january 11th, I weighed 274. I started juicing, using every vegetable under the sun, and after 2 solid weeks of juicing, started introducing raw foods and now am juicing/raw foods/vegan. I ride a recumbent bike every day for 10 miles, 45 minutes whichever comes first, and when I weighed in on Feb. 14th had lost 21 pounds. I am not lacking ANY nutrients that I can think of, but I only consume about 500-900 calories a day. My question is, Is my weight loss ultimately going to stop?

concordancia

Eating the right amount allows your body to function properly. The range of proper is wide enough to allow for some regular weight loss.

Eating too much makes you fat.

Eating too little releases bizarre hormones that make your body do crazy things. What those crazy things are depends on how underfed you are, how long, and any other health issues you may have. Those crazy things include sending less glucose to your brain so that you are less and less capable of thinking things through.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

Wow. Very confusing to read all the different views on caloric intake and metabolism! Basically, on january 11th, I weighed 274. I started juicing, using every vegetable under the sun, and after 2 solid weeks of juicing, started introducing raw foods and now am juicing/raw foods/vegan. I ride a recumbent bike every day for 10 miles, 45 minutes whichever comes first, and when I weighed in on Feb. 14th had lost 21 pounds. I am not lacking ANY nutrients that I can think of, but I only consume about 500-900 calories a day. My question is, Is my weight loss ultimately going to stop?

ultimately, yes. when? that's harder to determine. I don't think what you're doing is sustainable or advisable but I'm not your physician and don't know what your health risks are.

Bumbeen

Wow. Very confusing to read all the different views on caloric intake and metabolism! Basically, on january 11th, I weighed 274. I started juicing, using every vegetable under the sun, and after 2 solid weeks of juicing, started introducing raw foods and now am juicing/raw foods/vegan. I ride a recumbent bike every day for 10 miles, 45 minutes whichever comes first, and when I weighed in on Feb. 14th had lost 21 pounds. I am not lacking ANY nutrients that I can think of, but I only consume about 500-900 calories a day. My question is, Is my weight loss ultimately going to stop?

It will not, but at 500-900 calories a day, 90% of that intake should be protein. The other your essential fats. I hope you're doing some resistance training to maintain your muscle mass. I presume most of your calories are not protein since you said vegan, this means you will lose a lot of muscle in the process of losing the fat.

Bumbeen

Wow. Very confusing to read all the different views on caloric intake and metabolism! Basically, on january 11th, I weighed 274. I started juicing, using every vegetable under the sun, and after 2 solid weeks of juicing, started introducing raw foods and now am juicing/raw foods/vegan. I ride a recumbent bike every day for 10 miles, 45 minutes whichever comes first, and when I weighed in on Feb. 14th had lost 21 pounds. I am not lacking ANY nutrients that I can think of, but I only consume about 500-900 calories a day. My question is, Is my weight loss ultimately going to stop?

ultimately, yes. when? that's harder to determine. I don't think what you're doing is sustainable or advisable but I'm not your physician and don't know what your health risks are.

Why would it stop? 500 calories a day will turn anyone male or female into an emaciated bean pole if they do it long enough. You aren't saying people are immune to energy balance I'm sure so I don't know why you'd think it would stop.

cwolfman13

Every nutritional or health professional I've ever talked to or read or listened to has said NOT to net under your BMR for safe and healthy weight loss. Everything I've ever heard or read in this RE has suggested that netting below your BMR for any significant amount of time should be done under supervision of a medical professional. Everything I've ever heard or read suggests that large calorie deficits can be potentially dangerous, particularly if you don't have a lot of weight to lose. I myself struggled with early plateaus in the beginning due to an aggressive weight loss goal; once I dialed my goal back to 1 Lb per week (i.e. increased my calories and was now netting above my BMR) my weight loss has been very consistent and haven't had any plateaus...I also feel better in general, have more energy, have better workouts, etc. Yeah, it's slow...but it's steady and it's safe and healthy...per every true expert (i.e. medical/nutritional professional) I've ever encountered.

ArroganceInStep

Wow. Very confusing to read all the different views on caloric intake and metabolism! Basically, on january 11th, I weighed 274. I started juicing, using every vegetable under the sun, and after 2 solid weeks of juicing, started introducing raw foods and now am juicing/raw foods/vegan. I ride a recumbent bike every day for 10 miles, 45 minutes whichever comes first, and when I weighed in on Feb. 14th had lost 21 pounds. I am not lacking ANY nutrients that I can think of, but I only consume about 500-900 calories a day. My question is, Is my weight loss ultimately going to stop?

ultimately, yes. when? that's harder to determine. I don't think what you're doing is sustainable or advisable but I'm not your physician and don't know what your health risks are.

Why would it stop? 500 calories a day will turn anyone male or female into an emaciated bean pole if they do it long enough. You aren't saying people are immune to energy balance I'm sure so I don't know why you'd think it would stop.

It would stop when tdee matched 500 cals a day. That's all energy balance is. Granted that point would potentially have organ failure and hair/tissue loss, and all kinds of other fun stuff if it didn't outright mean death, but it would eventually stop.

dwiebe85

bump