Eat More to Weigh Less? I THINK NOT!

JenniferMary_9169

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xxtaliaxx

Nothings going to work if you dont log--how do you know accurately what you ate? I bottomed out on 1200 very quickly. Now I lose slow and steady at 1600.

Also important is that the less you are trying to lose, the slower it will be. especially because a difference of 5 lbs is likely all within a healthy body weight for you.

I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

darkguardian419

My Command Fitness Leader said to try juicing...I just don't have a juicer. But a friend of mine does so I might try that. I'm also looking in to getting a personal trainer.

Your CFL is just a fit individual who went to a week long navy school where most of what they did was cardio. He may know some stuff, but if he's recommending you switch to a juice only diet, I'd think twice before taking his advice.

My lifting partner just went through the CFL certification, and I'm teaching him about nutrition... trust me, being a CFL doesn't make you an expert, it just shows that you can run fast and do some pushups and situps

xxtaliaxx

Did you do your numbers properly? Follow this, there are maybe one or two people it hasn't worked for. Give it time, it's not a quick fix.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

QFT. Remember, keep your TDEE and BMR in mind, but also be mindful of the fact that they are estimates.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE WEIGHING YOUR FOOD. You may think you're eating 1800, but could end up eating closer to 2200 easily. That's been my biggest issue was not properly weighing my food.

I've read this I don't know how many times and went to several different websites to calculate everything. I took the average of those and that's what I've been following.

deksgrl

You need to give it more time and be as accurate as you possibly can before you say it doesn't work. That means not eating things that you don't know the calorie content of. If you are guessing and ball parking, then you can't possibly know how close to your daily goal you really are.

There is no magic to juicing or any other fad.

sweetzoejane

It's been only two weeks and you stopped logging, so you should not be expecting anything to happen right now. Start logging again, be accurate and consistent about it, give up the scale for a month, and be patient. Give it 1-2 months.

Sweet_Gurl_Next_Door

for me I am giving my body a few months to adjust to my calorie change. I feel so liberated eating more. I don't feel hungry at the end of the day. I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks if I have calories left over and not hungry I don't eat. if I am hungry and have some left over I just add another snack. 5 pounds in a week is to unrealistic. on average to lose a healthy amount of weight its 1-2 pounds a week.

dragginfli

I have recently started to track my sodium and it has made a huge difference, I cut back to about 500mg/day. I noticed that the food you were logging put you over the daily sodium levels. This could be why. Hope this helps.

3dogsrunning

I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

Mommy4812

I was losing weight fine at 1440 but I would still be hungry and about a month ago I started having dizziness and headaches and some people suggested upping my protein and calories and although it has seemed to help with the dizziness and headaches my weight has only dropped 1-2lbs. but only for a day or 2 and right back up to the same number. I only upped it to 1560 but as others have said it takes some time for your body to adjust so I'm going to give it another week or 2 I guess and go from there.

BTW, what is PFA?

dangerousdumpling

I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged as you have at your goal.

Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

I increased calories, weighed and logged everything, gained a pound, stayed there for exactly four weeks, and finally lost it four weeks later to the day. Then I lost 3 pounds over the next week. If you want to eat more to lose weight, you gotta be consistent, do it right, and give it time. You may need to make some adjustments, but it's worth it.

xxtaliaxx

I have recently started to track my sodium and it has made a huge difference, I cut back to about 500mg/day. I noticed that the food you were logging put you over the daily sodium levels. This could be why. Hope this helps.

That's probably the hardest to cut back on. I swear almost everything has sodium in it :frown:

LoraF83

I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.

xxtaliaxx

I was losing weight fine at 1440 but I would still be hungry and about a month ago I started having dizziness and headaches and some people suggested upping my protein and calories and although it has seemed to help with the dizziness and headaches my weight has only dropped 1-2lbs. but only for a day or 2 and right back up to the same number. I only upped it to 1560 but as others have said it takes some time for your body to adjust so I'm going to give it another week or 2 I guess and go from there.

BTW, what is PFA?

PFA= Physical Fitness Assessment.

losbeatlesmolan

maybe you are gaining muscle and losing body fat, and as muscle weighs for than fat you don't lose any weight?

SmartAlec03211988

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rainbows24

I found that when I was eating 1200 calories a day with about 20 minutes of cardio I dropped weight extremely fast. It is not safe or reccomnded to do that for a continued period of time, but if you are looking to lose weight in a short period of time that will work great. Eat 1200 paired with a medium amount of excersize and you will notice a difference in a short time. do NOT stick to eating 1200 cals for a long period of time you will just burn-out and screw up your metabolism.

xxtaliaxx

maybe you are gaining muscle and losing body fat, and as muscle weighs for than fat you don't lose any weight?

My body fat has stayed the same but I weigh more. You know what I hate? The way the military goes about measuring body fat. They tape your neck, waist and hips if you are a female. When they tape me, my BF is at 32+%. I bought a caliper from GNC and measured that way several times and by BF is at 23%.

xxtaliaxx

I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.

I log as much as I can when I can when I know what I'm eating. How am I suppose to go about logging when someone else cooks for me or I eat at a healthy place that doesn't have a nutrition table? Sometimes I don't have time to cook my own foods and therefore it shows up like that in my diary. I try to log like I should. I got frustrated because maybe I was trying too hard.

BlueInkDot

So I took the advice from people here and I upped my calories by 480 (to 1680) because apparently I should be eating more so I can lose weight. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. I weigh exactly the same if not a pound or 2 more. I've been going to the gym and doing cardio mixed with some weight training on certain days and I even try to get some workouts in while I'm at work. I've been trying to do this because I have weigh ins coming up and I'm now about 5 pounds over my maximum weight and now I'm scrambling to drop it before then. My TDEE is around 2400 and my BMR is somewhere around 1600. So I've been eating as much as I should. This is going to sound bad but since I'm now in a rush to lose these 5 pounds that I gained by trying to eat right and up my calories I don't have time for this. I need to drop this ASAP so I don't fail my PFA. If you think you can help, please, by all means. My diary is open but be warned I have not logged since around 26 MAR because I didn't think it was working. And before anyone says that I gained the weight because I haven't logged that's not true. I've weighed this for the past like 3-4 weeks. WTF.

1. Upping over 100 calories all at once is too much. You want to increase/decrease steadily over time, not suddenly.

2. The exact number of calories you should be eating should be between 80% to 85% of your TDEE. Find that here:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

3. You will not see a change in the scale in a couple weeks. You will see a change in the scale in a couple months.

4. If you are experiencing any combination of the following: feel good, your clothes are looser, are increasing how much you can lift... then your increase on the scale is probably muscle.

5. As soon as you said "I have weigh ins coming up and I'm now about 5 pounds over my maximum weight and now I'm scrambling to drop it before then." and " I'm now in a rush to lose these 5 pounds that I gained by trying to eat right and up my calories I don't have time for this. I need to drop this ASAP so I don't fail my PFA." I knew we were going to have problems here.

This method is not a "fast" method. Honestly I don't think there IS a healthy weight loss method that is fast. The very first thing my doctor told me when I told him I was going to try to lose weight, was that I should go SLOWLY.

Once we get impatient and try to lose weight faster, that's when we slip into unhealthy habits that will not benefit us in the long run.

You might be in a hurry - but I encourage you to be patient and to trust the system. Lift heavy things. Keep doing bits of cardio. Drink your water. Track your progress over months - not weeks.

I have a spreadsheet that may help you if you like. It tracks over the course of a month instead of days the way MFP does. I input my information from MFP into the spreadsheet so that I can get an average over the course of the month. It's much more accurate and helpful than looking at particular days.

Hope this helps, please feel free to contact me if you have other questions. I'm always happy to help.