Who didn't lose weight until they upped their calories?

mycupyourcake

Hi all,

My TDEE is supposedly around 2200 and my BMR is 1490ish. I am a 35 year old female at 5 foot 6 inches and weigh 157. I set my weight loss goal at 1.5 pounds per week and would like to get down to 135. I have been logging my calories and workouts for almost 3 months and have not lost weight on the scale and my clothes fit the same. I didn't take measurements but I am pretty sure they are the same. For the first month and a half I was lifting weights (a new activity for me) 4-5 days a week and doing about 15 minutes of jogging/ walking. I hurt my leg so I had to take some time off and started walking and spinning. Last month I started spinning 4 times a week (about 30 minutes with some HIIT in there) and going to ashtanga vinyasa classes in the evening about 5 days a week.

Here the question: were my calories too low at 1200-1400 on my exercise days? I am always over protein on my macros and way under carbs. I just readjusted my calorie level and set it above my BMR. So now if I don't exercise I will at least be eating 1490ish calories a day. I'm hoping this helps.

I would like some advice and I would like to hear from people who had stalled losses or nothing at all and then started losing when they upped their calories. Please nobody say starvation mode b/c I don't believe in it.

Thanks,
E

shmoony

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

257_Lag

My sister has your almost your exact stats. She was stuck for 5 months eating 1200 on a doctors advice. I convinced her to go to 1700 and eat back at least half her exercise based on our calculations of her TDEE. Her exercise isn't consistent enough to work into her true TDEE so we modified it this way. She held steady for 3 1/2 weeks and then dropped 2 pounds in a week and a steady half pound a week since then. She is thrilled.

She had previously lost 35 pounds last year with WW but quit when she stalled.

donnacervelli11

Book marking because I'm curious about the replies. I defintely gained weight by taking in too many calories, so eating more to lose weight is kind of confusing.

mycupyourcake

bump

I_Will_End_You

I started losing regularly when I upped mine. Slowly, but surely.

257_Lag

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

This is just my personal opinion, but the in the cliche you mentioned there are two vast differences between us and them.

#1 They never had the fat storage that most of us have/had to start with.

#2 They have had to eat at these low levels for years and years.

kathymhardy

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

Totally agree

mycupyourcake

@shemoney, those Ethiopians never gained weight to begin with. We do know that the body experiences hormonal and metabolic changes when we gain weight and when we start under eating.

mycupyourcake

I started losing regularly when I upped mine. Slowly, but surely.

Would you mind telling me what your first calorie set point was at and what you upped it to?

carolyn0613

I say that you've got to eat. So if you are going to eat, you may as well eat the right amount. Eat enough so that you lose weight but not too much so that you put on weight and not too little so that your body gets stressed and starts conserving the fuel it gets.

I disagree with the point about fat Ethiopians and athletes. Theirs is not a comparable lifestyle to most people. i do not want to live the life of a starving person or an athlete in training. I want to be as near normal as possible. If you live that kind of life, your body is stressed and will go into conservation mode to keep what little nutrition it gets and that seems to be why people stall in their weight loss. All the other explanations sdon't make that amount of sense.

GeekAmour

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

You can hardly compare professional athletes with people in third world countries that don't have enough to eat... can you?

Professional athletes eat plenty; they need to because they need to fuel their activities & because they don't have ample fat stores to sustain them. Starving people are.... starving. People having too much of a calorie deficit is ridiculous? I don't know what your body runs on, but mine needs food to survive. I can tell you that there IS such a thing as too much of a calorie deficit & it is as unhealthy as it is pointless.

tiggerhammon

I wouldn't exactly say success. I tried upping my calories a few weeks ago... Not because I wasn't losing but because I was feeling weak, hungry and shaky.
3 weeks later, I feel great! Much more energized and not hungry at all - ever. And, I am still losing. But, truth be told, I am losing less than I was before. Fractions of a pound each week.
But, every single week the scale has been lower, even just a little. I am going to stay where I am at cause I don't want to feel weak and hungry. I will lose the weight slower if I have to.

BamaBreezeNSaltAire

Check out the Eat More to Weigh Less group

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also the Eat, Train Progress group. Great folks moderating and great information. Be sure to read the stickies so you understand what each group is trying to tell you.

FYI - at 1200 calories I didn't lose a pound. At 1700 and eating back my exercise calories I lost 29. 5'3" started at 177 now at 153 and building muscle like noone's business!

EAT, TRAIN, PROGRESS
Yes, it's that simple.

bpotts44

My guess is you are not logging accurately.

sweetpea03b

I've been stalled for about 3 weeks not losing anything so on recommendation of lots of people on here upping calories I have everyday and I've started losing again.

Before I was doing about 1200-1400 NET... now i'm doing 1600-1800 and i'm losing about 1#/week again.

Alta2000

Your calories were very low for the exercising you were doing. I have been losing with high calories, 1760 and I am also 5'6". I even eat more than 1000 calories extra some days when I strength train extremely heavy or have walked 7 miles and I fill my body being hungry. I see my weight affected more by my diet, whether I eat a lot of bread and pizza and high sodium, whether I eat close to my sleep time, not drinking enough water. I also do 1 day fasting that drops the calories to 1000, just for a day and only once a month, when I seem to be stuck in a plateau. But I eat as much as I want, I feel full of energy and I am not hungry. You are also very close to the ideal weight range for your height so 1.5 lb per week is quite aggressive. When you reduce calories significantly you do not go into starvation, but your body adapts to perform its function with less calories. It is like a car that runs optimal with 94 octanes but it can still run with 87 octanes. Weigh your food on a food scale religiously, walk everywhere, cut soda, increase fruits and vegetables, drink a lot of water, and exercise. Also drop your weight loss to 0.5lb per week, or 1lb maximum.

mycupyourcake

Hmmm, food for thought.

rjc0914

Personally, I was eating low calories for me (1500ish a day) from October to Mid January. Lost about 30 pounds but stalled out for like 3 weeks before stumbling on the whole TDEE thing. Upped my calories to about 2200 a day and the weight started coming off again and have steadily been losing a couple pounds a week on average ever since. I just try to hit my macro's as close as I can but I typically eat more carbs on days I do cardio and a little more fat on days I do strength training. Long story short, it worked for me but to each their own. Try it out and listen to your body. If you have been stuck for this lone what have you got to lose.... except for more weight

30 y/o Male
SW: 260
CW: 203

mycupyourcake

My guess is you are not logging accurately.

Even if I were not logging accurately how could I be missing say over 600 calories a day? I weigh and measure my food. I'll give you say a 200 calorie error but not 600, right.

carlacyr

I had to up my calories to start losing weight again. I'm 5'3, 236lbs and was eating 1200 calories a day plus exercise calories. It worked for a while, but I was always tired and sore. I stopped losing weight after about a month... I struggled with allowing myself to up my calories... Cause it's freaky eating as much as I do. I though for sure I'd gain all the weight back. Regardless, I upped my calories to 1800, eating most of my exercise calories back. I was stuck for a little while, about 2 weeks, but after that the weight has steadily started to come off. I'm losing an average of 1.6lbs a week.

mycupyourcake

Personally, I was eating low calories for me (1500ish a day) from October to Mid January. Lost about 30 pounds but stalled out for like 3 weeks before stumbling on the whole TDEE thing. Upped my calories to about 2200 a day and the weight started coming off again and have steadily been losing a couple pounds a week on average ever since. I just try to hit my macro's as close as I can but I typically eat more carbs on days I do cardio and a little more fat on days I do strength training. Long story short, it worked for me but to each their own. Try it out and listen to your body. If you have been stuck for this lone what have you got to lose.... except for more weight

30 y/o Male
SW: 260
CW: 203

Thanks! How much of a deficit below your TDEE is 2200 for you?

palmerar

I ran your numbers in Scooby's Calculator, it gave me TDEE-20% = 1830 per day (moderately active according to your spin/yoga routine) If you eat 1830 per day without eating back exercise calories every day you should lose just under 1lb a week. I've been using TDEE- % since February1 and have lost 9 of the 17 lbs to my first goal (167-150). It takes longer but is much easier to stick with.

mycupyourcake

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

You can hardly compare professional athletes with people in third world countries that don't have enough to eat... can you?

Professional athletes eat plenty; they need to because they need to fuel their activities & because they don't have ample fat stores to sustain them. Starving people are.... starving. People having too much of a calorie deficit is ridiculous? I don't know what your body runs on, but mine needs food to survive. I can tell you that there IS such a thing as too much of a calorie deficit & it is as unhealthy as it is pointless.

I couldn't agree more. We are talking about two radically different metabolic profiles here.

craigmandu

The body takes time to "acclimate" to a calorie level. Most people that "up" their calories will see some short term weight gain..since if the body is "use" to 1200 cals a day, it will instinctively regulate itself to that level. You gain a little in the short term until the body then decides to operate on the higher calorie level, then the weightloss starts again.

If you take on a new exercise regimen, again, the body will instinctively put on some weight (mostly new water funneled to the muscles you are now using), so again you see a small increase on the scale while it "acclimates" to the activity.

a "few" weeks is not enough time to make any sort of decision as to whether something is working for you or not. More like 1-2 months is a much truer timeframe.

Alot of times people say "I can't do this or that" because I will gain weight....the truth is you didn't give it enough "time" to become the new standard for your body so that fat loss can once again resume.

If you are being true to yourself, accurate in your logging of calories/exercise, and eating under your TDEE, you will lose weight...the rate of that loss however is usually where people falter.

rjc0914

Personally, I was eating low calories for me (1500ish a day) from October to Mid January. Lost about 30 pounds but stalled out for like 3 weeks before stumbling on the whole TDEE thing. Upped my calories to about 2200 a day and the weight started coming off again and have steadily been losing a couple pounds a week on average ever since. I just try to hit my macro's as close as I can but I typically eat more carbs on days I do cardio and a little more fat on days I do strength training. Long story short, it worked for me but to each their own. Try it out and listen to your body. If you have been stuck for this lone what have you got to lose.... except for more weight

30 y/o Male
SW: 260
CW: 203

Thanks! How much of a deficit below your TDEE is 2200 for you?

About 20% give or take. I've done a few different calculators and it's tough for me to judge the whole activity level thing. I usually base it around light activity. I've recalculated a couple of times..I actually was eating 2400/day for a while. Recalculate about every 10 pounds lost or so.

GamerLady

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

I agree

love2cycle

I have dieted many times in my life, and when I was younger, the weight came off with sticking to a certain calorie count, and exercising. I didn't eat back the calories then. Now that I am older, that same routine didn't work, and after trying everything, I decided to try the eating back the calories, and lost weight the first week and beyond. So, I think age may have something to do with it, but I'm not a scientist, just speaking from my own experience. Right now, I'm pretty much where I want to be, and hope to keep it off for good!

mycupyourcake

I ran your numbers in Scooby's Calculator, it gave me TDEE-20% = 1830 per day (moderately active according to your spin/yoga routine) If you eat 1830 per day without eating back exercise calories every day you should lose just under 1lb a week. I've been using TDEE- % since February1 and have lost 9 of the 17 lbs to my first goal (167-150). It takes longer but is much easier to stick with.

Thanks for running my numbers. I usually run my activity level at lightly active. I will have to up my calories b/c on days where I do spinning and yoga my legs are so fatigued it's a pain to walk up the stairs or I have to come out of warrior two on really long holds during my vinyasa class.

MischiffMaker

If you eat too few calories, doesn't your body goes into 'starvation conservation' mode?

In other words, your body knows you aren't eating enough, assumes there's a famine happening, and compensates by becoming more efficient with what you are giving it.

If you give it enough to eat, but not too much, it relaxes and starts using up the fat because it's not worried about daily calories any more.

mycupyourcake

If you eat too few calories, doesn't your body goes into 'starvation conservation' mode?

In other words, your body knows you aren't eating enough, assumes there's a famine happening, and compensates by becoming more efficient with what you are giving it.

If you give it enough to eat, but not too much, it relaxes and starts using up the fat because it's not worried about daily calories any more.

It's my understanding that if you eat too few calories your body starts pumping out excess cortisol and that can lead to dieter's edema (water weight retention).