Eat more 2 weigh less! It works! (Thank God I took photos!)

I am going to remember this post because I am right where you were and have been struggling for awhile trying to decide what to do. I've lost 65, have another 50 to go, but it is pretty much stopped (or slowed to such a crawl as to be almost non-existent) and I just can't do any more than I already do. For a couple weeks I tried cutting calories pretty severely (eating only 920 + half my exercise calories back each day) and that made NO difference. I'm thinking I might up them slowly until I'm eating more and swap one of my cardio days for another weight day. Or should I up them all at once? Hmmm....

PS - I tried to eat all my calories right off the bat and found it impossible. So, it was a gradual increase. It went something like this...

1600 up to 2000 for a week or so

2000 up to 2400 for a week or so (and there were some higher calorie days and some lower calorie days, I'm not strict, it's not natural to eat the exact same calories every day. Anything your body can predict, becomes a pattern and our bodies ADAPT to patterns. ADAPTATION = PLATEAU. BAD!!! lol)

Then 2400-3000

It took me a full 6 weeks to get to eating slightly over my caloric output. This last week I finally did what I set out to do. But like I said, zigzag you calories!!! You can google the concept, and it makes so much sense for anyone who has plateaued. You body needs to be surprised. The element of surprise keeps us in control instead of our body making decisions for us based on what it's learned about our lifestyle. Eat at maintenance one day, eat above the next, eat below the next day, eat at maintenance for the next two days. If it makes it easier, aim for a WEEKLY calorie goal, keeping your daily goal in the back of your mind. Let's be stealthy dieters, lol. Hey, metabolism... BOO!

Almost anything that is a Lifestyle Change and NOT a Diet works! I did this BEFORE I knew the name or that there was a name to it...Eat More To Weigh Less. They put a name to Eating Right while reducing your intake a bit, and moderate exercise routine. Of course some of the Eat More people advocate extreme exercise. I just want to know why? Why the "heavy" workouts; what, where, how is ANYONE in THIS Country going to use ANY Extremes.

When we go to the Gym, we get upset if we have to walk more than 30 feet to go in, we won't even park 4-5 Blocks from our office for a cheaper rate, YET some will do 1+ hours on the Elliptical Machine or run 5 miles a day. The heaviest thing we lift all day is a bag of groceries but we want the kids to bring them in the house, but we will spend 2 hours at the Gym lifting heavy weights. AND it doesn't even take this to get FIT and/or toned...yea, it's wasted Energy and time. Just use common sense>>>Live/Eat/Workout in MODERATION, No "Catchy" names needed!!!

Hrm... I'm not exactly sure what you're saying here... But it sounds negative.

Your 'diet' is what you eat. Nothing more. Your lifestyle is how you live your life. They are different, but your diet is part of your lifestyle. "SOME people advocate extreme exercise" because they enjoy it, lol, why else would they do it? Find what works for you, that's the only way to stick with something.

Sounds like you dislike the idea of 'heavy workouts' and the phrase "eat more to weigh less". Ok, so be it, you are allowed to dislike things for whatever reasons you choose. I don't need to hear the negativity though, it's completely useless to you and everyone else.

As for "live/eat/workout in MODERATION" - I used "common sense" to lose 65 pounds. Then the exact same "common sense" no longer made any sense at all. Plateaus are a frustration in a nutshell. What works for 65 pounds won't work at all for the next 30. So, we need to CHANGE HOW WE THINK. That is what 'eating more' has been all about for me > changing how I think.

What felt normal to me (eating 1600 calories) wasn't normal and I didn't know or feel that. Common sense told me that if I wanted to lose weight, I should eat less and work out more. Turns out, that was just plain stupid, lol.

Why work out hard? Because I want to be strong. I have been weaker than most people will ever know (severe spinal & nerve damage) and I want and need to be as strong as I can be so I can keep walking, living and being happy.

When you said working hard was a waste of energy and time, I disagree, lol, totally. I think the only waste here was the negative energy you put into posting your comment and the time it took to write it. That's just my opinion, you shared yours.

You do whatever YOU want, just stay positive and don't criticize others lest they do the same to you.

I am wondering how you are estimating your burns?? I have been plateauted for over ayeear, 18mos to be exact. i tried the whole eat more to lose concept for over 6 weeks along with my regular exercise and gained 10 pounds and believe me its not muscle. i just got more jiggly all over.
I have used a bodymedia and heart rate monitor for estimating my burns and they always give me an avg of 2500 yet if I eat more than 2000 I consistently gain.
I have chalked it up to years of calorie deficit like you, probably around 500-1000 per day for years. Twice I have tried to eat more, like around 2400, and the scale just creeps up and pics prove that its not muscle.
Any thoughts on this?

Hi! I am not 'estimating my burns' actually.

Something that really enlightened me and sparked this new mentality was when I got my BodyMedia Fit Armband. I had wanted a Bodybugg for years and couldn't afford it really, or justify it. I was almost committed to getting one, and then a friend on MFP was talking about BodyMedia and I inquired. She told me about it, showed me the website and I was HOOKED! My birthday was two weeks away and I justified getting it that way, lol.

Check out bodymedia.com

The device they have created is THE most accurate on the market: 95% accurate. It measure your caloric burn with three different sensors for accuracy. It tells you how many calories you burn down to the minute. It evaluates yours sleeping habits too. It has software much like MFP, minus the social aspect and the food library isn't as good because not as many people have used it yet. So, I use MFP to log my food and for the social aspect and I don't log my exercise on here anymore (because it was all estimations anyway, and from what I've learned - GROSSLY OVERESTIMATED).

I STRONGLY, very strongly recommend that anyone with a plateau get something like this (and a fitbit is no comparison). It is NOT a heart rate monitor (though it will sync with many different brands), it is FAR far better than a heart rate monitor.

It has been worth the money 10x over. It opened my eyes and showed me that I was underestimating myself big time. I needed this information, this clarity and the affirmation that it gave me in order to make the change that I did (to eat more and go against tried and tested knowledge of weight loss).

I am wondering how you are estimating your burns?? I have been plateauted for over ayeear, 18mos to be exact. i tried the whole eat more to lose concept for over 6 weeks along with my regular exercise and gained 10 pounds and believe me its not muscle. i just got more jiggly all over.
I have used a bodymedia and heart rate monitor for estimating my burns and they always give me an avg of 2500 yet if I eat more than 2000 I consistently gain.
I have chalked it up to years of calorie deficit like you, probably around 500-1000 per day for years. Twice I have tried to eat more, like around 2400, and the scale just creeps up and pics prove that its not muscle.
Any thoughts on this?

Can you give me some insight into your workout habits?

Something I have come to believe as well, is this: If you eat more, your body needs to know what to do with those added calories. Coming out of a huge deficit and plateau, I am sure my body wanted to store the increased calories as fat. I combatted this by doing my workout at max intensity as much as possible. At the same time I decided to increase my calories, I was worried about gaining weight, and I decided I could console my worries by focusing on gaining muscle. I amped up the body weight workouts, continued my high intensity cardio (which DOES build significant muscle, believe you me!) and continued lifting weights until muscle failure. I had DOMS like crazy once I started being able to do more at the gym. My workouts had stagnated for the last year basically, and I think my body refused to put out any more calories because there just weren't more to expend. Like I said before, within a month of increasing my calories, I was able to increase my workouts in time, intensity and weight. This proved to me that I was indeed building muscle.

Also, I gradually increased my calories over 6 weeks until I got to maintenance levels, which seemed to keep my body out of feast or famine mode I think.

Message me on here if you can, cuz this thread is getting a little hard to keep up with! Lol. Ask away, I'd love to help however I can!

Just the thing I needed to see! I'm on my first week of increasing my calories since I've stayed the same for the past month. I am so freaked out but seeing stories/photos like this makes me feel better about it. Hope my results are as good as yours!

All the best of luck to you! Take it slow and steady