Eating more to lose more - TESTIFY HERE!

angiechimpanzee
angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've read the threads about TDEE and BMR and how important it is not to eat below a certain number if you want to lose weight, okay.

Now I want to hear how many of you guys actually experienced this phenomenon firsthand - little to no weightloss eating less, and faster, more consistent weight loss eating more. How much were you eating before when your weight loss slowed? How much did you start eating for it to start again? At what rate were you losing both times? I don't want to hear the science behind it, I just want to hear results, because I'm nearly convinced that maybe I need to try the same thing.
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Replies

  • Gramps251
    Gramps251 Posts: 738 Member
    Just try it for a couple weeks. If it doesn't work of you, no big deal.

    I've brought my net calories up by not exercising and started losing again. Did the increase in net calories cause the change or the lack of exercise or was it just time for me to start losing again? I don't know but it's easy to try something and see what happens.
  • Purplelynny
    Purplelynny Posts: 12
    good question, i want to know too.... thanks. :bigsmile:
  • melcasa
    melcasa Posts: 60 Member
    I was only eating around 1000-1400 kcals a day before I started lifting weights and early into my lifting. I didn't start to see weight loss until I increased my food intake (esp. protein). I think my metabolism was stalling out and I was also exhausted from not eating/drinking enough prior to and after working out. It also helped when I ate something small for breakfast (300-400 kcals) and snack, lunch, another snack, then dinner. I felt sustained throughout the day and it was great.
  • jaysonhijinx
    jaysonhijinx Posts: 663 Member
    I was eating 1500 calories a day + exercise calories and was losing for a while then it tapered off and stopped. Thought I'd cut down on what I ate and went to 1200 + exercise calories and was feeling hungry a lot and wasn't very energetic some days. I did lose a bit of weight, but I couldn't keep doing what I was doing. Went back to 1500 and went nowhere for a while and started getting frustrated. After this I did a bit of reading which resulted in me making the choice to up my calories to 1650 a day and lo and behold, at my next weigh in, I had lost a bit of weight!

    I gave it a couple more weeks at 1650 and was still losing but very slowly so I went and upped my calories to 1800. Losses continued, I had more energy and could put more intensity into my workouts and I didn't spend half the day starving!

    At the moment I'm trying to put on new muscle mass and am eating around 3500 calories a day but when I want to go back to cutting I'll probably be more around 2200-2500 and confident that I'll be able to steadily drop body fat and overall weight.

    I for one am a firm believer through my personal experience that sometimes in order to break through a plateau and resume losing weight, eating more (while keeping at a deficit) is the key.
  • jodif
    jodif Posts: 1
    When you eat less, your body uses your muscles for energy, therefore you need less energy to survive. This is a disaster for the long term, because when you go back to normal, you put back on the weight plus more. You are better off to stick to about 1200 cal, build muscle mass back up, so your body will burn more at rest, and possibly still lose weight- if you put on .5kg muscle and lose 1kg per week, its .5kg weight loss, but you can eat more, and your metabolism gets faster!

    I was doing low carb, and finding myself not hungry between meals, resulting in my intake just 3 meals of about 300 cal. I lost about 6kg in the first 2 weeks while I was snacking, but then stopped, then I cut the snacks and hit a plateau for the next 8 weeks or so- eating only 900cal per day!

    Now I am snacking a good 200 cal snack between meals, fruit and protein, and still have the 300 cal low carb meals and the weight has began dropping once more. I have more energy and I love eating again! I have hope now that I can slowly increase my food once I have more muscle too.
  • sheribrasington
    sheribrasington Posts: 75
    Bump for later
  • alexapin
    alexapin Posts: 14 Member
    Bump!
  • mearlie
    mearlie Posts: 224
    :glasses:
  • TinGirl314
    TinGirl314 Posts: 430 Member
    Honestly I wouldn't say that it has made me lose faster...
    The weight loss from 1200 calories is about the same at 1700...but why make it harder than it has to be?
    Of course everyone's needs are different, you will have to go through the calorie-go-round to find what's really gonna work for you. :)
  • TheViperMan
    TheViperMan Posts: 235 Member
    Worked for me - absolutely. I was doing 1400 calories (male, 215 pounds, 5'11") and stuck with weight loss. I upped to about 1900 and dropped 2 pounds the first day, and continued losing weight daily for nearly 2 weeks. I got stuck again, but have had some functions to attend that weren't exactly low-cal...

    I definitely subscribe to "eat enough to lose enough" - what I'm trying to figure out now is whether or not to eat back exercise calories. I am currently enrolling into the "yes you should" class with moderate success.
  • Athena98501
    Athena98501 Posts: 716 Member
    I've read the threads about TDEE and BMR and how important it is not to eat below a certain number if you want to lose weight, okay.

    Now I want to hear how many of you guys actually experienced this phenomenon firsthand - little to no weightloss eating less, and faster, more consistent weight loss eating more. How much were you eating before when your weight loss slowed? How much did you start eating for it to start again? At what rate were you losing both times? I don't want to hear the science behind it, I just want to hear results, because I'm nearly convinced that maybe I need to try the same thing.

    In the first 2 months I was on MFP (at 1300 calories), I only lost 5 pounds. This was extremely discouraging working as hard as I was (especially given how far I had to go), depriving myself so much, and having so little to show for it.

    When I did my own calculations at http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ & www.fat2fitradio.com, I found that MFP had underestimated my BMR & TDEE, and had me eating at between 1300-1400 daily deficit, which is well above what is medically recommended.

    At that point, I starting researching EM2WL, and decided I would benefit from a metabolic reset. This probably isn't necessary for all, but I felt it was for me.

    In the last 2 months, I've lost 10 pounds eating 1700-1800 with a 30/30/40 split (the 40 being fats). The only way I feel at all deprived is with carbs, but I have a metabolic disorder which makes it harder to lose on the default split MFP uses.

    With all that said, if you only need to lose 3.8 pounds, you should be eating at a MUCH smaller deficit anyway. If I were you, I'd go with Scooby's "gain muscle, lose fat" setting, and pick up this book:

    http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Rules-Lifting-Women/dp/1583333398/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350777466&sr=8-1&keywords=new+rules+of+lifting+for+women

    Several of my friends have had amazing results with that.
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,374 Member
    Check out the group - Eat More 2 Weigh Less - there are tons of threads with success stories of people eating more and losing weight.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less


    It can't hurt just to try it !! :flowerforyou:
  • rawhidenadz
    rawhidenadz Posts: 254 Member
    I don't know about eating less, because I never really did that, but I lost weight fairly steadily (6 pounds a month for almost a year straight) by averaging around 2000 calories and exercising regularly. I have absolutely no idea how anyone can manage on 1200 calories! And I don't know WHY they would when MOST people can lose just as well eating a great deal more than that.

    Edit: and I NEVER plateaued, like I see a lot of the 1200ers complaining about doing. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    bump~
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    Apologies in advance for the attention *kitten* photos and links. :laugh: But photos do say more than words.

    In almost all my time on MFP, I've fallen into the "eat more" camp because I always ate my exercise calories and gave up on 1200 within a month of joining here.

    But years ago, I thought I had to eat under 1000 a day to lose, and weight loss was painfully slow. And I was miserable because I wasn't eating enough. And I was miserable because even when I got to my goal weight, I hated my body. Muffin top, back fat rolls, cellulite, double chin... Naked, I looked like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I thought it was because I was 35, had a slow metabolism, and that was just what my body was supposed to look like.

    This time around, I ate about twice as much, weight loss was at it's predictable rate (when aiming to lose one pound a week, I lost one pound a week on average, at a half pound a week, I lost a half pound a week) and seemed effortless. At about the same goal weight, I no longer had back fat rolls, cellulite is all but gone (less than I had as skinny teenager!), one chin, no muffin top... and I'm wearing a size 2 or 4 instead of a tight 8.

    Yeah, weight loss was easier at 40 than at 35. So much for a slowed metabolism and "that's the way my body was supposed to look."

    five-years-later.jpg

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752778-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics

    Recently, I switched to Dan's In Place of a Road Map style of eating (pretty much the same as EM2WL), and doing Stronglifts 5x5. My weight isn't changing, and I'm not expecting it to, but my body is still improving.

    IMG_4999.jpg

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774969-after-the-road-map-switch
  • CymruBiology
    CymruBiology Posts: 39
    I used to lose faster eating under 1000 calories, I did that for many months..I felt weak, dizzy and had mood swings all the time. Its not healthy in any way to be eating a diet like that(but people actually encouraged me to continue eating that little but I lost a lot of fat at first and quickly went from obese to overweight in terms of BMI).

    Now that I've upped my calories to 1700 I'm not losing much weight and I'm binging more but I think overall its better than losing all the fat and lean body mass so quickly.
  • ExplorinLauren
    ExplorinLauren Posts: 991 Member
    bump to read
  • CouleeRunner
    CouleeRunner Posts: 256 Member
    I don't think I've ever eaten just 1200 calories and I've lost over 50 pounds. I almost always eat back my exercise calories so I usually eat anywhere from 1600 to 2000 calories a day.

    To get those last few off I'm trying Dan's in place of a road map style which will have me eating 1800 calories a day regardless of exercise.

    I am a firm believer in eating (and moving) to lose weight.
  • LovingCruz
    LovingCruz Posts: 634 Member
    bump
  • kellyirisheyes
    kellyirisheyes Posts: 137 Member
    I came back from a long weekend home and gained about 3 pounds, even though I stuck to my workout routine every day.
    After I got back, I started upping my intake, both food and water, and increased my protein.
    Those 3 pounds are now gone within a week, so I highly recommend upping your protein and water, especially if you're exercising.
  • sarahisme18
    sarahisme18 Posts: 574 Member
    I did Weight Watchers three times, each time I would ONLY eat my daily points, never my weekly points, and NEVER my workout points. That is how everyone was doing it there. I would lose, most weeks, less than a pound, unless I had a binge day or two... then I *might* lose more, or sometimes I gained. It was a gamble. When I gained, I would just even more strictly adhere to the lowest calorie intake I could. Finally, my last time doing Weight Watchers, I got down to 132.5 lbs. I remember this very clearly. I was so excited, I worked even harder to stick my low calorie intake, but the scale didn't budge. For months. So finally I gave up and just decided that's what weight my body wanted to be at.

    Fast forward a year and a half, and I've gained back about fifteen pounds, easy, and having many other problems with no exercising, binging, no energy, eating fat free and sugar free foods (which, as you know, are not that great for nutrition). So I decided to do MFP. This was back earlier this year. I didn't read anything on the boards, I didn't even make friends... I just logged my calories. I would keep it under 1200 as much as possible even while working out, I never ever ate back my workout calories. For the majority of this year. Yet, I was going to Zumba 3-4 times a week, running, strength training... I only lost about three or four pounds.

    Started getting discouraged again, so gave up for a few weeks. I was hungry all the time, binging sometimes because of it. I gained back the few pounds I lost, within a few weeks.

    Then I started reading the threads, read Dan's roadmap, started thinking about how food was fuel..... I've been eating for about three or four weeks, 1700-1800 calories a day (and not freaking out if I go a little over one day a week), working out, strength training as always.....

    ... and I've already lost 6 pounds! I'm at 132.2 lbs ---below what I ever could get before. I'm not hungry all the time, I have much more energy to work out, when I "binge" it is easier to stop because I'm not so hungry or deprived, and I am not feeling so guilty about a couple hundred extra calories. It is GREAT! I would encourage anyone wondering about this to also check out the Jillian Michaels Master Your Metabolism cookbook, do some research online, etc. Not about what people's opinions are on this, but what the actual science is. I used to think weight loss was this elusive thing... and I think the media wants us to think that so we buy into all the hype diets and fads... but it is NOT. It is science. It's body chemistry. It's nutrition. :)
  • theblitz
    theblitz Posts: 32
    happened to me.
    what happens is that it works at first(restricting) but over time your metabolism adjusts to a lower set rate. so if you eat a tiny extra, you gain and freak out. then restrict even MORE and thus the cycle repeats itself.

    eat healthy.
  • LilacDaffodil
    LilacDaffodil Posts: 148 Member
    for years and years I ate very little most of the time, sometimes as little as a cereal bar per day, but every so often I would binge on pizza/chocolate - the weight piled on. When I started MFP I could not believe that eating so much (1200 cal/day) would make me lose weight. To start with I would have to force myself to eat, I was terrified that my weight would balloon skyward, but I persevered. Some evenings I would weep as I ate. 10 weeks later I am 14lbs down, and my lean body mass has increased by 7lbs, (my body must have been screaming for protein all the years I was starving myself). So, in my experience, EM2WL definitely works. I would recommend it to anyone. But, it needs to be more of the right food, nutritious foods, not empty calories. (Having said that, to start with I had to eat a couple of bags of crisps a day to hit my calorie goal until my stomach got used to the amount of food it was getting every day). Hope that helps. :flowerforyou:
  • xo_Sarah_xo
    xo_Sarah_xo Posts: 308 Member
    I did Weight Watchers three times, each time I would ONLY eat my daily points, never my weekly points, and NEVER my workout points. That is how everyone was doing it there. I would lose, most weeks, less than a pound, unless I had a binge day or two... then I *might* lose more, or sometimes I gained. It was a gamble. When I gained, I would just even more strictly adhere to the lowest calorie intake I could. Finally, my last time doing Weight Watchers, I got down to 132.5 lbs. I remember this very clearly. I was so excited, I worked even harder to stick my low calorie intake, but the scale didn't budge. For months. So finally I gave up and just decided that's what weight my body wanted to be at.

    Fast forward a year and a half, and I've gained back about fifteen pounds, easy, and having many other problems with no exercising, binging, no energy, eating fat free and sugar free foods (which, as you know, are not that great for nutrition). So I decided to do MFP. This was back earlier this year. I didn't read anything on the boards, I didn't even make friends... I just logged my calories. I would keep it under 1200 as much as possible even while working out, I never ever ate back my workout calories. For the majority of this year. Yet, I was going to Zumba 3-4 times a week, running, strength training... I only lost about three or four pounds.

    Started getting discouraged again, so gave up for a few weeks. I was hungry all the time, binging sometimes because of it. I gained back the few pounds I lost, within a few weeks.

    Then I started reading the threads, read Dan's roadmap, started thinking about how food was fuel..... I've been eating for about three or four weeks, 1700-1800 calories a day (and not freaking out if I go a little over one day a week), working out, strength training as always.....

    ... and I've already lost 6 pounds! I'm at 132.2 lbs ---below what I ever could get before. I'm not hungry all the time, I have much more energy to work out, when I "binge" it is easier to stop because I'm not so hungry or deprived, and I am not feeling so guilty about a couple hundred extra calories. It is GREAT! I would encourage anyone wondering about this to also check out the Jillian Michaels Master Your Metabolism cookbook, do some research online, etc. Not about what people's opinions are on this, but what the actual science is. I used to think weight loss was this elusive thing... and I think the media wants us to think that so we buy into all the hype diets and fads... but it is NOT. It is science. It's body chemistry. It's nutrition. :)

    tumblr_mc7zxuK1bm1qfybz2.gif
  • sarahisme18
    sarahisme18 Posts: 574 Member
    for years and years I ate very little most of the time, sometimes as little as a cereal bar per day, but every so often I would binge on pizza/chocolate - the weight piled on. When I started MFP I could not believe that eating so much (1200 cal/day) would make me lose weight. To start with I would have to force myself to eat, I was terrified that my weight would balloon skyward, but I persevered. Some evenings I would weep as I ate. 10 weeks later I am 14lbs down, and my lean body mass has increased by 7lbs, (my body must have been screaming for protein all the years I was starving myself). So, in my experience, EM2WL definitely works. I would recommend it to anyone. But, it needs to be more of the right food, nutritious foods, not empty calories. (Having said that, to start with I had to eat a couple of bags of crisps a day to hit my calorie goal until my stomach got used to the amount of food it was getting every day). Hope that helps. :flowerforyou:

    :drinker:
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    Between October and New Years last year I gained around 6 lbs thanks to a 2 week vacation in Hawaii and eating a whole chocolate cake at Thanksgiving (over a week, not in one setting) and the butter and sugar laden everything my mother makes over my trip home for Christmas.

    I joined MFP and was on 1200 per day for a couple of months with out any scale movement. I kept seeing this "eat more to weigh less" thing but for the life of me I could not wrap my head around it. I kept blaming the problem on the fact that I was 43 years old. I was tired and to be honest, a little grumpy, all the darn time.

    I finally upped my calories to 1400 and low and behold I started losing weight. I made my goal weight(114)and then raised to 1500, and lost down to 110 then raised it to 1600 and got down to 107! I finally stopped losing weight at 1700 plus my exercise calories. As soon as I get my chronic pain managed I am going to try to get back to lifting again and will increase them to 2100 per day.

    I am now 44(5'3.5)years old and have an open diary, feel free to check it out.
  • margrobins
    margrobins Posts: 82 Member
    I'm a prime example of 'eat more, lose more'. When I first started here on MFP I had my calorie limit set at 1200. I usually only ate 1000-1100 and never ate back my exercise calories - so most days my body was running off of only 700-800 cals. My scale would NOT budge no matter how hard I worked out or changed up my workout routine.

    After a few months of an annoying stall, I upped my daily calories to 1450 and started eating back exercise calories. I usually eat around 1600, give or take, depending on my exercise for that day. Look at my ticker - not one of those pounds lost came from massive calorie restriction. But -- that's just my body, we're all different :0)
  • wordena
    wordena Posts: 177 Member
    Out of curiosity what do you guys do for exercise? Those who eat more calories..... I really am interested in doing this, but I'd like the whole picture. :)
  • tlinval
    tlinval Posts: 175 Member
    When I started MFP I had my calories set to 1200. It worked for 6 month for me, but then for about 3 months I stalled. I decided I'd try eating "at the weight I want to be" which is 1506 calories a day. It's only been about 3 weeks, but I feel SO much better, and I've lost 1-1.5 a week, which is what I want. For exercise, I usually walk 30-60 minutes a day, and I *try* to run a few times a week (although I've been fighting off a cold for 2 weeks so no running). Seriously, I feel 1000 times better, I sleep better, I think better, I exercise better, and I'm not hungry ALL day like I was before. Even though I still am very conscious about what I eat, I don't feel like I'm in a jail cell when it comes to food.
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    Out of curiosity what do you guys do for exercise? Those who eat more calories..... I really am interested in doing this, but I'd like the whole picture. :)

    I walk/run but walk more than anything as I am living with some pretty bad chronic pain that running makes worse. I was sidelined from lifting, yoga and pilates when we thought my problem was between L5 and S1 (lower back). I typically spend around 60 minutes 5x per week walking 4 miles per hour. Some days its 45 minutes, some days its 70 and some days I run a mile or two in with the walking.

    I really believe in my case it was a matter of increasing my metabolism by eating more and also eating every few hours.

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