Lost weight by increasing calories? Please Respond

How long has it been since you have not seen a loss?

<snip>I know some people don't believe in this, but when I was pregnant I did not eat enough and doctors found ketones in my urine. <snip>

<snip>Ketones are produced by your body and can damage your liver and kidneys if you continue to "starve" or eat too little for too long of a time.<snip>

You're going to have to eat back up to maintenance at some point, regardless of what calorie number that is. If you let paranoia control you, what's going to happen if you reach your goal and consider upping to maintain? If you lose at higher calories, why would you want to sabotage your RMR which will make it even more challenging to maintain weight later as you age?

So, I've hit a plateau and I think that it maybe due to the fact that I'm not eating enough calories. I generally exercise off about 400 calories a day and have about a 500 calorie deficit each day. I'm thinking that I should start eating to up to the high range of calories, but I'm scared that I will gain. Has anyone beat a plateau or lost more weight by increasing their calories? I need the courage!

To tell you to eat more is wrong.

To tell you to eat less is wrong.

To find the exact amount of calories for you to be in a sustainable calorie deficit is correct. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others. Some people have emotional eating disorders and it comes into play. Even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such and everyone is different. Neither is right or wrong, it just is. The more stress you have the more your hunger hormones get turned on and that comes into play with what kind of calorie deficit you can handle.

You just need to find the correct calories for YOU to be healthy and sustainable and and still lose weight. It might require some experimentation and tremendous patience. You can always notch up and down by 100 until you find what is sustainable and still allows you to lose weight.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

Exercise is to make your lean body mass pretty, strong, and healthy (especially lifting weights).

A calorie deficit is to lose fat. A calorie budget keeps your fat level where you need to be, either losing fat or maintaining.

Nothing else really matters much.

<snip>I know some people don't believe in this, but when I was pregnant I did not eat enough and doctors found ketones in my urine. <snip>

I believe you.

When the average person wakes up in the morning it would not surprise me to find ketones in the urine.

It doesn't matter what they have been eating the previous day, it's what the body does naturally to keep itself alive.

Ketones in the urine is also a rubbish way of determining how many ketones you are producing by the way. You probably had way more than you were detecting, those are just the ones lost.

<snip>Ketones are produced by your body and can damage your liver and kidneys if you continue to "starve" or eat too little for too long of a time.<snip>

Ketones are not toxic in any way, they are a naturally occurring fuel source that is used in the absence of dietary carbohydrate.

People on ketogenic diets are not falling over and getting sick, ketogenic diets have been prescribed for decades as a therapeutic aid to all manner of medical conditions.

But I guess there are a lot of misconceptions out there spread by people who constantly parrot this toxic ketone stuff, including doctors.

Don't confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis, which is a serious condition. Levels of ketones in the latter are WAY higher than those that can be achieved by dietary modification alone.