why does eating more = weight loss?

700 calories a day and not losing
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

Can everyone stop responding to these two people (the original poster and the person who posted after) they are looking for flaws in whatever you post in order to prove themselves right... if they want to eat under what their body needs let them. It doesn't matter what info you give them, they are dead set on proving their point and eating less.

This is like having a conversation with a chair, nothing will come of it. Spend your time answering questions of those here who are eager to learn, and want support.

Do you know what "academic question" means? Me and the OP both eat way more than 1200 calories a day (I have seen his diary) and we are simply interested in the science of metabolism, we are not trying to justify low calorie diets. Jeez.

eta: DO NOT EAT LESS THAN YOUR BMR! It is bad for your health. I do not advocate under-eating. Yesterday I had 2200 calories and I am not fat! (is that better?)

If you are really interested in the academic explanation, find a copy of Ancel Keys, et al, The Biology of Human Starvation, 2 vols. Used copies are hard to find and pricey, and the only libraries likely to have it will be in a university. But it will have all the information you want, and more.

i eat 1800 cals a day and loose weight steadily.

I find it very hard to accept this "fact" too-- the fact is, eating "more" is what got me here.

Yesterday I thought "I should really try this" because I've been here a solid month, logging food, eating well, exercising every day, and the scale has moved NONE. But my low-cal menu is good, FOR ME. Yesterday, in order to get more calories, I ate a Kit Kat, and later had some wine and whole wheat toast with marmalade and a spoonful of Nutella. This is going to help me lose weight? It never has in the past. Is there some magic that if I eat more under the auspices of MFP, it will make me lose weight instead of gain????

There is a difference in eating more than you are, and eating more than your TDEE.

many peope could eat more than the 1200 that they are eating, and still lose weight.

i eat 1800 cals a day and loose weight steadily.

You are only 21. You are losing 50 pounds. As you get closer to your goal, 1800 might not work as well, but it may-- because you are 21. I looked at your diary. I would never lose weight eating those foods, but good for you that you can, now. Things change.

You guys know that metabolism slows as you age, right? I am 61.

I completely agree with you people who doesn't achieve their weight goal the reason behind it is not controlling on what they eat.
First step is always controlling your diet you can get what you need physically,That is the main reason of not losing weight,Eat healthy and clean food.

Well, she said 500-900..not 500...and yes, some freaky things do happen when you starve yourself..not everyone winds up emaciated. I've met women doing copious amounts of cardio and eating ~1000 calories and weren't horribly thin and weren't losing weight, what happened? By the numbers you'd assume they were in weight loss mode but NOPE! That's just not what happens. The metabolic impact of such diets are different for different people so reaching homeostasis on 900 calories wouldn't be unheard of--yes, she'd be close to goal by then (most likely) but she'd lose heaps of muscle.

What happened is self-reported calorie intake is worthless data. Put her in a controlled environment where we KNOW how many calories she is consuming and watch what happens.

I lost 45lbs only eating 1200 but for the last two months have stalled so last week after some advice I upped my intake to 1400 and I couldn't believe in when I lost 4lbs in the first week. I was skeptic at first but the evidence for me proved different.

Starvation is the bodies retraction to limited nutrients. Starving peoples bodies will eat up fat and muscle then begin on any other tissue mass available. Starvation also included dehydration due to lack of fluids which causes body spaces to fill with air, hence large pushed out stomachs in starving people.

This is completely different from people dieting and hitting walls with weight loss as they are sufficiently providing the body with nutrition all be it a low calories but regular meals.

This is the biggest load of crap I think I have ever read. People's bodies fill up with air, seriously? And they become dehydrated?

Wow.

A large calorie deficit leads to edema, which varies greatly from individual to individual. The body will retain excess water. Keys' Minnesota study devoted an entire chapter to edema, and was his greatest surprise. The subjects drank twice as much fluid during starvation than they had before starvation began. The body will continue to lose fat and a small amount of muscle during extended periods of very low calories, but retain water. That is what "stalls" weight loss. When calories are increased the body will shed excess fluid, which is why many believe in increasing calories, and "starvation mode." It is mostly increased water. Metabolism does slow during extended starvation, but not nearly as much as people believe. The Minnesota study noted a range of ten to twenty percent, depending on the individual.

There is a sweet spot, if you will, a certain amount of calories for your activity level, where you will not lower your metabolism or retain water, and weight loss willbe most consistent.

I basically decided I was going to stop responding to posts re: calories at all because I posted a dozen studies in one that showed that this is true even for people on a VLCD or BDD (balanced dietary deficit) and still got blasted because I said that 1200 wasn't too low for everyone. But this has soo much truth. The Minnesota Starvation study showed that the changes in metabolism (even at the point of starvation and when people only had "essential" body fat) was (as stated above) pretty minimal 10-20%. Reasons people don't see weight loss are more likely related to water retention or underestimation of caloric intake.

I read an article by a doctor one time who said that he has people who come and tell him that they are eating 1200 (or even 800) calories a day and not losing weight. He said that, without exception, when he put those people in the hospital and actually fed them a measured 1200 cal/ day diet they lost weight. Every time.

I think it's an interesting thing to study. If you go to scholar.google.com you can find an absurd number of studies on metabolism and changes related to calories, etc... Most of the time RMR or BMR won't change with diet. There have been a few studies (especially those on "lean" individuals) that find (just like the Minnesota Starvation study) that calorie restriction leads to a 10-20% decrease in RMR/BMR most show that after the calorie restriction is removed, RMR/BMR returns to normal within a period of time (different studies show some different times).

I am posting this for purely academic thinking and not saying that people should eat less than 1200 calories (unless under the supervision of a doctor or as dictated by medical conditions).

Edit to add: There are also many studies that show that, especially with strength training, muscle mass will be preserved over the course of calorie restricted diets until starvation actually begins (essential body fat %).

I think that looking it up on google scholar is the best place to find these awesome studies without bias.

Lady Raven,

I posted earlier that you have to eat more of the right stuff. If you're eating a lot of sugars just to meet your calorie intake you won't see the results you seek. So again, its not necessarily eating more but eating more of the right stuff. Just because the scale isn't moving, doesn't mean that you're not losing weight. Women lose weight in different areas of our bodies. If your clothes are starting to fit looser or you're noticing that your face is slimming or even the area around your hips your program is working. A lot of times we don't necessarily notice the differences because we're staring at ourselves regularly. Others will definitely notice the small changes and you have to take that as small victories.

Another reason why the scale may not be changing is because you may be losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time depending on what type of exercising you're doing. Muscle weighs more than fat. Your body should have more muscle than fat (muslce also helps your body to burn fat faster) so again that's a good thing. Something that will help you to see the difference between your body fat percentage and your body muscle percentage would be to do a BOD POD test. It measures your body composition and tells you your true body mass (pounds), fat free mass (muscle) and your total percent of your body that is fat.