Eat More to Weigh Less? I THINK NOT!

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Replies

  • dangerousdumpling
    dangerousdumpling Posts: 1,109 Member

    I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

    I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged as you have at your goal.

    Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

    I increased calories, weighed and logged everything, gained a pound, stayed there for exactly four weeks, and finally lost it four weeks later to the day. Then I lost 3 pounds over the next week. If you want to eat more to lose weight, you gotta be consistent, do it right, and give it time. You may need to make some adjustments, but it's worth it.
  • xxtaliaxx
    xxtaliaxx Posts: 123
    I have recently started to track my sodium and it has made a huge difference, I cut back to about 500mg/day. I noticed that the food you were logging put you over the daily sodium levels. This could be why. Hope this helps.

    That's probably the hardest to cut back on. I swear almost everything has sodium in it :frown:
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member

    I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

    I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

    Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

    If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

    You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.
  • xxtaliaxx
    xxtaliaxx Posts: 123
    I was losing weight fine at 1440 but I would still be hungry and about a month ago I started having dizziness and headaches and some people suggested upping my protein and calories and although it has seemed to help with the dizziness and headaches my weight has only dropped 1-2lbs. but only for a day or 2 and right back up to the same number. I only upped it to 1560 but as others have said it takes some time for your body to adjust so I'm going to give it another week or 2 I guess and go from there.

    BTW, what is PFA?

    PFA= Physical Fitness Assessment.
  • losbeatlesmolan
    losbeatlesmolan Posts: 29
    maybe you are gaining muscle and losing body fat, and as muscle weighs for than fat you don't lose any weight?
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
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  • rainbows24
    rainbows24 Posts: 2
    I found that when I was eating 1200 calories a day with about 20 minutes of cardio I dropped weight extremely fast. It is not safe or reccomnded to do that for a continued period of time, but if you are looking to lose weight in a short period of time that will work great. Eat 1200 paired with a medium amount of excersize and you will notice a difference in a short time. do NOT stick to eating 1200 cals for a long period of time you will just burn-out and screw up your metabolism.
  • xxtaliaxx
    xxtaliaxx Posts: 123
    maybe you are gaining muscle and losing body fat, and as muscle weighs for than fat you don't lose any weight?

    My body fat has stayed the same but I weigh more. You know what I hate? The way the military goes about measuring body fat. They tape your neck, waist and hips if you are a female. When they tape me, my BF is at 32+%. I bought a caliper from GNC and measured that way several times and by BF is at 23%.
  • xxtaliaxx
    xxtaliaxx Posts: 123

    I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

    I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

    Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

    If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

    You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.

    I log as much as I can when I can when I know what I'm eating. How am I suppose to go about logging when someone else cooks for me or I eat at a healthy place that doesn't have a nutrition table? Sometimes I don't have time to cook my own foods and therefore it shows up like that in my diary. I try to log like I should. I got frustrated because maybe I was trying too hard.
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
    So I took the advice from people here and I upped my calories by 480 (to 1680) because apparently I should be eating more so I can lose weight. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. I weigh exactly the same if not a pound or 2 more. I've been going to the gym and doing cardio mixed with some weight training on certain days and I even try to get some workouts in while I'm at work. I've been trying to do this because I have weigh ins coming up and I'm now about 5 pounds over my maximum weight and now I'm scrambling to drop it before then. My TDEE is around 2400 and my BMR is somewhere around 1600. So I've been eating as much as I should. This is going to sound bad but since I'm now in a rush to lose these 5 pounds that I gained by trying to eat right and up my calories I don't have time for this. I need to drop this ASAP so I don't fail my PFA. If you think you can help, please, by all means. My diary is open but be warned I have not logged since around 26 MAR because I didn't think it was working. And before anyone says that I gained the weight because I haven't logged that's not true. I've weighed this for the past like 3-4 weeks. WTF.

    1. Upping over 100 calories all at once is too much. You want to increase/decrease steadily over time, not suddenly.

    2. The exact number of calories you should be eating should be between 80% to 85% of your TDEE. Find that here:
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    3. You will not see a change in the scale in a couple weeks. You will see a change in the scale in a couple months.

    4. If you are experiencing any combination of the following: feel good, your clothes are looser, are increasing how much you can lift... then your increase on the scale is probably muscle.

    5. As soon as you said "I have weigh ins coming up and I'm now about 5 pounds over my maximum weight and now I'm scrambling to drop it before then." and " I'm now in a rush to lose these 5 pounds that I gained by trying to eat right and up my calories I don't have time for this. I need to drop this ASAP so I don't fail my PFA." I knew we were going to have problems here.

    This method is not a "fast" method. Honestly I don't think there IS a healthy weight loss method that is fast. The very first thing my doctor told me when I told him I was going to try to lose weight, was that I should go SLOWLY.

    Once we get impatient and try to lose weight faster, that's when we slip into unhealthy habits that will not benefit us in the long run.

    You might be in a hurry - but I encourage you to be patient and to trust the system. Lift heavy things. Keep doing bits of cardio. Drink your water. Track your progress over months - not weeks.

    I have a spreadsheet that may help you if you like. It tracks over the course of a month instead of days the way MFP does. I input my information from MFP into the spreadsheet so that I can get an average over the course of the month. It's much more accurate and helpful than looking at particular days.

    Hope this helps, please feel free to contact me if you have other questions. I'm always happy to help.
  • Anna800
    Anna800 Posts: 639 Member
    It worked for me, can't really help you without seeing the recent diary.
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
    My body fat has stayed the same but I weigh more. You know what I hate? The way the military goes about measuring body fat. They tape your neck, waist and hips if you are a female. When they tape me, my BF is at 32+%. I bought a caliper from GNC and measured that way several times and by BF is at 23%.

    Using a skin pinch caliper will yield different results depending on the person using the caliper. That's why the same person takes my caliper measurements every time. That way it's consistent.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member

    I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

    I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

    Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

    If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

    You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.

    I log as much as I can when I can when I know what I'm eating. How am I suppose to go about logging when someone else cooks for me or I eat at a healthy place that doesn't have a nutrition table? Sometimes I don't have time to cook my own foods and therefore it shows up like that in my diary. I try to log like I should. I got frustrated because maybe I was trying too hard.

    Everyone on here deals with the same issues.
    What I do is search for similar foods. I choose the entries with the higher calories unless I have a really good idea of what the recipe was. If I can't find an entry then I google it. I have yet to run across something I can't estimate. Because I measure and weigh all of my food I have a really good idea of portion sizes now. If I can't guess I aim high.
    I can't tell you how many times I ate something like a regular sandwich and had an idea in my head how much I may have eaten only to sit down and log it to find out I was way off. We really tend to underestimate our food.

    You are never going to be exact outside of a lab, however, by logging as accurately as you can and realistically estimating the rest, it will be close enough. Logging the way you are is obviously not working for you.
  • Fr3shStrt
    Fr3shStrt Posts: 349 Member
    I log as much as I can when I can when I know what I'm eating. How am I suppose to go about logging when someone else cooks for me or I eat at a healthy place that doesn't have a nutrition table? Sometimes I don't have time to cook my own foods and therefore it shows up like that in my diary. I try to log like I should. I got frustrated because maybe I was trying too hard.

    When someone cooks for me I ask them what they used and it what quantity, if they have a recipe I'll make a copy of it and then log it in the recipe builder. If I go out to eat I look for similar items in the database or I look up recipes online for what I ate and use that as a reference. You can't say something doesn't work if you don't really try.
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
    I found that when I was eating 1200 calories a day with about 20 minutes of cardio I dropped weight extremely fast. It is not safe or reccomnded to do that for a continued period of time, but if you are looking to lose weight in a short period of time that will work great. Eat 1200 paired with a medium amount of excersize and you will notice a difference in a short time. do NOT stick to eating 1200 cals for a long period of time you will just burn-out and screw up your metabolism.

    Kudos for including that it is not safe or recommended to do that for a continued period of time. Basically what this person is talking about is IF - Intermittent Fasting - I don't claim to know too much about this topic, but my understanding is that on one day you eat a normal amount of calories, and the next you eat very few calories, and go back and forth day to day and you do this over a short period of time, like maybe a week. I personally don't advocate this method but there are a number of people who swear by it. Search "Intermittent Fasting" in the forum topics if you want more information on that. Maybe that would be helpful.
  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member

    I honestly think thats what my body is doing. It think's I don't need to lose anymore weight (pretty much all of it is concentrated on my midsection) and no matter what I do at the gym by body's like "Oh this is easy...Fun workout time!" And I try to challenge myself every time I go and do something extra...

    I'm going to be really blunt here - this is BS. I've looked at your diary from February on. You are not logging consistently. You admit on some days there are meals you aren't logging. You are blaming it on upping your calories to 1680 when in the last 63 days you have logged about 14 days (not consecutively) at or near that amount (1400-1680). You have as many days where nothing is logged. Then you have very low calorie days where some of these you admit you ate but didn't know what to log.

    Bottom line is you have no idea how much you are really eating.

    If there is one thing that will consistently derail weight loss it's lack of consistency.

    You either do this 100% or you don't do it. That's how it works.

    I log as much as I can when I can when I know what I'm eating. How am I suppose to go about logging when someone else cooks for me or I eat at a healthy place that doesn't have a nutrition table? Sometimes I don't have time to cook my own foods and therefore it shows up like that in my diary. I try to log like I should. I got frustrated because maybe I was trying too hard.

    You guess. Enter a food that's as close to what you ate. It's not going to be perfect, but it's better than not logging it at all!

    I've upped my calories from 1390 to 1800 over the course of 3 weeks. I stayed at or around 177 (a birthday party full of food caused me to go to 178 for a day) ... while I was upping. Today I'm at 174.5, AND I'm eating more. It's great. I can control my sodium by watching how much I eat out and how much processed junk I eat.

    It's not the method that didn't work. It's your approach.
  • xxtaliaxx
    xxtaliaxx Posts: 123
    The place thaf I've been eating at for the past few weeks is a smaller version of whole foods that is completely vegetarian. I have no idea what the calories are for their foods but everything they use is organic. So if I were to look up something similar in the database, I'm sure I wouldn't find it. And I also ate turkey burgers made from scratch (thats what my friend made) with rice for about two weeks and I know I didn't go over because by that time I only had about 1000 calories for the day. I didn't log that because I didn't know accurately how much. And like I said before, I'm not going to eat if I'm not hungry. It's just uncomfortable for me.
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    The place thaf I've been eating at for the past few weeks is a smaller version of whole foods that is completely vegetarian. I have no idea what the calories are for their foods but everything they use is organic. So if I were to look up something similar in the database, I'm sure I wouldn't find it. And I also ate turkey burgers made from scratch (thats what my friend made) with rice for about two weeks and I know I didn't go over because by that time I only had about 1000 calories for the day. I didn't log that because I didn't know accurately how much. And like I said before, I'm not going to eat if I'm not hungry. It's just uncomfortable for me.


    Well, several people have told you what you need to do.

    Good luck with that.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    The place thaf I've been eating at for the past few weeks is a smaller version of whole foods that is completely vegetarian. I have no idea what the calories are for their foods but everything they use is organic. So if I were to look up something similar in the database, I'm sure I wouldn't find it. And I also ate turkey burgers made from scratch (thats what my friend made) with rice for about two weeks and I know I didn't go over because by that time I only had about 1000 calories for the day. I didn't log that because I didn't know accurately how much. And like I said before, I'm not going to eat if I'm not hungry. It's just uncomfortable for me.

    I'm sorry, I'm out. Again, being honest, I see a lot of excuses which is fine if thats what you want to do. My issue is blaming something like eat more to weigh less when that isn't the issue. I've covered that. Good luck.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Organic doesn't mean less calories, it means that they didn't use chemical pesticides or herbicides in growing it, or food irradiation or anything that would introduce toxins. It isn't magically less calories because of that. It is healthier for you, but not because it has less calories.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
    Upping calories to loose weight is completely counter intuitive...

    Find your sweet spot, but lower your calories. My sister is 5"1' and her 1lb calorie goal (and she's been loosing consistently) is 1200 net cal. That also happens to be the lowest total daily consumed that you should ever go for health reasons and to avoid putting your body into starvation mode where your metabolism will begin to slow down.

    You're eating maintenance right now.
  • LBNOakland
    LBNOakland Posts: 379 Member
    I found that when I was eating 1200 calories a day with about 20 minutes of cardio I dropped weight extremely fast. It is not safe or reccomnded to do that for a continued period of time, but if you are looking to lose weight in a short period of time that will work great. Eat 1200 paired with a medium amount of excersize and you will notice a difference in a short time. do NOT stick to eating 1200 cals for a long period of time you will just burn-out and screw up your metabolism.

    Kudos for including that it is not safe or recommended to do that for a continued period of time. Basically what this person is talking about is IF - Intermittent Fasting - I don't claim to know too much about this topic, but my understanding is that on one day you eat a normal amount of calories, and the next you eat very few calories, and go back and forth day to day and you do this over a short period of time, like maybe a week. I personally don't advocate this method but there are a number of people who swear by it. Search "Intermittent Fasting" in the forum topics if you want more information on that. Maybe that would be helpful.

    IF is only eating a certain number of hours a day ie - from 12 pm to 8 pm. In that time, you eat all of your calories. Renegade Diet is an example of IF. skip breakfast, eat light lunch, light snack, feast for dinner. It works for those who eat out or with family and don't control evening calories well.

    zig zagging or calorie cycling is eating heavy on certain days and light on other days. It worries about the number of calories taken in at the end of the week, not daily calories.

    I am in the same boat as you, OP. I have been at this for a month with no change in the scale. It is frustrating. I just lowered my calories back down and am going to try a combo of IF and zigzagging. I have certain meals where I cant control the menu - potluck dinner, client lunches. On the days I can, I am eating light. When I know I have potlucj Wednedays, I skip breakfast and eat a light lunch. Have seen a difference in scale already but not at my official weigh day yet so not recording. I do guesstimate and record EVERYTHING. Feel free to look at my diary, anyone.

    Bottom line - this is not an exact science. It will take constant tweaking and commitment to make this lifestyle change.
  • violinkeri
    violinkeri Posts: 212
    Upping calories to loose weight is completely counter intuitive...

    Find your sweet spot, but lower your calories. My sister is 5"1' and her 1lb calorie goal (and she's been loosing consistently) is 1200 net cal. That also happens to be the lowest total daily consumed that you should ever go for health reasons and to avoid putting your body into starvation mode where your metabolism will begin to slow down.

    You're eating maintenance right now.

    your sister is the exception, not the rule. most of us cannot function on a 1200 calorie diet for an extended period.

    Counter intuitive =/= incorrect. it just means its not what you would expect. If her BMR is 1400, she should never eat below that for her body to function properly. your sister is petite and short and her BMR is lower than the average woman.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    You have not logged consistently for the whole of 2013 - you have missing days all over the place and also partially logged days. Start logging every day, every meal, everything you eat. You cannot make any conclusions until you do that
  • liittlesparrow
    liittlesparrow Posts: 209 Member
    You could just forget the technical crap and just eat when your body tells you to. I don't particularly believe the "eat more weigh less" stuff people on this site say.
  • violinkeri
    violinkeri Posts: 212
    You could just forget the technical crap and just eat when your body tells you to. I don't particularly believe the "eat more weigh less" stuff people on this site say.

    you're too literal. In a way, eat more to weigh less agrees with eating when you are hungry.

    I tried 1200. I was hungry. so i ATE MORE. and now I weigh less. How can you disagree with that??
  • liittlesparrow
    liittlesparrow Posts: 209 Member
    You could just forget the technical crap and just eat when your body tells you to. I don't particularly believe the "eat more weigh less" stuff people on this site say.

    you're too literal. In a way, eat more to weigh less agrees with eating when you are hungry.

    I tried 1200. I was hungry. so i ATE MORE. and now I weigh less. How can you disagree with that??

    How in the world does that agree with eating when you're hungry? Maybe some people just don't eat a lot and they are okay on 1200 calories a day? I'm sure everyone doesn't eat the exact same things every day, so that number can change. That's why I say just eat when you get hungry. You ate more, and you lost weight, that's great. But, shocker, not everyone is you.
  • Shawnzgirl78
    Shawnzgirl78 Posts: 148 Member
    I agree that this is BS.
    The only time you need to eat more is when you exercise. Even then, I try to eat to keep going - protein or whatever - and be healthy.
    This is one piece of advice I REFUSE to listen to because my experience shows that when I eat more, I weigh more!!! AND I want to eat more.
    I will continue to eat what I do and not worry about THAT advice.
    Doin' JUST FINE here, thanks :)
  • liittlesparrow
    liittlesparrow Posts: 209 Member
    I agree that this is BS.
    The only time you need to eat more is when you exercise. Even then, I try to eat to keep going - protein or whatever - and be healthy.
    This is one piece of advice I REFUSE to listen to because my experience shows that when I eat more, I weigh more!!! AND I want to eat more.
    I will continue to eat what I do and not worry about THAT advice.
    Doin' JUST FINE here, thanks :)

    Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
  • KaraAlste
    KaraAlste Posts: 168 Member
    I've never heard that. Before I do anything, I mention it to my grandmother or an elder. If they have never heard of it, it is simply fabricated. Go back to what was working for you before. I am not sure what you are preparing for, but don't be a nervous wreck. Get yourself straight and try again. :smile:

    And, it is very important to log in everyday. Ecspecially, if you are working towards a goal.

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