Eat more weigh less folks - please help!

1200 really doesn't have any meaning other than this... it's the minimum calorie level that seems to be sufficient for getting the proper mix of nutrients. what this means is that a bunch of folks worried solely about the nutritional aspect of diets have decided that as a general rule, nobody should eat below this amount without medical supervision.

when it comes to the amount of energy your body needs, 1200 is too low for most people. certainly the vast majority of men, and even the majority of women.

what happens is this... if you eat too few calories for a prolonged period of time, your body attempts to adjust to the lower caloric intake. it does that by simultaneously trying to get more efficient with its use of those calories, while also redirecting where it uses those calories. this is why people on large calorie deficits will often start losing their hair. the body just doesn't consider hair growth or health to be a high priority metabolic function when it no longer has a surplus of calories to spend each day. the increased efficiency manifests itself as slowed weight loss (slowed fat loss!). this is what confuses people and makes them think that they are gaining fat. they are not. they are simply not losing it as quickly anymore.

none of this is starvation mode. starvation mode is something that happens when you are literally starving yourself of calories and your BF% is so low that your body starts to consume itself to stay alive. think of the WWII death camps and how many of those people looked when they were freed. some of them were so far gone that even feeding them copious amounts of food after liberation was not enough to save them. that's starvation mode. if you were ever get to this point, you'd need medical assistance immediately.

what happens for the people on here is often called adaptive thermogenesis. that's basically a fancy way of saying that your BMR starts to drop due to a low calorie diet. the amount of this drop seems to be debated. some say it's not much more than 10%. others seem to think it can be larger. either way, this is what people often believe causes plateaus. the "eat more" crowd is not saying that eating more calories will cause you to lose weight per se... what they are saying is that you need to eat more if you find yourself in this situation in order to get your metabolism back on track, so that your weight loss can resume. it's really more of a "fix" for over-stressing your body by under-eating and a strategy for resuming your weight loss with a more suitable calorie deficit.

I dont really follow the "eat more, weight less" rule....it defo wouldn't work for me but it seems popular on MFP!

I think it's hard to give advise without looking at your food diary and exersice regime....you work out 4 times a week, but for how long and doing what?

In my experience (having lost 20lb in the past but then getting lazy) I do believe that 1200 is sufficient for the human body and exercise is the way forward....4 intense work outs a week on 1200 is never going to force your body into starvation mode IMO.

Sorry I havent got any advice on the thread title.....

*Holding breath for the abuse I might get from the "Eat More" crew.....*

1200 really doesn't have any meaning other than this... it's the minimum calorie level that seems to be sufficient for getting the proper mix of nutrients. what this means is that a bunch of folks worried solely about the nutritional aspect of diets have decided that as a general rule, nobody should eat below this amount without medical. supervision.

when it comes to the amount of energy your body needs, 1200 is too low for most people. certainly the vast majority of men, and even the majority of women.

what happens is this... if you eat too few calories for a prolonged period of time, your body attempts to adjust to the lower caloric intake. it does that by simultaneously trying to get more efficient with its use of those calories, while also redirecting where it uses those calories. this is why people on large calorie deficits will often start losing their hair. the body just doesn't consider hair growth or health to be a high priority metabolic function when it no longer has a surplus of calories to spend each day. the increased efficiency manifests itself as slowed weight loss (slowed fat loss!). this is what confuses people and makes them think that they are gaining fat. they are not. they are simply not losing it as quickly anymore.

none of this is starvation mode. starvation mode is something that happens when you are literally starving yourself of calories and your BF% is so low that your body starts to consume itself to stay alive. think of the WWII death camps and how many of those people looked when they were freed. some of them were so far gone that even feeding them copious amounts of food after liberation was not enough to save them. that's starvation mode.

what happens for the people on here is often called adaptive thermogenesis. that's basically a fancy way of saying that your BMR starts to drop due to a low calorie diet. the amount of this drop seems to be debated. some say it's not much more than 10%. others seem to think it can be larger. either way, this is what people often believe causes plateaus. the "eat more" crowd is not saying that eating more calories will cause you to lose weight per se... what they are saying is that you need to eat more if you find yourself in this situation in order to get your metabolism back on track, so that your weight loss can resume. it's really more of a "fix" for over-stressing your body by under-eating and a strategy for resuming your weight loss with a more suitable calorie deficit.

Agreed, but don't waste your breath on her, she eats under 1200 cals, complains about being tired and not having energy for the tough workouts she does (tbf they were pretty hard) and isn't open to things that are working for others who have studied nutrition.

@davekang Yes it says that my BMR is 1560. Reducing that by 300-500 calories a day would put me in line with the 1200 recommended by MFP.

No, BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - basically calories you burn if you were to just lie there and do nothing) is not what you reduce. you would take 300-500 calories off of your TDEE amount.