Who didn't lose weight until they upped their calories?

Me.

I upped mine to 1550 and ate back exercise calories and it came off, until lately.

When I felt weak and tired from eating around 1300 calories I upped it to 1700 and lost weight at the same rate.

Why eat 1300 when I can eat 1700 and lose the same amount?

I was a skeptic until I stopped losing weight a couple months back. I was eating 1600 calories and upped to to 2000. I have started losing weight again.

Its weird, but it works.

bump for later

Now that i'm at my goal weight i'm bumping my calories up. I've been averaging about 1400 while losing weight. This week i'm bumping it up to 1600-1700 and then the week after increase even more.

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

I agree

None of us are on this website because we want to eat loads and sit sown all day and lose weight, because we know if that were possible, we wouldn't be on this website.

I started MFP at 192lbs on January 1st 2013, wanted to lose 2lbs a week. I'm 5'7 and was 30 years old (am now 31). Started on the recommended 1200 calories a day, never went hungry, just ate sensibly, lost 17lbs. Then I stalled. Bear in mind I used to go to the gym 3 times a week, play netball twice a week, kettlebell class once a week, so my exercise pattern didn't change over this entire time. I started reading and found the whole TDEE-20% thing, upped my calories to 1700, added weightlifting (no bulkiness here), and gave it a try. For the first few weeks, nothing changed. However, since then I have lost a pound each week, but I still go to the gym 2-3 times a week and play netball twice a week and I eat more without overeating. My TDEE is around 2100-2200 calories and this is the MINIMUM I should eat if I want to maintain my current weight, which I don't. Dropping 400-500 calories is hardly a small deficit, yet I am still losing doing the same exercise. I'm just not losing 2lbs a week, which is fine with me because as long as the number on the scale goes down, my bodyfat level goes down, my measurements go down and my clothes sizes go down and they all STAY down, I don't care.

Professional athletes are lean because they are...professional athletes who train 900 hours a day and eat whatever they like because they burn it off. My friend is a semi-pro triathlete and on training days can eat anything upto 4000 calories. He has 12% body fat. So the idea that athletes are lean simply because they move more than they eat, and therefore the same rule should apply to all of us, is crazy. I can almost guarantee that most people don't do 6 hours of training in the pool, on the bike or on the road 4 days a week, and therefore of course if normal people ate 4000 calories a day, they'd need a double wide coffin fairly soon. My body fat level is atrocious, and it'd be great if my body could just eat all my fat and make me thinner but it'd pretty soon eat all my muscle fibres with it (as my body will use what it has for energy) and I'd just be a skeleton. Not really the look I am going for.

Eat a sensible amount of reasonably clean food, make sure it fits your macros, continue to move but don't starve yourself. 1200 calories is a huge drop from what most people should be eating to maintain and less than you'd get if you were in a coma. Try it out, for a month, continue making sensible choices, and if it really doesn't work, at least you can say you've tried. I was skeptical but... every week the scale says it works.

I still need to be convinced of this whole "not enough calories" thing. I still go back to the cliche "you don't see any fat Etheopians". It just doesn't make sense. If you don't have enough calories, your body will use what it has for energy. This is why professional atthletes, college athletes, high school athletes, people in third world countries who have to walk 4 miles a day just to get water for their family, active children, marathon runners, gym rats, etc. etc etc. are all lean. This whole concept of having too much of a caloric deficit is rediculous, and another excuse for people to eat more and sit on their *kitten*. Move, move, move. That's all there is to it. You can't be a highly active person, eat a clean diet, and be fat. Our bodies just don't work like that. As long as you are getting enough nutrition and working your butt off, you will be lean. Period. If your not losing fat, move more, lift more. Eat enough to meet your macro and micro requirements and stay the course. It will come off. It can't not.

I agree

None of us are on this website because we want to eat loads and sit sown all day and lose weight, because we know if that were possible, we wouldn't be on this website.

Professional athletes are lean because they are...professional athletes who train 900 hours a day and eat whatever they like because they burn it off. My friend is a semi-pro triathlete and on training days can eat anything upto 4000 calories. He has 12% body fat. So the idea that athletes are lean simply because they move more than they eat, and therefore the same rule should apply to all of us, is crazy. I can almost guarantee that most people don't do 6 hours of training in the pool, on the bike or on the road 4 days a week, and therefore of course if normal people ate 4000 calories a day, they'd need a double wide coffin fairly soon. My body fat level is atrocious, and it'd be great if my body could just eat all my fat and make me thinner but it'd pretty soon eat all my muscle fibres with it (as my body will use what it has for energy) and I'd just be a skeleton. Not really the look I am going for.

Thanks for this! kept opening this thread and trying to reply to the previously stated bull**** but kept getting too angry to form a good answer.

I think people that come on this forum and claim that there is no possible way weight loss can stall if you eat too little are just trying to shame people and make them feel bad about themselves

I'm going to share a couple of links about eating too low

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

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

and this is a good one, too

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/475726-very-low-calorie-diets-and-metabolic-damage

bump

Upping my calories was one of the best things I did. I eat anywhere between 1,800-2,300 calories a day and I have maintained my weight while losing body fat. Definitely eat more if you want to gain muscle mass and lose body fat.

bump

so many encouraging messages here! Its just a case of taking that first step, going against everything I've ever been told about diets, and seeing where that takes me! Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - really useful!

I'm going to share a couple of links about eating too low

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

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

and this is a good one, too

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/475726-very-low-calorie-diets-and-metabolic-damage

Thanks so much for the links...good stuff! There was one other trainer with a story like the 2nd link...he upped his client to 2200 per day! Eventually settled into about 1700 while she was losing I think, then she can maintain on ~2000 - pretty decent and liveable amount!

I do wonder if the science changes as amount of BF goes up - like those above 40 BMI - most of the posters seem like they were trying to "change" composition to muscle or have not too terribly much to lose? Either way....interesting discussion for sure.

I've been eating my TDEE - 20% for 3 months (1500 calories per day), haven't lost a pound. I'm now reducing it to 1350 to see if that helps. I also workout 6 days a week.