Eating more to lose weight??

remember also that if you've been eating so little you may initially put on weight until your body gets used to being able to use the extra calories! Also I try and avoid all diet processed food (i.e. low calorie) as they tend to have more sugar in to compensate for the lack of fat/taste! I now prefer to have more tasty full fat varieties in smaller quantities than vast amounts of what ends up being sugar! Remember good fats are your friend and do not need to be avoided but just counted in your daily calorie allowance! Good luck!

1500-1600 is not a lot, especially as that will include some exercise calories (I'm guessing the trainer hasn't said to "eat back" exercise calories).

How much do you want to lose? From your pic it can't be very much.

I'm 145-148 (it seriously goes up and down constantly) and I'd LOVE to get down to 130 or less, but I'd be happy with 135

And my trainer said nothing about "eating back". He just gave me my meal plan and said 3-4 days a week at the gym and to mainly focus on strength training but have at least 2 cardio days also.

Hi! Welcome to MFP!

Stick with what your trainer is advising because will see him on a regular basis and if the plan he has set out for you does not work, he will know how to adapt it.

Give it a shot.

Yes, I agree with this.

It's all about metabolism. If you go a while eating too little, it won't matter how much you're working out-- you won't lose weight. Your body adjusts in order to ensure survival. It's called metabolic damage. Someone else posted this in another thread, and I found it to be VERY insightful! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

bump

I suspect that is with exercise - what they talk about on MFP as 'eating back your calories'.

I 'net' 1230 - in other words, after exercise is subtracted out, I have 1230 calories left a day for running my body's daily functions. Because I'm set to lose a pound a week, that means I NEED 1730 to maintain myself. Because I'm not eating that, I take the extra from my body's savings - fat. I eat 3 times a day plus a snack usually at 9 (read desert).

You will be exercsing, so if you eat what you were told, with exercise, you are netting less than that - I'm guessing 1200 calories on average - more on days you're not at the gym and less on days you are.

It is EASY to eat 1500 calories. A big glass of milk or orange juice, two slices of toast with butter is more than 500 calories. A bagel with cream cheese is 500 calories. If it wasn't easy to eat 1500 calories/day, we wouldn't be here logging our food.

remember also that if you've been eating so little you may initially put on weight until your body gets used to being able to use the extra calories! Also I try and avoid all diet processed food (i.e. low calorie) as they tend to have more sugar in to compensate for the lack of fat/taste! I now prefer to have more tasty full fat varieties in smaller quantities than vast amounts of what ends up being sugar! Remember good fats are your friend and do not need to be avoided but just counted in your daily calorie allowance! Good luck!

This is good info.
Listen to the trainer and give it TIME to work. Bodies fluctuate quite a bit and your results won't be seen daily, but over the course of a few weeks or more.
Any immediate weight loss or weight gain won't be due to fat & muscle, but more like water and how fast or slow food moves thru your digestive system.

the 5 meals a day thing is broscience. it's not based on actual facts. you can eat all of your calories in a single meal if you want, it will have little or no impact on your weight loss or metabolism.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/820577-meal-frequency-rev-up-that-furnace-lol

eating "more" has to do with both meeting your macro requirements, as well as keeping your body from being "stressed" by your weight loss to a point where it produces an excess of cortisol, which seems to then cause your body to start conserving energy as a preventative measure. this is often blamed for weight loss stalls and plateaus.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/817188-iifym

Hi, and welcome!! I think the links that BrainyBurro provided are a great way to start learning about how to really lose weight sensibly, forever -- I hope you'll read them. The one about setting your calorie and macro targets was the single most important piece of info I got when I started here.

I do eat often throughout the day but that's just because that is what I prefer. You can eat whenever you like but it is important to get enough protein and fats.

Your trainer gave generally good advice, too. Give it a try and see what happens. And let us know how you are doing!

I work nights.....
at 12am I snack on an apple
2am I snack on a bowl of dry cereal..... special K chocolaty delight
3am lunch
I sleep from 7am to 3pmish
4pm is supper
Then exercise class
9pm a small snack before work.

It's all about metabolism. If you go a while eating too little, it won't matter how much you're working out-- you won't lose weight. Your body adjusts in order to ensure survival. It's called metabolic damage. Someone else posted this in another thread, and I found it to be VERY insightful! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

With all due respect many people are taking this video way, way, way out of context.

This ^^^

I bet those staving kids in Africa would appreciate some of the Broscience that is appearing on these Forums nowadays - it could put paid to all the starvation and save lives - not.

A lot of people say 1500-1600 is not a lot, and at the beginning it actually wasn't. now i struggle to come close to that. i maybe eat 1000-1200 per day and i'm at 255 lbs! I eat all day long too so i'm not starving myself, i just eat a lot of fruit and such thats low in calories.

try to eat about 1200-1300 and you should be fine, also exercise too