Plateau - anybody increase calorie intake and have success?

I hit a plateau for over a month. Read that I should up my calories. I was scared but I did it. I've lost 3 pounds sine then. It definitely works. I was amazed!

Unfortunately, I've had many plateaus. Not a single one was broken by upping my cals. I also don't lose eating at anywhere near my calculated tdee. The only thing that makes me lose is to decrease my cals.

I analyzed my net cals and my daily weigh ins for the last year and the data shows my bmr is about 25% lower than my stats suggest. My weight curve precisely correlates my net cal curve. PRECISELY. If i stay at my own empirically calculated cal level, I lose. The further above it I go, the less I lose. No magic, simply energy balance in action. The few experiments I've done increasing cals were dissappointing to say the least.

No one wants to believe in the idea that more cals is better more than I do. For me at least, it doesn't seem to be true.

Well, you shouldn't increase to 1400 or 1500 in one day; that's when it's really likely that you'll gain weight.But you most likely should increase your caloric intake! I would recommend increasing calories slowly Maybe by around 50 calories every 2 days until you get to about 1350. Then I'd stay there for about 2 weeks and see how it goes. If you're still stuck, increase again to about 1450/1500. Good luck!

Why are people so afraid to gain a couple of lbs. if they up their calorie intake? If increasing doesn't work for you then decrease again or amp up your work outs. You can lose any weight you gain if a caloric increase isn't your fit. You've already lost some weight before hitting the plateau so you know its doable. Take a chance and give it some time, what do you have to lose? Nothing but more weight.

I was in a plateau for 9 months. Working out harder wasn't doing it. Bottom line, my calories were way too low. In the last two weeks I've increased my caloric intake by 100 calories a day. I'll raise that 100 calories once I plateau again. Guess what? The weight is starting to come off again. You just have to figure out how many calories to consume to lose the weight while doing it safely.

I've thought about this a LOT. Sadly, I've yet to discover any peer-reviewed scientific studies that suggest that increasing your daily cals will help bust a plateau.

Every piece of serious scientific literature I find on the subject agrees that if your body levels off at a certain TDEE, increasing your cals will not increase your TDEE by the same amount that you up your cals. The same is true in reverse. There is adaptive thermogenesis that takes place when you decrease your intake, but the decrease in daily burn never outpaces the reduction in intake. Why would it? It doesn't make sense that nature would design you that way. It's a shame that the Minnesota Starvation studies have ethical considerations that preclude further investigations, because it provided some powerful data.

You do get diminishing returns, that is true. But DIMINISHING, not reversing. The term "Starvation Mode" is thrown around WAAAAAAAAAAY too much. The only people in Starvation Mode are LITERALLY starving. That's not most of us. Even most of those with VLCDs.

I'm really not doubting the people who had success with increasing their calories. There are many reasons why it may work for them, notably the increase in workout intensity that they are able to generate from having more calories available in the first place. But from a purely energy balance standpoint, it shouldn't work. If you are going to consider increasing your calories I think you should do it with the intent of working harder in the gym, and tailor your physical output to match.

I'm also a firm believer that fat loss is entirely a dietary challenge, and exercise is for improving the abilities of your body. In other words, fat loss is accomplished in the kitchen, and fitness is accomplished in the gym. The two efforts DO fit together symbiotically. Used together properly you have a powerful 1-2 combination to transform your body. Used separately you may encounter difficulties because you aren't taking a "balanced" approach.

At the end of the day, when the dust settles, the smoke clears, and the reverberations from the explosions die off you still need to eat less than you burn to lose fat. So perhaps evaluate how balanced your approach is and decide whether you need to up your exercise or down your intake and set your cals accordingly. Just my $0.02 on a subject I have a vested interest in.

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