Upping calories. But by how much?

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DancingJester
DancingJester Posts: 76 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I decided to up my calories due to not losing weight in 4 weeks. I was eating between 1100 and 1300 calories a day (averaging at 1200).
I upped it to 1400 a week ago, but still not loss (although I have to be patient) do you think 1400-1500 is okay?

I am 137lb and 5'7ft

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    So if you are not losing weight on 1100-1300 why would you lose on 1400?????

    To lose weight you need a claorie deficet and if you aren't losing weight chances are you are not in a deficet...

    Do you weigh your food? choose entries that reflect the weight and are correct (usda entries)? Do you exercise? and if yes how many of those calories do you eat? all of them? some of them?

    ETA: I guess what I am getting at is that you could be eating more than you think...
  • DancingJester
    DancingJester Posts: 76 Member
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    Obviously nobody has ever told you about your metabolism slowing down once you have gone past your natural weight. You body will get tired of losing weight and stop. You need to speed up your metabolism to keep losing weight (been told this by a professional by the way) yes I weigh my food, no I'm not eating more and I lost 35lb and now its stopped. Look it up, and listen to other peoples stories.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Obviously nobody has ever told you about your metabolism slowing down once you have gone past your natural weight. You body will get tired of losing weight and stop. You need to speed up your metabolism to keep losing weight (been told this by a professional by the way) yes I weigh my food, no I'm not eating more and I lost 35lb and now its stopped. Look it up, and listen to other peoples stories.

    wow...snark much...

    you have at and with an attitude like this good luck with life in general.......:bigsmile:

    ETA: Glad you have this all figured out at such a young age..I will look for your next best selling book/show/blog etc.
  • emixxxxx
    emixxxxx Posts: 2
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    SezxyStef, You should stop giving people advices since, clearly, you don't know anything about human metabolism.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    People have 'told me' about that. Doesn't make it the truth, I'm afraid.
    Did the professional provide peer reviewed studies to back up his claims. What sort of 'professional' was it? IN the UK (guessing you are from your dress sizing?) there's certainly a lot of people with outdated and in some cases purely incorrect information out there.
    In all the peer reviewed studies I've seen, that's not been the conclusion they've drawn.

    How long were you eating at that calorie level?

    I believe in some cases the body will lower BMR to the point that the calorie deficit is cancelled, however from what I've seen such cases are generally very rare.
    If your diary was open, we could get an idea of what you eat/exercise to offer better advice.

    HOWEVER, it looks like you're pretty near what would be considered a 'healthy weight'. Further weight loss will ideally be pretty slow to get to your desired weight for race horses.
  • pavenewpaths
    pavenewpaths Posts: 28
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    Kind of funny that she's got 5 lbs to get to her weight lose and the OP is struggling with losing weight...

    OP: There really is no need to be rude, you've asked for advice and people are only trying to help/make suggestions. That being said, calculate your TDEE and subtract 20% (or better, just 15%). You're fairly small already so it's just going to take a bit longer to lose weight.
  • mortuseon
    mortuseon Posts: 579 Member
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    People have 'told me' about that. Doesn't make it the truth, I'm afraid.
    Did the professional provide peer reviewed studies to back up his claims. What sort of 'professional' was it? IN the UK (guessing you are from your dress sizing?) there's certainly a lot of people with outdated and in some cases purely incorrect information out there.
    In all the peer reviewed studies I've seen, that's not been the conclusion they've drawn.

    How long were you eating at that calorie level?

    I believe in some cases the body will lower BMR to the point that the calorie deficit is cancelled, however from what I've seen such cases are generally very rare.
    If your diary was open, we could get an idea of what you eat/exercise to offer better advice.

    HOWEVER, it looks like you're pretty near what would be considered a 'healthy weight'. Further weight loss will ideally be pretty slow to get to your desired weight for race horses.

    +1
    Sometimes people find, for whatever reason, that eating with a smaller deficit helps them lose more easily. But you WILL lose more slowly on this amount.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    People have 'told me' about that. Doesn't make it the truth, I'm afraid.
    Did the professional provide peer reviewed studies to back up his claims. What sort of 'professional' was it? IN the UK (guessing you are from your dress sizing?) there's certainly a lot of people with outdated and in some cases purely incorrect information out there.
    In all the peer reviewed studies I've seen, that's not been the conclusion they've drawn.

    How long were you eating at that calorie level?

    I believe in some cases the body will lower BMR to the point that the calorie deficit is cancelled, however from what I've seen such cases are generally very rare.
    If your diary was open, we could get an idea of what you eat/exercise to offer better advice.

    HOWEVER, it looks like you're pretty near what would be considered a 'healthy weight'. Further weight loss will ideally be pretty slow to get to your desired weight for race horses.

    +1
    Sometimes people find, for whatever reason, that eating with a smaller deficit helps them lose more easily. But you WILL lose more slowly on this amount.

    This. You're probably eating more than you think, and increasing your calories is not going to help. Do you weigh all your food?
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
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    Obviously nobody has ever told you about your metabolism slowing down once you have gone past your natural weight. You body will get tired of losing weight and stop. You need to speed up your metabolism to keep losing weight (been told this by a professional by the way) yes I weigh my food, no I'm not eating more and I lost 35lb and now its stopped. Look it up, and listen to other peoples stories.

    huh_zpsa6da929a.gif
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    Oh; I meant to add; I would consider trying something like a 'lean gains' intermittant fasting' approach.
    Only problem is it's really designed to go around a weights workout.

    On weights days I eat a base of at least 2400 and non-weights days 1400. Any cardio on top of that and I'll often eat an extra couple of hundred anyway. I've had as quick weight loss as a previous case where I was eating 1400 base everyday and not doing weights.
    When I had a friend's dog and was going for a run every day I was AVERAGING about 3000 calories a day and still losing 2lb/week.

    Of course, I'm good bit bigger than you (hell, your target isn't THAT much heavier than my dog!) so 2lb loss for me is easier as it's a smaller percentage of my weight.
  • Edensienna
    Edensienna Posts: 180 Member
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    I have been struggling to reach my goal since December... As I near my goal, weightloss has stalled. I upped my calories from 1310 to 1530 with a goal of .5lbs loss per week. This small increase has lead to a small weightloss in the past weeks.

    I totally believe a deficit is key but maybe a smaller deficit may help you jump start even a minimal loss... I know for with its been so encouraging to see any loss after all my hard work :)
  • Ortax
    Ortax Posts: 98
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    I never understood the logic behind upping calories if you're not losing weight. In order to lose weight you have to be in a calorie deficit. So if you're not losing weight at low calories, you're either miscounting calories or just eating too much. And before anyone says "but muh muhtabolisms!" the truth is that your metabolism isn't going to drastically slow down. At most it will slow down by 10%.

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