success with adding more calories for weight loss?

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soooo just calculated after getting annoyed of being in the 160-164 all month…

BMR is: 1685 CALORIES/DAY
TDEE is: 2465 CALORIES/DAY
recomended i eat for fat loss:
Fat Loss
1849 CALORIES/DAY
…quite a big jump..
ive been eating anywhere from 1200-1600, prob more on the mid/ low end with excercise 5 days a week. (strength, hiit &some cardio)
feel free to take a look at my diary, (warning,i kinda fell off the logging wagon, it is a bit spiratic, and i know i have under eaten a few days :smooched: )

i just raised my levels from 1350-1450,
im going on vacation in 4 days so after i get back, and back on TRACK TRACK i will try to incrase my cals 100 every two weeks?

has anyone been stuck in super platue and found that eating more helped bust out of it?by how much? or did you gain? or or or?
thanks guys!

also i am 5'8,28
i do fitness blenders and strength training
i use a polar heart rate monitor, but i also believe they overestimate cals burned so i do use it as hard evidence.:laugh: :laugh:
i drink water just dont log it
:flowerforyou:

Replies

  • mactaffy84
    mactaffy84 Posts: 398 Member
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    I don't believe for a second that you lose more weight by eating more food. I do believe that people don't log accurately and THINK that they lose more weight by eating more food.
  • QueenBishOTUniverse
    QueenBishOTUniverse Posts: 14,121 Member
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    Frame of reference: I am 5'8" 164.6 pounds and 33YO. I eat around 2300 to 2500 calories a day and lift four days a week, no cardio currently due to a running injury. I am still losing at this intake, but it is GLACIALLY slow, but I am very close to my goal weight at this point.

    Not knowing anything about your size or build I can't say if 135lbs is a reasonable goal for you, but I will say that if you are weight lifting and trying to maintain muscle mass I would definitely consider upping your calorie intake.

    While it is true that you can't lose more weight by eating more, what you might find is that by eating more you have more energy during the day and are able to put more in to your workouts, and THAT can cause you to burn more. It can also make it easier to be accurate and honest with your log.
  • puremuscle56
    puremuscle56 Posts: 4 Member
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    Adding Calories 100 a day is not such a good idea as it does little to effect your metabolism. It is true that restricting calories by too much can restrict you weight loss by sending you into starvation mode. Your body is designed to stand long periods with little food. It does so by making the body very efficient at burning calories, thus slowing your metabolism. It is better to keep calories low and add a cheat day once a week. This signals to the body that calories are available and thus starvation mode is not necessary. Of course, adding exercise speeds up the metabolism as well. So adding a cheat day with cardio is the best solution if to few calories is truly the problem. Also, don't more than double your calorie intake on cheat day as more is not needed. In other words, don't use cheat day as an excuse to pig out.
  • stephanieluvspb
    stephanieluvspb Posts: 997 Member
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    Do you magically begin lose weight by adding calories? No, but in my case when I was eating 1200 calories a day I was hungry which led me to binge I didn't have enough calories in a day to fit in my favorite foods, wine, peanut butter, desserts ect. So I did some calculating and increased my calories to 1600 a day. I'm currently losing 1-1.5 pounds a week and I haven't binged once and I feel good, no more obsessing over "forbidden food" so I think that is why I'm successful. I'm trying to keep this weight off for good so I had to figure out a way to eat for the rest of my life
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Adding Calories 100 a day is not such a good idea as it does little to effect your metabolism. It is true that restricting calories by too much can restrict you weight loss by sending you into starvation mode. Your body is designed to stand long periods with little food. It does so by making the body very efficient at burning calories, thus slowing your metabolism. It is better to keep calories low and add a cheat day once a week. This signals to the body that calories are available and thus starvation mode is not necessary. Of course, adding exercise speeds up the metabolism as well. So adding a cheat day with cardio is the best solution if to few calories is truly the problem. Also, don't more than double your calorie intake on cheat day as more is not needed. In other words, don't use cheat day as an excuse to pig out.

    Solid first post. Most of what you said is incorrect and shouldn't be listened to.
  • skittle316
    skittle316 Posts: 128 Member
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    2011
    ate 1200 calories, whole grain bread,oatmeal,bananas, spinach,etc lost a considerate amount of muscle and fat. Went around 225 to 190lbs in 5-6 months.

    2012
    Gained it all back plus 20lbs in less than 3 months. I blame this ALL on nothing but sugar, I ate 1200 calories or less, but would always make these sugar cookies and do no exercise. Basically i ballooned to 240lbs right before school started too ;-;

    2012-2014
    ED started lowered my calories to as low as 400 a day, kept wondering why after starving i lost nothing but so many people around me got skinny or stayed.

    2014- March
    Decided I didn't want a bad relationship with food and wanted to be healthy. Realized grain/processed sugar/starch was what I would always binge on. Note I was still eating "low carb" I consumed less than 70g of carbs per day, I would always eat salad, fruit,etc.

    2014- April
    Started eating low carb, put all the effort I had to eat 900 calories. Did it for one week until it didn't feel like "too much", lost 15lbs. I was shocked as the scale I had ALWAYS stayed at 240lbs, but POW it was 220lbs.

    2014- April-July
    Stayed low carb, ate even more till I got to 1800-200 calories. As of now I weigh 183-5lbs, went from having a 40 inch waste to 32 inch, size 16 pants to a 9. My confidence has SKYROCKETED, this is the first time in my life i've liked how I looked and who I am.

    2014- August-December
    Hopefully I will weigh 156lbs, no muffin top,abs, be more fit, run 10k, be happiest and enjoy life.

    Note I mostly ate the same things when I ate low calorie, but It was summer and i got bored. So i would make a batch of 12 cookies(1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 cup butter), and I would only eat the edges of all the cookies because I thought "I eat the edges then it's just 2-3 cookies, instead of all 12". God was I stupid -.-

    Anyways eating more with low carb helped rev my metabolism. I ate more because I felt guilty at how i'd starved my body for so long. Once i got to 1200 it still didn't feel different enough from my ED days so i upped them more. This wasn't easy, just like eating fat after having something like 1200 calories be heavily promoted as the key to weight loss, i would tell myself i didn't need more to be healthy that's how paranoid the numbers got me. Right now I'm sticking to 1800-2000 calories with weight lifting and running, 1700 calories on days i'm doing squat nothing.

    Now i'm honestly SICK of food i've gotten so good with my routine, food doesn't control my life anymore. I still eat but it's not a want to eat to anymore, but a need/something to get over with. I laugh because my sister eats less than 1200 a day and the same things i do (kale,spinach, almond milk, flaxseed,etc) but hasn't lost any weight. She used to tell me "you eat way too much" when i used to eat less than 1000 calories a day. She thinks eating over 1200 is too much. She's not overweight, she's actually slim 5'8 140-150lbs, but wants to be slimmer.

    I used to always tell her "it's cause i'm not starving myself", when i was and it never helped me. This pissed me off so much, but now no matter how much I eat neither her or my mom say anything. My mom even sounded mad at me by how much weight I lost, saying i lost weight "drastically" hinting that I had an ED(she notices now), when i never tried to do anything, but eat more.
  • alereck
    alereck Posts: 343 Member
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    Adding Calories 100 a day is not such a good idea as it does little to effect your metabolism. It is true that restricting calories by too much can restrict you weight loss by sending you into starvation mode. Your body is designed to stand long periods with little food. It does so by making the body very efficient at burning calories, thus slowing your metabolism. It is better to keep calories low and add a cheat day once a week. This signals to the body that calories are available and thus starvation mode is not necessary. Of course, adding exercise speeds up the metabolism as well. So adding a cheat day with cardio is the best solution if to few calories is truly the problem. Also, don't more than double your calorie intake on cheat day as more is not needed. In other words, don't use cheat day as an excuse to pig out.

    Solid first post. Most of what you said is incorrect and shouldn't be listened to.

    I agree with this post. I was eating around 1200-1400 for quite a while and the only thing that got me out of my plateau was cheat meals. I did it once a week when cutting and I would lose 2 lbs a few days after. I'm on maintenance now so I have cheat meals twice a week and have been able to maintain.
  • Damir_Poljak
    Damir_Poljak Posts: 10 Member
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    Edit
  • Damir_Poljak
    Damir_Poljak Posts: 10 Member
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    2011
    ate 1200 calories, whole grain bread,oatmeal,bananas, spinach,etc lost a considerate amount of muscle and fat. Went around 225 to 190lbs in 5-6 months.

    2012
    Gained it all back plus 20lbs in less than 3 months. I blame this ALL on nothing but sugar, I ate 1200 calories or less, but would always make these sugar cookies and do no exercise. Basically i ballooned to 240lbs right before school started too ;-;

    Lol, 2011 and 2012 is my life story, to the point! I couldn't help my self but laugh. I think you are right and reason for your weight loss is all about speeding up your metabolism. I am trying to do the same now and not starve but eat healthy and often so I don't get that empty stomach feeling.
    Best of luck!
  • forrealthistime0
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    THANK ALL YALL for your imputs!!!

    i log prettttty accurate, i go over instead of under in logging how much
    and upon further thoughts i think 1600 might jsut be to many cals
    perhaps when i get back in the swing i will try one cheat a week for a few weeks, see if that breaks my plateu-
    then maybe add a more calories, as i am working out more than i ever have(nothing heavier than 15lbs,&hiit tho)
    right now im pretty good on how much i eat (obv as a fat-brain i COULD eat all day-but now im rarely hungry and when i am I EAT)

    i am goin on vacation in 2 days, i KNOW ill be drinking (smart-ish)
    i have made a rough plan of workouts i can do,
    and have planned on splitting "cheat" meals, and trying to only have one a day
    lol FOR 7 DAYS!!
    wellllll seeee!! i cant wait to go , and come back and get back on track already lol

    thanks again guys!!
    any tips / links etc on going on vacay while trying to stay healthy to brainwash me- wouldnt hurt!
    LOL:blushing: :blushing:
    xo