Calorie increase for weight loss....

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superhippiechik
superhippiechik Posts: 1,044 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Share your opinion,success or failure,please.

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  • sprinkies
    sprinkies Posts: 309 Member
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    honestly sometimes it helps if you hit a plateau. not a huge increase though, maybe 200 calories a day more!
  • anolan807
    anolan807 Posts: 273 Member
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    I'm fairly new, but have been working out like crazy and trying to stay within my calories without eating exercise calories. It's working so far, but if I do go over calories I find that this is ok, because it makes the body confused and not use to a routine..
  • ashley0616
    ashley0616 Posts: 579 Member
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    When I started MFP, I was one of those 700-1100 cal a day people and all it had gotten me was heavier and then maintaining that heaviness. Now I'm eating what MFP tells me to and exercising and I have lost 20lbs. So, yeah, I am a believer.

    The more you move/exercise, the more you have to feed your body or else it will revolt against you and cling to the calories you do give it. Some days you need to shock your body with more calories than it is used to and some days you need to shock it with fewer, but overall eating more and exercising more will help with weight loss in my opinion.
  • MissAnjy
    MissAnjy Posts: 2,480 Member
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    FIRM believer in eating your exercise calories.
  • kimi233
    kimi233 Posts: 271 Member
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    I am close to my goal weight, and haven't really lost in 3 weeks, so I just increased my "goal" to only loose 1 pound per week, instead of 2, and it added an extra 120 calories to my day. I'm hoping this will work!! I wasn't being very good at eating back all of my exercise calories, so I'm hoping this will at least make me eat back those!!!
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    honestly sometimes it helps if you hit a plateau. not a huge increase though, maybe 200 calories a day more!

    ^^^ Not only that but upping your healthy fats can also help convince your body to let go of some of it's fat stores.
  • cyfairslam
    cyfairslam Posts: 17 Member
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    Personally, I have never eaten more calories and lost weight. However, I have an open mind and not fully convinced either way.

    As an engineer, I have problems believing that if I eat 200 more calories that I will burn 400 more and lose weight. Why doesn't the body just burn the extra 200 and then slow down again? I hear the fitness trainers talk about it all the time, but can't say I have read about any true scientific studies.

    Like pyro13g stated, it maybe that if you eat more of a certain food like healthy fats, that may due the trick and it is not really the increase in calories at all.

    I am skeptcial because of all the claims like "eating breakfast", "eating after 8 pm" rules have all been proven to be less than accurate by scientific studies.
  • ZacFields
    ZacFields Posts: 62 Member
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    A couple weeks ago, my fiance's great grandmother died. So with all the family visiting from out of town, we did a lot of eating out that week and I didn't really count calories because it was too difficult. I just ate conservatively, but I know I was going over my usual calorie intake by at least 200-400 calories per day.

    I had my usual weigh-in on the following Monday and expected to have gained a little bit of weight... and actually I lost more weight that week than I have lost in a single week since I started trying to lose weight (2.8 pounds).

    I don't know the science behind it, but I agree with the others who have said if you start to plateau, it might make sense to increase your calorie intake for a little while. I suppose maybe it jump-starts your metabolism or something. Not really sure how that works!
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    As an engineer, I have problems believing that if I eat 200 more calories that I will burn 400 more and lose weight. Why doesn't the body just burn the extra 200 and then slow down again? I hear the fitness trainers talk about it all the time, but can't say I have read about any true scientific studies.

    There actually are studies and it's also a routine part of normal testing, even a stress test. They can tell exactly what your burning for fuel and how your metabolism is running, via the vapor expelled from your lungs, blood gas testing, body fat/lean muscle mass calculations. I can see the engineering brain not liking the concept, but this is biology/physiology.

    Think of it as gas in a car. If you add more fuel the car runs longer. No fuel, no worky. Body doesn't get enough calories it drops your metabolism and starts shutting down some functions to perform critical functions. When it gets real bad, it starts shutting down critical repair functions while you sleep. It doesn't take much energy for the body to convert fat, so it goes after muscle, further driving down metabolism, while it still has the ability to do so.
  • scagneti
    scagneti Posts: 707 Member
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    I upped my calories just over a week ago to lose one pound a week and it broke through my plateau and I've lost over a pound this week (with only around 15 pounds left to lose, it's a big deal!) Plus it's helped me less cranky and more interested in exercising. 1200 calories simply wasn't ample for me -- even eating relatively clean.
  • mlb929
    mlb929 Posts: 1,974 Member
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    I've slowly increased my calories and have had no additional weight loss. I started with 1200 calories and not exercising. I'm up to 1700 per day, and exercising. I was really ill with the flu last week and didn't exercise or eat and lost 3lbs. I've kept it off this week. I really believe my problem is I exercise too much and intensely for the calories I eat, but I really struggle with eating that much food. I just don't eat that much. I eat constantly, 5-6 meals per day. But really struggle with the calorie intake. I want to lose 5-7 more lbs but have been at this weight now for 3 months without any loss. I'd probably be good if I didn't exercise so much, but that is my stress relief and I won't give it up.
  • padigirl
    padigirl Posts: 32
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    Meep Meep Bump :flowerforyou:
  • jkestens63
    jkestens63 Posts: 1,164 Member
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    I've been exercising really hard lately and not losing an ounce although the inches are coming off and my stamina is through the roof. My personal trainer said I was eating enough so I've increased my calories beginning this week. Hopefully that will do the trick.

    But on a basic level, if you are alloted 1200 calories, burn 1000, then your body has to live on 200- not healthy, possible, sustainable.

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