Did raising your calories help you break a plateau?

The biggest thing you have to understand is your metabolism and how calories affect your metabolism. In many cases eating more calories will help but only if you eat the right type of calories. The second thing you have to consider is the type of workout you are doing. Your routine needs to change every 30 days or your body will get used to the workouts. I personally have had great success with two different beachbody products (p90x & chalean extreme). I started at 220 (@ 21% body fat) and now I am at 192 (@ 15%, at the beggining of the program). I have had to increase my calories a lot. I used to eat 1800 calories or less and now I am more around 2500+ depending on the program I am doing. Also, I did a 40/40/20 (carbs/protein/fat) split.


Now remember, you should eat every 2-3 hours. By doing that, you will increase your metabolism (trust me). Also, if you don't eat enough calories at the right time, your body will release a chemical in your stomach which will retain your calories and make you gain/maintain weight. This is where the 1200 calorie/day diets aren't very good for long periods of time. This is a difficult concept for many (especially women). You have to remember, food = fuel. the more fuel, the longer you an go. The better the fuel, the harder you can push it. And if you add that with a good workout routine of heavy lifting and cardio interval training the weight will come off. And don't worry about bulking up, woman can NOT bulk up. It is physically impossible. You need testosterone to bulk and woman don't have enough of it to bulk. Plus muscle is less dense than fat so you will tighten up if you put on a lot of muscle.

I plateau'd after my first round of p90x due to my diet. After another round with no weight loss, I analyzed my diet. I found my carbs were too high, my fats were to low and I was about 1000 (yes, one thousand) calories too short. When I do p90x, I have to eat no less than 2600 calories and would be better off with eating 3000.


Now that I corrected my diet and started Chalean extreme, I am down 8 lbs (in 7 weeks) and my muscles have grown a lot. My definition has really increased but I won't know my total body fat loss until I am done the program. Good luck. You can try something. Increase your caloric intake by 300 calories for 2 weeks and see if you start to lose weight. If you stay the same, then it problem isn't your diet, it might be your exercise routine. Also, make sure you eat the 3 major meals and two snacks inbetween.

Thanks for asking , new to site and interested to hear what everyone has to say. I have been here about two weeks and some of the food diary's I look at make me think how do you survive on so few calories when you exercise and burn 800-1000 calories? I am trying to eat back some of the exercise calories I have found I am just not hungry, a first for me!! I am shopping for more foods that pack in nutrients with the calories.

To answer your latest questions:

7) pear
8) I've actively tried to lose weight (food diary, weigh ins) twice in the last 10 years. I've tried to lose weight just by changing up diet/exercise a couple of times besides that but I am not really sure if I got results since I wasn't weighing in at the time. I also had one full-term pregnancy in there (right before the time besides this one that I really dieted). Throwing that in there because there was a big weight change involved!

I will be upping my calories to see for myself lol
I want this weight gone by summer...
IDK why it seems so hard to lose 15 lbs

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