Calories - should you (I) increase them?

First of all...great job so far! You are doing awesome! I think you should try it for sure! It will probably be really good for ur body. I totally understand about being hesitant about adding calories. You will obviously burn plenty. Let us know how it goes! Keep it up..ur an inspiration!!!

Hello, I am MFP's official spokesperson for eating more, and I say, Yes, go for it!

When I first started here, I was eating the MFP levels and starving all the time. I slowly ramped up and found my happy place at 2000 cals/day + exercise cals.

Those that have a lot to lose seem to have a lot more "buffer" in terms of being able to eat an extreme deficit for a while and lose weight happily, but over time, the body adapts, metabolism slows down.

Since your body seems to be shouting loud and clear that it wants more, I say feed it.

I say bump your cal intake, especially since your working harder. I am 297 at 5' 11" and was only eating 1600 and that wasn't enough , I bumped up to 2000 and feel alot better and sleep better. I say try it and see how you feel. Good luck and congrats on your weight loss

Net is your goal cals PLUS exercise calories. Your goal already has a deficit built in. That is the amount to eat to LOSE weight. If you exercise, you increase that deficit, which sounds like a good thing, but you really don't want TOO large a deficit, which is why you EAT BACK your exercise calories to get back to your original goal.
So if your goal is 2000 and you exercise for 700, there is really only 1300 calories in your body to fuel it. You need to eat a total of 2700 that day to NET the 2000 that was your original goal. Net cals can be found at the top of your home page. your net for the day should be very close to your original cal goal, (in this example 2000).

There is a lot of talk online about eating to few calories and putting the body in starvation mode. However, when you've been losing weight at a reasonable weight for a while, it's hard to get my head around increasing them.

So why am I thinking of increasing you might ask? Well I've been working out with intensity about 4-6 days a week for 3 months now. I've lost between 30-40 lbs which I'm happy with. However, I'm often tired, my body just needs more sleep and some times after a really intense work out it can take 24 hours just to feel right.

I should point out that according to the last medical exam I had, I am considered healthy, especially for my size. Speaking of. Currently I'm 262lbs and 6 feet tall. I am limiting myself to 1500 cals a day but allowing myself to go over but generally not more than 150-200 more.

One web site I looked at said I should be eating 2600 cals a day for fat loss and 2100 a day for extreme fat loss, based on my height, size, age and how often and hard I work out.

Next week I intend to give this a try, but it has me scared for various reasons.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

Thanks.

you are 262 pounds and 6 feet tall AND you work out burning as much as 1000 calories when you work out AND you only eat 1500 calories A DAY?

I am 175 and 5'2" and I eat more than 1500 calories a day! I work out 6 days a week and burn between 500-750 calories when I do. That means if I eat 1500 calories and burn 500, then my body is 'surviving' on 1000 calories. It NEEDS 1200 minimum just to be able to 'live'. So I eat 1700 on the days I burn 500 calories, and 1900 on the days I burn 750. give or take a hundred calories or so, since I'm not terribly precise about my calorie input.

the point being that I'm losing a pound or two a week on an average of 1800 calories a day, and I'm only a 5 foot 2 female! I cannot imagine how you are not just plain exhausted with your 6 foot male body trying to live on 1500!!

in order to get your calories in you need to eat more times throughout the day. Try to eat 6 times a day, not just "breakfast lunch and dinner". Look at how I divided my diary into blocks and (most days) have something in every block.
Add healthy high calorie foods throughout the day, nuts are awesome, and peanut butter, and cook with olive oil. Drink 2% milk with a scoop of protein powder, etc.

for a male, 1500 is the BARE MINIMUM NET calories you should eat daily. You really are starving yourself, and it could lead to serious problems.

And yes, since you only ate 800 cals, then went and burned off 800 cals, you now have an empty fuel tank, you are running on ZERO net cals. You need to eat 1500 cals minimum before bed. If you can't do that today, just eat something nutrient rich and filling, and start fresh tomorrow. EAT throughout your day.

I am 5'2" 107 lbs and I eat 1000 BY NOON. 1600-2200 a DAY.

My point is, you don't need to starve yourself to lose weight, in fact it is quite the opposite, you need to fuel yourself. Think of your body as a car and food as gasoline. You can't run it on empty. Now think of the types of food you eat as the quality of gas. The good gas makes your car run better. And dumping sugar in your gas tank really messes it up.

Don't be afraid of eating a little more later in the day if you are still way below your calories. Look and see on your MY HOME page where it says net, and if you have a lot of calories to eat and don't think you can get there because you are full, at least try to get to 1500.