Will you still lose weight if you increase your calorie intake?

dutchi2010
dutchi2010 Posts: 47 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been trying to eat at a 1200 calorie deficit for the past year.(emphasis on TRYING) I have loss 16 lbs. I am very happy about that loss. I would have loss 19 but I gain a couple pounds back in the past 3 months. The more I read about weight loss the more I think I should be eating more calories. I just bumped my calories up. I am very scared of gaining weight to due to increasing my calorie intake. Has anyone had to increase their deficit and did you continue to lose weight?

SW -163.4
CW -147.6
GW -under 138
Height- 5'1.5

Replies

  • bainsworth1a
    bainsworth1a Posts: 313 Member
    it depends on how much you increase. my mfp calorie goal is 1280 to lose 2 pounds a week. I try to stay within that but if I go up to 1500 on a day i do not beat myself up and i will continue to lose but at a slower rate.

    You are doing great. keep up the good work
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    edited March 2015
    If you're in a deficit, you'll lose. If you want to eat more calories for energy or performance reasons, just make sure that you're still in a deficit.

    The more calories you eat (i.e. in this case, the smaller you make your deficit) the more accurate you're going to need to be about logging. You're not going to have the wiggle room for errors.

    Frequently, people who are stalled and eating a fairly small amount of calories are either eating more than they think they are or burning less than they think they are.

    ETA: additionally, the closer to your goal you are, the smaller your deficit should be. You may want to try for 0.5lb loss per week. It's not likely to be a linear loss, either.
  • af_wife2004
    af_wife2004 Posts: 149 Member
    I use this calculator to figure out where I should be. http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
  • alejandra14murphy
    alejandra14murphy Posts: 8
    I did, I was at 1200 and for the first two month I loss but then I actually gain two pounds back and then I was not able to loss anything, till I increase my calories and I start it to loss again, I believe a have a lot to do with how much you are exercising
  • dutchi2010
    dutchi2010 Posts: 47 Member
    Thank you all! I reset my loss per week to 0.5lbs. My deficit is now 1390. I will report back April 3 to let you all know how things are going.
  • LFiestan
    LFiestan Posts: 175 Member
    alejandra14murphy wrote: »
    I did, I was at 1200 and for the first two month I loss but then I actually gain two pounds back and then I was not able to loss anything, till I increase my calories and I start it to loss again, I believe a have a lot to do with how much you are exercising

    Yes overtraining can be bad too. I learned that this week. It increases cortisol like what my mfp friend said.

    Im on my 2nd month and hv gained weight. I ws on 1200cal with light-moderate exercise but since i became fitter ive been exercising for 2hrs moderate to heavy. Thats when i noticed i gained weight and also was overtraining.

    So now im adjusting my calorie to 1500 and learn not go overboard with exercise. I was told that i should do weights more than cardio too, at least 45min but not more than 1hr.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Are you exercising? Remember that you will earn extra through exercise. To answer your question, yes you will still lose eating more than 1200. . . . unless you're 4 feet maybe.
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    The only thing that is absolutely required for fat loss to occur is a calorie deficit. So to answer your question, yes, you can still lose weight after raising your calories, IF you are still in a calorie deficit.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
    I remember having a dilemma like this; eating 1200, weight loss stalled....so I upped my calories. I was pretty scare di was going to gain, and I did gain a couple of pounds to being with, but I found after the initial week/two weeks I suddenly started dropping that and more. So, don't freak out if you see a gain; stick with it for a couple of weeks and see what happens :)
  • LFiestan
    LFiestan Posts: 175 Member
    Heres a helpful link :)

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/
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