Did upping your calorie allowance help you lose weight faster?

Well, eating more definitely doesn't work for me.

But there are some questions to ask yourself if you're not happy with your progress.

Sounds like you ARE losing weight. How much and how fast? How close are you to you goal and/or a healthy weight? How long have you been working at it?

If you don't have much to lose, a half pound a week might be GREAT progress, in which case you just need to stick with it. A half pound a week is great bc it's gradual enough that you are less likely to yoyo once you hit your goal.

If you have a LOT to lose, then you might be able to expect up to two pounds a week. If that's the case and you're not seeing the results, then maybe you're eating more than you think you are or overestimating your exercise. Or both.

If you expect to lose more than two pounds a week, you need to dial back your expectations.

If it's been less than six weeks, you need to be patient. Wait a while and average your total weight loss across the number of weeks you've been losing. You might see that looking back, you are losing weight at the proper speed, just not in a straight line.....

I see a case being made for eating more if you're lethargic or starting to get injuries, starving and miserable, or losing too fast. But in all those cases, your weight loss will slow down vs speed up. And sometimes that is exactly what a person needs.

Be patient and keep working at it. You can do this.

Just make sure you're logging properly and are not underestimating your food portions, or overestimating your exercise burns. At your age you should be able to lose much more if you're really accurate in your diary... so it doesn't really add up.

That being said, with what you have to lose, 2 pounds a week is way too extreme and I'd switch to the 1 pound a week setting.

I'm totally jealous of the Desperados and Kinder Surprise in your diary, that being said, lol!

jessmillross wrote: »

kikichewie wrote: »

Well, eating more definitely doesn't work for me.

But there are some questions to ask yourself if you're not happy with your progress.

Sounds like you ARE losing weight. How much and how fast? How close are you to you goal and/or a healthy weight? How long have you been working at it?

If you don't have much to lose, a half pound a week might be GREAT progress, in which case you just need to stick with it. A half pound a week is great bc it's gradual enough that you are less likely to yoyo once you hit your goal.

If you have a LOT to lose, then you might be able to expect up to two pounds a week. If that's the case and you're not seeing the results, then maybe you're eating more than you think you are or overestimating your exercise. Or both.

If you expect to lose more than two pounds a week, you need to dial back your expectations.

If it's been less than six weeks, you need to be patient. Wait a while and average your total weight loss across the number of weeks you've been losing. You might see that looking back, you are losing weight at the proper speed, just not in a straight line.....

I see a case being made for eating more if you're lethargic or starting to get injuries, starving and miserable, or losing too fast. But in all those cases, your weight loss will slow down vs speed up. And sometimes that is exactly what a person needs.

Be patient and keep working at it. You can do this.

You're right. I mean you tell MFP you want to lose 2lbs a week and you think if you do what you're told it'll happen. I'm losing closer 0-0.5lbs every week or so which will still get me there in the end.
My main issue is that I wanted to be in a certain place in time for my holiday in July and at this rate I won't be there which is sad.
Thanks for the post though. Sometimes I need someone to open my eyes and tell me that it's not the end of the world if I don't hit my target weight at my target time as long as I hit it in the end

If you told MFP you want to lose two pounds a week and you're only lose a half pound, then you are eating to sustain that half pound per week weight loss.

Do you weigh your food? Log everything you eat? Ensure you are using correct entries?

Do you eat your exercise calories back? Where do you get the exercise burn estimates from?

ETA: I looked at your diary. It appears to me you are not weighing your food because there are a lot of general entries. You also have an entry for 4 grams of Nutella, which would be less than even a quarter of a tablespoon. Is that a guess or did you actually weigh that smidgen?

Also, I see you get your calorie burns form your phone app, which syncs with MFP. Phone apps, MFP, internet sources, and gym machines overestimate calorie burns. I would eat only half those calories back.

The good thing is you are losing weight, even though it's slow, so you have a choice here. Continue doing what you're doing and lose weight at a slower rate, or get your logging under control and lose at a faster rate. However, keep in mind that as you get closer to your goal, your weight loss will slow down and you will have to be as accurate as possible when when logging your food. Create the good habits now and they will carry you throughout your weight loss journey and into the future so that you can maintain your weight loss.

You're right. I mean you tell MFP you want to lose 2lbs a week and you think if you do what you're told it'll happen. I'm losing closer 0-0.5lbs every week or so which will still get me there in the end.
My main issue is that I wanted to be in a certain place in time for my holiday in July and at this rate I won't be there which is sad.
Thanks for the post though. Sometimes I need someone to open my eyes and tell me that it's not the end of the world if I don't hit my target weight at my target time as long as I hit it in the end

Well. I guarantee if you stick with it until July, you will feel better than you would if you quit! Don't be sad, because you just never know how things will work out. Stay positive and try to enjoy the process. Every workout and every day you meet your goal is a victory! Pretty soon you'll lose an inch here or there, or you'll go shopping right before your vacation and notice that a new outfit just fits a little nicer than it would have before. Or maybe there a new style of bathing suit that is surprisingly flattering! You just never know. But a couple months from now, and you will feel great if you stick with it. Don't let the numbers and expectations get you down. You've got lots and lots of opportunities to succeed each day between now and then, and then for the rest of your life!

DeguelloTex wrote: »

MyaPapaya75 wrote: »

Eating more only works for me IF I am working out daily being active. It also depends on the foods I am choosing...leafy greens and good proteins ..beans and lean meats..I dont choose junk food as a source just to up my cals...If I choose wisely on my more hungry days and up my cals and boost my workouts I do tend to lose more..

You're increasing your gross calories but decreasing your net calories.

^^ This is the key to "eat more to lose more," in my experience. Adequate fuel for me has led to much better and more satisfying workouts and decreased net calories.

jessmillross wrote: »

kikichewie wrote: »

You're right. I mean you tell MFP you want to lose 2lbs a week and you think if you do what you're told it'll happen. I'm losing closer 0-0.5lbs every week or so which will still get me there in the end.
My main issue is that I wanted to be in a certain place in time for my holiday in July and at this rate I won't be there which is sad.
Thanks for the post though. Sometimes I need someone to open my eyes and tell me that it's not the end of the world if I don't hit my target weight at my target time as long as I hit it in the end

If you tell it to lose 2 pounds per week but it is physically impossible to do that without going below 1200, MFP will just give you 1200 as a calorie target and disregard your setting. It won't give you a plan that would cause you to actually lose 2 pounds if that would cut your calories unhealthful low. If you want to do the math yourself, figure out how many calories you burn per day at maintenance (there are internet calculators out there for that) and then subtract 1000 which is the kind of deficit you'd need to run every day to lose 2 pounds per week. It might not be possible for you, short of overdoing it with exercise or starving. Which is why people are told to set more realistic and healthy goals of 1-.5 when they weigh less.

I also agree with those that say to watch out that you don't overestimate your calorie burn or underestimate your food intake, which is a common source of error. My loss rate tracks pretty closely with my predicted rate (based on my logging and fitbit estimates), so I don't worry about that too much other than continuing to do what I'm doing. But if my tracking predicted 1 pound loss and I was averaging .5, that tells me there is an error in my food logging, exercise estimates, or in the formula used to calculate my BMR (because I had a slower metabolism than the average person or because some incorrect numbers were being put in the formula). Logging/exercise is the only one under your direct control, so I'd start there.

i only recently came back to MFP, but back when i was logging in daily i found that the 1200 calorie was hard to sustain. And i found that i wasnt losing weight on it either. i upped my calorie intake to 1400 and did lose a few pounds at that intake. then i fell off the MFP bandwagon and stopped altogether, and was just doing my own thing and trying a thing or two here and there. However, i am back. I have not, and probably will not step on a scale because i found that living by the number that i saw on that damned thing determined my day for me. and as we all know those numbers can fluxuate for a lot of reasons. And every time my number wasnt what i wanted to see, my days were not good. I am guaging my success by how i feel now, and how my clothes feel. I did try the "5:2 diet" for a few months earlier this year. That is the 2 days a week (Mon and Thurs for me) fasting (you can have 500 calories on your fasting days) and it was pretty good. I actually felt fantastic on my fasting days. I only stopped because i went on course for 2 months which entailed a lot of worldwide travel and trying to juggle time zones and eating is not an easy feat. Anyway- Google the diet online or buy the book- there are a lot of health benefits to fasting, and honestly- weight loss is really just one of the side effects of it. It changes a lot of things in your body including how your metabolism works. And also has so many other health benefits. You would be surprised. Read up on it- it is pretty interesting. My doctor actually recommended it to me. So maybe try that to fuel some fire onto your weight loss. You might really like it.

acooke1274 wrote: »

My advice would be the following:
1) Make sure you're changing up what you're eating, your metabolism will always use the least amount of energy it can, so one way to make it work harder is to change what you're eating regularly.

2) Make sure your calorie intake is productive calories (i.e. high protein, high fibre, low sugar/salt). 500 calories from healthy food is much different than 500 calories of junk

3) Water, water, water

1)- food has nothing to do with metabolism. Weight loss is calories in/calories out. I successfully lost 44 pounds eating the same things, and gained weight eating a variety of foods.

2) No, this has nothing to do with weight loss either. It's calories in/calories out.

3) I agree water is important for hydration, but the only thing it has to do with weight loss is we are drinking instead of eating.

jessmillross wrote: »

Having been on the minimum allowance of 1200 for a few months I have not lost as much weight as I thought I would and this has slowed even more recently.

Peeked at the last five days. Only two of them were around 1200, and one was at 1900 and another at 2600. This is not really what's generally meant by "1200 cal/day".

Haven't looked at the entries yet...

jessmillross wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Um. No. But it helped me clear my mind, lift more weight, and be less hangry. Naturally, adding calories made me lose weight more slowly. Science.

Perhaps "faster" was the wrong word to use. "More effectively" would have been better.

Ah. Not for me, because I can be a crap logger. I like to take extra licks. And when the deficit is small, there is not much room for error.

jessmillross wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Um. No. But it helped me clear my mind, lift more weight, and be less hangry. Naturally, adding calories made me lose weight more slowly. Science.

Perhaps "faster" was the wrong word to use. "More effectively" would have been better.

It was more effective for me to keep a bigger deficit and be done with it, rather than drag it out.

Not every hare takes a nap and lets the tortoise win.