Eating more to lose more?
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Are you weighing your food and logging everything correctly? How much do you have to lose? The closer you are to your goal the slower the loss. To answer your initial question yes you can eat more and still lose, but it depends. Yes you can eat more than 1200 calories and lose because for most people that is not enough, but if you are already eating close to maintenance calories then no you will probably not lose.
Edit to add: Your weight it in a healthy range and this is why you are not losing. You are active and should be eating more than 1300 calories a day. So yes I would recommend changing your MFP goal to 0.5 pounds loss per week and see what it recommends.
No to the yes you can eat more and still loose but it depends statement.
Eating more to weight less (and yes there is a group here in MFP called EM2WL), is just a very slow way to loose weight. It allows you to not be in very much a hurry sort of speaking to loose. So upping your calories is your choice but this does not break a stall like you are wanting to do and keep working with your deficit.
Most people on here tell MFP they want to lose 2 pounds a week (wouldn't we all) and for the majority this answer would be 1200 calories. So the OP originally asked if she upped her calories (which for her activity 1300 seems low) she could still up her calories and yes still lose. Because she is within a normal BMI weight loss will be slower than what she is used to.
Speaking from experience when I started yes I chose the 1200 calorie route, but then educated myself and hired a coach and with her help was able to lose at 1700 calories a day (starting weight 170 pounds). By following macros and exercise I was able to lose 30 pounds. So in this case yes I could eat more and still lose weight. I'm not alone in this scenario because others have done the same.
I am not debating this with you in the least. The advice was not good sound advice based on OP's case in general.
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You might not lose because you eat too little. If you eat low calorie, you will eventually hit a point where your body will decide it is starving thus preventing losing, it happened to me to. Good thing in this situation would be calculating you TDEE, and be honest with yourself when you do. How active are you? Eg. to maintain my weight, I work out almost everyday for more than an hour, my work hours wary, but my adivice is, don't count work expenditure into account, unless you work physically like in a warehouse or construction or factory. I maintain at around 2200-2500, depending on day. I tend to up my calories to maintain for a while eg two weeks, to entice weight loss again all you do is deduct around 200 cals, and this is pretty aggressive deduction in my opinion. What is your weight and hight? How much do you workout?No. Adding more calories would actually slow down your weight loss, not speed it up.
Depends on her daily needs, her workouts, her work, her activity, you don't know that it will slow it down, very very close minded opinion.
Knowing the law of thermodynamics is not being closed minded. Starvation mode is not a thing.11 -
Since it's been just under a month, have you considered that some of the 1lb 'regain' (which really isn't much in the scheme of things) is due to TOM? You might have lost a bit last month coming off TOM and now you're just bloating a little and will lose in another week or so.
I agree with making sure you measure everything- cooking ingredients/oils and prepackaged as well. Do you eat back exercise calories? All or some of them?1 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »Are you weighing your food and logging everything correctly? How much do you have to lose? The closer you are to your goal the slower the loss. To answer your initial question yes you can eat more and still lose, but it depends. Yes you can eat more than 1200 calories and lose because for most people that is not enough, but if you are already eating close to maintenance calories then no you will probably not lose.
I do use a food scale and weigh everything that's not prepackaged. I am very close to my goal (10 lbs -12 lbs out).I don't feel like this is my maintenance when I am burning 1900-2100 calories a day.
Weigh your prepackaged stuff. You will be surprised how far off it is. It could be enough to throw off your numbers.
THIS! Been doing this for over a year and a half and I weigh EVERYTHING! Those pre-packaged foods are way off... they could be adding hundreds of calories to your day; no joke!1 -
the only time this eat more to lose more works is when one has been in a pro-longed calorie deficit, which was caused ones metabolism to slow to a point where continuing to eat at a low calorie level is actually maintenance level. In these instances, a diet break is recommended of a month or so of slowly adding back x amount of calories per week ..but eventually math takes over and you can't keep eating more to lose more...
OP may fit into this category as it seems she has been consuming 1200 calories to drop all of her calories...2 -
I started at 1200 calories and had a pretty similar problem. I lost weight quickly at first and plateaued with about 5-10 vanity lbs to go. I met with a fitness coach who looked at my log and said that "1200 calories was really light" for someone who was working out as much as me (5 days a week minimum, 30 minutes of cardio minimum each day + 30 min- 1 hr of weights). She advised me to add 100 calories back and try to get it all in healthy fats, as I was eating really lean. It seems to have worked. I've lost some more weight, but more than that, I've "leaned out" a ton in the last month.
I fully believe in CICO, but I think the 1200 calorie basement that MFP has is probably just too low for some people.
Surely you realize that losing more weight and leaning out is the result of your exercise plan and hiring a dedicated fitness coach, and not the result of a measly 100 cal/day adjustment right?
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Eating more I guess depends on your daily activity level and it depends on the food you eat. For example if your workouts are hard, then you must eat more to nourish your body with the lost nutrients. I suggest if you eat more, add HIIT to your workout routine. It will boost your metabolism that will help you lose weight and keep it off.
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No need to complicate things If u platued keep the calories the same and increase the duration and intensity of ur cardio1
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Are you weighing your food and logging everything correctly? How much do you have to lose? The closer you are to your goal the slower the loss. To answer your initial question yes you can eat more and still lose, but it depends. Yes you can eat more than 1200 calories and lose because for most people that is not enough, but if you are already eating close to maintenance calories then no you will probably not lose.
I do use a food scale and weigh everything that's not prepackaged. I am very close to my goal (10 lbs -12 lbs out).I don't feel like this is my maintenance when I am burning 1900-2100 calories a day.
how are you burning 1900 to 2100 calories a day???
I think she probably means total, like her TDEE is 1900-2100, not that she is getting exercise burns of that high.
OP for what it's worth, I'm 5'2 and lost 30 lbs and never ate less than 1600 cals while losing. I am a proponent of the saying "the winner is the person who eats the most and still loses the weight". That means slow and steady weight loss for me, and I never really hit one of those plateaus that I couldn't explain. If you are on a plateau, eating more won't break that, but it may give you more energy to fuel your workouts, help preserve your lean body mass, and generally make the process more enjoyable.
If I were you, I would tighten up the logging by using the food scale for everything, including packaged foods, and add extra calories, not to break the plateau, but because this close to goal weight you shouldn't be aiming for more than 0.5 lb/week loss. If your TDEE is 2000 for example, then you should be eating in the neighborhood of 1750 (total, including exercise calories) to lose the rest of your weight.2 -
Are you weighing your food and logging everything correctly? How much do you have to lose? The closer you are to your goal the slower the loss. To answer your initial question yes you can eat more and still lose, but it depends. Yes you can eat more than 1200 calories and lose because for most people that is not enough, but if you are already eating close to maintenance calories then no you will probably not lose.
I do use a food scale and weigh everything that's not prepackaged. I am very close to my goal (10 lbs -12 lbs out).I don't feel like this is my maintenance when I am burning 1900-2100 calories a day.
how are you burning 1900 to 2100 calories a day???
I wear an Apple Watch that tells me my daily calorie burn based on my heart rate. Only 350-600 of that is "Active/Exercise" calorie burn.
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so you are eating 1450 a day...is that your net number after eating back exercise burns? OR are you eating 1450 burning off 350 to 600 and not eating those calories back?0
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so you are eating 1450 a day...is that your net number after eating back exercise burns? OR are you eating 1450 burning off 350 to 600 and not eating those calories back?
Depending on the burn, I eat some of my exercise calories back. I have not eaten over 1600 calories in a single day since May...0 -
so you are eating 1450 a day...is that your net number after eating back exercise burns? OR are you eating 1450 burning off 350 to 600 and not eating those calories back?
Depending on the burn, I eat some of my exercise calories back. I have not eaten over 1600 calories in a single day since May...
Try weighing your prepackaged foods. Honestly, you will be surprised.7 -
You're going to have to cut calories if you want to lose more.1
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Try mixing up your exercise routine(s). Your body may getting used to what you normally do and simply isn't burning calories efficiently any more. I deliberately do a variety of workouts and for different time lengths--some days work out longer than others (Zumba, Walk at Home, Tae Bo, Kettleball, general stretching and pilates) just for that reason.0
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Reading all the information in the post here's what I've come up with. OP is likely eating more than she thinks by not weighing prepackaged food. I've come to find that prepackaged things are among the worst offenders of serving size label lies. Additionally, she is likely burning less then she thinks. Fitness gadgets aren't 100% and from anecdote I find most of the ones with wrist based heart monitors tend overestimate calorie burn rather than underestimate it. A chest strap heart monitor is more accurate. So if the 14-1600 you are eating is really 16-1800, and the 1900-2100 you are burning is really 1700-2000 then we have our answer. Your deficit ends up anywhere from 100 to 400 per day depending on how much you are really eating and burning. Take an average and you're at a 250 calorie a day deficit, enough to lose 2 lbs a month. I bet if you averaged your weights you'd see a slight downward trend as 2 lbs a month is hard to track on a daily or weekly basis. Add into the equation storing water weight due to a prolonged deficit and your stall is 100% accounted for. Adding calories works for some as it causes the water weight to go down but it doesn't actually cause more fat to be lost.
This situation is a perfect highlight of what happens to so many people who use MFP. People who stall are almost always eating more/burning less than they think. Even being a very successful veteran calorie counter with over 5 years of consistent experience, I still assume I am eating a little bit more than I think I am and I factor that into the number of calories I eat in a day, especially if I am in a fat loss phase.7 -
Why does everyone assume that packaged foods have more contents than labeled? That doesn't make much sense. I'm willing to accept that labeling and weighing at the factory are not going to be accurate 100% of the time,but certainly the bias would be the inclusion of LESS product than advertised. These companies don't make money by giving away free product after all.0
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Why does everyone assume that packaged foods have more contents than labeled? That doesn't make much sense. I'm willing to accept that labeling and weighing at the factory are not going to be accurate 100% of the time,but certainly the bias would be the inclusion of LESS product than advertised. These companies don't make money by giving away free product after all.
bread per slice is usually more than what the package states,chips, meat,etc even 2 pieces of fruit the same size can vary in weight. some foods will be less than the package states and sometimes more. sometimes with say yogurt in the single serve cups,there are times I get more and others I get less, bread,wraps,etc are usually more. its rare that something is spot on.1 -
Why does everyone assume that packaged foods have more contents than labeled? That doesn't make much sense. I'm willing to accept that labeling and weighing at the factory are not going to be accurate 100% of the time,but certainly the bias would be the inclusion of LESS product than advertised. These companies don't make money by giving away free product after all.
I'm basing it on personal experience. I weigh my prepackaged foods, most of the time it contains more than stated on the package, I've never had a package be under. People would be up in arms if the companies were shorting the packages. They likely have a margin of error factored into their actual package sizes compared to price, so I doubt they are out any profit. I remember watching a program years ago (I want to say it was "How it's Made" or something along those lines), they were talking about the calibration of the machines and the acceptable margin of error.2 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »Why does everyone assume that packaged foods have more contents than labeled? That doesn't make much sense. I'm willing to accept that labeling and weighing at the factory are not going to be accurate 100% of the time,but certainly the bias would be the inclusion of LESS product than advertised. These companies don't make money by giving away free product after all.
bread per slice is usually more than what the package states,chips, meat,etc even 2 pieces of fruit the same size can vary in weight. some foods will be less than the package states and sometimes more. sometimes with say yogurt in the single serve cups,there are times I get more and others I get less, bread,wraps,etc are usually more. its rare that something is spot on.
So much this, I think zedeff hasn't used a scale on barcoded foods.0
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