Why does eating more calories = losing more weight?
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Down another pound this morning. Doing wood now. Picking up truck loads and dropping them in our back yard. Next I'll pull out the splitting maul and start splitting and stacking. September starts bear season. I shoot a 70 lb. longbow. Muscle mass and strength needed. However I've been shooting it now for 40 plus years. If you don't have muscles, you won't pull it back. I'm doing 1250 calories a day....mostly protein. I ride my bike, I kayak, and I lift wood. I used to lift weights, years ago when working in the hospital. So nothing new here. The only difference is I'm not running in the hospital. I'm retired and home. can't run anywhere anymore. oh well...its not stopping me any. I have plenty of energy, I sleep well (7-8 hours per night), I'm up early out in the garden. Today I'm soliciting businesses for the Lions. Off to a Lions meeting and barbeque tonight. I'm bringing desert....watermelon. Have a nice day!I got sent to a nutritionist 3 times for weight loss and each time, following their plan, I gained. Blew their minds!!
Thanks for sharing all this.
Just a question: do you weigh food and log everything you eat? Do you ensure you are using correct entries? In other words, what determines you are eating 1250 calories a day. I am hoping that you are underestimating your calorie intake, hence eating more than you realize, because you are pretty darned active.0 -
Well, eating more , I'm now at the original wt. that I started at two months ago. For SLL, I did the 1200 calorie thing two years ago and dropped 40 pounds and kept it off. I'm trying to do that same diet now, except it really isn't working. Do I WEIGH stuff? No. My Dr. put me on a 1200 cal a day diet and all I did was cut down on what I was eating....and read my packages for helping proportions and calculated it that way. Instead of three eggs and bacon and toast in the morning I'll do 2 egg whites, no toast or bacon. I do tossed salads at night or a GC120 shake. Nights are the biggest challenges as it depends on how active I am during the day. If I eat a good 600 0r 700 calorie lunch then supper is light. I dropped 8 pounds in two months, and in two day last week gained it back and I was even more active than I've ever been. Activity? It doesn't seem to work with me. Not unless I'm exercising daily, which I'm not. I used to wt lift years ago, and I used to have a ski machine and I did a 30 minute workout daily and I got THIN!! However that was a long time ago, when I had knees that worked. Now I struggle to walk to the next room. I brace my knees and work outside when I can. I'll struggle through this one way or the other, and if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Its tough to do when they slow your metabolism down with heart drugs and expect you to be that trained monkey daily. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
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battyfitch wrote: »I will never understand why people deliberately choose to eat less than MFP recommends. What's the point in signing up if you assume you know better than MFP's research and science-backed algorithms?
Sure, you'll lose weight on 1200 calories. But are those losses safe? Healthy? Sustainable? At some point you'll need to start eating more, and in my experience every time someone starts increasing their calories after doing a low calorie diet, they overindulge and gain it all back because they never changed their relationship with food.
This. 1200 is a scary number for a grown man. Your body requires MUCH more than that.....I'm 5'3, and I still lose eating over 1500 every day.0 -
No one mentions using a food scale at the low calories they are eating and are complaining here in this thread about not loosing weight. Not loosing weight = not in a calorie deficit.
Not to hijack, but this is exactly what I was talking about in another thread @RoxieDawn. I think people somehow convince themselves their calorie counting is accurate, then when the empirical evidence doesn't support them, they call the evidence into question, or look for some confounding variable to explain things -- acknowledging their original calculations are wrong is seemingly the very last resort for so many people, when it should be the one and only thing you look at.
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Well, eating more , I'm now at the original wt. that I started at two months ago. For SLL, I did the 1200 calorie thing two years ago and dropped 40 pounds and kept it off. I'm trying to do that same diet now, except it really isn't working. Do I WEIGH stuff? No. My Dr. put me on a 1200 cal a day diet and all I did was cut down on what I was eating....and read my packages for helping proportions and calculated it that way. Instead of three eggs and bacon and toast in the morning I'll do 2 egg whites, no toast or bacon. I do tossed salads at night or a GC120 shake. Nights are the biggest challenges as it depends on how active I am during the day. If I eat a good 600 0r 700 calorie lunch then supper is light. I dropped 8 pounds in two months, and in two day last week gained it back and I was even more active than I've ever been. Activity? It doesn't seem to work with me. Not unless I'm exercising daily, which I'm not. I used to wt lift years ago, and I used to have a ski machine and I did a 30 minute workout daily and I got THIN!! However that was a long time ago, when I had knees that worked. Now I struggle to walk to the next room. I brace my knees and work outside when I can. I'll struggle through this one way or the other, and if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Its tough to do when they slow your metabolism down with heart drugs and expect you to be that trained monkey daily. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
If you aren't weighing your food, you're guessing.4 -
I want to live in a world where losing three pounds a week is "maintenance."2
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OP: You're not weighing things, so you don't really know how much you're eating.
You've basically said you eat little or no processed food, yet you're getting your calorie info from packages. Huh?
As someone else pointed out, you've said you can't exercise -- then you talk about all the activity you do like splitting wood. Huh?
It's like you're 4 different people.6 -
No one mentions using a food scale at the low calories they are eating and are complaining here in this thread about not loosing weight. Not loosing weight = not in a calorie deficit.
Not to hijack, but this is exactly what I was talking about in another thread @RoxieDawn. I think people somehow convince themselves their calorie counting is accurate, then when the empirical evidence doesn't support them, they call the evidence into question, or look for some confounding variable to explain things -- acknowledging their original calculations are wrong is seemingly the very last resort for so many people, when it should be the one and only thing you look at.
No hijacking that I can see..
I went back through this again, and I finally see where OP admitted to not using a food scale to eat that 1200 calories his doctor put him on..
What I am confused about is OP's doctor's put him on medication, supposedly suggested 1200 calories (I would presume a medical weight loss???) as the best way to go for weight loss, but he is not weighing the food and logging it to see if he is actually eating 1200 calories.. Also some where in between his doctor's visits he has been told he had metabolic issues?
All of this warrants a new doctor and second and third opinions! I cannot see any doctor that suggests 1200 calories and not closely supervising that weight loss.
Here in MFP the tools provide an exact method to assure sucess, but one has to follow the method for it work.
edited to add: how can a person be more active than ever (per OP's last post) and then have trouble to make it to the next room in his home??
And dropping 8 pounds in two months and to gain all of that back in two days.. not humanly possible to gain fat like that back in two days..2 -
This site was suggested to me by another, but along with what he put in his mouth, he did RIGOROUS exercises daily. One year later he is a new man. I just don't want to look like a BLUBBERTUB sitting at the organ. That's all. I grew up on pasta. Loved it. would eat three bowls of it and pack on the wt. I don't eat it anymore for that reason. Breakfast this morning consists of three SMALL hard boiled eggs. THAT's IT. usually I do a packet of oatmeal and I'm good until noon. Wanna WEIGH IT? Its 160 calories! Three small eggs? 54 ea = 162 cal. Wanna weigh them? Usually my breakfast is around 300 cal. but today I'm going light as I'll be splitting wood for the morning. Lunchtime is different. I'll eat good for lunch. that will include a 6 oz. strip steak broiled with steamed cauliflower and steamed carrots. I'm looking forward to this already... SEE YA!!0
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This site was suggested to me by another, but along with what he put in his mouth, he did RIGOROUS exercises daily. One year later he is a new man. I just don't want to look like a BLUBBERTUB sitting at the organ. That's all. I grew up on pasta. Loved it. would eat three bowls of it and pack on the wt. I don't eat it anymore for that reason. Breakfast this morning consists of three SMALL hard boiled eggs. THAT's IT. usually I do a packet of oatmeal and I'm good until noon. Wanna WEIGH IT? Its 160 calories! Three small eggs? 54 ea = 162 cal. Wanna weigh them? Usually my breakfast is around 300 cal. but today I'm going light as I'll be splitting wood for the morning. Lunchtime is different. I'll eat good for lunch. that will include a 6 oz. strip steak broiled with steamed cauliflower and steamed carrots. I'm looking forward to this already... SEE YA!!
You have been given a great deal of good advice on how to take a proactive approach to help you lose weight. And if your doctors are steering you in the wrong direction, change doctors..
If you truly WANT changes.. the advice from @cgreen120288 are really great points.. It really is simple, you just need to WANT to do it..
And your friend that did all the exercise, is not the same as you. You are unique that you have your own limitations just like we all do in some form or another.. You can lose weight with NOT ONE LIFT of a finger in exercise.
Perhaps you will figure out that it really is easy to do..1 -
I bet you do most of the talking at your doctor's visit, too. You old dog.6
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You don't weigh your food. That's about all everyone needed to know!5
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Three small hard boiled eggs for breakfast cannot be good for your heart. Just remember that by not weighing your food and measuring what you drink you'll never know how many calories you ate when you used mayo, oil or butter in the pan, salad dressing, steak sauce, bbq sauce, or whiskey.1
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Not only that... your body will adapt to the 1200cal. per day and adapt. It will start to save the fat and eat at your muscle, and is very hard on your heart. I would say (like the others) go back to the 1500 cal, and try it for a while. I have learned that my body chooses to have like a base weight. I started at 183#. I have plateaued for a little bit in different increments. Like at 158#, 140#, and at 130#. So, I switch up my exercise and food choices. I have gone done in calories, but right away I noticed that if I ate more food or less food my weight would stay the same. I eat clean (3/4 of the time). I exercise (not this week due to neck issues). I also decided to change to the premium here so I could change my macro percentages. So I have high carb days and low carb days...and even kind of even days. I do think charting helps. By what I can gather.. you just need to keep tricking your body. Oh, yea... and I am a 53 year old... so if I can do it... you can to! Just have faith in yourself and give it time. Remember none of us gained weight in a day.
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Oh for petes sake, the guy doesnt want help, he just wants to talk about what a special snow flake he is!! Kind and clever people have given great advice and feedback, and its just proving to be a waste of time - save your breath for someone who really appreciates it.6
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A lot of the time when I hear "I'm not hungry, so I don't eat" is because your metabolism is at a stall. Do you eat enough protein?
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I think from reading your posts you really don't know if you are eating 1200 or 1500. If you would weigh you food and measure everything in grams or ounces instead of tablespoons or cups you would see a big difference. Without that all the talk in here is just wasted time.2
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CasperNaegle wrote: »I think from reading your posts you really don't know if you are eating 1200 or 1500. If you would weigh you food and measure everything in grams or ounces instead of tablespoons or cups you would see a big difference. Without that all the talk in here is just wasted time.
agreed. he's already received excellent advice, his failures and successes are now his own.1 -
For nearly 3 years I've been in deficit. I did WW for 6 months then found MFP. I did 1400 cal at first and lost another 10lbs but after that I started losing extremely slow. I dropped to 1200 then to 1100 or less the last year. At that point I'd lost 40lbs. In March I completely came to a stand still. I had surgery in June so my diet increased to 1500 or less that month. Well I gained 4lbs. I dropped calories back down in July and also started methotrexate for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was very nauseous so it was easy to not eat. Well, over that month I gained another 3 lbs to my disbelief! Over the last 2 weeks I tried Keto. I tweaked my proteins to 60g carbs to 15g and the rest was fat. It was hard because eating that much fat was difficult for me and the limited carbs and protein made me feel very hungry because I felt empty i guess. Oh and moody! I just got by between 1200-1300 cal. My body felt horrible so I added potassium, magnesium and extra salt due to Keto induced electrolyte imbalance. The experience ended when my hubs took me out for our anniversary dinner. Now since I've been doing this for so long I'm pretty good at it. I'm very strong willed as well. I also weigh and measure my food as not to deceive myself. I drink about 64oz of water a day and keep my carbs usually less than 100g. Since the RA I have is not controlled it is difficult to get standard excersize routine but I do clean, cook and chores every day and walk with my daughter when I can. I put down sedentary as my physical frequency. I also am hypothyroid and my last TSH was .87. I'm exhausted and my hair has thinned as well as constipation. Very classic symptoms. I need to lose 30 more. My doc said drop my calories. I said I've done the 800 cal a day thing intermittently just to kick myself into loss mode but going down further seems extreme to me. I really don't know what else I can do. I'm planning on going to a nutritionist in October. But for now I'm reading about nacent iodine and selenium added to my regiment. I know there are folks who can't believe weightloss won't happen if you drop CI but the fact is it is happening to me right now and I'm petrified! Im going to bump my calories up to 1300-1400 for a week or so then start over AGAIN. I pray I don't gain more! My only hope is to keep going. Keep measuring, weighing, logging. Keep the faith you guys who struggle.
I think you need an endocrinologist rather than your general practitioner.0 -
cross2bear wrote: »Oh for petes sake, the guy doesnt want help, he just wants to talk about what a special snow flake he is!! Kind and clever people have given great advice and feedback, and its just proving to be a waste of time - save your breath for someone who really appreciates it.
I agree. He is just doing one of those "blog" things, where he talks to the interwebz about his general day but doesn't want feedback.
Everyone gives feedback anyway because they are not so much concerned about him (now) but they are concerned about someone else reading this and thinking it's a good idea.
Personally, I would hope the OP stops posting...this type of rambling, non-responsive posting is better suited to the blog section of this site.1 -
For nearly 3 years I've been in deficit. I did WW for 6 months then found MFP. I did 1400 cal at first and lost another 10lbs but after that I started losing extremely slow. I dropped to 1200 then to 1100 or less the last year. At that point I'd lost 40lbs. In March I completely came to a stand still. I had surgery in June so my diet increased to 1500 or less that month. Well I gained 4lbs. I dropped calories back down in July and also started methotrexate for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was very nauseous so it was easy to not eat. Well, over that month I gained another 3 lbs to my disbelief! Over the last 2 weeks I tried Keto. I tweaked my proteins to 60g carbs to 15g and the rest was fat. It was hard because eating that much fat was difficult for me and the limited carbs and protein made me feel very hungry because I felt empty i guess. Oh and moody! I just got by between 1200-1300 cal. My body felt horrible so I added potassium, magnesium and extra salt due to Keto induced electrolyte imbalance. The experience ended when my hubs took me out for our anniversary dinner. Now since I've been doing this for so long I'm pretty good at it. I'm very strong willed as well. I also weigh and measure my food as not to deceive myself. I drink about 64oz of water a day and keep my carbs usually less than 100g. Since the RA I have is not controlled it is difficult to get standard excersize routine but I do clean, cook and chores every day and walk with my daughter when I can. I put down sedentary as my physical frequency. I also am hypothyroid and my last TSH was .87. I'm exhausted and my hair has thinned as well as constipation. Very classic symptoms. I need to lose 30 more. My doc said drop my calories. I said I've done the 800 cal a day thing intermittently just to kick myself into loss mode but going down further seems extreme to me. I really don't know what else I can do. I'm planning on going to a nutritionist in October. But for now I'm reading about nacent iodine and selenium added to my regiment. I know there are folks who can't believe weightloss won't happen if you drop CI but the fact is it is happening to me right now and I'm petrified! Im going to bump my calories up to 1300-1400 for a week or so then start over AGAIN. I pray I don't gain more! My only hope is to keep going. Keep measuring, weighing, logging. Keep the faith you guys who struggle.
I think you need an endocrinologist rather than your general practitioner.
I'm guessing she has a rheumatologist as well as a GP. A rheumatologist ought to be familiar enough with hypothyroidism (since it comes along with so many autoimmune diseases) to deal with it. If not, she needs to see one.0 -
I forgot to say how much I eat per day. I eat 1360 cal per day before counting any work out.
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It has already been stated multiple times, but basically, you don't know how much you are eating. For example, while those 3 small eggs are probably pretty spot on due to the accuracy of sorting machines for eggs, you then state you will have a 6oz steak. How do you know it was 6oz if you didn't weigh it. Did you guess? If so, you have no idea if it is 6oz. Did it come out of a package of frozen steaks that are supposedly 6oz? If so, know this, they are rarely ever the weight that the package says they are. I have these wonderful steaks I love to eat. The nutritional information says one steak with an amount of grams in brackets after it, was a certain amount of calories. I would simply eat them assuming it must be close. Then one day I weighed one. It was twice the weight. I weighed more, and almost all of them were anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 times the weight that a single steak was supposed to be. WEIGH YOUR FOOD.0
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So, coffeeNCardio are you saying that a person who doesn't eat all day and just eats a handful of peanuts here and there Or popcorn handfuls here and there will lose weight? Because I know someone who does that... and low and behold hasn't lost a pound. And... another case... My husband was following my guidelines and plateaued a little bit. So he decided to eat less. Well he gained weight and then decided I was right that he needed to start eating more again. And he started losing again. I am talking good food and the correct amount for age, height, etc. We are both doing great (he went from 207 to 168/170) and we have stayed that way. So I guess it is ok to agree to disagree. Right/0
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CoffeeNCardio wrote: »For the lurkers confused about the title: Eating more calories NEVER EVER EVER equals losing more weight. This is a myth as despicable as starvation mode. An illusion. Nothing more.
When people do "seem" to lose more weight on more calories, it's just an illusion. What happens is that the increase calorie allotment freaks you out, so you redouble your efforts at logging to assuage the guilt/fear, which in turn leads to better logging, which leads to better weight loss. It has nothing to do with eating more calories. It's only because you were probably eating that many or more at the lower calorie allotment and just weren't logging accurately. Once you begin logging accurately, of course you lose weight better/faster.
Never say never and there are always exceptions. Some people eat too few calories and have no energy to move. Calories = energy. They would lose better by upping the calories so they're not so lethargic.0 -
So, coffeeNCardio are you saying that a person who doesn't eat all day and just eats a handful of peanuts here and there Or popcorn handfuls here and there will lose weight? Because I know someone who does that... and low and behold hasn't lost a pound. And... another case... My husband was following my guidelines and plateaued a little bit. So he decided to eat less. Well he gained weight and then decided I was right that he needed to start eating more again. And he started losing again. I am talking good food and the correct amount for age, height, etc. We are both doing great (he went from 207 to 168/170) and we have stayed that way. So I guess it is ok to agree to disagree. Right/
Eating fewer calories than you burn always, inevitably, leads to weight loss. Excepting cases of extreme medical conditions, this is law. It is an absolute fact of thermodynamics.
If someone is not losing weight, it's because A. They aren't actually eating fewer calories than they are burning, or B. The completely natural situation that we are all individuals and we don't all lose weight at the same speed. Weight loss isn't linear. Some weeks you will lose nothing and other weeks you will lose more than your goal loss. Adding water retention into it, you may appear not to have lost weight, but are simply retaining water (which has weight) while having actually lost fatty tissue. This is especially common for women who are on a menstruation cycle, as we tend to retain a lot of water at certain times during that cycle (this is individual, one woman may carry water on her period, where another may carry leading up to her period and then drop it all during).
Most importantly, you aren't in a plateau unless you have been without loss for 6+ weeks. Going a week or two without losing means nothing. Weight loss is not linear. If you experience a REAL plateau, then there is a reason. Most commonly, that reason is poor logging/eating more than you think you are or not burning as much as you think you are.
ETA: Water retention also effects us after starting a new fitness routine or increasing the intensity of an existing fitness routine, as the breakdown/buildup process of muscle growth makes you retain a ton of water. And eating large amounts of salt can cause the body to retain water.1 -
CaptainJoy wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »For the lurkers confused about the title: Eating more calories NEVER EVER EVER equals losing more weight. This is a myth as despicable as starvation mode. An illusion. Nothing more.
When people do "seem" to lose more weight on more calories, it's just an illusion. What happens is that the increase calorie allotment freaks you out, so you redouble your efforts at logging to assuage the guilt/fear, which in turn leads to better logging, which leads to better weight loss. It has nothing to do with eating more calories. It's only because you were probably eating that many or more at the lower calorie allotment and just weren't logging accurately. Once you begin logging accurately, of course you lose weight better/faster.
Never say never and there are always exceptions. Some people eat too few calories and have no energy to move. Calories = energy. They would lose better by upping the calories so they're not so lethargic.
Eating fewer calories is not the REASON behind their failure to lose. Moving less is the reason. Burning less is the reason. So while I agree you need to eat enough to properly fuel yourself so you can continue to acheive the burn side of the CICO equation, what I said stands. Eating fewer calories than you burn causes weight loss, inevitably.0
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