who would have thought it would work?!!

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24

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  • ebelliss
    ebelliss Posts: 126 Member
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    Thanks so much for posting this! I have been contemplating increasing my calories for a while and this has convinced me to actually do it! After being at a plateau for the past 3 weeks, I'm excited to possibly see some results!
  • luvmykid28
    luvmykid28 Posts: 185 Member
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    bump
  • meli_medina
    meli_medina Posts: 594 Member
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    so how long should you up your claorie intake a couple of days or a week ??? Then go back down to 1200 calories??

    You shouldn't ever need to go back down. Typically, your calorie intake should go up and your deficit become less and less the closer you get to your weight loss goal. When you only have 5 pounds to lose, your body will hold onto it more than it will when you have 50 pounds to lose. By creating a lower deficit, the body will be more willing to release that fat and will get you closer to your goal weight, even though it might take more time than those first pounds you've lost.

    It's not a race. It's a marathon. ;) It's not how fast the pounds come off. It's that you can KEEP them off.


    Also, Ashley, I'm so glad this is working for you and that you gave it a shot! :)
  • mgmlap
    mgmlap Posts: 1,377 Member
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    My doc did that to me last week. She had me on a 1200 cal diet. She didnt think I would do any exercising..but told her I work out 6 days a week..she wants me to move up to 1500 cal/day ...but doing it slowly..upped to 1300 cal..then 5 days later. upped to 1400 and will do it for the next 7 days..then on to 1500 calories..seems like a lot..but I am still losing..so I am happy...
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    so how long should you up your claorie intake a couple of days or a week ??? Then go back down to 1200 calories??

    This varies from person to person. For me, I can't drop back down. I have to leave my calories at the point where I raised them too or I start to gain weight again. I started at 1700, upped to 1900, then 2000 - at 2000 I maintained my original goal weight of 150lbs from Sept 2010 to May 2011. In May, I upped again to 2200 and lost 5lbs in a week. I'm now eating between 2200-2500 (depending on how active I am that day or how hungry I am) and maintaining 145lbs. Awhile back, I upped to 3000 just to see what happens and got my weight down to 141lbs. I don't like how I feel when I NET 3000 calories, so I went back to 2200-2500 and what do you know? Right back up to 145lbs within a week or so.
  • staceymclaughlin
    staceymclaughlin Posts: 20
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    @jon_brady - great thanks for the formula, I'm just going to up my calorie goals on here ;)
  • lmarshel
    lmarshel Posts: 674 Member
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    You don't want to slow it down, you want to get it moving. When you're eating enough, it is functioning normally - but when you start cutting calories too much it slows WAY down because you are starving yourself.


    OMG! Chevy, I love your pic!!! :laugh:
  • frenchielover
    frenchielover Posts: 44
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    So I am unsure if this formula is correct. If so, this means my RMR is 1,283.02. How the heck would I possibly create a deficit from that?

    Hi sorry this is so long winded I copied it from a blog I did while at a fitness retreat this a way to find out just how many calories you need a day

    I think that I talked about ones resting metabolic rate before, thats the number of calories your body burns just to stay alive. So if you layed in bed for 24 hours and figured the calories you burned doing that . That is your resting metabolic rate(rmr). I am sure most of have heard or will be surprised to hear that you have to eat to lose weight. What I have learned here is that if you don't eat at least your rmr in calories a day your metabolism will slow down to compensate and try to hold on to what you are eating even more.
    You lose weight by creating a calorie deficit. So you should eat your rmr calories everyday and be physically active to create that deficit. One might ask can I exercise too much and the answer is yes and that will show up in performance. If you are exercising so much that you start feeling weak or rundown you either need to cut back on the exercise or up your calories. You have to listen to your body and act accordingly.

    Now you are probably thinking OK that is all well and good but how do I know what my rmr is. Well it just so happens there are two ways to find this out. You can go to a gym that has a rmr machine and pay 50-100 dollars to be tested or you can use this formula and the results will be very close to the same. Ok figuring this out takes a few steps. First here are a few conversions for you.

    Weight in kilograms=weight in lbs divided by 2.2
    height in centimeters =height in inches times 2.54

    here is the formula.
    (9.99 x weight in kilograms) + (6.25 x height in cetimeters) -(4.92 x age in years) + 5 or -161=rmr.
    At the end the formula is different depending on your gender if you are male add 5. if you are female subtract 161. Be sure when you calculate this that you do what is in the ( ) first.

    Hope it helps
  • Nikkiairforcewife
    Nikkiairforcewife Posts: 164 Member
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    From what I learned on Fat2FitRadio podcasts the magic number of calories for losing weight is eating at 20% above your BMR. I was really scared to increase mine that high. But I'm surprised that it really worked!

    Good for you Ashley! That's awesome!
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    You don't want to slow it down, you want to get it moving. When you're eating enough, it is functioning normally - but when you start cutting calories too much it slows WAY down because you are starving yourself.


    OMG! Chevy, I love your pic!!! :laugh:

    Thanks. LOL. ;)
  • hill2302
    hill2302 Posts: 139 Member
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    so how long should you up your claorie intake a couple of days or a week ??? Then go back down to 1200 calories??

    This varies from person to person. For me, I can't drop back down. I have to leave my calories at the point where I raised them too or I start to gain weight again. I started at 1700, upped to 1900, then 2000 - at 2000 I maintained my original goal weight of 150lbs from Sept 2010 to May 2011. In May, I upped again to 2200 and lost 5lbs in a week. I'm now eating between 2200-2500 (depending on how active I am that day or how hungry I am) and maintaining 145lbs. Awhile back, I upped to 3000 just to see what happens and got my weight down to 141lbs. I don't like how I feel when I NET 3000 calories, so I went back to 2200-2500 and what do you know? Right back up to 145lbs within a week or so.

    Chevy, you have a Ferrarri for your metabolism!!! That's a crazy amount of calories for someone as small as you. :drinker: 3000 calories of healthy food is alot though.

    Congrats on figuring that out Ashley!!
  • jldaley09
    jldaley09 Posts: 219 Member
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    If I can figure out how to eat that many healthy calorie I am going to up mine. MFP has it set at 1600 and I usually only net about 1300 a day. I think Ill try going a little closer to 1600 and see if the weight comes off a little better. It seems like I lose some and then it pops up again and I spend another whole week just trying to get below the last weigh in.
  • baylorforever
    baylorforever Posts: 8
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    I'm thinking about trying this because I've been doing under 1200 a day and I feel like I hit a plateu. Does anyone have any suggestions for healthy calories to eat that will get me up to 1500 a day?
  • jon_brady
    jon_brady Posts: 46 Member
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    @ frenchielover your rmr is your bodies most basic/lowest amount of calories needed to function if you do absolutely nothing so just getting out of bed is going to create a deficit. The more active you are the greater the deficit. Just be aware of your activity because if the deficit is too large it will throw you back into starvation mode and you will need to up your calories again. the post about 20% above sounds right especially if you are an active person
  • hill2302
    hill2302 Posts: 139 Member
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    @ frenchielover your rmr is your bodies most basic/lowest amount of calories needed to function if you do absolutely nothing so just getting out of bed is going to create a deficit. The more active you are the greater the deficit. Just be aware of your activity because if the deficit is too large it will throw you back into starvation mode and you will need to up your calories again. the post about 20% above sounds right especially if you are an active person

    This is what MFP does for you when you put in your vital infomation though. Under TOOLS, you can find out what you BMR is and when you put in your activity level, it adds a percentage to your BMR to figure out what your maintenace caloric number would be. Then it subtracts some from that, depending on your weekly weight loss goal.
  • meli_medina
    meli_medina Posts: 594 Member
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    I'm thinking about trying this because I've been doing under 1200 a day and I feel like I hit a plateu. Does anyone have any suggestions for healthy calories to eat that will get me up to 1500 a day?

    Almonds, yogurt, peanut butter, cheese...
  • Household06
    Household06 Posts: 19
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    Interesting thoughts! I just started yesterday so, for now, I'll stick with the 1200 cal intake as suggested by MFP. We'll see what happens and if I reach a plateau, I'll def try upping my cal intake.

    Thanks for the info everyone!
  • BeachGurl815
    BeachGurl815 Posts: 295 Member
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    Bump - this is really interesting.
  • swiftfox82
    swiftfox82 Posts: 69
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    Yeah that happens to me sometimes if your body thinks that there is a famine going on it will hold on to all you give it the same thing with water and bloating
  • Mommawarrior
    Mommawarrior Posts: 897 Member
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    You must eat to lose properly! Good job. Keep up the good work!

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