Adding food, losing weight!

alykiss
alykiss Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,
I posted about a month ago but I wanted to give a little update. I posted about how my personal trainer had me on a 1,400-1,500 calorie plan with a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat. Anyway, I wasn’t losing weight on this and I was obsessing over food, I was tired, hungry, and lightheaded most of the time. I just want to report that I am currently eating 1,650-1,750 calories per day with a macro ratio of 35% carbs, 40% protein and 25% fat and wow.. it’s made a huge difference. I’ve already lost approximately 7 lbs just by making this change and exercising, in fact, I’ve been exercising less recently than I did a month ago.
My message is for anyone struggling with feeling hungry, cold, tired, lightheaded, etc. Even if you’re nervous about gaining weight from increasing your calories like I was, just experiment with it, I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. Anyway, that was my little rant, thanks for coming to my TED talk 😊

Replies

  • Leonie_M234
    Leonie_M234 Posts: 57 Member
    @alykiss Hey thats amazing!! and so interesting! would you remind me of your height, age and weight please?
  • alykiss
    alykiss Posts: 9 Member
    Leonie_M234 wrote: »
    @alykiss Hey thats amazing!! and so interesting! would you remind me of your height, age and weight please?

    Of course! And thank you, I’m 5’8 and 26. I started at 173 and I’m down to 166 😊
  • alykiss
    alykiss Posts: 9 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    Thanks for coming back and sharing this! Would you follow up again after New Years? Maybe someone new will see this and be less tempted by a plan thats too low!

    I definitely will! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps working for me like it has 🤞🏻

  • saramelie77
    saramelie77 Posts: 50 Member
    Nice! Maybe the extra food is actually giving you more energy, so unconsciously you are expending more energy in return. I do believe in CICO, so I'm not sure how we could lose weight by eating more, yet it happened to me too before. And right now I feel better having bumped my calories at 1600 from 1400, and my clothes are feeling a little looser. Keep up the good work!
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
    I find I do best on a reasonably high fat percentage. And my blood lipids are the best my doctor has ever seen, so fat is certainly not something for me to be scared of.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    That's awesome, glad you found something that works for you and are moving in the right direction.

    What's strange for me is that every time I go on vacation I end up losing weight, even though I don't really track then and eat more. I think for me it's probably having less stress and more sleep that does it.
  • 29diamond
    29diamond Posts: 30 Member
    Thats awesome @alykiss congrats on the weight loss. I think for the new year I'll also be making some changes to my macros.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    saramelie77 wrote: »
    Nice! Maybe the extra food is actually giving you more energy, so unconsciously you are expending more energy in return. I do believe in CICO, so I'm not sure how we could lose weight by eating more, yet it happened to me too before. And right now I feel better having bumped my calories at 1600 from 1400, and my clothes are feeling a little looser. Keep up the good work!

    It's amazing how much more active we can be when we aren't hungry and lightheaded. Also, many people find that they are much more likely to stay on plan when their calorie goal is reasonable, so their overall calorie intake may still be lower than someone who is trying to hit a low calorie goal and sometimes failing due to hunger/cravings.

    Just based on my intuition (nothing to back it up) but I'm wondering if on top of that, water retention might also play a role for some people (agressive deficit causing stress and therefore extra water retention).

    Oh, I absolutely think that can play a role too.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    alykiss wrote: »
    Hi everyone,
    I posted about a month ago but I wanted to give a little update. I posted about how my personal trainer had me on a 1,400-1,500 calorie plan with a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat. Anyway, I wasn’t losing weight on this and I was obsessing over food, I was tired, hungry, and lightheaded most of the time. I just want to report that I am currently eating 1,650-1,750 calories per day with a macro ratio of 35% carbs, 40% protein and 25% fat and wow.. it’s made a huge difference. I’ve already lost approximately 7 lbs just by making this change and exercising, in fact, I’ve been exercising less recently than I did a month ago.
    My message is for anyone struggling with feeling hungry, cold, tired, lightheaded, etc. Even if you’re nervous about gaining weight from increasing your calories like I was, just experiment with it, I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. Anyway, that was my little rant, thanks for coming to my TED talk 😊

    Yaaaaayyyy! (I was hoping you'd feel better and do better with a bit of an increase, glad it worked out.) Thanks for coming back and letting us know . . . I always wonder how these stories turn out. 🙂
  • misslizzierod
    misslizzierod Posts: 57 Member
    alykiss wrote: »
    Hi everyone,
    I posted about a month ago but I wanted to give a little update. I posted about how my personal trainer had me on a 1,400-1,500 calorie plan with a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat. Anyway, I wasn’t losing weight on this and I was obsessing over food, I was tired, hungry, and lightheaded most of the time. I just want to report that I am currently eating 1,650-1,750 calories per day with a macro ratio of 35% carbs, 40% protein and 25% fat and wow.. it’s made a huge difference. I’ve already lost approximately 7 lbs just by making this change and exercising, in fact, I’ve been exercising less recently than I did a month ago.
    My message is for anyone struggling with feeling hungry, cold, tired, lightheaded, etc. Even if you’re nervous about gaining weight from increasing your calories like I was, just experiment with it, I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. Anyway, that was my little rant, thanks for coming to my TED talk 😊

    Thanks for this update. My calorie and macros are currently almost the same as your original one and I am noticing I am losing less weight as opposed to when I wasn't counting my calories or macros (still making healthy choices). I think my clothes even fit a tad bit tighter.

    It's been 2 weeks so maybe I should look over everything and maybe tweak a few things if this continues. This update is helpful. Best of luck girlie.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    misslizzierod wrote: »
    alykiss wrote: »
    Hi everyone,
    I posted about a month ago but I wanted to give a little update. I posted about how my personal trainer had me on a 1,400-1,500 calorie plan with a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat. Anyway, I wasn’t losing weight on this and I was obsessing over food, I was tired, hungry, and lightheaded most of the time. I just want to report that I am currently eating 1,650-1,750 calories per day with a macro ratio of 35% carbs, 40% protein and 25% fat and wow.. it’s made a huge difference. I’ve already lost approximately 7 lbs just by making this change and exercising, in fact, I’ve been exercising less recently than I did a month ago.
    My message is for anyone struggling with feeling hungry, cold, tired, lightheaded, etc. Even if you’re nervous about gaining weight from increasing your calories like I was, just experiment with it, I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. Anyway, that was my little rant, thanks for coming to my TED talk 😊

    Thanks for this update. My calorie and macros are currently almost the same as your original one and I am noticing I am losing less weight as opposed to when I wasn't counting my calories or macros (still making healthy choices). I think my clothes even fit a tad bit tighter.

    It's been 2 weeks so maybe I should look over everything and maybe tweak a few things if this continues. This update is helpful. Best of luck girlie.

    "Look over everything and tweak" is a good plan.

    I'd point out that Person A's ideal weight loss calorie level is not necessarily the same as Person B's (even if they're the same age, height, etc.). More pointedly, and I hope obviously, eating more calories usually results in *less* weight loss, except in rather specific circumstances, and Alykiss was previously experiencing a lot of things that made it likely she was in those very circumstances where eating more calories *might* help *increase* loss. It's not the usual thing.

    If you haven't read her original thread about that, it might be a good read: Some good discussion from various people about what in her situation was suggesting that eating more could possibly be helpful.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10817427/1400-1500-and-still-starving

    For each of us, it's a one-person science experiment, to figure out what path gets us most smoothly to our goals.
  • misslizzierod
    misslizzierod Posts: 57 Member
    edited December 2020
    @AnnPT77 Hey there. Correct, more calories less weight loss which makes me wonder if I was eating less than 1400 calories before without knowing since I wasn’t tracking calories at all besides just making healthier choices.

    Other factors to consider:
    -I increased my protein immensely after starting to track leaving me feeling fuller and feeling bloated.

    -increase of whey protein (maybe adding to my bloating)

    -introduction of chicken and fish after 17 years maybe also making me feel bloated.

    -inaccurate food measuring

    I don’t know yet, I will have to wait a bit and observe my body.

    Thank you for the link!
  • IAMFFL
    IAMFFL Posts: 58 Member
    That's awesome!! I'm glad it's working out for you.

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