people who LOST weight eating MORE

I've read about 1/2 of the posts before me, and really thank the OP for bringing this subject up! I look forward to coming back and reading the other 1/2 + more hopefully!!! Thank you all for sharing your experiences, whatever your experience may be!

Working for me!!!!

I think if you workout, then you should up your calories. If you are not on a vigorous workout routine then you should keep your calorie intake lower?

Is this possibly true?

Bump: really interesting thoughts

I want to come back to this thread when I have a more definite answer but I think there is definitely something to eating MORE. Last week I lost 8 lbs and the only thing I did different was eating more! So after doing extensive research I've settled on trying a higher calorie goal than MFP recommends. In saying that if I ate back the calories from exercise I think ti would be pretty on target with MFP but I genuinely believe that the burn MFP gives me is too high so I have been hesitant to do that in the past. That's where the research comes in to play and I'm going to try this for a few weeks and report back.

subscribing

Eat more, eat less I don't seem to be losing weight so now I just eat more because it's not doing any damage either. I keep myself on a 500 calories deficit but since I burn more than 2500 calories a day total I can eat 2000+ calories a day so I don't mind. I am definitely not gaining. I am keeping track with a bodybugg that measures total calories burned throughout the day and night including BMR.

Somebody pm me with some help.. My BMR at 180 is 1500, mfp gives me 1380 for a lb a week... I'm still loosing weight but I don't want to come to a stand still. I have ordered the book nrolfw because I want to get into a routine of weightlifting. I will only get myself motivated for cardio 2x a week... Any tips ideas look through my diary whatever... I do fast and spike... Just incase you wonder about some crazy numbers.

weightloss is very multi facited...and to look at one thing can put things way out of perspective. Every person is built different...how much fat they carry to how much muscle they have. So why wouldnt it be differerent for each one of us when sorting how many cals in and what we burn off...that is what drops the weight plain n simple. depending on how much muscle one has, can determin how much your body burns...many factors are involved...and when someone is losing weight, it's best to get to know YOUR body and react with it...one rule for one may be completely different for another.... listen to your body...watch how it reacts and act accordingly...knowledge is power...committment and focus will get you there!!
Remember "HEALTH IS WEALTH"

I started my diet/exercise routine early-mid October, I wasn't on MFP then until recently. I lost 13 pounds in about 3 weeks by exercising once a week but only eating like under 1200 calories. The past week I started this idea I had been given. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted, but exercised fiercly. In the past week I've basically probably had around 2500 calories a day, less some days because everyone around me keeps buying pizza and stuff for dinner (sigh..) and I've lost 5 pounds. I HAVE worked out at least 1-3 hours every day. I love working out though, and I love the feeling of it even if I get sore especially that next morning. I plan on doing a different intake/workout routine every month because I believe that helps the body shed more pounds. So I believe for some people, it works. For those with a busy lifestyle it may not work, unless they are able to clock an hour or so in the gym everyday to burn at least 1000 calories. I can't go to the gym because I have an infant and her dad works all day and when he gets home I like to be in the area because since I don't work I always care for her and don't expect him to have to when he's home, except when I'm sick or something.

I am on 1470 which I think is a bit to low but I have been losing weight very steadily averaging the pound a week that MFP predicted. I initially was trying to stay way under it buy realistically with my height and activity this was not possible or healthy (. I have my settings on sedentary but i am more lightly active so I log most of my walks, even the short ones. What I did more and am trying to do is eat half my exercised calories back. Last week I did a test and ate a lot more cals than usually and I had lost 4 pounds in about a week and a half.

Also if I am hungry I just eat and try not to watch the cals so intensely like I used to. I also try to remember that it takes about 3500 cals to put on a pound so going over one day is not going to have a huge effect in the long run. Oh and the one thing I did was up my fat intake. It was far far to low and in doing that I have noticed more loss!

What if you are already at a healthy weight, but want to go to a lower healthy weight?

I am scared that on 1,200 calories I will simply maintain.

Yes!

When I was about down to about the last 5 lbs I had a bit of a plateau where I was losing and gaining the same 1lb for about a month. By this stage I had been eating around 1200 - 1300 Net calories for about 4 months.

I upped it to 1440 (from 1lb a week loss to 0.5lb) and lost another 2lb.

It's true - the closer you are to goal the more you need to eat in order to lose.

I am 5'7", started off at 175 pounds with a goal weight of 145, and initially set MFP for a 2 lb/week loss (1200 calories). I did this for 2 months and lost a lot of weight quickly, then plateaued. I started reading the message boards and realized for the weight I had to lose, 2 lb/week was too aggressive. I then switched to 1400 calories with no change, still plateauing. I then switched MFP to a 0.5 lb/week loss (1600 calories), and the weight started falling off again at the rate of about 1 lb/week. I have been in yet another plateau since early September and am only 2 pounds from goal. I think MFP underestimates how much I need to eat so I have been playing around with numbers, trying to find that sweet spot of what I need to eat right now to lose that last little bit.

As for exercise calories, for most of the time I have been on MFP I haven't logged cardio. I work a desk job but set MFP as "active" so it encompasses my daily cardio, which is nothing crazy (walking 1-2 miles at 4 MPH daily). I do log strength training but my strength training only burns 100 calories or so so I don't sweat eating those back. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

What I have learned and wish I had this knowledge from the beginning is:

1. MFP is just guidance, not fact. It is a great tool but you need to see how your body responds to what you are doing. I know now that MFP thinks I need less calories than I actually do. Once I figured that out, my calories/weight loss was easier to manage.

2. The people who "scream' the loudest on MFP about eating exercise calories vs. not eating them are usually wrong. There is no hard and fast rule of what you should or shouldn't do. Again, you have to listen to your body and see what it responds to. If you are really burning 1,000 calories a day via exercise, it will probably be more important to eat some of them back vs. someone burning 200 calories a day, though your miles may vary. Eat them all back, eat half of them back, eat none of them back...you need to see what works for you and above all else, make sure you are in fact eating enough to fuel your body.

3. Don't be afraid of upping calories. As long as you are in a deficit YOU WILL NOT GAIN WEIGHT. This is the hardest thing to comprehend and I had issues with it too. Think about it rationally...if you are still in a calorie deficit, it will be impossible to gain weight. If you do gain weight, then you are either mis-estimating your activity level, overestimating calorie burns, or MFP isn't giving you the right amount of calories to eat and you need to fiddle with the numbers.

I am having a hard time believing you can eat more calories than your goal and still lose weight. When I eat more calories I GAIN weight. Isn't that the reason we keep track of calories? Just sayin'

CrazyGirl - I hear you on this. I think it's fabulous that some people can eat more and still lose weight. If I go over my 1200 calories a day - even when working out - I gain weight. For instance, last night I ate 1500 calories, worked out for an hour, and gained a lb. today. I know if I did that again I'd gain another lb.

The biggest problem is, I haven't lost in over a month. So my 1200 calories only sustains my current weight. I can't seem to lose anything.