When are you supposed to start increasing your caloric intak

stilljustshrat
stilljustshrat Posts: 6
edited October 6 in Health and Weight Loss
I started dieting and excercising daily at the end of September, and have lost 35 pounds since. I cut first to 1500 calories, then to 1200. I feel like I've built quite a bit of muscle since starting all of this, and am wondering if I should be consuming more than 1200 calories now. Every website I've seen says that at some point during weight loss you should increase how many calories you eat, but none have given specifics. Can anyone offer some advice?

Replies

  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
    it depends on body composition. Fat mass is required to metabolize fat cells. If you don't have the fat stores to produce energy your body will resort to breaking down muscle tissue and your net body composition won't change much. What are your current stats?
  • stilljustshrat
    stilljustshrat Posts: 6
    What stats specifically? Just weight and measurements? Sorry... I'm sort of new to all this.
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
    Age height weight sex body fat % (if known)
  • stilljustshrat
    stilljustshrat Posts: 6
    I'm 18, 5' 5", weigh 191, female, and 36% (using an online calculator)
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    Destruction of muscle tissue in favor instead of fat takes place once you have no more adipose fat. When the adipose fat is gone, the only fat that's left is "essential fat" and the body will not consume that.

    Males have about 5% of their fat in their essential fat stores. IIRC, women have about 12% of their body mass as essential body fat.

    Above those levels, the body will consume glycogen and then body fat.

    I'm 6' 1" and about 192 with 18.5% body fat. Even though I'm considered "tall and slender", I've got 192 * .135 = 26+ pounds of adipose body fat (that's 18.5% total body fat - 5% essential = 13.5%). Once that's gone, my body will turn to muscle and internal organs as source of energy.

    My point here, sorry to take so long to get there, is that undoubtedly some people here on MFP have to be concerned about losing muscle mass in that manner. OTOH, it takes a long time to do so, you have to intentionally eat "almost nothing", and you have to avoid every warning sign (severe fatigue, possible loss of menses, etc.) to get to a point where you have so little fat left that your body will start to consume muscle as an energy source.

    The reason that I'm pointing this out is that, as obese, overweight or formerly obese or formerly overweight people, the biggest health problem that we face is not not drinking enough water; not eating too little; not not getting enough vitamins. No, it's hard to do something while dieting that will cause serious issues. The biggest issue that we face is that we have a history of shoving food in our mouths to the point that we were killing ourselves so it''s sad to see folks worrying about eating so little that they become unhealthy. Don't worry about the little stuff - learn about nutrition, eat a balanced diet, exercise, cut your food intake, and get on with life. All the other "stuff" that folks obsess about just gets us all tied up in knots.
  • mshidden
    mshidden Posts: 24 Member
    The problem is, everyone BMR [Basal metabolic rate] is a little different. The best way to determine how much you should eat is by eating until you stop losings wight. Every thing else is just a guess, this is always one reason keeping a close eye on your wight will help you better figure out how many Calorie you need. To understand the issue look up BMR on wikipedia.
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    To answer your question - I started maintenance about 6 months ago. The advice that I got from my GF, who runs a medical weight loss clinic, was to increase my cals by 10% for a couple of weeks and see how my body responds to the increased calories. If I don't have serious cravings, up it another 10% until I hit my calorie limit.

    I had some testing done and I found that my BMR is over 10% lower than that MFP estimated so I use a lower number of 1958 instead of the 2200 +/- that MFP recommended.
  • stilljustshrat
    stilljustshrat Posts: 6
    Thank you very much! I was a little concerned about that... it's good to know I can't do any permanent damage. ;) Thanks again.
  • angel79202
    angel79202 Posts: 1,012 Member
    I started dieting and excercising daily at the end of September, and have lost 35 pounds since. I cut first to 1500 calories, then to 1200. I feel like I've built quite a bit of muscle since starting all of this, and am wondering if I should be consuming more than 1200 calories now. Every website I've seen says that at some point during weight loss you should increase how many calories you eat, but none have given specifics. Can anyone offer some advice?

    what kind of exercises are u doing?
  • stilljustshrat
    stilljustshrat Posts: 6
    what kind of exercises are u doing?

    I was running (started at 1 and built up to 2.5 km) on the tredmill each day along with crunches. Now I do p90 (alternating sculpting and cardio-abs each day. They're 35-40 minute workouts), run a little over a mile outside when the weather allows, and sometimes add in additional video-workouts.
  • angel79202
    angel79202 Posts: 1,012 Member
    what kind of exercises are u doing?

    I was running (started at 1 and built up to 2.5 km) on the tredmill each day along with crunches. Now I do p90 (alternating sculpting and cardio-abs each day. They're 35-40 minute workouts), run a little over a mile outside when the weather allows, and sometimes add in additional video-workouts.

    Great job..some would suggest eating back your exercise calories, others will fight against it..I'm not an expert so i say eat when ur hungry and listen to your body :)
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
    I'm 18, 5' 5", weigh 191, female, and 36% (using an online calculator)

    You are no wear near worrying about raising your calories, but at your weight you should be able to lose 2+ lbs per week eating 1500 per day.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    for an 18 year old female, working out for about an hour a day, and with your stats...1200 IS FAR TOO LOW and not really necessary. When you hit a plateau I'm sure you'd like room to adjust your calories downward but by eating 1200 initially you don't allow for that. I recommend eating 1500-1600 calories daily and taking it slow...faster isn't better when it comes to weight loss.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    Destruction of muscle tissue in favor instead of fat takes place once you have no more adipose fat. When the adipose fat is gone, the only fat that's left is "essential fat" and the body will not consume that.

    Males have about 5% of their fat in their essential fat stores. IIRC, women have about 12% of their body mass as essential body fat.

    Above those levels, the body will consume glycogen and then body fat.

    I'm 6' 1" and about 192 with 18.5% body fat. Even though I'm considered "tall and slender", I've got 192 * .135 = 26+ pounds of adipose body fat (that's 18.5% total body fat - 5% essential = 13.5%). Once that's gone, my body will turn to muscle and internal organs as source of energy.

    My point here, sorry to take so long to get there, is that undoubtedly some people here on MFP have to be concerned about losing muscle mass in that manner. OTOH, it takes a long time to do so, you have to intentionally eat "almost nothing", and you have to avoid every warning sign (severe fatigue, possible loss of menses, etc.) to get to a point where you have so little fat left that your body will start to consume muscle as an energy source.

    The reason that I'm pointing this out is that, as obese, overweight or formerly obese or formerly overweight people, the biggest health problem that we face is not not drinking enough water; not eating too little; not not getting enough vitamins. No, it's hard to do something while dieting that will cause serious issues. The biggest issue that we face is that we have a history of shoving food in our mouths to the point that we were killing ourselves so it''s sad to see folks worrying about eating so little that they become unhealthy. Don't worry about the little stuff - learn about nutrition, eat a balanced diet, exercise, cut your food intake, and get on with life. All the other "stuff" that folks obsess about just gets us all tied up in knots.

    ehh, i respectfully disagree. this is coming from the assumption that fat is preferentially mobilized just because it is available. not so. fat cannot be broken down from its stored state into glucose, which is the preferred source of energy for most of our metabolic functions. Therefore, it is quite possible that your body will break down its muscle for energy if too few calories/carbohydrates are consumed. Will you lose weight, yes of course, but your body composition won't be ideal if you use severe calorie restriction to get to goal.
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
    Oh, and the theoretical maximum deficit you should never exceed is ~32kcals per lb of fat mass. And yes, you can burn muscle despite have plenty of it to burn.

    Eat high protein diet
    Lift weights/do resistance training
    Keep deficit at a moderate level unless really obese. The thinner you get, the less deficit you should have.
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