Eat more...scared

I think personally that its hard to get over the idea that to lose weight you need to eat less or starve. It is a lesson that has been ingraned in us from years of media and mis-information. Yes we are also told to eat healthy and excercise but the education is just not as thorough but the media and social aspect always say to eat less or starve yoruself to lose weight. and the problem is that eating less does work. Unfortunealty it is not easy to always starve and keep it up, the yo-yo or rebound is usually a result and the weight comes back with a vengence (natural body reaction to starving then eating) I personally find that the very correct concept of eating well and nourishing our bodies makes perfect sense and does work but there is still that nagging voice from the past telling me to not eat and it will go faster....

The mainstream dietary community doesn't seem to understand why people overeat. They think its some kind of psychological condition due to a toxic culture. This is only true in that it is socially acceptable to eat junk foods that cause obesity and disease. However the need to overeat is not cultural, it is hormonal. They think people who eat normally but get obese just have a slow metabolism. They set standards for how many calories everyone should eat, even though everyone's caloric needs are different. Someone who is hormonally balance eats precisely the right amount of calories they need to expend, and someone who is in a hormonal imbalance eats more calories than they need. The actual numbers are irrelevant other than the magnitude of the difference between calories IN and OUT. If someone is hormonally balanced and they overeat, then their body will compensate and burn off the excess or suppress hunger for a while. If someone is hormonally imbalanced and under-eats, their body will slow down their metabolism or signal hunger to get them to eat more and keep the fat on.

Thanks. I'm scared because I worked hard to get the weight off. I don't want to put it back on. I know you can' tell by my original post but I definitely do have have an unhealthy relationship to food! I love it too much!! lol I am finally feeling good about myself and don't want to go back to feeling like that. I know i haven't been making the best choices lately and I know thats part of my "platteau". Thanks for the input!!

You might want to look at "Intuitive Eating", by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It's about fixing our relationships with food and recognizing the inner cues that tell us we're hungry or full, rather than about diets and magic solutions. The core ideas are: eat only what you like; eat only if you're hungry; stop when you're satisfied; enjoy what you're eating. They get into healthy choices and exercise later in the book. They have a website, which you can check out here: http://www.intuitiveeating.org

I was set at 1062 calories per day, lost 6 lbs and never ate burned calories back. I work out daily burning between 500-700. My ticker doesn't show this, but I have reached my desired weight. 10lbs was my goal, but 6lbs has proven to be sufficient. My calories have just been up'd as I am now in "maintainence mode" and I am scared to eat 1582 calories. In fact it has proven hard for me to get anywhere near that. At this point I am just trying to get to 1200-1300.

And by the way, I started my weight loss journey eating at 1800 calories. I plateaued after 90 days of p90x where I didnt lose any weight or body fat. I upped my calories to 2600 and within the next 90 days I lost 10 lbs, 6" and 3% body fat. I am now doing p90x2 and just upped my calories to 3000 and lost another 3 lbs in 2 weeks.


Simple facts, food is fuel. If you don't eat enough of it, your body will fight or conserve it's calories. If you want to lose weight and continue to burn body fat, then you have to eat to get there. Below is a quote from another thread that has a bunch of links that shows eating more is better for you.

I'm guessing you aren't eating enough. It doesn't sounds like you are even eating your exercise calories, which you probably should be doing at only 1200 net calories per day. From my experience, Turbo Fire and Insanity burn a ton of calories, and intense cardio programs like those really do require more fuel. I would set your MFP goal to lose no more than 1 lb per week, and eat all of your exercise calories.

Here are some helpful links:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/439140-refeed-diet-break-or-cut-calories-lower-a-plateau-discussi

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395881-people-who-lost-weight-eating-more

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/403565-research-behind-eating-more-to-lose-more

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395948-caloric-intake-results

And, the most awesome group on MFP: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/17-women-eating-2-000-calories-per-day

Being female...and only 5'2...I cant eat 1800 calories and still lose. Im a work in progress..and a learning experiment.

I was scared too. After asking from help from others on why I was losing weight at a snails pace....in the past two weeks I started eating back my calories from my work out and I've lost 4lbs in 2 weeks which took me like 2 months to achieve prior. Obviously it was what my body needed and kick started my weight loss back up.

I sit at a desk M-F 9-5. On my feet with 2 kids from 6-9pm. Run 3 times a week for an hour.

1200-10%- 1080. Im above that daily.

I sit at a desk M-F 9-5. On my feet with 2 kids from 6-9pm. Run 3 times a week for an hour.

1200-10%- 1080. Im above that daily.

I don't get what you are trying to calculate. So if you can help me on that, it would be great. Based on your stats in your profile, your estimated BMR is ~ 1400

TDEE = 1400 * 1.2 = 1680 * .8 (20% deficit) = 1344 <--- how many calories you should eat before exercise.

= 1344 * 7 (days) = 9408 + 1500 calories (about how many calories you would burn exercising over the week) = 10908


And if you want to spread that over the week even so you aren't playing catch up on days you workout

10908/7 = 1558.


Now if you burn more (which is very possible with running) your calories would go up. So it's quite possible you are under eating. If you want to discuss more, hit me up on PM and we can analyze more. I am a big numbers gruncher person.