people who LOST weight eating MORE

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My doctor indicated this may be what I was doing....my average intake was between 850-1100 caps per day. I started this program to track my input and make sure i was atleast getting the 1200. I will track it for awhile...and bump it gradually if I don't see desired results....according to my calculations i should reach my goal by September.....

thanks everyone for the posts. i read through every single one, took me 2 days!
i was trying to eat as less as possible and exercising an hour a day and my loss started slowing doing to 1 pound a week.i was at 1000-1100 but for the past few days i have upped them to 1300 and i have been losing more since then. who would have known eating more loses more weight!
i have a hard time finding food,to get to that number but i have been reading tips on here and started eating things like peanut butter that i dont even like to get some calories, i never eat back my exercise calories and dont really have a cheat day.

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What calorie dense, higher fat foods do you all add? Nuts? Avocado? What else? I need some options to bump up my calories because 2+ bowls of Fiber One cereal was a bad idea!

Cheese, meat, peanut butter, greek yogurt. Bonus points because they all have protein.

I have had my first full week of eating more - I increased my cals by at least 30% from 1200 to between my BMR and TDEE.

Daily intake has been 1600-1800, and I have lost 2.4lb this week!

I have had my first full week of eating more - I increased my cals by at least 30% from 1200 to between my BMR and TDEE.

Daily intake has been 1600-1800, and I have lost 2.4lb this week!

That's great! Well done and thank you so much for coming back and reporting that ... sometimes people say they are going to 'try this' or 'try that' but we never get to know if it was successful!

xx

I promised myself I was going to try it for a month, even if I gained at first as 1200 wasn't working so what did I have to lose.

Now, I am eating more and getting hungry, so I guess my body is working properly again now that it is properly fuelled.

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Great thread! Saving til later

I get frustrated when I read some girls on here saying that they are eating 1200 and if they try to eat more they put on weight. That the only way for them to lose is to eat such low amounts. Some even think they have to go hungry to lose (which in actuality they are starving themselves)

I think they must have really damaged their metabolisms for it to get to that point! A product of yo yo dieting/undereating for periods of time then eating at normal calorie levels. What has happened is during the period of extreme very low calorie dieting (VLCD) there metabolism slows down because they are losing muscle along with fat. Then when they resume normal eating either after their diet has finished or they binge eat on the weekend they put weight back on!

Now because they have been VLCD if they decide to up their calories because they are finding it too difficult and they are getting hungry they get scared s***** because they start to put the weight back on. Because they now have less muscle their metabolism has been lowered they burn less calories at rest and there is just a vicious cycle. Sorry if this is a bit long winded lol.

If they want to be able to eat at sensible levels and to lose the fat in a healthy way and not to have to go hungry then what these people need to do is to chuck out the scales for a few months and restore their metabolism. For some people it might take longer to correct their metabolim. To get back to normal it might take 6 months i dunno. Anyway what they need to do is to find out what their true maintenance level of calories is and eat this.

(Edited here to say: Actually just thinking about this some more. Because their metabolism have been damaged their maintenance has been damaged to so that every time they diet and then decide that the diet is too hard and start to eat again (go off their diet) their maintenance calories gets lower and lower. They are going to have to exercise to help put muscle back on and to restore their maintenance set point so they can eat more food. That is why they will have to be careful to slowly up their calorie intake because it will be too much shock to the system and they'll put on weight. When they start putting muscle back on they can at the same time increase their calorie consumption to match)

But to get there they will have to introduce it slowly by upping their calories slowly each week. This is scary if they keep an eye on the scale because for a while they are going to put on weight. If they can get through the period where they can correct their metabolism thats when they can start to lose the fat at a sensible slow pace. They need to lose slowly so as to maintain their muscle and lose the fat. This involves weight training and exercise. These people need to learn to be patient. Its best to lose slowly.

I sometimes cant bear to read those kinds of topics anymore. So I think I'll just stick to these topics. If people want to learn and get educated then they will visit these types of threads.

Anyway a bit about my story.

I've lost 31 kg and it took me 22 months. I still would like to lose a couple more. I exercise intensely and I am losing eating between 1900 - 2200 gross calories most days. The closer I get to my goal weight the more I have needed to eat. I have maintained my muscle mass by doing weights (heavy weights) and even though ive been in defecit I think I may have even put some muscle on. I have a lovely defined body now and because of my muscle mass its great it means I get to eat more food and also the extra fuel powers me through my workouts and allows me to perform at my best in my sports.

In the last few months I have increased my protein, eating egg whites, lean meats, fruit, veg, brown rice, occasionally wholegrain breads, low fat dairy. I eat these types of foods 90% of the time and the fat has been melting off of me. I figured out my maintenance is between the 2000 - 2600 because I had a period where I plateued and didn't lose measurements or on the scale when I ate this amount.

I think the number one thing is when losing the fat is you have to be very patient if you want to lose it the right way, (the slow way) You have to keep perservering because I have found patterns where my body goes through adjustment periods where it is trying to get used to its new weight before it settles. My body likes to hover within 2 kgs and that has been the story for quite a while now. Atm I weigh 62 kg however a few weeks ago I was 60 kgs and thats fine because that has been my fat loss pattern the whole way through. My body will soon realise ahhhh its ok it is safe I can let go of those 2 kgs she is feeding me enough food, its safe to let go of it. So soon I will drop down to 60 and stay at 60. I'm looking to get to around 57 kg but its ok if I dont make it because I'll be focussing firstly on how my body looks, what my measurements are and my body fat%. I'm 5 foot 2 and I'm 62 kg but people have told me they think im 55 kg so the number that I end up on the scale isn't the most important thing.

wow this has been a long post haha.

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Thanks! I appreciate all the suggestions. I have been eating eggs (mostly whites)

eat the whole thing!

When I was eating 1200 I couldn't get below 5 lbs above goal weight. I now eat 1500 and am hovering around goal weight, its lovely.

So, were you undereating initially and then wised up? What was your intake? What did you raise it to?

How was weight loss before/after raising your calories?

I think this might help people who are afraid to up their calories--despite netting less than 1200...sometimes substantially less while working out.

i had an anxiety feeling to it which i can see this is most peoples problems, its a mental thing, but i just made myself eat more, its all about willpower, the same as eating less. in the end, do you really want to be unhealthy you can get caught up in feeling good about yourself the less you eat, feeling so in control which is what i hear lots of ed sufferers/ex-sufferers say. this kind of anxiety can lead to eating disorders and such.. i can see why these things happen, if i wasnt so headstrong and i didnt make myself eat more, you know it could have happened to me. with most people it doesnt lead to this and i may seem to be going in to hard, but guys you just pplain need to eat more. before i found mfp, i was focussing on 'eating healthy & less to lose weight', i had no intention of starving myself, but iwas only eating about 1000cal a day but didnt know it! and i only had 10kg(22lb) to lose. when i got on here i was eating 1300 (to lose one pound a week, i didnt get that was too much then), then before i knew it or even realised what was going on i had lost the weight, then i started eating 1400, got hungry and kicked through the anxiety of eating more, at 1500, got hungry kicked through it again, was eating about 1600-1800 and i think that was ok for a bit but then i started exercising more so i had to eat even more. up to 2000. now i workout heaps and have realised i burn even more doing day to day things. i now eat about 2100-2300 a day including exercise!

i am 5'1 and 105-110 lbs (158cm 48-50kg)

That's really interesting...can I ask how many calories you burn in exercise and how often you exercise?

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I was very anorexic for several years in college. When I got help, the doctor made me get up to 110 lbs. which was not comfortable for me and didn't work with my body type. I finally went to a nutritionist who looked at ME and my measurements before putting me on a plan. The original doctor had me eating 1200 calories a day to maintain 110, the nutritionist moved me to 1420 calories a day with a goal weight range of 96-98 lbs. That was 15 years ago. I've been back to the nutritionist several times, most recently when I turned 35. I maintain 95 pounds at 5'2" on a revised 1350 plan. I think that it's a delicate balance between your body and the way it metabolizes calories. My biggest challenge right now? High cholesterol. Go figure.