Lost 7 lbs since last Thursday by eating MORE!

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I hear a lot of talk about upping calories, is that only really effective for people working out pretty intensely? or maybe people eating so little calories that they are starving. I would think it wouldn't help someone only doing a light amount of exercise. Like me, I am on 1700 calories (I am 5'10", so it's not all that much) and I am just doing 30 minutes of cardio 3x/week. I am guessing eating more calories would not have the same effect in this case, am I right?

This is also my question because I'm admittedly very sedentary. I get in what I can, when I can, which comes out to twice as much as I did before joining MFP, but I didn't even include exercise in my goals because it's so irregular. That's not going to change any time soon due to my schedule/life style, so I'm worried that changing my formula is only going to send me backwards. How do you know when to up your calories?

I initially upped my calories as soon as I started bouncing between a few numbers no matter what I did such as lower sodium intake, increase water, or increase exercise.

I usually work out (dance or walk) roughly 30-45 minutes 3 times per week and I really need to add some sort of lifting/calisthetics program on Tuesday and Thursday but I haven't gotten around to it yet - maybe I'll do 30DS's weights portions those days.

I started off at 1200 cal per day and am now eating above my BMR at 1470 based on reading the research that all the pro-high cal people have put out there. Of course, I'm late to the party as I just started eating my BMR last week and I ought to be just over 2000 calories. I'm scared to eat that much so it's babysteps for me. However I have to say it's been heaven being able to eat 1470.

Oh and the important part - there was an initial weight gain of 3.4 pounds (from 205.4-208.8) but as of this morning I was at 204.8. I'll keep eating at 1470 until I start wavering again and then I will bump another hundred or two calories.

I used Helloitsdan's website link too. I highly recommend calculating out what your BMR is and at least bumping to that.

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Same for me. I stalled at 8 pounds lost for 2.5 months ( talk about frustrating) I upped my calories fromm1200 to 1500 then finally to 1800. When I hit 1800 last Thursday I started losing again and have lost almost 4 pounds in 4 days. Itbwas seriously the answer or me.
Theresa

Hi! Are you talking about net calories here? Thanks!

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I'm glad I ran across this post!! I'm pretty new here, and have been pretty confused regarding how to set my calorie intake. I recently increased my calorie intake (certainly do not want to go into starvation mode, as I've got plenty of fat stored up, and sure don't wan to add to it!!) I'm 5'7, and have I think 74 lb's to loose to get to my goal weight.
I'm also wondering what does TDEE stand for??
Best of luck everyone!!

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure... it's your BMR plus what you need for more than just breathing.

Go look for helloitsdan's posting, and go to his profile, and read it... he has links to the calculator, plus a great explanation.

I personally net about 2100 calories per day. Yes, it is working.

I agree with everyone on here, it IS totally confusing to try to figure out what works and how to adjust your calories. I had initially lost a good bit, but then stalled for a long time. I was confused because the stall seemed to coincide with upping my workouts and intensity! I read a chart on here a couple of weeks ago about how much you were trying to lose, and how much you should set for your weekly loss goal, and decided to change mine from one pound per weel to 1/2 pound. This gave me 300 extra calories per day which seemed like manna from heaven! My last two weigh-ins have had me back to dropping weight, and the only thing I can attribute it to is the increase in calories. Use all the tools and advice this site has to offer! If you're stalled, there's a reason for it! You just need to work out what it is.

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Getting 1200 calories a day is way to low, your starving your body and you will not function well.
So when you increase your intake to 1800-2500 you will function much bether and you can actualy have longer workouts and much more energy.

I have been running on around 1800-2000 calories a day and that is to low for me, now im up at 3000kalories a day the last week and I can have a hardcore workout for around 1,5-2 hours, two weeks ago I could barely have a 30 min workout, just because of my low intake. My intaked should be 2350 a day.

I am not trying to lose my weight or anything just saying that with more intake you should train more and you can train longer and harder = weight loss or/and muscle gaining(depends on your training)

Like my friend he changed his diet to healty meals and increased his calorie intake, then he got the energy so he could manage do some training, and after a year now he have gone from fat to slim/muscular

So ppl at least get your recomended calories a day, or perhaps increase it with 100-200 and have a 1h workout 3-4 days a week. And take a banan or two after/before/in the middle of the workout to gain some more energy

Can someone help me out with this calorie thing? How do i know how many calories i need to loose weight? The MFP calories seems to be miscalculated.

Can someone help me out with this calorie thing? How do i know how many calories i need to loose weight? The MFP calories seems to be miscalculated.

Find Helloitsdan's profile and check out the links.

This is awesome! Last week on vacation, while still staying under my TDEE, I allowed myself more calories (above BMR more than usual); and to my surprise, I lost 5.5 lbs over 3 days. I had expected to see a small increase in weight just due to the actual weight of the food increase...but, it was a pleasant surprise! Proof that our bodies do not like to starve, and will usually cooperate more with fat loss when giving it enough fuel!