Weight loss stalled after upping calories to BMR

Hi Becca,

From what I"m reading about this subject, you will probably have a gain for a couple of weeks before you start losing again. I recently just upped mine and today is day that I weigh in. I've been listening to http://hadakishop.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=35_170&product_id=267 where they explain the concept of Eat more to lose more. I would try it for a good month before deciding it doesn't work.

Good luck,

Danielle

depends on your goals, if you still trying to lose id cut the cals a tiny but under bmr, if you want to maintain just eat at bmr just be careful not to binge on weekends as it will put you over for the week.

Eating under your BMR is the worst thing you can do. I'm really getting tired of this advice it is BAD advice and you are hurting a lot of people if they follow it.

~ I'm going to give you a different approach ... Please note that calories are not just calories consumed. Weightloss is significantly determined by what you eat. Try eating more " One Ingredient " foods ... reduce your sugar intake. People will say you can lose weight eating anything you want as long as your under that " magic " number.

Actually, there was a recent study on this published recently in one of the medical journals. The overall premise was to look at the theory of "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie." Dr. Zorba Paster from NPR has been a long proponent of this (and not an Atkins Diet supporter by any measure) and just came back and said he is "taking it back based on results." They took a group of people, controlled them in a loss (and controlled their activities to level the study playing field). Then after the group lost they added back 1000 excess calories - one group got more carb and the other got higher protein with controlled carbs.

What the study found was that the group getting more carbs actually gained less weight overall than the higher protein group BUT the protein group gained more muscle lbs whereas the carb group saw a bigger increase in body fat %.

Here is the article Dr Zorba published - I am guessing you can find the study online somewhere -

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I'm sure that most of you are thinking the same thing that your neighbors are — "I've got to lose that holiday weight." Or maybe you call it the "New Year's" weight, the "potluck weight", the "I can't stand the stress weight."
It's all the same. Weight is weight.

So which diet should you follow? How do you evaluate it?
A brand new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association might give you a clue. Let's get to the bottom line first (Yes, I know, that's like skipping to the end of a good book.) Trumpet, please: Calories count but protein is critical.

Now I know that nearly 99 percent of you have been on a diet of one type or another. Some of you want to lose weight while others want to gain muscle mass for your sport. In the end, it all boils down to protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and the assortment of vitamins and minerals we all need to keep us fit. All diets are basically variations of this.

Researchers wondered what role protein played in the mix. So they took 25 healthy men and women and housed them in their lab so that they could control what they ate and how much they exercised.

The first two weeks were the stabilization period: participants ate their normal diet and exercised if it was part of their usual routine. Then for two months researchers overfed these guys. That's right. They gave them more food than they normally ate, an extra 1,000 calories a day. But, not all of the participants were overfed the same type of calories.
There were three groups; A low protein group (5 percent of the calories from protein), a normal protein group (15 percent of the calories from protein) and a high protein group (a whopping 40 percent of the calories from protein). By the way, most Wisconsites get about 15 percent of their calories from protein.

Everybody gained weight (who wouldn't eating 1,000 extra calories a day?) Although there wasn't a difference between men and women there was a major difference between the protein groups.

The low protein group gained the least weight, only 7 pounds, while the normal and high protein group gained about 14 pounds.
So your first conclusion (or at least this would be my first conclusion) would be that you'll gain less weight eating less protein. Sounds logical to me. But bear with me now.

Researchers went one step further, and here's the exciting news, they looked at how much lean body mass (muscle mass) everyone gained vs. how much fat mass (the ugly kind) they gained.

The low protein group, while gaining 7 pounds, actually lost 1.5 pounds of muscle. That means, all that extra weight was fat. The normal and high protein groups gained 14 pounds but 7 pounds of that was muscle. Interesting.

My spin: First things first. Eat too many calories and you will gain weight. So cut the calories. (Yes, I know. You knew that.) But when you pick which calories to cut make sure it's not the protein calories. Keep your protein intake above 15 grams per day. That way you'll retain muscle mass. Concentrate on lean animal or vegetable protein. Next week, we'll talk about my favorite diet. Stay well.


Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/ask/dr-paster/dr-zorba-paster-you-need-protein-calories/article_3a4b11e2-37d0-11e1-a42e-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1qQ6yl5Kj

Ya- I thought that was an interestingly low number too - not sure if he meant 15% higher or what?

depends on your goals, if you still trying to lose id cut the cals a tiny but under bmr, if you want to maintain just eat at bmr just be careful not to binge on weekends as it will put you over for the week.

This is incorrect. Eating at BMR is eating in a deficit and you will lose. I am assuming the person who posted this is thinking about TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). If you eat at your TDEE you will maintain. If you eat at your BMR you will lose.

What about the bodies natural hormonal response to switch off fat burning to retain energy in a VLCD and in turn producing cortisol to catabolize lean mass.
Yes you lose weight but the wrong kind.

What ever happened to eating healthy FIRST?
Then working out to create a deficit.

MFP has it *kitten* backwards!

1200 cals is not enough for most people to even fulfill the Basal needs!
Thats not even taking into account that as soon as you get up in the morning to pee, youll need to have even more calories.
then you go to work and have other stressors and then you want to work out???

I tell you what!

I'll give you a 20 year old car with 1/8th tank of gas and little oil.
Now drive it 200 miles!

Thats what you are doing to your body.

At some point it breaks down!

Eating at bmr is a bad idea period. BMR is defined as basal metabolic rate so basically what the body burns when totally at rest, this has nothing to do with losing fat in a healthy manner as the moment you get up, move, eat, workout you are burning way more than BMR. The cals in cals out formula is flawed, eating at bmr will cause muscle loss once you are leaner if you are obese then fine. Losing muscle=slower metabolic rate so you are making yourself more unhealthy and worse of than when you started. Here is an example to clear thing up:
My BMR is 1800 cals/day
My total daily expenditure or TDEE (this is where you determine the deficit needed btw) is 2540-3000 (active lifestyle)
so to shed 1 lb/wk (500 cal/day deficit) I eat 2040 which is way above my bmr and I eat back all the exercise cals at that goal. When you joined mfp, put in your data and goal they already determined the calories needed to meet that goal WITHOUT any exercise this is why you get to eat back the exercise calories and still lose that weight. Eat woman, stop scale obsessing and learn to go by how your clothes fit and how you feel. The true measure of health is not a scale nor is it your BMI, these are 2 totally useless measures of health. Learn instead to focus on bodyfat %, measurements and then you will find a healthier, happier, slimmer you.

^^THIS

Bump

It takes time for your body to get used to getting more calories. I was eating 1200 for over year and a half so when my body finally stalled out and stopped dropping the weight I found out why. It has taken my body over 6 weeks to realize that it would be getting enough food to finally let go. I upped my calories to 1500 and am eating my exercise calories back now too which I never did before. It doesn't just happen overnight like many would like it to.

The best way I heard to up your calories is to slowly add 100 each week instead of doing it all at once. I went from 1200 to 1380 and then a few weeks later got up to 1500. I still gained 4 lbs right away but it has now come back off. I eat anywhere from 1500-1700 depending on my TDEE which is usually 2100-2500 depending on exercise.