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Increasing Calories - What to expect & why you need patience...

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  • techmom29
    techmom29 Posts: 103
    I keep re-reading this to keep my head in the game. I have been upping to about 1850 cals/day for about 9 days. The scale hasn't moved, which is good...but my son gets married in two week and it sure is tempting to "crash" diet to look good for pics. Ah well, I'll look better by the time the grandkids roll around. :/
  • 31prvrbs
    31prvrbs Posts: 687 Member
    I keep re-reading this to keep my head in the game. I have been upping to about 1850 cals/day for about 9 days. The scale hasn't moved, which is good...but my son gets married in two week and it sure is tempting to "crash" diet to look good for pics. Ah well, I'll look better by the time the grandkids roll around. :/

    OMGosh, I know! You must resist! It's for the best!
  • techmom29
    techmom29 Posts: 103
    hey guys i know to expect weight gain etc, so the scales are gone, that way i am not going to freak out and eat less again!

    But is this feeling pudgy normal?? not bloated as such just pudgy and fat! i look down and all i see is this big wobbly stomach, i am sure it wasn't this pudgy yesterday?

    I haven't done measurements, (hasn't even been a full week since i last did them) my clothes fit the same, and for the first time since starting this journey almost 2 weeks ago, i have actually netted my BMR on a normal eating day!

    Normal as opposed to my weekly splurge days where i don't bother with cals :)

    Honestly, yes. That is normal. It's just part of the adjustment process as your body re-learns how to digest larger amounts of food. Your metabolism is still used to digesting lower cals. When your body discovers that this is legit, and not just a binge, it will be willing to let go of food a bit faster. At the beginning, our bodies often aren't very trusting of us in this dept., so it thinks it should hold on during the "feast" because "famine" is around the corner. You should expect this every time you raise the cals.

    Glad to hear this is normal! I am totally feeling the same way!
  • Time2LoseWeightNOW
    Time2LoseWeightNOW Posts: 1,730 Member
  • techmom29
    techmom29 Posts: 103
    I keep re-reading this to keep my head in the game. I have been upping to about 1850 cals/day for about 9 days. The scale hasn't moved, which is good...but my son gets married in two week and it sure is tempting to "crash" diet to look good for pics. Ah well, I'll look better by the time the grandkids roll around. :/

    OMGosh, I know! You must resist! It's for the best!

    Thanks for the encouragement! BTW - love your user name. :)
  • mamapuddin17
    mamapuddin17 Posts: 108 Member
    I have been reading this and want to make sure I have this right.
    BMR 1382
    TDEE 2040
    So I have set my calories to 1700 and don't eat the exercise calories back unless it's over 200,right?
    If I don't exercise then I should drop down to the sedentary amount for that day or just keep it at 1700? Most of my exercise is walking or cardio nothng over 350 calories burned.
    Thanks for any help!
  • thetiwi1890
    thetiwi1890 Posts: 256 Member
    Bumping to read later :drinker:
  • lisakyle_11
    lisakyle_11 Posts: 420 Member
    perfect. thank you!
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    I have been reading this and want to make sure I have this right.
    BMR 1382
    TDEE 2040
    So I have set my calories to 1700 and don't eat the exercise calories back unless it's over 200,right?
    If I don't exercise then I should drop down to the sedentary amount for that day or just keep it at 1700? Most of my exercise is walking or cardio nothng over 350 calories burned.
    Thanks for any help!
    If you burn over 300 calories. You want to always be sure to net BMR. Yes eat 1700 everyday.
  • oonga
    oonga Posts: 336 Member
    31prvrbs Thank you !!!! That does make me feel better!!

    TEchmom thanks for sharing that, see we can't both be abnormal :D
  • mamapuddin17
    mamapuddin17 Posts: 108 Member
    I have been reading this and want to make sure I have this right.
    BMR 1382
    TDEE 2040
    So I have set my calories to 1700 and don't eat the exercise calories back unless it's over 200,right?
    If I don't exercise then I should drop down to the sedentary amount for that day or just keep it at 1700? Most of my exercise is walking or cardio nothng over 350 calories burned.
    Thanks for any help!
    If you burn over 300 calories. You want to always be sure to net BMR. Yes eat 1700 everyday.

    ANewLucia thank you!
  • naonah
    naonah Posts: 119 Member
    I just wanted to say THANK U to Kiki and Lucia for taking the time every day to r:smile: espond to these blogs. I know it takes a lot of time (and patience lol) and I hope everyone appreciates it. I Do! :)

    Definitely appreciate their dedication to themselves and to fellow MFP members!

    I have been eating about 1800 cals per day for about 3 weeks now and....I've gained! :frown: I know, I know, it's what was expected but it's SO scary. I just keep thinking that this is too good to be true (eating more), that this might only work if you have 500+ calorie burns everyday, or that I am just different, or how come skinny people eat like birds, etc. The thoughts are endless. On the other hand, I keep telling myself that this has to work....cause I really don't know what else to do if it doesn't.

    What is your story? What did you experience before you started losing? How did the loss start...all of a sudden? Any encouragement would be appreciated. I won't give up...but I'm concerned that I'm doing something wrong. Do I need massive daily burns to make this work? (I will be getting back into it soon, but just wondering)...

    Thanks,
    Nadia
  • 31prvrbs
    31prvrbs Posts: 687 Member


    What is your story? What did you experience before you started losing? How did the loss start...all of a sudden? Any encouragement would be appreciated. I won't give up...but I'm concerned that I'm doing something wrong. Do I need massive daily burns to make this work? (I will be getting back into it soon, but just wondering)...

    I did it a bit different from many of the ladies. I opted to do a full metabolism reset. Where you shoot up to maintenance, or slightly higher, and stay there for a while, then drop into a deficit. It put my weight loss on hold for a while, but I'd screwed up my metabolism so bad, that I didn't care. Doing a metabolism reset for me was easier mentally, because I knew not to expect loss at all. I just rode it out, and then when I was ready to start losing, I was able to barely lower my cals and start seeing results. During that time, I also did NO cardio. So no massive burns here. I just ate to fuel my body, and kept lifting heavy, allowing my body to recoup from the beating/starving I'd done to it.

    I don't regret one second of it.

    Here are some of the threads I discuss this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/533559-maintenance-before-losing-advice-please
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/541567-once-you-have-your-tdee-and-bmr-next-step

    And here are blog posts that discuss it:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-finding-true-maintenance-200567
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/why-eating-less-and-exercising-more-can-backfire-203395
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-how-exactly-do-i-go-about-eating-more-200576
  • naonah
    naonah Posts: 119 Member


    What is your story? What did you experience before you started losing? How did the loss start...all of a sudden? Any encouragement would be appreciated. I won't give up...but I'm concerned that I'm doing something wrong. Do I need massive daily burns to make this work? (I will be getting back into it soon, but just wondering)...

    I did it a bit different from many of the ladies. I opted to do a full metabolism rest. Where you shoot up to maintenance, or slightly higher, and stay there for a while, then drop into a deficit. It put my weight loss on hold for a while, but I'd screwed up my metabolism so bad, that I didn't care. Doing a metabolism reset for me was easier mentally, because I knew not to expect loss at all. I just rode it out, and then when I was ready to start losing, I was able to barely lower my cals and start seeing results. During that time, I also did NO cardio. So no massive burns here. I just ate to fuel my body, and kept lifting heavy, allowing my body to recoup from the beating/starving I'd done to it.

    I don't regret one second of it.

    Here are some of the threads I discuss this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/533559-maintenance-before-losing-advice-please
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/541567-once-you-have-your-tdee-and-bmr-next-step

    And here are blog posts that discuss it:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-finding-true-maintenance-200567
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/why-eating-less-and-exercising-more-can-backfire-203395
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-how-exactly-do-i-go-about-eating-more-200576

    Thanks for the links! I have read through them all. Eating at maintenance to reset your metabolism makes sense.

    Wondering if I should up my cals some more (I'm 5'6" and am now at 186)? Otherwise, if I continue eating at 15% below my TDEE (=1800) will I eventually lose weight? Else, what do I have to do after say 8 weeks of eating at 1800? I have stopped my massive cardio burns for a bit and will be moving boxes, painting and what not shortly to get my muscles moving...will this plus lifting create enough of a deficit to start losing?

    I'm feeling more satisfied, sleeping well, more energy etc so I know eating more is good for my body...just have to ignore the scale for a bit longer. (pep talk to myself. Trying to quiet that voice in my head saying, what are you doing?!)
  • mrscooks1
    mrscooks1 Posts: 16 Member
    Start weight 207.2
    Week 1 208.4 (+1.2)
    Week 2 207.4 (-1) Boom!!!!

    Last Sunday I went up in weight and couldn't understand why. Monday, my weight went up .2. I wanted to find out why even though I was eating right at 1500 or under, I wasn't losing weight. Lucia, 31prvbs, and helloitsdan sharing their information helped me so much. The next day I immediately upped my calories to 2260 calories (TDEE-20%). I did gain weight like you all said, up to 211.4 probably more, but didn't look at the scale for a few days. I know the scale is not the be all end all, but just wanted to see if the numbers would move and they did.

    I am a happy sista today!!! I learned this week that I do not have to starve myself to lose weight. I am eating over 2000 calories daily, working out 6 days a week and losing weight the right way. Slow and steady will win my race and I don't have to kill my self for hours a day to get there. I am no longer a yo-yo dieter.

    Yay me!!!!

    Thank you ladies!!!
  • KeriA
    KeriA Posts: 3,268 Member


    What is your story? What did you experience before you started losing? How did the loss start...all of a sudden? Any encouragement would be appreciated. I won't give up...but I'm concerned that I'm doing something wrong. Do I need massive daily burns to make this work? (I will be getting back into it soon, but just wondering)...

    I did it a bit different from many of the ladies. I opted to do a full metabolism rest. Where you shoot up to maintenance, or slightly higher, and stay there for a while, then drop into a deficit. It put my weight loss on hold for a while, but I'd screwed up my metabolism so bad, that I didn't care. Doing a metabolism reset for me was easier mentally, because I knew not to expect loss at all. I just rode it out, and then when I was ready to start losing, I was able to barely lower my cals and start seeing results. During that time, I also did NO cardio. So no massive burns here. I just ate to fuel my body, and kept lifting heavy, allowing my body to recoup from the beating/starving I'd done to it.

    I don't regret one second of it.

    Here are some of the threads I discuss this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/533559-maintenance-before-losing-advice-please
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/541567-once-you-have-your-tdee-and-bmr-next-step

    And here are blog posts that discuss it:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-finding-true-maintenance-200567
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/why-eating-less-and-exercising-more-can-backfire-203395
    AND
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/faq-how-exactly-do-i-go-about-eating-more-200576

    This is what I am trying to do now. I am on my second week of maintenance after initially upping twice untill I just went all the way. I will definitely look at these and yes
    Thanks for this tread.
  • CindyCountingCalories
    CindyCountingCalories Posts: 321 Member
    Very interesting thank you!
  • silvercanoe
    silvercanoe Posts: 95 Member
    Interesting information! Thanks!
  • seniorfaye
    seniorfaye Posts: 295 Member
    bump...
  • junebug523
    junebug523 Posts: 196
    This is good reading. I've read it before, but I needed to read it again today after weighing in over the past few days and seeing some numbers I had hoped never to see again. Yikes! I just keep telling myself that this is part of the process, that it is worth it. I know I didn't gain 4 lbs of fat in 3 days, so it's gotta be water weight and my body responding to the radical changes I am making. My consolation is that my measurements have not gone up. They haven't gone down either, but I believe that will come...if I can just keep the faith...

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