For the 500,000 time EATING MORE WORKS

Eating more does not work for me; eating less and working out everyday works for me.

I eat around 1100-1300 calories a day, though I usually stay right around 1200 calories. I am, by no means, starving.
I workout for two-three hours a day and don't eat back my exercise calories.
I also make sure to drink 10 glasses of water a day and get 8 hours of sleep, or more, every night.


This is what works for me. I don't advise other people to do what I do, I simply share my story and what works for me- for, what works for me might not work for someone else.
I still have a lot of weight to lose, so, currently, I am losing weight regularly each week.
Perhaps when I get closer to my goal weight, I might consider changing things, but I see no reason to change anything I am doing now, as I am seeing positive results

Eating more does NOT work for me. Period.

Me neither. I tried it for a couple months in order to bust out of a plateau and ended up gaining 15 pounds. Glad to hear I'm not the only one

Not doubting you gained 15 lbs, but 15 lbs of what, and were you still working out?
Your body probably finally had a chance repair/rebuild muscle and energy stores.

Because frankly, 15 lbs of fat in 2 months would mean 1.875 lbs a week for 8 weeks.
At 3500 calories a pound, that means a surplus of 938 calories a day OVER your maintenance.

So you would have to have eaten your higher amount, your exercise calories, your daily activity calories, and 938 EXTRA calories on top of all that to literally gain 15 lbs of fat in 2 months.

Now perhaps you misunderstood the idea of eating more, and reverted back to some old ways, but I doubt it.

That would be incredible for someone to go from eating at 1200 to probably 3500 every day for 2 months.

Just stating - your body built up finally for the load you probably put it through with exercise. And with a slower metabolism, if you immediately jumped up in calories, you might have packed on a lb of fat as the body thought it better store it in case the insanity continued.

But I doubt you could have gained 15 lbs of real honest bad weight.

i am proof that eating the right amount of calories is the way it works. i spent so many years being overweight and 'starving' my body.

the thing is, people thing starving means no eating. but that isnt how your body works. you need calories to live. even no exercise, no weight training...your body still needs energy to function. if you are not giving your body the energy is needs for even the most basic functions, it will react by holding on to every last bit of fat it can. its not something that you think about. its not something you can change. this is how our bodies work without us needing to think about it. if you dont get the minimum level of calories you need (commonly referred to as BMR) you are making your body conserve fat.

you are making yourself fatter by not eating enough. its just the way it works.

i spent over half my life thinking i needed to eat less and still being fat. i just recently learned about all this bmr, tdee, etc etc. i started eating more, and i am losing weight.

it isnt a license to go crazy and eat till you pop. you have to know your BMR, you have to keep serious track of calories eaten and calories expended. if you dont understand, ask questions. read about it. thats what i did, and i realized that for so long i was eating too few calories. now, i am giving my body what it needs. and i am losing weight.

I want to thank whoever it was who initially posted the fat2fitradio.com URL. I already knew that you need to eat above your BMR to avoid killing your metabolism, and I have been, but I was having trouble figuring out how I could have lost 10 lbs last month. After all, I was eating convenience foods more often (thus increasing my average calories to 1800-1900 or so) and working out LESS often (3x/wk, down from 5). The fat2fit site gave me my answer: I need to be eating 1900-2200 cals/day for 3-4 workouts/week activity.

And when I looked again at my iPhone app, which has a very handy feature of putting your net calories for each day in the week on a bar graph (with a bar for "average" net calories for the week), I found that starting in late February, my net cals went from an average of 1300 to an average of 1600. My current BMR is just over 1600 and my goal weight BMR is around 1450.

That explains it.

Here's my info:
Age 36
Height 5'6"
CW 165
GW 150
BMR 1514

Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1739
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1992
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2246

I got some great help yesterday in trying to understand how all this works and maybe I am reading too much into it but I am still confused. I've been back and forth between this thread and couple of other's (road map, eating your calories back, etc ) and I have a couple of questions. I know it's frustrating for the wiser members on here but this is all very new to me and any help would be much appreciated!

So above are my stats. I do exercise 5-6 days a week. I am doing P90X with light weights and I do additional cardio usually (which I am now going to cut back on). So let's say I am doing this or another program that incorporates some light weight/body weight activity. I am not working at the moment so I am home most of the day but when I do go to meet friends or grocery shop or run errands I only use my bike or I walk. I don't usually count this as extra exercise.
I chose "Moderately Active' because of the fact that a big part of the day I am sitting down.

So am I right to assume that the above numbers would be my TDEE? Let's say in this case 2246. That is including my exercise calories then, right? I would NOT eat back the exercise calories that MFP puts in and I should be netting 2246 or should I be just eating 2246 regardless? According to fit2fat this is what I should be eating for my goal weight of 150lbs but this seems awfully high. I've been stuffing myself the last few days (my diary is open btw) and I can't seem to even get past 1800 or 1900. I have no idea how to add another 200-300.

I don't want to cut way back on exercising because I really enjoy it and I like the progress my body is making. I am getting back into shape and I appreciate all the hard work it takes to get there but I do realize I have been overdoing it a bit. I would like to go back to sticking with just 1 program instead of 'mixing it up' all the time.

Is it possible to just go by what MFP says when I enter calories burned? That seems like a feasible number for me. I was finding it hard to eat my BMR number of 1514 but I think I can easily eat 1700-1800 a day. I'm just worried that's not going to get me very far with weight loss.

bump I am interested in reading more about the subject

Okay, I give up...what is TDEE?

Thanks.

I think this is my problem. I have been eating around 1200-1300 and not losing at all and I have 60 lbs. to lose! I am so afraid to eat more but I've heard this from so many different people that I'm willing to give it a chance. I'll let you know what happens, but I need to know what TDEE stands for....thanks.

bump

Your BMR, is your Basal Metabolic Rate (the amount of calories you need to maintain daily functions, breathing, digestion, vital organ function, etc.)

Your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (this your BMR times an energy multiplier that accounts for how active you are). Essentially, the most you should be burning a day). So, your calorie intake should really be between these two numbers.

If you eat your TDEE you will probably gain weight or at the very least you will simply maintain. If you eat your BMR and workout (and eat no exercise calories) you will be starving your body of calories needed for daily functioning. While it may seem like you should lose weight during this time, you may, or may not. If you eat too few, your body will go into what is referred to as starvation mode, and you will not lose weight because your body will see the too few calories as not enough and it will hold on to nearly every calorie you intake.

Calorie cycling is often recommended so your body doesn't get used to the calories you are intaking and adjust. Thats what the body does, it adjusts to what you are doing and resets your metabolism to it, so it makes it hard to lose. If you eat 1200 calories everyday, your body expects that. If you eat 1200, and then 1400 then 1200, then 1300, then 1200 then 1400, (calorie cycling) can you predict what you will eat the next day? Can your body? Probably not... so that's one way to avoid your body adjusting and creating a new normal.

Hope this helps. There are calculators that can help you calculate the exact calorie intake each of you should get. If you hit a plateau, you can try to increase your calories by like 200 a day for 4 days, then go back down to whatever you are using. That should help break your plateau.

I so believe this. Thank you!