How is Eating more and losing more weight working for YOU??

I'm 4ft 11, MFP says I should eat 1200 cals to lose 1lb.

Since upping my calories from 1200 to 1600 I have lost consistently higher than that, including 2.8lb this week.
I am not a major exerciser, I am running a few times a week and I do a bit of body weight strength exercises. I aim for 1g of protein per lb of lean mass, and that be has helped me maintain my lean mass, and just lose fat.

I love it, as it means if I do have a high cal day (3000) my metabolism is working well enough to cope with it and I still lose.

I'm trying to do the same thing; eat more to lose. Can anyone tell me how to update MFP so that you can eat more than 1200 cals? I tought it would be in settings but I'm not seeing it there. Thanks MFPs! :huh:

I'm trying to do the same thing; eat more to lose. Can anyone tell me how to update MFP so that you can eat more than 1200 cals? I tought it would be in settings but I'm not seeing it there. Thanks MFPs! :huh:

Click on "My Home" and then GOALS. you can go with what mfp suggest or custom

I've hit a plateau three times, and all three times it broke by increasing my calories. I've gone from eating 1200 from the start to eating 1700+ now, and I'm still losing weight.

It isn't. I'm so over even giving that approach the benefit of the doubt anymore. In the two years I've been trying to lose weight, I've tried to eat 1700-1800 (high for me) for up to two months at a time on at least four separate occasions, and not once has it worked. Me, if I'm not losing, it means I have to eat less. So, what works is eating my BMR (1425 calories) and not eating my exercise calories back unless they put me under 1000. Now, that isn't an easy thing for me to achieve, but I've found it works. I maintain at 1800 and I'm comfortable with that level, but I'm over wasting my time with attempting to up the calories for weight loss.

I do have a chronic thyroid condition, so that might have something to do with this approach not working for me.

It's working for me! I upped my calories and started eating back exercise calories, and finally got back on track. I dropped 3 pounds this week by eating at 1390 net, consuming exercise calories--putting me between 1800 and 2400 daily. I may need to up my calories even more if I keep losing this rapidly. I'll up it to 1500 if I have another week of big loss. I think it will even out though.

I should add that my exercise consists of lifting heavy and doing HIIT cardio (including c25k every other day, and HIIT on the elliptical machines every other day. Strength 3-4 days a week).

It really depends on the day-and I think that is part of what is helping. My calories are varied every day. My base is set at around 1500, then I jog every morning and earn about 300-400 calories...so, Im eating around 1700-1900 calories/day-and 1 day per week I allow myself to meet my parents at our favorite steakhouse and I eat whatever I want-on those days, my intake is usually around 2500. And I'm dropping weight like it wasnt really attached in the first place. This has been SUCH a revelation to me and SO incredibly exciting. I can EAT. I still track, like crazy, and as long as I dont go over what MFP tells me to eat other than my 1 "cheat" day per week...I keep losing.

Best of luck on your journey!

I upped my cals in one day from 1400 to 1800 calories. I lost 3.6lbs the first week, and I lost 13 inches the 1st month. I am still steadily losing inches and fat. I eat 1800-2000 cals per day, I workoiut 6 days a week, 3 days of cardio, 3 days of strength training.

It isn't. I'm so over even giving that approach the benefit of the doubt anymore. In the two years I've been trying to lose weight, I've tried to eat 1700-1800 (high for me) for up to two months at a time on at least four separate occasions, and not once has it worked. Me, if I'm not losing, it means I have to eat less. So, what works is eating my BMR (1425 calories) and not eating my exercise calories back unless they put me under 1000. Now, that isn't an easy thing for me to achieve, but I've found it works. I maintain at 1800 and I'm comfortable with that level, but I'm over wasting my time with attempting to up the calories for weight loss.

I had a similar experience.

I am 6'1" (53-y-o) and MFP had me at 1200-1400 calories + exercise calories and I lost 60 pounds. I hit a plateau, and upped it to 1800-2000 for 3 months and gained 14 lbs. I cut it back to 1600 and lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks.

I can give you a comparison story. Again, I'll stress that every body is different, so what worked for me may not work for you.

About ten years ago, I weighed 280. I finally decided I had abused my body enough, and decided to lose some weight. At the time, I was working a 60-70 hour a week desk job, so lots of exercise was simply not in the cards. Don't get me wrong - I walked a couple of miles a day at lunch, etc, but hard-pumpin' calorie-stompin' sweaty exercise simply didn't fit into my life.

So, I decided to do it via a low-calorie diet. I started watching every calorie, and bemoaning each one that passed my lips. I probably dropped to about a 1000 calorie intake from my usual no-idea-but-too-much. I was miserable, but I started losing weight fast. Then, about a week later, my energy levels went into a tailspin and I plateaued - very hard. So I started fasting. Again, lost weight, but was miserable. Started eating again at low calorie levels, and managed to work my way through a disheartening and painfully hungry better part of a year until I lost to 250 (that's 30 pounds in about 10 months). My walk was a slog, and probably looked like a drunken shamble to anyone watching.

I then very slowly increased my calorie levels (1500/day-ish) and started feeling good again. Then something mysterious and wonderful happened - I started losing weight. My walks got brisker, my outlook on life got better, and the long painful progression of plateaus became less frequent (and I had the energy levels and mood to take them more in stride). In the next two months, I lost down to 230 (ten pounds a month, which is a little quick) without even really stressing about it. Though, admittedly,I did feel hungry all the time, and keeping such a restricted diet took a lot of hard work and discipline. But it was far less miserable than the previous year.

Fast forward to today. I'm trying to get from 230 down to 200 (top range of my ideal weight range for someone 6' 3"). It's been working pretty well but I decided that tracking my diet more carefully might work. I've used the tracker on this site to adjust my already-healthy-ingredient meals to lower my carb intake (which used to be 70-percent-ish of my caloric intake) down to something closer to 50-55%, and balance my fats and proteins up. I'm on a 1500-calorie diet, and I really try to stick to eating as many of my calories I can, but I'm finding that there are days when it's a real struggle. And I'm a big hungry boy - I never thought eating 1500 calories would seem like work.

So the net is - first, I've found for my own personal experience that eating too few calories is a horrible, miserable, awful way to lose weight, even though it does technically work.

And second, I've found that if I focus as much on WHAT calories I eat as HOW MANY of them, I can very easily stay with my diet, enjoy a nice big dessert every evening with a glass of wine, and feel comfortably full all day long.

For those few times when I'm just really hungry or there's a naughty food I'm trying to avoid, I keep a pack of cinnamon gum at my desk at work. That way, on Pizza Friday, I can chew a stick of gum right after eating my healthy lunch - the cinnamon drowns out the enticing aroma of pizza, and I'm not cheating on my calories.

And when I do give in and have a slice, I log it and adjust the rest of my food intake for the day to accommodate.

So far, it's not working for me!
I am 5'1". 108/109lbs and had been losing 1lb/week for the past couple of months on 1200 cals until I hit a 2 week plateau and it was recommended I upped my calories. I've done so, and in the past 2 weeks I have gained over 3lbs. I'm hoping this is a temporary thing because it has been pretty disappointing, considering how hard it was to lose originally!

But I have read lots of people saying they've had great success with upping their calories, so it just seems not to work for me - Good luck!

I upped from 1200 to 1400. I've lost 2 pounds overall, but maybe 1 pound in the last couple of weeks. I am a SLOW loser!!!

I have not gained anything!

Here's part of the problem: This website is an approximation of your BMR, and really doesn't use any sophisticated testing to determine what your real BMR is, nor does it test for what factors affect your personal BMR.

I knew a guy at a previous job who has an incredible BMR. He's sedentary, because he literally cannot exercise - his doctor has recommended strength training and no cardio. He has to eat an astonishing amount of food to get through the day - like a half-dozen eggs with bacon and a half-loaf of toast for breakfast, a pan of lasagna for lunch, and lord only knows what for supper. He was 45 years old when I knew him, skinny as a rail, picture-perfect bloodwork, and he struggles to keep weight on. And he's got a desk job.

If he tried to follow the recommendations at this site, it'd kill him in a month.

I've also known people who exercise all day long and still need to follow diets that are lower than mine, and this site would recommend WAY too high a caloric intake for them.

About the only thing I can suggest, getting started, is that you go with the averages (because they're right a good percentage of the time). Give it a few weeks, and see how you feel. If you're tired and hungry all the time and not losing weight, then your metabolic rate might have dropped and you might consider experimenting with some extra calories. If you're not hungry but your're not losing weight, consider reducing some calories or get more exercise and don't eat your exercise calories.

If the numbers seem wildly off to you or it just totally isn't working, see your doctor and have your BMR measured by something other than a generic center-of-the-road average-driven website. The tools here are very good, but if they aren't asking for bloodwork and immersing you in pools of water to test body fat content and doing stress tests to determine your fitness level. Then force the site to accept your ACTUAL BMR and use that as your baseline, and see how that works.

You may also need to consider other diet plans. Restricted-carb diets like Atkins, for example (for which you'd really want to use tools designed to support that specific diet).

Most importantly, don't be impatient. Trying to force yourself to lose weight very quickly is something you really want your doctor involved with. 1 to 2 pounds a week is about the pace you want unless someone far more qualified than an anonymous Internet nobody such has myself has recommended it.

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