Going to increase my calorie intake - advice needed

Nooooooooooooooooooo dont eat only 1200 a day, I made this mistake and was miserable!
You are doing the right thing increasing! I am on 1400 a day now, aiming for 1500 though.
You will stop the bingeing, your body needs those calories to survive.

I would suggest this thread:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map?

Look at the first post - it walks you through what you need to do to work out how much you should be losing. 1500 may be too low, but it is definately not too high at your height.

I am a 42 year old female, current weight 205lb, height 5ft 4 and have been "trying" to eat 1200 calories a day, a can maintain this for a few days but then end up binge eating dramatically and eating anything and everything in sight, im aware that im obviously doing something wrong. I go spinning three times a week but other than that i dont really get a great deal of excercise, i think that i may have been overestimating the amount of calories burnt as my hrm is not the best, but that said i try not to eat back my exercise calories.

Im going to try and increase my calorie intake to 1500 a day but this seems very alien to me. Is this the right thing to do, have i got the calculations right, is there someone who could perhaps point me in the right direction.

I will be very grateful for the right advice from someone who knows what they are talking about, but i am scared of increasing by calories. I hope someone can help. Many thanks

So here is what I have learnt in a short time of 26 days that I have been trying to lose weight. You need to eat in order to trick your body to avoid "Starvation Mode". If you are eating less calories than your body needs to run its basic functions, then your body will become thrifty and will save everything by cutting down your metabolism and increasing its savings in the form of Fat.
So first thing you need to do is to check your basal metobolic rate. That is the rate your body burns calories to keep you alive. It is based on your height and weight. Then you need to add extra calories to cover for activities like walking to the bathroom, kitchen, to shops, or exercising. If you eat less calories than your body is using up in total->you will start to lose weight. So it is simple. In order to calculate how you can do all this and how long it will take for you to achieve your goal, you need to go to this website and run simulation.

http://bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov/

You need to enjoy food. Eat more of the food which is healthy and good in taste as well. Eat more proteins as they stay in the stomach longer and keep you full for long as well. For example, eggs are very good source of high quality proteins. Have two egg whites scrambled and cooked on a non stick pan with water (no oil). Eat it with a slice of toast with no butter. Have Greek Style yoghurt, It is good in calcium and proteins. Take about 100gm of Greek styled unflavored yoghurt add in a couple of strawberries, perhaps a few blueberries, a dash of cinnamon (it will make it a bit sweet). Mix it and enjoy as a snack.

Then for lunch, have some proteins. Lets say 50 gm of baked skinless chicken breast with some broccoli and perhaps a baked sweet potato.

For afternoon snack, you can have a handful of almonds or pistachio nuts. It is important not to eat more than a handful of nuts as they are densely rich in calories. Try nuts which are still in their shells, so that you have to work to eat them. It takes time and gives you more satisfaction.

For Dinner you can have Tabouli salad with some vinegar. May be add some beans. An apple and a pear would be good. Grapefruit is an excellent source of fiber and keeps you full for long. Lay off pineapple and grapes in the afternoon as they are full of sugar.

Perhaps you would like to watch some television at night and would like to nibble. Try air-popped popcorns with no added salt or butter. Few calories but very satisfying.

Last but not least, you need to drink lots of water, and I mean it. Dehydration will not let you lose weight as your salt content will be high and your body will start retaining water. So you need to drink more to dilute your body salts. That will make you pass more water and get rid of rubbish that burning fat has created.

Exercise at least three times a week for 20 minutes. Aerobics are best for burning calories. Exercise should have 5 minutes of warm up time and at the end you should have 5 minutes of cooling down time.

Enjoy this whole process. If you are not enjoying it then it is not going to work, That is why being in the right state of mind, and having support from family and friends is extremely important.

So this was my 5 cents worth of knowledge. It is not perfect, but a work in progress. From my personal experience I have found that you need to listen to your body and react to the signals that it is giving you. Experiment a bit and see how it goes. Do nt be afraid of trying anything new. Don't worry about weighing yourself (this is coming from a guy who weighs himself twice a day every day, and sometimes even more- still trying to over come it). Weight will come off eventually. Once it is off, you need to be able to continue with this process with a slight twist to maintain your weight. You can do it only if you make it your lifestyle. That will happen only if you find a way to like doing it. Read success stories and you will realize that it is possible to do it.

Good luck and take care.

No wonder you binge, you definitely need to eat more!

Now the advice people have given here is fabulous and informative. BUT the really, really easy way to do it is to adjust your MFP settings to lose 1lb a week - bet it gives you way more than 1200 calories - and eat a good proportion of your exercise calories back. Bingo, you're sorted with no hard sums. Works for me! :flowerforyou:

I am 45 and 5'4. I'm 5 pounds shy of losing 100 pounds...I lost some of that on 800 & 1000 calories. Joined MFP and made a goal of 2 lbs per week and like everyone it seems, was given a 1200 calorie limit. I ate 1200 for weeks and weeks, no exercise...lost a lot. Started exercising, researching and bumped my calories up to 1560, kept loosing. Now I'm a gym rat, weigh 176...bumped them to 1680 for .5 a week...body is adjusting and I've started loosing again. I still think I might not be eating enough...in my book that's a great problem to have, especially after starving myself on so little! Give it a shot...but don't be discouraged if you don't get immediate results, my body rebels at first then settles down and then I reap a reward ;-)

I am 5'1 and started at 225. I tried eating just 1200 and it wasn't a struggle to stay there but my body held on to the weight and the scale wasn't moving at all. I increased my calories to 1300-1350 and I'm now at 185... since Thanksgiving. Be smart about your calorie choices. For me, I eat about 500 for breakfast and then 200-300 every 3 or 4 hours from there. It's working for me. If I eat a bigger breakfast I feel full longer, my metabolism kick starts, and I do a whole let less snacking. Also, if I don't work out and cut calories.. I don't lose weight. I have to do both.

good luck!!!!

Heather

I'm 42 and also 5'4". My first 3 and a half weeks I stuck to 1200 calories and eating back some of my calories. I was grumpy and grouchy - such a joy to live with I see you've now read the 'In place of a roadmap' thread and decided to up your calories. I agree with you!

I have been slowly increasing my calories and feel SO much better. I increased to 1300 in the middle of my 4th week because I thought 'what the hell'! I'm just coming to the end of week 9 and am on my second week of 1400. I'm probably having between 80-100 calories more than that a day because I don't always log my vegetables and salad ( I do log potatoes/sweetcorn/peas). I'm eating up to 2 thirds/3 quarters of my exercise calories so am eating more than 1400-1500 calories a day.

I haven't lost lbs every week but have definitely lost inches - I'm on the last hole of my belt woo hoo!

This goes completely against everything I thought would work and am so pleased that it's working although I have polycystic ovary syndrome and always believed that I needed less calories to lose weight.

I hope you have success with increasing your calories and continue to add more to your daily target. Lots of luck

i'm at 1580 right now.....i did start off at 1200 lost a few then went into starvation mode ( i was burning 400 calories a day) i was cranky, tired and wasn't losing after 2 weeks.

i bumped up my calories and i'm losing steady between 1-1.5lbs a week.

good luck!! and EAT! =D

I am a 42 year old female, current weight 205lb, height 5ft 4 and have been "trying" to eat 1200 calories a day, a can maintain this for a few days but then end up binge eating dramatically and eating anything and everything in sight, im aware that im obviously doing something wrong. I go spinning three times a week but other than that i dont really get a great deal of excercise, i think that i may have been overestimating the amount of calories burnt as my hrm is not the best, but that said i try not to eat back my exercise calories.

Im going to try and increase my calorie intake to 1500 a day but this seems very alien to me. Is this the right thing to do, have i got the calculations right, is there someone who could perhaps point me in the right direction.

I will be very grateful for the right advice from someone who knows what they are talking about, but i am scared of increasing by calories. I hope someone can help. Many thanks

Don't just up to 1500 without knowing your BMR.
Find out your BMR, work out your TDEE and then take the deficit from there.

I am a 42 year old female, current weight 205lb, height 5ft 4 and have been "trying" to eat 1200 calories a day, a can maintain this for a few days but then end up binge eating dramatically and eating anything and everything in sight, im aware that im obviously doing something wrong. I go spinning three times a week but other than that i dont really get a great deal of excercise, i think that i may have been overestimating the amount of calories burnt as my hrm is not the best, but that said i try not to eat back my exercise calories.

Im going to try and increase my calorie intake to 1500 a day but this seems very alien to me. Is this the right thing to do, have i got the calculations right, is there someone who could perhaps point me in the right direction.

I will be very grateful for the right advice from someone who knows what they are talking about, but i am scared of increasing by calories. I hope someone can help. Many thanks

Don't just up to 1500 without knowing your BMR.
Find out your BMR, work out your TDEE and then take the deficit from there.

at 205lbs, TDEE would be minimum 2500 so she'll definitely still be in deficit.

I was more concerned about the deficit being too large than too small.

WIth a TDEE of 2500, eating 1200 calories at a deficit of 50%+ is nuts!

Hi ya. Just a wee bit of personal info for you. I also started at 1200 - and to be honest it worked for a while. Then I (very reluctantly) increased to 1500 and ate ALL my excercise calories. Result - great weight loss and didn't feel deprived. When I reached my goal weight tho - trying (still am) to find my maintenance cals was an eye opener! I went up to 1700, then 1800, 1900, 2000 (and still ate my excercise cals). As a result I was still losing - which was taking me below my goal. So now I am at about 2500 and only puting on a tiny wee amount. So basically the moral of my story is - you can actually eat a lot more than you think and still loss.

PS - my husband got stuck in the rut and throught less food = more loss. UNTIL he saw the amount of cals I was eating in maintemance. So he totally upped his cals and hey presto - he has started lossing.

Good luck with your journey.

Hey there! I'm 5'1" and started off eating 1300... then it pushed me to 1200 after I lost weight. I always ate back my exercise cals, but I was soooo hungry all the time. 1200 wasn't enough for me, no matter how strategically I planned my meals. Then I plateaued. So at the advice of my friends on here, I increased my cals to 1500 (AND eating back my exercise cals), I've kick-started my weight loss again. I changed my weight loss to 0.5lb/week and I've *magically* lost much more than that most weeks. The links everyone have been providing you are great resources. Read them. Remember - if you're going to be eating more cals, it's the quality of those cals! It's the water you're drinking. And the exercise. And eat back those cals too. It works for most people! I'm sending you a friend request - you can see what I've been doing. I haven't worked out much in the last few weeks (I just had a tonsillectomy and was sick prior, which is why I had the tonsillectomy) but you can see what I've been doing. It works! :happy: