If you are scared to increase calories

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  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    My BMR is 1375, my TDEE minus 20% is 1500 so I was eating somewhere between the 2, with cardio 3x a week and weight training 3 days...I gained weight AND inches. I don't want to start any arguments but personally for me the whole "eat more to lose weight" idea did not work at all!

    Over how long of a period of time was this?
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    My BMR is 1375, my TDEE minus 20% is 1500 so I was eating somewhere between the 2, with cardio 3x a week and weight training 3 days...I gained weight AND inches. I don't want to start any arguments but personally for me the whole "eat more to lose weight" idea did not work at all!
    Your TDEE -20% is what you SHOULD have been eating. That 20% IS the deficit. With that said, if you have yo-yo dieted in the past, you many need to adjust to account for a downregulated metabolism.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
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    The 1200 calorie diet is a valid way to lose weight, but it's not the fastest. Amputation cuts pounds even more quickly, if that's your only goal.
  • ucsneakerz
    ucsneakerz Posts: 25 Member
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    So I did the calculations more specifically:
    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds (this is about 10-12 pounds less than what I want, but I'll go with it for this activity)
    BMR- 2155 calories with moderate activity

    This means essentially for me I'd eat 2155, burn off 500, leaving around 1600... which does seem really high for weight loss being my goal...

    Your BMR is not 2155, that is your TDEE. What is your BMR when you do that calculator. Its up in the text.


    Ok Lets Try Again, sorry about that!
    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds
    BMR- 1799
    TDEE- 2155

    ... im lost as to what this means now though!
  • vabrewer33
    vabrewer33 Posts: 185
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    I haven't yo yo dieted in the past, I've always been a solid but healthy weight until recently....and I gave it a good two weeks but two days ago I reached my highest weight in awhile and decided it was not working
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    I haven't yo yo dieted in the past, I've always been a solid but healthy weight until recently....and I gave it a good two weeks but two days ago I reached my highest weight in awhile and decided it was not working

    Well, there's your problem. Hormonal rebalance takes longer than two weeks.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    I haven't yo yo dieted in the past, I've always been a solid but healthy weight until recently....and I gave it a good two weeks but two days ago I reached my highest weight in awhile and decided it was not working

    AHHHH!!! Two weeks is what you want to give it, if you have been on a low calorie diet for while it may take up to 4 weeks! Give it two more if you continue to add weight back off 1-200 calories at a time
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
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    I haven't yo yo dieted in the past, I've always been a solid but healthy weight until recently....and I gave it a good two weeks but two days ago I reached my highest weight in awhile and decided it was not working

    If you are at your highest then you need to drop you calories a couple hundred and see that does for a week and adjust accordingly.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    Ok Lets Try Again, sorry about that!
    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds
    BMR- 1799
    TDEE- 2155

    ... im lost as to what this means now though!
    Ok this means you should eat 2155 EVERY DAY. That is your GOAL weight TDEE. You should continue to exercise. IF you exercise heavy and drop below 1800, then you should eat back to get you above BMR, otherwise you should NOT eat back exercise calories. I would also recommend getting your BF taken professionally if you have a lot of weight to lose.
  • ucsneakerz
    ucsneakerz Posts: 25 Member
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    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds
    BMR- 1799
    TDEE- 2155

    I think I'm having a revelation here... so this means that I should eat 2155, burn off around 500, leaving me at 1700 and I should see better results?

    I've been doing counting calories/working out like 3 weeks now... in the first 2 weeks I saw an 8 pound weight loss, and in the last week I haven't seen anything at all, I'm assuming its because I was eating 1200 calories, working off 200-300 of them and was (like you all said) starving myself. So, I'm just trying to figure out how the calculation applies to me so I can eat more.
  • ucsneakerz
    ucsneakerz Posts: 25 Member
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    Ok Lets Try Again, sorry about that!
    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds
    BMR- 1799
    TDEE- 2155

    ... im lost as to what this means now though!
    Ok this means you should eat 2155 EVERY DAY. That is your GOAL weight TDEE. You should continue to exercise. IF you exercise heavy and drop below 1800, then you should eat back to get you above BMR, otherwise you should NOT eat back exercise calories. I would also recommend getting your BF taken professionally if you have a lot of weight to lose.

    Your my hero!:) I have about 60 pounds to lose. Thanks for explaining this to me, I really appreciate it. I knew I was missing something!
  • luv_lea
    luv_lea Posts: 1,094 Member
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    Bump. Want to read this later.
  • kristi012173
    kristi012173 Posts: 37
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    bump
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    n the first 2 weeks I saw an 8 pound weight loss, and in the last week I haven't seen anything at all, I'm assuming its because I was eating 1200 calories, working off 200-300 of them and was (like you all said) starving myself. So, I'm just trying to figure out how the calculation applies to me so I can eat more.

    Bingo. This is such a common story on here. I had the same thing happen. I dropped six lbs right away then NOTHING. I have upped my calories and in the last two weeks my pants are nearly falling off. I will do measurements this weekend, but I can feel it in the way my clothes fit. I now have more energy for working out and playing with my kids and I am never hungry.
  • regmcc
    regmcc Posts: 81 Member
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    I have a scale tha tells me my body fat %, anyone have any info how acurate this would be? Also I have recently upped my calories to close to what fat2fit gave me in their calculations, I haven't lost anything in 3 weeks but have jumped back and forth by about 3 lbs. I am getting a little discouraged but am going to stick it out for another week. I suspect that it's is the increase in calories as well as what I've been eating, I find it hard to get the extra calories and I'm afraid it has been with treats, cookies and chips! The extra calories I know should come from a green smoothy or something like that.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Military Fat Calculator - 53.1%
    Goal Body Weight - 128 pounds
    BMR- 1799
    TDEE- 2155

    I think I'm having a revelation here... so this means that I should eat 2155, burn off around 500, leaving me at 1700 and I should see better results?

    I've been doing counting calories/working out like 3 weeks now... in the first 2 weeks I saw an 8 pound weight loss, and in the last week I haven't seen anything at all, I'm assuming its because I was eating 1200 calories, working off 200-300 of them and was (like you all said) starving myself. So, I'm just trying to figure out how the calculation applies to me so I can eat more.
    Stop overthinking :) Your TDEE prior to slashing 20% was 2600ish right? So even just eating 2155 you have a 450 cal per day deficit. Adding on 4-500 cals of exercise, you have about 900 a day. Times that by 7 gives you 6300 cal deficit a week - almost 2lbs. All of this and being above your BMR - glorious :D

    Also, weightloss isn't linear. Expect to see results over 3 week periods rather than weekly. Your body doesn't know or care which day of the week it is :P
  • tiffanic83
    tiffanic83 Posts: 64
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    If you only have 60 lbs to lose, I'm going to bet your BF is less than 53%... like the other girl said you might want to find out what it really is... and that will also affect your projected #'s.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    I have a scale tha tells me my body fat %, anyone have any info how acurate this would be? Also I have recently upped my calories to close to what fat2fit gave me in their calculations, I haven't lost anything in 3 weeks but have jumped back and forth by about 3 lbs. I am getting a little discouraged but am going to stick it out for another week. I suspect that it's is the increase in calories as well as what I've been eating, I find it hard to get the extra calories and I'm afraid it has been with treats, cookies and chips! The extra calories I know should come from a green smoothy or something like that.

    Slurp a protein shake for a good protein/calorie hit and nom nom some fruit for carbs.
  • prov31jd
    prov31jd Posts: 153 Member
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    My first 16 weeks using MFP, I didn't understand the whole eating back your calories thing. I had set my goals at 2 lbs per week, so MFP put me at 1200 calories. I burned 400 to 800 calories per day walking, and was eating between 1200 and 1400 calories per day, netting about 800 calories per day. I lost weight quickly -- 39 pounds in those 16 weeks. Then I started reading all these posts about eating back your calories, hitting plateaus, etc. I also used the calculators on fat2fitradio and fitnessfrog to estimate my BMR, body fat %, and TDEE.

    With the MANY posts about this, and all the convincing success stories, I decided I needed to do something about it, but wanted to go gradually. I increased my gross to 1600 three weeks ago, and gained a pound back. The following week, I went up to 1800, and my weight stayed the same. This week, I'm moving up to 2000. I hate that I'm not losing weight like I was. But I WANT TO DO THE RIGHT THING. This is much more difficult than I expected it to be.

    So, someone with experience with this, please help me out and let me know if 2000 is a good gross calorie goal for me:
    BMR 1460
    BF% 45
    TDEE 2522 (according to FitnessFrog)

    At 2000 cals (gross) per day, lifting 3 days per week, and cardio 4-5 days per week, I'll burn an average of 300 to 400 daily cals, putting my net calorie intake at 1600 to 1700, average. >>GULP<< That's twice as much as I was netting in the first 16 weeks when I was losing weight consistently.

    I know this topic has been posted over and over again -- but the title of this post describes me to a tee. "Scared to increase calories."
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    I have a scale tha tells me my body fat %, anyone have any info how acurate this would be? Also I have recently upped my calories to close to what fat2fit gave me in their calculations, I haven't lost anything in 3 weeks but have jumped back and forth by about 3 lbs. I am getting a little discouraged but am going to stick it out for another week. I suspect that it's is the increase in calories as well as what I've been eating, I find it hard to get the extra calories and I'm afraid it has been with treats, cookies and chips! The extra calories I know should come from a green smoothy or something like that.

    If you are truly running a deficit, eating some bad food here and there won't hurt your effort. Try eating more calorie dense food like whole fat versions of milk/cottage cheese/yougurt, nuts, and seeds. I perscribe to the 80/20 plan. If 80% of your calories come from good sources the 20% won't matter, AS LONG AS YOU ARE IN A DEFICIT or maintenance.

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