If you are scared to increase calories

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  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    I should clarify...I have seen some stories, but all from people who have lost a LOT of weight. Like, 100 pounds or more. I'm looking for someone in my shoes. :)

    Hi. Check my profile.
  • calcote05
    calcote05 Posts: 462 Member
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    I am nervous about this, but am going to give it a shot!

    Should I just up my cals by a few hundred for now or should I go all out??

    I had a baby 6 weeks ago and had no limit on cals while I was pregnant, but then cut back to 1200. Haven't lost any since counting cals again.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    I am nervous about this, but am going to give it a shot!

    Should I just up my cals by a few hundred for now or should I go all out??

    I had a baby 6 weeks ago and had no limit on cals while I was pregnant, but then cut back to 1200. Haven't lost any since counting cals again.

    holy smokes, increase them. Are you nursing? 1200 cals is going to negatively affect your milk supply and your energy!
  • kiku76
    kiku76 Posts: 352 Member
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    I am nervous about this, but am going to give it a shot!

    Should I just up my cals by a few hundred for now or should I go all out??

    I had a baby 6 weeks ago and had no limit on cals while I was pregnant, but then cut back to 1200. Haven't lost any since counting cals again.

    holy smokes, increase them. Are you nursing? 1200 cals is going to negatively affect your milk supply and your energy!
    yes! you are exclusively nursing and should include 500-700 more calories to keep your supply up. I logged BFing in my diary. For exclusively BFing it minuses 500 calories. I made sure to eat them back.
    I'm nursing a 15 mon old and still make sure I eat that extra 300 calories.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Hi! Hello there. Do me a favor and look at the bottom of my post here. See that? Yep, guess what? I eat more than 1200 calories a day. Yep, it works. Thank you for your time.

    HAHAHA Priceless!!!!

    Eat more to lose weight? Really guy? Are you telling me that your great wisdom is so far beyond our time that not even doctors know how our body works? Ask a doctor... To lose weight you simply have to cut your calories down... You don't even need to exercise...

    Idiots... listening to personal trainers and nutrionists again... HELLO PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A PERSONAL TRAINER OR A NUTRIONIST? it ain't **** to what you have to do to become a doctor. Who are in fact WAY WAY WAY more knowledgable on how our body works... Go read a book about weight loss that was written by a MEDICAL DOCTOR not some douche who got a PHd. in Computer Sciences...

    I think you have spectacularly missed the point.

    It is not about increasing your calories over your daily needs, that would be just daft, and a recipe for disaster.

    It's about eating more than than your BMR, but still less than your TDEE.

    It's about giving your body enough fuel to do it's job.

    It's about eating at a moderate safe level that can be sustained for life, instead of a crash diet.

    Maybe it should be described as eating ENOUGH to lose weight.
  • thatblueyedchic
    thatblueyedchic Posts: 128 Member
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    I recently converted to this way of thinking and have already started to see results. I feel better, stronger and sharper. I can push myself more in workouts because I'm not trying to burn fuel I just don't have. If you want more from your body, you have to give it more. More fuel. More sleep. More exercise. More weight on those reps. More appreciation for your body. If you wanted your car to drive further would you fill it's tank only one third of the way? Of course not. It's just that simple.
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,358 Member
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    I eat 1200 calories or a little under a day, and guess what? I am doing just fine *points to ticker* I'm happy happy the way things are going. People need to realize that not everyone is like them. What works for you might not work for me!
  • ehsquared
    ehsquared Posts: 42
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    Wow this is crazyness....just got told by this calculator thingy that I need to be eating 600 more cals than I am now. Not sure I'm willing to try this though
  • sal82
    sal82 Posts: 33 Member
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    My only question is, and apologises if this has been covered, can I set my calories to the sedentary level and then eat back exercise? I only ask because I vary so greatly in planned exercise daily and weekly. Some weeks I might burn 3500 in a week, others under 1000.
  • _SpeshK_
    _SpeshK_ Posts: 496 Member
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    WOW! You know, for some reason I have never, EVER thought of doing that... (eating the calories, following the guidelines for goal weight...) That is such a great idea...haha...truly I am sitting here astonished, thinking "how did I never think of that?" Thanks! :)
  • snewsome7
    snewsome7 Posts: 189
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    I upped mine and I started losing again! It works!

    And I eat some but not all of my exercise calories back. Mainly because I work out too late to eat that much back.
  • purplep41n
    purplep41n Posts: 40 Member
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    I hope someone is able to unlock my confusion pretty please (page 5 of this thread is where my query is)

    By the way I've not put on weight by upping my cals so far. I'm maintaining my current weight which for me is amazing. Eating at much lower than my BMR meant my weight was all over the place, up down up down and going over slightly or a lot in cals by not much more than my TDEE sometimes , meant my weight rocketed up overnight by up to 14 pounds. By staying somewhere within my BMR and TDEE has meant so far that I'm getting full signals very early and I'm not get mad cravings and I can actually think straight. But I take every day as it comes.

    So already I am just happy that upping my cals has meant the above so far. Obviously next step would be to lose weight of course but I am considering my macros every day and have it set to 40,30, 30. I'm using whey protein to get the protein levels up as I was struggling to eat that much protein for my body.

    But yes if someone who knows more about upping cals could help me with my query on page 5 would be great - thank you in advance.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    My only question is, and apologises if this has been covered, can I set my calories to the sedentary level and then eat back exercise? I only ask because I vary so greatly in planned exercise daily and weekly. Some weeks I might burn 3500 in a week, others under 1000.

    Yup, thats the best solution if your exercise is sporadic. Eat back 75% is my usual advice, to account for error.
  • Srivera40
    Srivera40 Posts: 9
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    I've been doing Insanity for 3 weeks (6 days a week) now and haven't lost any weight but I've lost some inches. I think I'm not eating enough. I opened up my diary, could somebody check what I've been doing and let me know what your suggestions are. I'm using using th Polar FT4 heart rate monitor everytime I workout.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    I should clarify...I have seen some stories, but all from people who have lost a LOT of weight. Like, 100 pounds or more. I'm looking for someone in my shoes. :)
    There are 6-7 success stories in this thread alone. Join the group "Eat more, Weigh Less" for tons more.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Hello,

    I need some help, I thought I had it all figured out but I am not sure now. I worked out that :

    Harris-Benedict Formula - my current BMR is 1841 calories.

    Katch-McArdle Formula
    body fat percentage of 59%, you have a lean body mass of 97 lbs., and your BMR is 1322 calories.

    My tdee is 2203 (set at desk job as I truly don't think I do enough to warrant acknowledging it as more than that)

    Fat2fitradio tell me that I should eat at any of the below cals at my goal weight and thus should do so now. dress for the job I want rather than the job I have which makes sense to me. I get that. I never understood that if a healthy weighted woman should eat 2000 cals a day then why should someone much bigger eat as much as a child to lose weight. I always wondered why overweight women was just not told to eat 2000 cals and they will lose weight as that is what allows a thin woman to maintain a healthy weight.

    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1918
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2197
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2477
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2757
    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 3036

    I struggle to have any enthusiasm for exercise and only manage the 10-15 min walk from bus stop to work and work to bus stop. I note these occurances and eat back the calories.

    My job on a good day is pretty active. I'm a digital printer so when busy I'm lugging heavy paper about. I note this down as cleaning for however long I'm doing this and eat back the calories. Otherwise I consider myself sedentary.

    I have signed up for a course in proper weight lifting for women which I hope will give me enough confidence to use the gym effectively rather than being scared off into using silly light weights or bottle of water/cans of beans like I've been made to believe for so long. I hope this turns around my lack of enthausiam for exercise.

    Anywho - based on the above am I currently doing things right by eating back my calories because of the fact that I am generally sedentary at the moment..

    If you are following the F2F numbers, then no, you don't eat your exercise calories back, just eat the same every day.
    but you are probably not sedentary.

    The difference between the 2 is only 200 calories, how much do you add when you walk? If it's a similar amount, just consider yourself lightly active, and eat 2200 every day.

    Or shoot for the middleground and eat 2100.

    Good luck :)
  • huntindawg1962
    huntindawg1962 Posts: 277 Member
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    Got to my goal eating at my tdee. I was sedentary but now I exercise so I just log the cals. Works out to be about the right values on fat2fit at a different activity level but I like to see the exercise.

    By the very definition of TDEE, I guarantee this did not happen unless your goal was to lose 0. Do you mean you were considering your sedentary TDEE and added exercise (thus really increasing your TDEE without adding in additional calories of eating)?
  • amsparky
    amsparky Posts: 825 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

    This.

    It took my body almost 6 weeks to regulate back and now I'm back down below my original goal weight. It will work, you will have more energy to enjoy your new healthy life, but you have to give it time and you need to be willing to fuel your body properly.
  • cathie2903
    cathie2903 Posts: 85 Member
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  • Elizabeth_M
    Elizabeth_M Posts: 562 Member
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    This is a very scary idea to me - eating 1973 calories (I put lightly active, as I don't have a desk job - Kindergarten teacher, on my feet for a large part of the day, and I have been doing the 30DS approx. 4-5 times a week, plus walks with the dog)

    But I am thinking I should try it?? lol I have been at a plateau for about 2 months now, and I am VERY discouraged.

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