someone, explain how eating more = weightloss? please
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I was just reading about this concept in my Turbofire - Power through a plateau. As your body gets into better shape, it will begin to burn more calories. In turn, you may need to increase the calories you eat to maintain your fitness goals and avoid seeing a plateau in your results. In the simplest sense, when your body's out of shape and has more fat and less muscle, your metabolism is slow. As you begin to eat less, you lose fat, since your body converts it into fuel. Add exercise to this equation and now you start building muscle, which also speeds up your fat loss. More muscle requires more calories to maintain. If you don't eat more, your workouts will suffer and so will your results.
As you get more fit and lose weight - your body is going through a plateau and needs more fuel to increase the intensity of your workouts.
Hope this helps - very interesting concept
Eureka! This actually does make sense to me! I have been working out super hard lately and totally lagging In energy. I am going to up it carefully to the point where I feel energetic again. Thanks!0 -
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:The minimum amount you'll burn in a day is BMR. The actual amount you burn in a day is called TDEE around here (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), which includes exercise AND a whole bunch of other activities like showering, eating, driving, moving around an office, changing diapers, sex, and whatever else you do in a day.
If you eat more than BMR but less than TDEE you will lose weight.
So some of us want to eat closer to our actual TDEE to lose weight (I like a ~400 cal/day deficit, personally) to lose weight slowly and without much effort while preserving lean muscle mass. Others choose to eat closer to BMR... or less.
Many people decide they want to lose weight and are bombarded with messages about eating 1200 calories/day, eating 500 calories plus HCG injections, eating 300 calories plus B vitamin injections or whatever... the truth is, as long as what you eat is somewhat less than what you burn, you'll lose weight.
It doesn't have to be super restrictive. Just tracked accurately.
It all totally confuses me. Maybe that is why I am not doing as well as I want. LOL.
I'm with you. I don't understand it either - I've even tried to read up on it. I used to think I was good with numbers, but now my head hurts.:sad:0 -
Teh only issue with this is your body doesn't always follow the math. And as you lose quickly, a lot of the lost will be muscle. When you lose muscle, you slow your metabolism which will cause your body to plateau faster. So you have to ask if a few short term gains are worth the long term issues.
I doubt "a lot of the lost will be muscle" because as long as I continue my protein intake and exercise my body will continue building muscle. The more likely scenario is that a lot of what will be lost will be fat .... and I got a crap load of that to spare!0 -
THIS!!!!!I was just reading about this concept in my Turbofire - Power through a plateau. As your body gets into better shape, it will begin to burn more calories. In turn, you may need to increase the calories you eat to maintain your fitness goals and avoid seeing a plateau in your results. In the simplest sense, when your body's out of shape and has more fat and less muscle, your metabolism is slow. As you begin to eat less, you lose fat, since your body converts it into fuel. Add exercise to this equation and now you start building muscle, which also speeds up your fat loss. More muscle requires more calories to maintain. If you don't eat more, your workouts will suffer and so will your results.
As you get more fit and lose weight - your body is going through a plateau and needs more fuel to increase the intensity of your workouts.
Hope this helps - very interesting concept
Eureka! This actually does make sense to me! I have been working out super hard lately and totally lagging In energy. I am going to up it carefully to the point where I feel energetic again. Thanks!0 -
Bump for reading later0
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The concept to me means that most people under eat. And finally society is learning that under eating is just as unhealthy as over eating. When you don't eat enough calories, your body stores the majority of your meals as fat. When you over eat, your body stores what it can't burn as fat. In fitness and nutrition, it's impossible to give blanket statements. I can only speak from my experience. At 300 lbs I ate 1 meal a day. When I got down to 185 I was eating far more than ever before. But they were measured, calculated meals at the right time of day. I see over 400 clients a month between training and nutrition consulting. I can honestly say that 75% of the people I work with (weight loss, muscle gain, athletes) had no idea that they were not getting enough calories per day.0
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I don't think America's problem is that most of us undereat.
Your body really doesn't have some switch where it goes to storing calories as fat based on how much you're eating. There is a kernel of truth- you might lower your BMR due to thyroid effects or reduced LBM. But you don't go from burning all your intake at 2500/day (non-diet) to STORING all your intake at 1500/day. Maybe at 2500, your body used up 1550 in BMR. Maybe at 1500 your body uses 1450 in BMR. You're burning 100 calories/day less in BMR but your body is still burning your intake calories, not shuttling them into fat cells. It has to burn them. It can't go on without burning up either your daily intake or your stored fat. It doesn't grow more fat at a deficit. Nothing can grow at a deficit. It has to shrink.0 -
This is something I have noticed with myself, that I don't eat enough. Go figure, Im over weight cause I don't eat enough?!? I understand they why, my hard part is the eating part, Im full after eating what I do eat, how can I add more?0
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I didn't understand it at first either. It's counterintuitive to everything you hear about weight loss. It's all "you can drop to 1200 calories and be fine" and "cut 3500 calories to lose a pound" out there. When I started I was keeping as close to 1200 calories as I could but exercising on top of that. Basically giving myself 900 calories NET to live on. Not good. I lost weight but I also noticed I soon had barely enough energy to get out of bed and where when I started I was gaining muscle and feeling awesome that feeling had gone and I wasn't as strong. Which makes sense because my BMR was around 1800. BMR is the number of calories your body needs to perform its basic functions (blinking, breathing etc.) So you need to eat at least that. This number is unique to you and takes into account your age, height and weight. There are websites that will calculate it for you you just put in your info. Like this one: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
The goal is to eat less than your Total Daily Energy Expendature though. If you're in that range of above BMR but below TDEE you should lose weight healthily and steadily. I hope some of that made sense. I'm just starting to get it myself.
I had fooled myself into thinking what I was doing was maintainable for life. Yeah right! Turns out I was on a crash diet basically. I'm greatful I caught on as early as I did.0 -
I think it's starting to sink in!
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It's like Santa Claus. Those who want to believe, do. You can tell them all you want to disprove it. You can point out that the experts in the field don't believe it, and it's a big field. They go on believing. It's rather sweet.0
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then why are all the kids in Africa... the ones you see on "feed the children" ads... all are bone? their bodies have gone for how long with out food?
I know the body can survive at least 40 days without food, water much less... I doubt one day is going to make that big of a difference.
Maybe you should create your own diet and put it in late night infomercials.
"African Child Starvation Diet - now for adults too! Get that boney malnurished body you've always wanted!"
... Starvation mode is a saying that mutated from fat burning mode and glycemic index. Your body will be more likely to turn your calories directly to fat in certain scenarios. If you maintain a certain blood sugar level (through what, when, and how much you eat) you can minimize those scenarios and keep your body into more of a fat burning mode. Everything stupid comes from some fact once upon a time, it just gets diluted (a lot).0 -
Basically, you need to eat at least 1200 calories a day because anything less than that kicks your body into survival mode. Your body will think there is some kind of famine and hold on to every shred of fat it can and slow your metabolism way down to try and keep you alive because it thinks you are in danger of dying. That's why you need to eat more.
As has been discussed MANY MANY times on this site, "starvation mode" is not an easy state to achieve.
If you're not posting from Sub Sahara Africa, I'd say it's highly unlikely that you are in "Starvation Mode" or "survival mode."
If you continue to gain wait, I'd say you are in "too many Oreos mode."
--P0 -
Teh only issue with this is your body doesn't always follow the math. And as you lose quickly, a lot of the lost will be muscle. When you lose muscle, you slow your metabolism which will cause your body to plateau faster. So you have to ask if a few short term gains are worth the long term issues.
I doubt "a lot of the lost will be muscle" because as long as I continue my protein intake and exercise my body will continue building muscle. The more likely scenario is that a lot of what will be lost will be fat .... and I got a crap load of that to spare!
Your body will NOT build new muscle mass (even with heavy weight training) if you are in a calorie deficit. It just isn't possible. You need energy to create mass, it's that simple. Also, if you track your body fat and weight concurrently, you can tell if you will lose lean body mass. I have seen as much as 50% of the weight loss from lean body mass. So someone losing 30 lbs, lost 15 lbs from lean body mass. And this was from a VLCD.0 -
This is something I have noticed with myself, that I don't eat enough. Go figure, Im over weight cause I don't eat enough?!? I understand they why, my hard part is the eating part, Im full after eating what I do eat, how can I add more?
Simple, you can adjust your hunger signals and eat higher calorie foods. When you cook meat, cook it in extra virgin olive oil, you can eat spoonfuls of peanut butter (my personal favorite) or you can eat nuts. Also, if you start to eat more frequently, your body will adjust and increase your hunger signals.0 -
I have seen as much as 50% of the weight loss from lean body mass. So someone losing 30 lbs, lost 15 lbs from lean body mass. And this was from a VLCD.
At 300+ pounds I'll take weight loss in any shape or form. I've lived most of my life fat and unhealthy so I think I'll be fine with living the rest of my life thinner and unhealthy.0 -
I totally hear ya, and bravo for your honesty. Losing lean body mass is inevitable and even necessary and desirable to a certain extent. You can do what you can to mitigate it but some people can't attack every issue at once.
My feeling is - When your scale weight is ruining your life and health, attack it if you WANT to. You don't have to *****foot around with .5lb/week goals and hitting the PB jar 'for your health'.
Not that the slow method isn't terrific. But there is justification for being less conservative sometimes, too.0 -
I have seen as much as 50% of the weight loss from lean body mass. So someone losing 30 lbs, lost 15 lbs from lean body mass. And this was from a VLCD.
At 300+ pounds I'll take weight loss in any shape or form. I've lived most of my life fat and unhealthy so I think I'll be fine with living the rest of my life thinner and unhealthy.
And a person at your current weight could sustain a large deficit. The only suggestion is once you plateau, which will be inevitable, then add more calories.0 -
actually not always on those that don't eat being sticks. I had the opposite effect. I ate between 1,000-1100 calories sometimes lower than that. I went from a nice 125 pounds to a whopping 250 pounds. I was not overeating. my body was starving and it stored to fat. then when I began eat more to weigh less here on mfp I've been 4 days in already went from 191 pounds to 183 pounds where I am now. I still have to tweak my eating a bit and learn to make healthier eating choices but I am losing. I also up my work outs and included strength training.0
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It's not how much you eat, it's what you eat. Happiness=pizza and a 6-pack of beer0
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What that means is when you eat enough, you aren't putting your body in starvation mode.
If you drop your calorie intake by a considerable amount (like 600 calories a day in an attempt to lose weight) and start starving yourself, your body will start to hold on to every calorie you eat and store it as fat because it thinks you are starving and there is no food. However, if you eat small meals frequently and do not starve yourself, then your body has no reason to hold on to calories, thus increasing your metabolism which promotes weight loss. Of course, exercise promotes health and increases metabolism too.
This is the best explanation.
I burn roughly 900 calories a day. My BMR is calculated at 1352, meaning I need 1352 calories to maintain my body if I were in a comatose state. I need more to maintain my body with the exercise and other things that I do. I lift weights as well, so I need calories to repair the micro-tears in the muscles. That means I must eat more than 1352 in order to satisfy my body's need. If I don't, my body will think it is starving. Since muscle uses more energy than fat, the body will break down the muscle when it is starving in order to get rid of the one thing that uses a lot of energy. If you don't want to lose muscle, you must eat more. Additionally, if the body thinks it is starving, it will slow down the metabolism, causing it to seem like it holds on to every calorie you eat.
Hope that helps.0 -
Eating more doesnt equal weightloss...Eating enough and it being healthy....equals weight loss0
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Oh give it a rest already! please read some other stupid posts before posting this one. it has been explained 50000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times before and every time someone brings up starvation mode then someone else gets mad then the arguments start and eventually the thread will get locked... come on people please just give up on the eating more crap just read ... you know .... left to right...(.unless your jewish... right to left.)... top to bottom... words together forming sentences... sentences forming paragraphs....0
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Bump for later0
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MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.
You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.scoobyworkshop.com/calculators
What is BMR? Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!
What is TDEE? TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:
Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise Lightly Active -light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week) Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.
Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.
So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)
Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u
If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.
So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or
recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.
So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.0 -
actually not always on those that don't eat being sticks. I had the opposite effect. I ate between 1,000-1100 calories sometimes lower than that. I went from a nice 125 pounds to a whopping 250 pounds. I was not overeating. my body was starving and it stored to fat. then when I began eat more to weigh less here on mfp I've been 4 days in already went from 191 pounds to 183 pounds where I am now. I still have to tweak my eating a bit and learn to make healthier eating choices but I am losing. I also up my work outs and included strength training.
Thats not possible to go from 125 to 250 whilst eating 1000-1100 calories sometimes lower.0 -
Whatever works - do it - everybody gets so worked up. EM2WL is working for me. I was skeptical at frst too- sounded too good to be true but after a little readjusting, I lost 8.5 pounds in 2 months by eating at TDEE-15%. If you believe in the deficit theory, it IS a deficit. A smaller one so it goes slow. Can you get with that? The other works too but I was so cranky trying to eat at 1300 calories. The EM2LW Group has 5952 members. So lots of people find it at least worth to check it out. I lost 24,5 pounds the Low Calorie way from January until April, So that works too but I have been yo yoing for almost 30 years and I was looking for a lifestyle that I could maintain. It is not Overeat 2Weight Less- it is about finding a deficit that works for you and you can stick to. I know it is counter to everything that we have been taught but I was taught not to criticize things if I had not at least tried it. 0
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I find this very hard to believe. You are not going to gain 125lbs while eating 1,000-1,100 calories per day. You have grossly underestimated your calorie intake.actually not always on those that don't eat being sticks. I had the opposite effect. I ate between 1,000-1100 calories sometimes lower than that. I went from a nice 125 pounds to a whopping 250 pounds. I was not overeating. my body was starving and it stored to fat. then when I began eat more to weigh less here on mfp I've been 4 days in already went from 191 pounds to 183 pounds where I am now. I still have to tweak my eating a bit and learn to make healthier eating choices but I am losing. I also up my work outs and included strength training.0 -
I find this very hard to believe. You are not going to gain 125lbs while eating 1,000-1,100 calories per day. You have grossly underestimated your calorie intake.actually not always on those that don't eat being sticks. I had the opposite effect. I ate between 1,000-1100 calories sometimes lower than that. I went from a nice 125 pounds to a whopping 250 pounds. I was not overeating. my body was starving and it stored to fat. then when I began eat more to weigh less here on mfp I've been 4 days in already went from 191 pounds to 183 pounds where I am now. I still have to tweak my eating a bit and learn to make healthier eating choices but I am losing. I also up my work outs and included strength training.
Yeh, thats what I said. No way to have gained weight on that calorie amount and so much weight at that.0 -
I find this very hard to believe. You are not going to gain 125lbs while eating 1,000-1,100 calories per day. You have grossly underestimated your calorie intake.actually not always on those that don't eat being sticks. I had the opposite effect. I ate between 1,000-1100 calories sometimes lower than that. I went from a nice 125 pounds to a whopping 250 pounds. I was not overeating. my body was starving and it stored to fat. then when I began eat more to weigh less here on mfp I've been 4 days in already went from 191 pounds to 183 pounds where I am now. I still have to tweak my eating a bit and learn to make healthier eating choices but I am losing. I also up my work outs and included strength training.
I'm sure the calorie count was underestimated, but when you starve yourself you end up being prone to gain weight eating LESS calories.0
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