Does eating more to weight less work for everyone?

Dan, how could I possibly lose a lb. a week eating 1800/day when I did that for 8 weeks and lost a pound a month? (That pound a month is about what the math suggests, too, given my Fitbit avg. TDEE of 1950ish.)

I mean no offense, you're obviously very passionate about this, but until I have authoritative evidence (or even my own anecdotal evidence!) that a pound isn't 3500 calories, I have to believe it is.

If only cutting 3500 a week really meant we lost that pound.
If only weight loss worked that way.

Cutting 20% from the fitbit info gives you 1500-1600 a day.
I'll eat your extra calories if you like.
Thats an extra snack a day.
But thats too much for you to take.
A 200 cal snack.
Even if it could possibly lead to better fat loss.

I wish you luck with your weight loss.
I'm done preaching.


*steps off soapbox*

Edit....Goodnight gang!

Anyone with any good sense should know to ask their Dr. and not someone on a forum for advice.

bump

Anyone with any good sense should know to ask their Dr. and not someone on a forum for advice.

Anyone with good sense knows their Dr. doesn't do much study on nutrition.

Yup. And for what it's worth, Dan's approach is consistent with what was suggested to me by a registered dietician.

Bump! Because this thing seems to still be going and I want in on it.

Just my two cents, here, hopefully this will clear everything up:

Mr. Smart Azz you do you think you are? What degree do you have in Medicine? What makes you such an expert? Cause you came on some forum and lost some weight?

If you think that you really are a dumb azz! Charts, math, etc. is that to make you think you are smarter than everyone else.

Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions. Mine is actually based on MEDICAL PROVEN ADVICE!

ASK YOUR DOCTOR NOT AN IDOIT ON A FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions"

Is it only me that finds this ironic??

Anyone with any good sense should know to ask their Dr. and not someone on a forum for advice.

Anyone with good sense knows their Dr. doesn't do much study on nutrition.

Yup. And for what it's worth, Dan's approach is consistent with what was suggested to me by a registered dietician.

Something to understand about Dieticians is you'll find 2 types!
Dietician 1 Has at least a 4 year degree.
Dietician 2 Has only take a 120 question test.

Check with your states to see what is truly observed as a true dietician!

I'm going back to school here in Maryland to become an RD.
It takes 4 years to complete but i'll most likely go for as many certifications afterwards as I can.

I for one will probably never ask someone to eat 1200 cals a day to lose weight.
Reason is it takes time to rebuild lost muscle during the crash diet!

Imagine that conversation:

"I know you have food issues and all so we are going to cut what you need in half. In about a year we are going to then ask you to overeat and workout 3x as hard to rebuild lost muscle."

I dont think that bird would fly very well!

Like a piegon full of baking powder.

Did NOT work for me.. I'm now trying to lose the ~20# I gained doing it.

I'm happy (and jealous!) for those for whom this has worked, but one size does not fit all.

20 lbs over what period of time?

Because that would mean 70,000 extra calories if it is thought that was fat lbs.

That would mean 10,000 extra calories if it was glucose stores (not actually possible).

That would mean 20,000 extra calories if it was new muscle (which would then hold more glucose).

So whichever thing you think it was, divide the above by number of days to gain it, there's your surplus each day.

Now take whatever you were eating at each day minus that surplus, there's your TDEE for whatever your routine was during that weight gain time.

It was about 8 weeks. I was also doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program during that time but stopped after 6 weeks because of the weight gain, plus I just wasn't seeing any positive changes in my body or losing inches. I was eating at maintenance based (I bought into the "reset your metabolism" idea), and got my TDEE info from my BodyMedia Fit.

I'm just going back to eating slightly above BMR and cardio right now. Will add my kettlebell workout (which I was doing before Stronglifts) 3x a week starting next week. There are so many people for whom eating at TDEE worked/is working. I wish I could have been among them.

Not planning to check this thread again as I don't think I can't talk about my negative experience anymore. The weight gain has really messed with my head, I'm feeling down a lot and I have to find a way to refocus and believe that I can lose weight again.

Just curious, but did you start taking creatine when you started stronglifts? Creatine will cause you to gain weight (not fat), in some people the effect is quite dramatic.

You gained 20 lbs in 6 weeks? LOL, I'm lucky to gain a pound a week eating 4000-4500 cal/day.

It scares me to eat more, too, but I have to do something to break out of this current "plateau", slump, whatever it is. I am steadily moving up, up, up in the calories. I following the advice of many who have gone before me and had success so we shall see!

I think everyone should spend a week tracking everything they eat and do before they change a single thing on MFP. I realised, for example, I'd easily get through 2,500 - 3,000 calories a day, and even then it had taken years for the weight to creep on. Then you see that cutting to 2,000 is a comfortable deficit without feeling deprived.

I think everyone should spend a week tracking everything they eat and do before they change a single thing on MFP. I realised, for example, I'd easily get through 2,500 - 3,000 calories a day, and even then it had taken years for the weight to creep on. Then you see that cutting to 2,000 is a comfortable deficit without feeling deprived.

Exactly!

Sadly, when folks start logging or know they will, some smarter choices are made.
And when backtracking from memory, much is left out.

There have been a few that have commented on eating much fast food and boxed stuff, so easy to figure out what typical few days was like, and shocked that 3000-3500 was normal amount eaten, even more when eating out or drinks at the bar.
And that was on little to no exercise too!

In that case, 2000 is super easy, except now hard to get up to on what is thought to be nutritious food.

So how did you figure out your previous level, prior to changes or memory? Just curious.

Did NOT work for me.. I'm now trying to lose the ~20# I gained doing it.

I'm happy (and jealous!) for those for whom this has worked, but one size does not fit all.

20 lbs over what period of time?

Because that would mean 70,000 extra calories if it is thought that was fat lbs.

That would mean 10,000 extra calories if it was glucose stores (not actually possible).

That would mean 20,000 extra calories if it was new muscle (which would then hold more glucose).

So whichever thing you think it was, divide the above by number of days to gain it, there's your surplus each day.

Now take whatever you were eating at each day minus that surplus, there's your TDEE for whatever your routine was during that weight gain time.

It was about 8 weeks. I was also doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program during that time but stopped after 6 weeks because of the weight gain, plus I just wasn't seeing any positive changes in my body or losing inches. I was eating at maintenance based (I bought into the "reset your metabolism" idea), and got my TDEE info from my BodyMedia Fit.

I'm just going back to eating slightly above BMR and cardio right now. Will add my kettlebell workout (which I was doing before Stronglifts) 3x a week starting next week. There are so many people for whom eating at TDEE worked/is working. I wish I could have been among them.

Not planning to check this thread again as I don't think I can't talk about my negative experience anymore. The weight gain has really messed with my head, I'm feeling down a lot and I have to find a way to refocus and believe that I can lose weight again.

Stronglifts specifically calls for high calories.
Medhi speak a lot about energy balance and how it will be uncomfortable eating 3k a day but over the 12 week period your body adjusts and uses the nutrients for muscle gains.
He's speaking mostly to men in this regard but 20% above my TDEE is about 3k.
For a woman you would be consuming appx 2200-2800 on the SL program.

Maybe Stronglifts wasn't for me then. I wanted to lose fat by lifting heavy and saw several before & after photos in the Success Stories threads from women who were successful with it. Now have a weight bench, weight plates, and Olympic barbell in my garage collecting dust... I cringe everytime I see them :ohwell:

Mr. Smart Azz you do you think you are? What degree do you have in Medicine? What makes you such an expert? Cause you came on some forum and lost some weight?

If you think that you really are a dumb azz! Charts, math, etc. is that to make you think you are smarter than everyone else.

Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions. Mine is actually based on MEDICAL PROVEN ADVICE!

ASK YOUR DOCTOR NOT AN IDOIT ON A FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions"

Is it only me that finds this ironic??

No, ma'am!

Ironic, and hypocritical in the extreme. I could actually picture her stomping her foot to emphasize her sentences.

Maybe Stronglifts wasn't for me then. I wanted to lose fat by lifting heavy and saw several before & after photos in the Success Stories threads from women who were successful with it. Now have a weight bench, weight plates, and Olympic barbell in my garage collecting dust... I cringe everytime I see them

There is no reason it wouldn't have worked for you. The only time these things don't work for people (barring medical issues...God I'm getting tired of saying that), is when the people doing them don't have a complete handle on their diet, and/or have unrealistic expectations about what the scale is going to say over the short term and give up.

I am currently training a young lady. She'd lost a reasonable amount of weight using a gym provided personal trainer, who had her on a regimen of substantial cardio, one day a week of lifting (if you want to call it that, I don't call 20 reps plus of anything 'lifting'), and her own free days hiking (1-2 a week if I recall). Her diet was all over the place, she works 3x 12-14hr shifts as a nurse in a hospital...and anyone involved with hospital medicine knows exactly what that means for a diet.

She came to me...unhappy with her results (she still felt 'fat' at 5'3" and 150-155ish lbs), and I only changed everything.

I put her on a 5x5 heavy lifting program (different than Stronglifts...these are full body workouts...dumbbell/machine/barbell based, 3x a week for about an hour) in which the loads are progressively increased on a daily basis as her strength improves. I killed the cardio, she now only does 10min of warmup cardio pre-lifting. She is free to hike as much as she wants. I set her up on an intermittent fasting regimen, which helped her start getting her calories in every day. I gave her a macro goal for protein, and told her to ignore the rest for now (excessive tracking of macros often leads to adherance issues when it comes to a diet). I also increased her calories substantially (a 20% WEEKLY deficit from calculated TDEE...which I also increased as she had it set to sedentary, and it should have been moderately active). All of these things have helped her immensely with her eating habits on work days.

We have had ups and downs. She wasn't a natural to lifting. It felt awkward and unnatural to her. At first, she didn't feel like she was working at all...and while that's changed, she's still amazed at how energized she is compared to the 'drained' feeling she had with her old trainer. She's been INCREDIBLY frustrated with the scale...she shot up to 160lbs plus...and has stayed there until this week (it's been just over a month). Her major measurements gave up an initial drop, but haven't changed much since.

Now, the flip side. The people at her work CONSTANTLY come to her telling her she looks INCREDIBLY different (I tell her too, because I see it...but I'm sure she thinks I'm biased lol). She's lost 3 sizes in scrubs (from XL to S...and she needs to go down again). She's fitting into clothes she hasn't worn in YEARS. Her personal progress pictures (which I haven't seen), show huge changes as well...though she's not completely pleased with them all lol...they ARE all positive.

All of this in a month, with weight GAIN on the scale.

Now, here's the thing. She has me pushing her HARD at the gym THREE times a week (she's making HUGE improvements, but its taken her this entire time to realize it...and because of this I see the REAL CHANGES coming in the next few weeks). She also has my ear on a daily basis to help her get through the psychological stranglehold the scale seems to exert on you women. She's had a lot of external stress as well, and this hasn't been helping her. But this past week...saw a very interesting shift in her point of view. She used to hate the gym...but she's seeing the progress and seeing her abilities improve, and I can sense her eagerness now. All of the benefits are starting to sink in, and as I said...due to that, the real changes are still to come. The reason I bring these things up, is that without them, without me or someone like me pushing her...she very likely would have given up on my program very quickly.

Six weeks is not enough to gauge your results unless you had a very tight hold on all of the parameters, and were able to push yourself hard with the weights.

Oh, and she's showed a 2lb loss this week. I got the 'I love you sooooo much' text yesterday lol.

My TDEE according to my BodyMedia Fit (and who knows how accurate these devices really are) was about 2200 (I averaged 7 days' worth to get my baseline). I only did SL 5x5 for 6 weeks and from what I've readheard it's extremely unlikely that I gained muscle in such a short time. I had really high hopes I'd be successful with heavy lifting for fat loss. Once my job stress settles down I'm probably going to hire a personal trainer. I always told myself that would be my last resort (because of the cost) but I think I might have to go that route sooner rather than later.

Indeed, you didn't gain appreciable muscle in those six weeks. But there are definite explanations for your weight gain. Lifting does crazy things to your hormones, particularly initially. You're using systems in your body that haven't been used to any real level, probably ever. You're storing glycogen/water. I didn't catch what your diet was like during, but if you were eating AT TDEE (which means at maintenance), your body could very easily be putting on weight in the form of some fat. It really has NO idea what you're going to do to it next. Add in any reasonable margin of error at any point in the system (diet, weighing process, etc), and 20lbs on the scale in 2mos or less wouldn't surprise me.

My suggestion is to KEEP AT THE WEIGHTS! Get your form set, and hit them HARD. Every rep is fat melting from your body. Every increase in weight, that much more weight you're going to shed. It's ENTIRELY possible to lift yourself slim, rep by rep by rep. Set yourself up on a deficit, get your protein in...and throw your scale in a closet for a couple months.

I promise you...it can still work.

Mr. Smart Azz you do you think you are? What degree do you have in Medicine? What makes you such an expert? Cause you came on some forum and lost some weight?

If you think that you really are a dumb azz! Charts, math, etc. is that to make you think you are smarter than everyone else.

Why don't you grow up and act like a grown up and stop attacking people for having different opinions. Mine is actually based on MEDICAL PROVEN ADVICE!

ASK YOUR DOCTOR NOT AN IDOIT ON A FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol I Imagine Ladywindchase doing this...



And it makes me do this....


About this random stranger.....

First off I started on the 1200 calorie diet when I first started...that lasted 2 days.
**** that!
Something needed to change.
I read 2 books in 2 days and was eating 1600 cals a day with high fats, moderate carbs, high protein.
Dropped from 172 down to 150lbs in about 2-2.5 months.
Then discovered Fat 2 Fit and another handy calculator.
Figured out I had a TDEE of about 2500 daily.
Cut calories to 2k and was losing the same amount of weight as before.

January I stared doing numbers for other people.
My list of successful dieters eating between 1600-2200 cals grew to about 100 within a few weeks.
Then we started the Fuel The Machine Group.
I hired number monkeys to do the numbers.
We now have over 200 people losing weight eating between 1600-3k a day.
I have personally come across 2 people who this didnt work for and turns out they had medical issues that stunted the losses.
So
Yes
You TOOL!

I will say that beyond a shadow of a doubt!
That this works!

I preach it because I get 10-15 PMs every day and wall posts from people on MFP thanking me for helping them lose weight.
They dont have to stop eating the foods they like!
They have to adopt a strong sense of eating in moderation.
YOU are not a unique snowflake.

So you can take this advice from this random guy and use it to your best ability.
Or
Head over to http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Anger-Management/forum and scream all you want.
Me?
My group and the countless other strangers living off this random guys advice....were going to continue to thrive and lose weight and be healthy.