I now believe in "eat more to weigh less" (A MUST READ)

Congrats on your weight loss! Im a firm believer in what works for you is what works!
For me 1200 calories a day is what works, now Im 51 and Im in menopause so my metabolism is almost at a halt and I exercise about 4 days a week, Yoga and the gym, Ive lost 38 pounds and Im very satisfied and full on 1200 calories, BUT it takes time to get your body used to eating that amount of food, especially going from 170 pounds (on a 5'1" frame!) to 132, my gold weight is 110 so I still have a way to go but for me 1200 calories a day works, most days I eat a bit less, some says I eat a bit more but it averages out. For about 3 months I was at a plateau when I was at 142, so I started eating 1000 calories a day...its didn't work! I went back to 1200 and I lost weight...again whatever works for your body is what works...also I never eat back my exercise calories because it just doesn't work for me...also my philosophy is that I'm not on a DIET...this is how I eat, now and forever...if I want a beer or a glass of wine or chocolate, I eat it, and I count it in my calories.

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For sure everyone's different, but I've got pretty much the exact same story. I ate back my exercise calories and upped what I was netting and voila! -- lost more weight and was in a better mood, too, I think for being more fueled. Again, it may not work for everyone, but it did work for me.

Good information!

"Eat more to weigh less" refers to eating more smaller meals vs eating 3 large meals a day. For example instead of eating 3 600 calorie meals a day, you would eat 4 400 calorie meals, with each of the four meals spread apart by about 3-4 hours.

Absolutely not

It mean feeding your body and workout sufficiently

I am 4'11" and 120 pounds. I eat around 1700 calories a day when I cut and 2000 when I maintain

Hello...im 28 5'3 and 128.4 lbs..I started at 140 lbs and eating 900 cals when MFP told me to eat 1200..I did so until I stopped losing weight. Then I went up to 1200. Then I lost more weight and everytime i plateau now I up it 100 cals. My mom does this too. But if you are working out you have to be careful on eating the exercise calories. Ive been eating 1300 calories and then eating back only half my workout cals. So say I burn 600 then I only eat 300 back plus the 1300. You can go to a bmr website and see how many calories you should be eating just to maintain your bodyweight...mine is 1800. Then you can figure out how much you need to eat to lose. 3500 calories equals a 1lb...so you need to have a deficit of 3500 calories a week to lose that lb...so my maintenance level 1800 but I am eating around 1550 (after eating my workout calories) so the difference between my maintentance calories and what im eating is 250 calories x 7 days a week is 1750 calories. But I also burn around 500 calories a week at the gym 5x a week so thats 2500..add those numbers together and i have a defitcit of 4250 so i drop around 1.2 lbs a week.

I completely believe there is a mathematic equation to all of our bodies. You first have to figure out your bmr and you can go from there. Another factor that has helped me is eating every 2 hours...LOTS OF PROTEIN AND WATER...and eating my last dinner at 7. If you dont' eat enough calories you will 1...either not lose weight or 2..end up binging another day to make up for the calories your body needs....I use to be a biggg believe in starving myself but now after going from 900 to 1550 and watching inches and lbs drop off I will never go back to starving

"Eat more to weigh less" refers to eating more smaller meals vs eating 3 large meals a day. For example instead of eating 3 600 calorie meals a day, you would eat 4 400 calorie meals, with each of the four meals spread apart by about 3-4 hours.

Absolutely not

It mean feeding your body and workout sufficiently

I am 4'11" and 120 pounds. I eat around 1700 calories a day when I cut and 2000 when I maintain

This is just an example, it isn't advice for anybody. You have to find an amount of calories that works for you. Also, when eating more to weigh less, you should choose healthy snakes in between meals. Snack should be small, like a cup of fresh fruit. A cup of grapes only has about 85 calories and it is filling.

Congrats on your weight loss! Im a firm believer in what works for you is what works!
For me 1200 calories a day is what works, now Im 51 and Im in menopause so my metabolism is almost at a halt and I exercise about 4 days a week, Yoga and the gym, Ive lost 38 pounds and Im very satisfied and full on 1200 calories, BUT it takes time to get your body used to eating that amount of food, especially going from 170 pounds (on a 5'1" frame!) to 132, my gold weight is 110 so I still have a way to go but for me 1200 calories a day works, most days I eat a bit less, some says I eat a bit more but it averages out. For about 3 months I was at a plateau when I was at 142, so I started eating 1000 calories a day...its didn't work! I went back to 1200 and I lost weight...again whatever works for your body is what works...also I never eat back my exercise calories because it just doesn't work for me...also my philosophy is that I'm not on a DIET...this is how I eat, now and forever...if I want a beer or a glass of wine or chocolate, I eat it, and I count it in my calories.

I too am going through memopause and I started on here 2/27/12 at 146 pounds eating 1000 calories a day and I lost weight pretty fast. Then on May25 at 128.8 pounds I increased my calories by 100 more a day to 1100 and I stayed at 1100 for 2 weeks and continued to lose so on 6/8/12 weighing 126.4 I again increased my calories 100 more a day to 1200 and continued to lose weight so again on 7/6/12 weighing in at 124.8 I increased my calories another 100 more a day to 1300 and I still continue to lose weight and I'm not wanting to lose any more because I am happy at 125 but I want to be able to eat more and maintain so I have been taking baby steps with this process. So on 7/20/12 weighing in at 124.6 I increased my calories again by 100 more a day to 1400 calories and I am still losing. Today I will eat more than the 1400 to gain back what I lost cause I don't want to lose any more. When I increase my calories by 100 more a day I stay at the calorie level for 2 weeks giving my body time to adjust and this has worked so well for me that I have had several cheat days to gain back some when I go under my goal weight. My goal is to eat more and maintain so I am taking it slow to get there and enjoying the ride. I am not the healthiest eater as I don't like many veggies but I do love fruits so I have increased my fruit intake when I increased my calories. When I have a cheat day I don't record everything I ate that day because I don't want to worry about counting how many sugar babies I ate or how many of whatever it was I give myself a break on those days. Next Friday I will again increase my calories to see how it goes. Don't ask me what my BMR and all that is cause I don't worrry about those things. I have kept a journal on my progress so that is why I have been able to give exact dates and increases.

So if anyone wants to start increasing theirs I suggest you keep a journal on the dates you increased and how much you weighed at that time because it is a way of seeing your progress and sharing it with others. My diary is open for anyone who wants to see it.

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

I have seen quite a few questions on how do you go about the eat more to weigh less process and other questions....We have a group on here if anyone is interested in checking it out to see if it's a fit for you:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

I just wanted to share that with anyone who may be interested in learning more about it!!! Good luck to each of you!! :flowerforyou: