Did upping your calories help you with weight loss?

[tsteele]

So I’ve hit a platue. 

It’s been almost 2 months. I’ve done lots of research and I have upped my calories to 1200-1500 a day. I eat pretty well. Mostly clean and log and weigh everything that comes into my mouth. 

I just cant shake the panic about not having a large cal deficit everyday. I was on a very low cal diet before now (500-900 cal’s a day) which I know was stupid. Its been 3 days now, I feel bloated, full all the time and just generally gross. 

So questions are: How many cals do you burn a day/what ur deficit after food and did upping your cals help you? did you initally put on a little weight? 

Thanks 

[Shackamaxon]

Response to TSTEELE

How many cals do you burn a day/what ur deficit after food and did upping your cals help you? did you initally put on a little weight? 

As I mentioned - I just began yesterday to increase mjy caloric intake in order to get over the plateau.  I have been burning at least 2000 calories daily and only taking in 800 - 1200 which should result in wt loss.  However , like everything in my life, "if a little is good thaen a lot is better" and I think I have gone too low.  On the dashboard graph I an always below the zone. Yesterday was the first day that I was in the zone. Right smack in the middle and I still walked 11000 steps.  I hope this breaks the log jam and gets me back on the downward trip.

Mickey 

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

Don't increase all at once, that's just as much a shock to your body as the abuse you gave it eating so little.

Eat 100 more daily for a week at a time.

Set Fitbit with a reasonable weight loss goal.

250 deficit for up to10 lbs to lose.

500 for 10-25 to go.

750 for 25-50.

1000 for over 50 to go.

Log all your non-step based exercise so you really have a clue as to potential burn.

And realize right now the stress you caused your body and made it unhealthy, you aren't really burning what the Fitbit says. It's estimate is based on healthy body - your's isn't right now.

Hence the need to eat 100 more weekly to move it up slowly.

That should stop the effects you are talking about.

And in fact to really unstress - you should go all the way up to maintenance for a couple weeks. In one recent study it took 3 months for the metabolism to recover just 50% of the extra it had been suppressed.

So they burned 500 less than expected for what they could burn. 3 months eating at actualy maintenance they were only 250 less than expected. Study didn't keep going to see how long it might have taken for full recovery. Others have shown a year or more.