How can upping your calorie intake help lose weight?

I was on another thread, and someone was having difficulty losing weight, she was eating 1500 calories a day which is a little less then ideal to lose weight. Someone suggested upping her intake a few hundred - but how would this help lose weight? I've heard that if you're on a plateau you can up and down it, but the poster was saying to keep it higher.

Thanks

If you don't eat enough your body can decide that a food shortage is on and starts hanging on to its stores of fat. You end up losing very little, and your body turns to muscles instead of fat for fuel. Warped, yes, but that's how we're wired.

So by eating more you can get out of this situation and go back to burning fat.

Exactly what the previous poster said. If you undereat, your body will slow down your metabolism to compensate for the lack of food. However, if you keep your deficit at a more reasonable 500 calories a day, instead of hunkering down for a famine your body will happily shed some pounds. Although even a long-term deficit of 500 calories (and by long term I mean 6+ months) can affect your metabolism, which is why it's recommended to eat maintenance calories every once in a while. 

I agree with the other posts.  When losing weight before I got pregnant with my son, I hit a plateau after losing only 20 pounds.    After changing my exercise routine and upping my calorie intake 3 or 4 times a week, I started losing  weight again. Hope this helps.

I lose weight best by keeping around 1700-2000 calories.  Less than that and I get too hungry and start binging or stop losing weight all together.  It took me a long time to realize that I need to eat that much.  Eating under 1500 for more than a couple of days and I start to get dizzy spells and I am tired all the time.

Getting enough to eat is just as important as not eating too much.

Original Post by jj_jinxd:

she was eating 1500 calories a day which is a little less then ideal to lose weight.

What exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean little less ideal for you or in general?