To those who have or are upping calories...

How is the "upping-to-lose" process going for you? If You've been successful using this method before, can you share? Thanks!

It took me a long time to realize that I was starving at 1500 calories a day.  I am much happier and losing closer to 2000.  I need that much in order to stay awake, alert and happy.  I am NOT pleasant to be around when I don't get enough to eat.

I upped my calories by about 100 calories a day and have been losing weight still very slowly. Since I feel like I'm eating a ton, I'm going to rule out eating less first before eating more. I used phord.com/cc to calculate my BMR, but then recently found out my fat %. Which is between 25-30%. Apparently extremely high! Once I input my fat % into phord.com/cc my BMR and sedentary rate shot down. I'll let you know how this week goes and if I'm going to move to an eating more strategy and throw out eating less.

When I first started counting calories I wanted to lose as much weight as possible so I tried eating a 1200 calorie/day diet.  I was not losing as much weight as I was hoping to lose and after reading a lot of the upping calories posts I decided to up my calorie to 1500 and it made a world of difference.  I started losing weight steadily and have lost a total of 30 pounds. 

Yeah it's strange because for the past week I haven't been exercising at all (b/c I'm sick) and I've been eating more than ever. I just got on the scale w/ about a pound of clothes on and it read 110 even. This has been my weight on an empty stomach for the past couple of months or so, so obviously it has gone down a bit! The thing is that I think I look and feel fatter than ever. Is this normal?

It's hard to look and feel slimmer since you look at yourself all of the time. The best remedy for this is to buy a shirt or something that is too tight to wear right now but upon reaching your goal weight, it will fit. For me, I already own a bunch of stuff that used to fit on me but doesn't anymore. Every weigh in, I try the shirts back on to see if there has been progress. This can alleviate worriness due to a stubborn scale. If your scale is kinda sittin there but your clothing is a lot looser, you're losing fat! But probably gaining some muscle/ retaining water, blah blah

Yeah I have been scrutinizing myself alot more lately, so maybe it's more of a psychological thing. Might have been the way they were washed or something, but I noticed today that my pj bottoms fit just a liiiiittle bit looser. It just doesn't feel good eating more though. :P

Best thing you can do is bump up in cals!  For me I was starving and staying low 1500 range with excercise.  Not happy felt deprieved all the time.  Than I joined CC and the meter wants me to eat about 1900!  Quite a difference and I was like no way will this work....but it has!  I'm losing weight and I am NOT hungry in fact it is a chore to make sure I consume enough! Try it!  PS it also took me 9 days to lose any weight.

I've been wondering if the upping to lose method is working for everyone.

I mean is it only working for people who have a lot to lose and for people who only have a few pounds left to get rid of?

It just seems to me that it works best if you have a lot of weight to lose since you burn so much already.  But if you're near your goal weight and don't burn as much as you did, upping calories would result in a slower weight loss. 

Maybe (and I hope) I'm wrong, but it just feels that way. 

Sounds negative but the process is horrible for me. I was going at it slowly. My bf told me I gain weight like now otherwise we break up. I am at 139 from 133 and I feel like ****. I am bloated, fat feeling, sluggish, angry and depressed. Mind you all this eating has done NOTHING for me physically. I am barely fitting my clothes and I haven't gotten my period. Weak.

**** eating more. lol... just my honesty here.

Hey littlemalynda in another one of my topics you responded to you said you lost weight from upping your cals. Is this something different? I'm confused.

I did at first. Ok so here's the whole schbeal:

1150-1350 cals intake; working out 6days/wk @ 60 mins per day = no results (or at least none that I really noticed)

1350-1500 cals intake; working out 6days/wk @70 mins per day = 1-2lbs lost

1550-1900 cals intake; working out 6days/wk @ 90 mins per day = 5lbs lost

*Then the bf tells me I am way too thin (as a pear shaped girl my upper half looks emaciated if I am at 130lbs... and meanwhile my bottom half looks normal)*

1900-2500 cals intake; working out 6days/wk @ 60 mins per day = 3lbs lost

*Then the bf says if I don't gain some weight back he cannot date me anymore as I am becoming unattractive*

2500-3000 cals intake; working out 5days/wk @ 60 mins per day = 139lbs of grostesque-ness. :( Or at the least it's just been climbing climbing climbing and I am really unhappy with the way I look and feel.

Personally, I was happy running between 1500-1900 cals a day... but mind you I expend about 2500-3100 per day (according to cal count) and I am recovering - or trying to recover from amenorrhea.

Wow if you are healthy then your bf shouldn't care a bit how you look (don't mean to judge though.) Sry but that just seems mean of him.

Anyway, I'm gonna put away my fears of eating more for now and aim for a goal of about 1,400 a day increaseing gradually, and see how I do with that. Now hopefully I can lose some weight!

By the way thanks for the detail in your post malynda; it really gave me a clearer perception. :)

I think thats the big thing with him is that I'm not healthy. It's weird. I look fine - but there are telltale signs that my health is being compromised. Ex - amenorrhea, lack of muscle fatigue regardless of training, restlessness, etc... so I am trying my best to up the cals and de-stress but man it's hard! lol!!

I think that upping your cals slowly is a great idea. Gives your bod time to adjust to the upping without gaining and at the same time you can fully adjust yourself to your new cal intake/meal planning.

Good luck!! :)

Wow ok I've been eating about 200-300 more cals for about a week and the scale has already dropped at least a pound. Thank you so much for the detailed advice, it really encouraged me to finally eat more! I'll keep you posted (in this thread) on how I'm doing.

I hope things will go better for you. :)

hey, icat - glad to hear you are losing with more calories - keep us posted on your progress!

Yeah I will...but I'm not exactly sure what to make of the weight loss yet, like idk whether it's water weight or not...haven't lost that much yet. But yeah, thank you everyone for your replies - they convinced me that I really wasn't eating enough for anything good to happen to my body! Keep track of this thread so you can see how I'm doing. :)

It really didn't work for me at all. I actually started gaining, which is why I get so angry when people tell me to up my intake these days.

I'll deal with it again next time I plateau for no good reason, but usually a single day binge makes me start losing again, which has been the case with me for years.

I'm an anomaly.

sami, did you up them all in one shot? by how much did you up? oh great now i'm less confident.

Original Post by samismilexx:

It really didn't work for me at all. I actually started gaining, which is why I get so angry when people tell me to up my intake these days.

I'll deal with it again next time I plateau for no good reason, but usually a single day binge makes me start losing again, which has been the case with me for years.

I'm an anomaly.

Yeah I don't understand how it works for some people.  I think THAT's the anomaly... put more calories in and lose more?  It doesn't make any sense medically.

I'm generally the same as you.  I wish I could force myself back to 1200 per day, but I'm a lot comfier eating 1400, though the scale hates me for it.