Welcome to the Eat More to Lose More Group!

After being frustrated with trying calorie deficits and increased activity and no to little scale movement, we are taking the approach to eating more. What do we have to lose except those unwanted pounds!

This site has and calculator has really opened my mind up to the idea I haven't been eating anywhere near enough for what I actually do in a day. So this will be our experiment with helping weight loss.

Below is the calculator and it goes based on what you do in 24 hours.

http://www.garrisonbodyhealthnutrition.com/bodyanalysis/caloriesburned.html


I think I will post daily what the calculator says I should eat and what I do eat, just to keep record of it, everyone else feel free to do the same! I also am going to subtract probably 400 calories from the number it says to eat based on error rate and it estimating too high. But everyone else feel it out and see what you find is best. Either way the calories are still way higher for me than I had been eating.

I think we will plan on doing weekend weigh ins, so Friday-Sunday. Whichever day works for you.


Good luck to everyone! I really hope this helps all of us break through and allow us to lose more weight!! It’s nice to have a support group for our situation.

Good morning!!! I'm excited to try this. It might seem like such an easy this to bump up your calories, but I think it will actually require more work to manage to increase my calories without giving into the temptation of junk food.

Since we are no longer using MFP's calorie amounts, this is also going to take more work to track. I think what I'm going to do is figure out what my calories would be for a basic day without a workout (8 hours sleeping, 8 hours of office work, and 8 hours of sitting quietly). I'm going to adjust my MFP goals for that amount of calories. Then when I exercise, I will again use the calculator to figure out the amount of calories for that activity and then subtract the number of calories for the activity it took away from. That amount of calories will go into MFP as my exercise calories. For example if I spend 1 hr biking riding instead of sitting quietly, I would take the 684 calories for the cycling and subtract the 137 calories for sitting quietly. I would enter 547 calories into MFP as my exercise calories for the hour of cycling. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, since I still have a bum knee I will not be exercising again today. The calculator says I will need 2365 for today. Good luck everyone!!

I think what I'm going to do is keep eating what I am eating - 1,900 cal a day. The calculator @ garrison says my very minimal maint s/b 2,065. Another site that I've used to detail every single daily activity came up with 2,450. But I think I'll stick with 1,900 and assume 2,065 is close to accurate for maint. That is a 165 calorie daily deficit or 1,155 per week.

Then, I'm going to work out 3x a week, plus walks on off days, but NOT eat those calories. That will create a weight loss deficit, I'm hoping. My gym workouts (strength + cardio) usually run around 400 calories, so 400 x 3 = 1,200 a week burnedt. Power walking 4 evenings a week should be another 400 calories - 100 x 4. That is a total deficit of 2,755 which amounts to about 3/4 a pound a week.

I'm going to ignore whatever the scale says for the rest of this month however. I have to give my body time to adjust. If I see losses start by the end of Nov, I'll continue as is. If not, I'll reassess.

Good luck to you guys too! May this work for us

I do agree upping the calories is actually difficult and keeping it healthy....
We could post ideas of healthy snacks and such to help up calories.

I this week discovered Planters individual Trail Mix, 180 calories/pack. I have added 2 of those to my day, which I feel for the most part its a healthy snack and healthier fats.

My food diary is open to my friend list. Sometimes I find its helpful to get ideas on what to eat from seeing what other people do!

The calculator for me today says 2501, but I am aiming for 2100ish.

Good luck to everyone! :)

My diary is open to my friends as well. Anything that says "Crystal's" is a recipe that I manually entered. Let me know if you ever want the recipe. I'll always happy to share.

I love those Planter's trail mix packs!! They used to make an individual pack of their Energy Mix, but I haven't been able to find it in a while. It was my favorite. I really like the Kashi TLC pumpkin pie bars. Most of the Kashi bars are good.

I'm going to be searching for some low carb snacks. I have another 300 calories to fill for the day but I'm already over on carbs. There is a part of me that's thinking of not eating them. . .

The calculator from the site you posted has me at 2473 with the exercise I plan on doing today. It says it automatically includes a 700 calorie deficit. With the same 700 calorie deficit MFP has me at 2030 assuming I eat all the exercise calories the calculator states. That is 440 calories more than MFP.
The exercise gave me 50 more calories than MFP.

So are you joining our group?

I scared to eat more . I will lurk and see how it works for you all.

OK, so I'm *kinda* joining your group...if that's ok :)! I had read an article on here a couple of weeks ago, and started adjusting my calorie intake accordingly (here's the article: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/core_march_8.htm). The reason I say *kinda* is that I am not going quite as high as the web page that you all posted recommends - just being super diligent at keeping my calories up during the week, and working much harder at eating healthier calories. A little about my situation: I used to be size 16ish, got down to a 4/6 by eating better and exercising, then ran a marathon (and gained a little weight while eating whatever I wanted during training), then got pregnant (gained 55 pounds more), lost most of the pregnancy weight and was featured as a weightloss success story in Shape magazine, my son is now 4 1/2, I exercise consistently (even teach Group Power weightlifting), although I'm completely sedentary at my job all day.......AND I overeat on the weekends, and can't seem to loose that last 20 pounds that needs to go! So, although I won't be following the plan you all are exactly, since I fall more into the category of the article I posted above, I would LOVE to keep up with you guys and see how this works for you. I have done tons of research on the subject, and am very curious about trying other approaches! Sorry so long-winded and best of luck to everyone!

If you are losing weight fine with what you are doing I'd say keep doing it. For me I was in such a low deficit for all of October and didn't lose one pound all month. (Eating around 1000 cal + doing exercise) So after a lot of research I am thinking I need to be eating a lot more, especially for the activity that I do. I do feel what the calculator gives me is pretty high, which is why I had planned on taking off about 400 calories from what it says. Either way doing that is still more calories than I had been doing and not getting any results.

But feel free to watch and see how it works for us, it is an experiment of sorts! :) Good luck to you!

I went to Fitday.com, which is what Bodybuilding.com recommends to trainers and competitors. After entering my data and using activity level as "seated, some activity", it shows me at 2359 calories to maintain. Alrighty then!

1900 calories should be ok once my body gets accustomed to being fed enough, lol.

Yes, I'm trying to talk myself into trusting that this will work.

I've been debating how the high number numbers are myself. My concern is that there is no accounting for gender on that site. Every other site that I've been to gives males more calories than female even when all other factors (age, height, weight) are the same. It bugs me that they aren’t taking gender into consideration.

I’m really tempted to just stick with what I was doing before since I was still losing weight, just not as quickly as I once was. I was using the calorie calculator at www.freedieting.com. That website’s numbers are still higher than MFP, so it still fits into the “Eat More to Lose More” philosophy. But instead of 2,365 calories that the Garrison site gives me, freedieting.com says I should be getting 1,918. MFP has me at 1,320!

I agree with that one being high, I like it though since I can break down the 24 hours of a day.
This site I found this morning. It gives me a number of 2100 which is pretty much what I was going to do, the garrison number minus 400...
I really like this calculation because its height, weight, SEX, and age, which I think would be the most accurate. I agree I dislike that garrison number doesn't include sex, or height.

Try this site out guys and see if it gives you a few less hundred than the garrison one.

http://www.foodfit.com/tools/w8calc/

Yeah, foodfit.com gave me 1900, similar to freedieting.com. I also when to MyPyramid.gov and used the "MyPyramid Plan" to see what it suggested. It says I need to have about 2000 calories a day, which is only slightly more than the other two. (By the way, I actually went there to see the generic "you need x servings of veggies a day" and I was impressed that it actually takes into consideration your stats and gives you an individualized plan. Bravo USDA!!)

Garrison may try to have us eat a little too much, but we can always appreciate the site for inspiring our little group.

I have been using fitday to track my measurements since last August. It gives me the same number as MFP unless I use the Harris Benedict equation then it gives me 200 more calories. I tried the foodfit.com and it gives me the same number MFP does when I add in 75% of my exercise calories. So I guess I'm sticking with MFP numbers. Even though I'm not losing pounds I am losing inches so I just have to be content with that fact.

Mystasia. 1000 calories is too low. Banks has said in the past to at least eat your BMR if you are not going to eat your exercise calories. Good Luck

Feel free to kinda join! :) The more the merrier and if anything can help you great! Good luck with your last 20lbs! :)

By the way, what a GREAT article. I had been eating around a 1000 for all of October, and exercising sometimes upto 2 hours a day, and didnt lose any weight last month! :( I started Monday with upping my calories. Its comforting reading that article, though I'm not looking forward to the possible weight gain from increasing my calories...but if it does work to reset my metabolism and thus helping me start to lose weight again, I will be so relieved!!

Thanks for the article post. :)

Good morning ladies!

I'm still not able to work out. Hopefully I will be all healed up this weekend and I can get some exercise in. I'm tired of this. So, my calories for today are the same, 1,900.

Have a wonderful day!

I like Stormie's idea of not paying attention to the scale until the end of the month. I bet by then (as long as Thanksgiving isn't too much of a problem) you will see a loss from where you are at now.

Ya, I was actually thinking of skipping weighing in this Sunday, and just wait for next Sunday....just to see. Figured this first week would be a bit screwy with upping my calories, as well as I got my period today... Also I realized I have way too much sodium in my diet, so tonight I'm going to come up with new things to eat next week with much less sodium. So I will report what my weight is next Sunday when I weigh in. I dread getting weighed!! :(

Thanks mystasia for welcoming my *kinda* status with the group! I'm glad you enjoyed the article too.

I just wanted to chime in that it's been about 3 weeks since I upped my calories (just during the week....weekends are ALWAYS over). I still weigh regularly (kinda obsessively), but it has stayed the same - maybe up about a pound last week due to PMS/period. On days that I exercise, I do find it harder to eat all the calories that are recommended - except those dreaded weekends when I like to have a beer or cocktail and desert! Anyway, since it seems that although I'm not going quite as high on calories - I have been at it for a few weeks and thought ya'll might like to know that I haven't really gained - but haven't lost either. Happy Thursday!

I think you can join for more than just a *kinda* status. I think we’ve all agreed that the Garrison calculator is too high, at least for women. You have upped you calories, so you are eating more to lose more!! How low were your calories when before you upped them? What did you use to figure out your new calorie level? I'm nosy.

I originally upped mine from about 1320 calories to about 1850 at the end of August. I was in a month long plateau at that point. I stayed the same for a few weeks and then had a 5 lb drop!! Here's hoping you see the same soon.

I say that I upped it to 1850, but I rarely ate that many. I usually had 200-300 calories left at the end of the day. My challenge to myself now is to come closer to what I should be eating. I did okay yesterday, but it was tough.

Well...even though I upped my calories, they were pretty low before. Before, I wasn't eating my exercise calories, and was usually under 1000. Again, this was just during the week for me. So, now, I just eat what MFP recommends, ALWAYS eat my exercise calories, and am not quite so obsessive compulsive about it (i.e. if I go over by a couple of hundred, I don't fret it). So, with exercise added in, I eat usually around 1600-1800 a day during the week. I am trying to reign in the weekends a bit, cause I was tending to be more like 2500-3000 a day for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday's. For the past two weeks, I've been able to keep Friday's in check....but with Halloween, kid birthday parties, big Sunday family dinners, I am still having a tough time Saturday and Sunday. But, I have toned those down to about 2500 or a little less. I don't exercise on Friday's or Saturday's either, so that makes those days tougher to keep on track. BUT, I am eating much healthier, and trying to ditch my sweet tooth that know no boundaries :)

UPDATE: Still eating more during the week....and LOST 2 pounds!!!

Congrats! WOOO.
I am going in this Sunday to be weighed, but I fear with it only being 2 weeks of eating more that I might be in the stage of being up a pound or two...
How long did it take you to start losing after switching to eating more?

Mystasia - it has been about 1 month since I upped my calories. Let's hope the loosing continues!