Ok, I've run the numbers and for a 44 year old female who wants to go from 170lbs and 35% body fat to 120lbs, I'd need to make sure I eat 1735 calories a day. I'm always training for my next 5K by running 2-3 times a week, 3-4 miles a time, injuries permitting.

I know, from entering in my foods at sparkpeople.com, that I don't lose weight until my calories are reduced to 900-1100 a day. If I do lose, I'm lucky if it's 2 lbs a week, usually, it's 1. Sometimes, I gain. Lovely, huh?

The idea of hitting a 1700 calorie mark consistently is very scary. What I'd like to know is, has anyone gone from fat to fit actually eating more? My family and I eat out once a week, rarely two, so I have tons of control over the food around here. I shop the perimeter of the store, so there's lots of good calories around here.

I know Russ and Jeff just did a podcast about "eating more to weigh less" and I realized that yes, I too, am undereating. I am 5'3", weighed 180 when I started 4 months ago with 35% body fat, and want to get down to 135. I have been eating 1500-1600 calories and lost 23 pounds these past 4 months.

I have been running 3-4 miles 5x per week and after the most recent podcast went back to recalculate my calorie intake; I should actually be eating 2200 calories. I don't have any results for you yet, but I am going to try and start eating around 1900-2000 now. I will let you know how it goes and if I still continue to lose weight. It does seem really scary, especially since I was eating fairly comfortably at 1600 calories. Those 300-400 extra calories I can eat feel like a Christmas present.

Thanks for replying! It's been a while and in that time I bought a new scale after the guys did the scale podcast. The digital scale is great, but too honest. It seems all of us here weigh 10lbs more than the old scale read. We were a very unhappy family that weekend.

So, I'm 184, with the 4 courtesy of Christmas cookies. It's down a pound from the 25th since pushing away anything with sugar. That, and I'm on Sparkpeople, keeping the calories between 1500 and 1620. Tomorrow, when I do the yearly goals, I'm running the numbers for calories and training.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress on your extra calories. How very cool to find out you're not eating enough. With the running, is your body fat dropping like your weight? I think you're doing awesome!

Hi,
Sorry about your scale being off by 10 pounds; I know they say you should care more about how you feel than about the numbers, but it is still a bummer.

To answer your question about the body fat, yes! it is dropping. I started the running about a month ago and although the scale hasn't gone down that much, I really have noticed the inches, so I know fat is coming off.

I try to weigh myself only once a week, otherwise I get a little crazy with it, and I am a little nervous about how this next weigh-in is going to be. I ate 2000 calories two days ago, 1900 yesterday and today about 1800. Like you said, the amount of calories was scary high, so I notice myself reluctant to actually eat that much. I am going to ease into it. If this next weigh-in goes well (and I don't gain 5 pounds from my increased calorie experiment), I will feel more comfortable eating the higher calories that Russ and Jeff suggested. I'll update with the results of my weigh-in. Let me know how things go with you, too.

Michelle- I also had a period of time after I started working out where the inches were dropping, but the scale was staying put. I think that exercise starts building muscle, and there is a trade off of building muscle, which weighs more than fat, and dropping fat. But then my body moved past that phase, and the pounds started coming off, too.

But damn those Christmas cookies! I gained weight last week because of Christmas baking, but now I am losing again. I HATE having to gain the SAME ground in weight loss twice.

I think we need to find the calorie sweet spot that works for us, and stick to that until it stops working. Then slowly decrease when it becomes necessary.

Good luck to both of you! Wish I could get news like that. Eat more to lose! Sheesh!

That is good advice Leo about finding your calorie sweet spot. Even the best calculators are only accurate to the "average" person based on an "average" amount of assumed muscle mass. When you add in the amount of activity that you do, the numbers could be off by a couple hundred calories for some people. What you have to do is try a number of calories and very carefully keep track of what you eat and monitor your progress, and then adjust based on your results.

It is also best to start at a higher number of calories and then gradually decrease if needed. If you start at lower calories and then start increasing them, your metabolism may be slowed down from the low calories, and you may seem to gain weight at a lower number than you should.

The ultimate goal is to eat the most amount of food and still have results.

The calorie sweet spot does sound like a good idea. I think I am feeling a little more confident now, and not so scared, to experiment. Before I was terrified about experimenting, and if anything, wanted to make sure I was only ever eating below the calorie intake number. After thinking about it, though, if I eat an extra 200 calories for one week, I am not going to gain 10 pounds. For some reason, I thought I would balloon up or something. Though it is a bummer to have to re-lose any weight, a pound won't be the end of the world...I think. So, I guess I will just keep looking for that "calorie sweet spot" because like Jeff said, I do want to be able to eat the most amount of food and still have results. Thanks guys.
Michelle

I said I would update on my weight loss and thought it was time. So for the past...two weeks I have been eating 1800-1900 calories. I was a little bit demoralized because the scale has not been changing. Really, I think I am exactly the same! and I didn't really notice any changes in inches. However, today I was at a store trying on my current size 10, and it was a little loose. I'm can't wear a size 8, yet, but there is a change! I'm going to keep with this calorie number and wait out the scale.

My wife and I figured out our calories, and then there were days we were eating 200-300 calories below. Some weeks were at a stand still, and others were small dips in weight. She was getting a little bummed out. I suggested we eat up to our calories because we are not accounting for calories from working out other than to up our levels of activity to lightly active from sedentary. Since we have been eating at our levels and not "banking" calories, we have been having strong weight loss weeks. I think that many people do indeed give themselves too few calories.

The body is always doing things that we might not understand. I'll check in to let people know if this sudden success keeps coming or if it just happened to coincide with the calorie change. Great topic.

Eat more to lose more!
Where have i heard that before?

I tried Weight Watchers for years. Now I'm counting calories (using daily plate at Livestrong.com), trying to make good nutritional choices but still allowing for treats along the way. I'm eating WAY more calories than when I was doing Weight Watchers, I'm loosing weight, and the best part is I don't feel deprived like when I was eating less.

I left Weight Watcher's after having lost 30 pounds. I am trying to eat up to my newly-calculated BMR for a 160 pound woman. Have not been exercising like I was actually eating over my new calorie amount of 1750 some days. I am still scared because I have gone up about 5 lbs in the last month. Is that what usually happens? Will try harder from now on.

I am curious if anyone else has gone up in the first month... I think that it is likely to happen if your body was already in starvation mode.... but it makes it harder to 'buy into' the eating more to lose part - right?

btw - my doctor said to eat like 1100 calories to lose weight!

I tried doing the thing once where you eat at maintenence for a week or three to reset the metabolism, and I did find that I gained weight at first, but then when I dropped it back down I started losing again.

1100 is definitely too low. Heck, you could eat 500 a day and lose weight, but that doesn't mean it would be good for you.

Yea - I think that I would not be able to move at 1100 calories!

I am going to start at 1850 - according to the calculator on this site it says 1750-2100 depending on activity level and some days I am definitely less active... we'll see how it goes!

I put on my GoWearFit - BodyBugg type thing this morning, so I am curious to see how many calories I burn too!