articles

Increase Your Calories and Still Lose Weight

By Heather Traves, August 5, 2016
We've all heard the late night infomercials,... ”eat more and lose more”. It’s a pretty catchy little phrase I think, but how does it work? For years and years we’ve all been taught the calories in, calories out formula for weight loss. With that model, logic would dictate that the less you eat, the more you lose. The problem is, that formula doesn’t factor in metabolic efficiency. The less you eat, the less efficient your metabolism becomes. So, how do you develop a meal plan that allows you to eat more and lose more? Let’s break it down.

We’ll start by assuming that you’re coming from one of two places. The first is that you eat like most Americans, a lot of processed and refined foods and really don’t know how many calories you’re getting each day. The second is that you’ve been trying to lose weight and you’ve adopted a 1200 calorie diet (for some reason that seems to be the “go to” for weight loss). You’ve been eating in restricted mode for a while and you still don’t see the results you want.

Regardless of what category you fall into, or even if you’re somewhere in between, you’re not operating at optimal metabolic efficiency. Here’s the approach I use to help you get your metabolism revved up and running strong.

Step #1: Establish your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). You can find calculators for this online, though most are labeled as Basal Metabolic Rate calculators. I usually use the one found at the Muscle and Strength website (click here).

Step #2: Once you know your RMR, which is how many calories you need to sustain your current weight, decrease the number of calories you eat per day by 500 from your RMR. So, if your RMR is 2300, you’ll start with 1800 calories per day. I usually begin a plan with an equal percentage of calories coming from carbs and proteins and then 30% or fewer calories coming from healthy fats.

Step #3: Remain consistent with your new meal plan for at least 2 weeks and as many as 4 weeks. If you’re not used to eating that much food, you may see a few pounds of weight gain in the first week or two. Don’t panic! It’s okay to gain a few pounds in the very beginning. It happens because your metabolism is still stuck on slow. It can take a few weeks to catch up with your new eating schedule. After the third or fourth week, you should lose what you initially gained and then some. Most people don’t make it to this point because they freak out at the initial weight gain. Stay the course and it will pay off.

Step #4: Once the weight loss kicks in, you’ll want to ride the plan for another week or two. Usually, this is where people start to see a plateau and begin to panic and drop calories. Don’t do it! Here’s where you want to implement “macronutrient manipulation”. Stay at the same calorie level, but change your intake to have high carbs for a couple of days and then low carbs for a day. Repeat this until you feel like you’re going to plateau again.

Step #5: Continue with the carb cycling, or you can try calorie cycling where you have high and low calorie days. Play with the macro intake while remaining at the same calorie level. You can change up the foods you’re eating, but keep the calories in the same range. Each time you manipulate the macros, follow that plan for 2 to 4 weeks on average.

Step #6: From here, INCREASE your calories by about 50 per day and repeat steps 3 – 5. You can continue to increase calories, usually until you’re pretty close to your RMR.












Side Notes: 
1. To maximize the effectiveness of this approach, you should exercise consistently with challenging resistance and cardio training. This will allow you to increase muscle while losing fat (yes, it is possible!!).

2. These are guidelines that I’ve used with many people to help them achieve their fitness goals. It is effective, but it’s important to note that everyone is different and everyone will respond a little differently to each step. I don’t think I’ve ever had two programs exactly the same because people respond differently to various macronutrient ratios. Play with the numbers and see what works best for you.

3. You have to be consistent and persistent for this approach to work. If you’re only halfway committed to your program, you can’t make meaningful changes to your program. That being said, the occasional cheat meal is great to mix things up.

4. Once you reach your weight loss goals, you can start being more creative with your program. You’re not going to be locked into the rigid eating format for life. It’s just while you’re striving to attain your goals. Once you attain them, you can shift to a maintenance style program, which is a lot more flexible.

Okay, that about sums it up. It’s all about metabolic efficiency, consistency, and patience. You have to allow time for the process to work. If you have questions, please email me at heather@gymnutfitness.com