diff --git a/kafka/consumer.py b/kafka/consumer.py
index f2898ad43..9aac55d35 100644
--- a/kafka/consumer.py
+++ b/kafka/consumer.py
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ def __init__(self, client, group, topic, partitions=None, auto_commit=True,
                  auto_commit_every_t=AUTO_COMMIT_INTERVAL):
 
         self.client = client
+        self.currentbuffersize = client.bufsize
         self.topic = topic
         self.group = group
         self.client._load_metadata_for_topics(topic)
@@ -362,8 +363,9 @@ def __iter_partition__(self, partition, offset):
         while True:
             # use MaxBytes = client's bufsize since we're only
             # fetching one topic + partition
+
             req = FetchRequest(
-                self.topic, partition, offset, self.client.bufsize)
+                self.topic, partition, offset, self.currentbuffersize)
 
             (resp,) = self.client.send_fetch_request(
                 [req],
@@ -376,6 +378,7 @@ def __iter_partition__(self, partition, offset):
             next_offset = None
             try:
                 for message in resp.messages:
+                    self.currentbuffersize = self.client.bufsize
                     next_offset = message.offset
 
                     # update the offset before the message is yielded. This
@@ -390,10 +393,10 @@ def __iter_partition__(self, partition, offset):
                     self.offsets[partition] = message.offset
                     yield message
             except ConsumerFetchSizeTooSmall, e:
-                fetch_size *= 1.5
+                self.currentbuffersize *= 2
                 log.warn(
-                    "Fetch size too small, increasing to %d (1.5x) and retry",
-                    fetch_size)
+                    "Fetch size too small, increasing to %d (2x) and retry",
+                    self.currentbuffersize)
                 continue
             except ConsumerNoMoreData, e:
                 log.debug("Iteration was ended by %r", e)