diff --git a/fmt/ostream.h b/fmt/ostream.h
index 7e13a5a71ed3..f529e24146b1 100644
--- a/fmt/ostream.h
+++ b/fmt/ostream.h
@@ -24,32 +24,27 @@ class FormatBuf : public std::basic_streambuf<Char> {
   typedef typename std::basic_streambuf<Char>::traits_type traits_type;
 
   Buffer<Char> &buffer_;
-  Char *start_;
 
  public:
-  FormatBuf(Buffer<Char> &buffer) : buffer_(buffer), start_(&buffer[0]) {
-    this->setp(start_, start_ + buffer_.capacity());
-  }
+  FormatBuf(Buffer<Char> &buffer) : buffer_(buffer) {}
 
-  FormatBuf(Buffer<Char> &buffer, Char *start) : buffer_(buffer) , start_(start) {
-    this->setp(start_, start_ + buffer_.capacity());
-  }
+ protected:
+  // The put-area is actually always empty. This makes the implementation
+  // simpler and has the advantage that the streambuf and the buffer are always
+  // in sync and sputc never writes into uninitialized memory. The obvious
+  // disadvantage is that each call to sputc always results in a (virtual) call
+  // to overflow. There is no disadvantage here for sputn since this always
+  // results in a call to xsputn.
 
   int_type overflow(int_type ch = traits_type::eof()) FMT_OVERRIDE {
-    if (!traits_type::eq_int_type(ch, traits_type::eof())) {
-      size_t buf_size = size();
-      buffer_.resize(buf_size);
-      buffer_.reserve(buf_size * 2);
-
-      start_ = &buffer_[0];
-      start_[buf_size] = traits_type::to_char_type(ch);
-      this->setp(start_+ buf_size + 1, start_ + buf_size * 2);
-    }
+    if (!traits_type::eq_int_type(ch, traits_type::eof()))
+      buffer_.push_back(ch);
     return ch;
   }
 
-  size_t size() const {
-    return to_unsigned(this->pptr() - start_);
+  std::streamsize xsputn(const Char *s, std::streamsize count) FMT_OVERRIDE {
+    buffer_.append(s, s + count);
+    return count;
   }
 };
 
@@ -99,7 +94,7 @@ void format_arg(BasicFormatter<Char, ArgFormatter_> &f,
   std::basic_ostream<Char> output(&format_buf);
   output << value;
 
-  BasicStringRef<Char> str(&buffer[0], format_buf.size());
+  BasicStringRef<Char> str(&buffer[0], buffer.size());
   typedef internal::MakeArg< BasicFormatter<Char> > MakeArg;
   format_str = f.format(format_str, MakeArg(str));
 }
@@ -128,14 +123,10 @@ typename std::enable_if<
 operator<<(BasicWriter<Char> &writer, const T &value) {
   FMT_STATIC_ASSERT(internal::is_streamable<T>::value, "T must be Streamable");
 
-  auto &buffer = writer.buffer();
-  Char *start = &buffer[0] + buffer.size();
-
-  internal::FormatBuf<Char> format_buf(buffer, start);
+  internal::FormatBuf<Char> format_buf(writer.buffer());
   std::basic_ostream<Char> output(&format_buf);
   output << value;
 
-  buffer.resize(buffer.size() + format_buf.size());
   return writer;
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/test/ostream-test.cc b/test/ostream-test.cc
index a7341065eb01..0e84f5275afd 100644
--- a/test/ostream-test.cc
+++ b/test/ostream-test.cc
@@ -191,3 +191,26 @@ TEST(OStreamTest, WriteToOStreamMaxSize) {
   } while (size != 0);
   fmt::internal::write(os, w);
 }
+
+#if __cplusplus >= 201103L
+struct Xs {
+  const size_t size;
+  const std::string s;
+  Xs() : size(200), s(size, 'x') {}
+};
+
+inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, Xs const& xs) {
+  return os << xs.s;
+}
+
+TEST(OStreamTest, FormatBuf1) {
+  Xs xs;
+  fmt::MemoryWriter w;
+  int n = fmt::internal::INLINE_BUFFER_SIZE / xs.size + 1;
+  for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
+    w << xs;
+  EXPECT_EQ(w.size(), size_t(n * xs.size));
+  w << xs;
+  EXPECT_EQ(w.size(), size_t((n + 1) * xs.size));
+}
+#endif