i need advice but please don't' slate me.......

khadijak17

i began my journey back in 2011, i started at eating 1200 calories a day with no cheat days at all, i was exercising and felt great!.
last year i began to take my weight loss to an extreme level under eating and taking in only 900 calories and a cheat day once a week, my cheat days were around 2700 calories on these days.
Anyways for the past few months i have carried on doing this but my cheat days dont stay on the one day, they go on for days, then i pull myself together and start all over again!
i found on 1200-1300 calories i dont want to or feel like cheating, so my question is should it be ok if i up my calories to 1200 i will less likely cheat and destroy my progress or will it make me gain weight as i have heard it can damage your metabolism to eat so low however as i did 6 days vlcd and then on the 7th ate more im thinking my metabolism would be ok as the overall calories for the week were fine id appreciate your help

lsmsrbls

It sounds like you probably need to talk to a professional. Good luck.

AJ_G

By eating very low calories most days and having high calorie cheat days, you're probably averaging more weekly calories then if you just ate a healthy amount of calories every day which is going to hurt any weight loss you are shooting for. The very low calorie days are triggering your binges and it is a bad cycle to be on. I can't really give you a solid calorie recommendation without knowing your weight and body fat, but you should never really eat as low as 900 calories

khadijak17

bump

maybeazure

It looks like you should be close to maintenance level (based on your ticker). I would suggest figuring out what your maintenance calories should be and then gradually increase to that. I think it is highly unlikely that you will gain weight if you start eating 1200-1300 calories a day, other than possibly some water weight if you end up eating more sodium too. But that would be temporary.

I do think it is easier not to cheat when eating a reasonable amount of calories. I don't feel the need for a cheat day, although on special occasions I might pan to increase my calories a little.

diannethegeek

1200 calories is the bare minimum for a sedentary woman. And honestly, you probably need to eat even more than that. Your body is looking for extra calories and taking control to get them. Listen to it, do some research, and increase your daily intake.

Ann262

It seems you were doing fine at the 1200 to 1300 calorie a day range. So why did you change? At 900 calories per day, you aren't feeding yourself enough to maintain your body functions so naturally a cheat day will turn into a days long binge.

I would say give up the notion of the cheat day and go back to what your were doing. Sure, you may see a pop up on the scale at first, just wait it out.

JustMeee333

I agree, the bare minimum EVERYWHERE states that a woman should eat is 1,200 calories, so I see no harm whatsoever to go to 1,200, or even 1,300.

Enter your details here: http://caloriecount.about.com/tools/calories-goal (I love this site lol) and see what they say.

MQ1992

900 is just very low

icandowhateveriputmymindto

I think that your cheat days shouldn't be as high.

Birder150

It looks like you should be close to maintenance level (based on your ticker). I would suggest figuring out what your maintenance calories should be and then gradually increase to that. I think it is highly unlikely that you will gain weight if you start eating 1200-1300 calories a day, other than possibly some water weight if you end up eating more sodium too. But that would be temporary.

I do think it is easier not to cheat when eating a reasonable amount of calories. I don't feel the need for a cheat day, although on special occasions I might pan to increase my calories a little.

I agree wholeheartedly.

deksgrl

Read this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

steffij100

i began my journey back in 2011, i started at eating 1200 calories a day with no cheat days at all, i was exercising and felt great!.
last year i began to take my weight loss to an extreme level under eating and taking in only 900 calories and a cheat day once a week, my cheat days were around 2700 calories on these days.
Anyways for the past few months i have carried on doing this but my cheat days dont stay on the one day, they go on for days, then i pull myself together and start all over again!
i found on 1200-1300 calories i dont want to or feel like cheating, so my question is should it be ok if i up my calories to 1200 i will less likely cheat and destroy my progress or will it make me gain weight as i have heard it can damage your metabolism to eat so low however as i did 6 days vlcd and then on the 7th ate more im thinking my metabolism would be ok as the overall calories for the week were fine id appreciate your help

whipsmart10014

From observing friends, severe calorie restrictions frequently result in over-indulgence on "cheat" days. Eventually, this yo-yo of restrictions and binges develop into bulimia or binge-eating disorder (which introduce additional problems; tooth erosion, mood swings, etc). The desire to so severely monitor your calorie intake or intentionally deprive yourself suggests you may have "control" issues (which is very common in high-achieving, performance-oriented, alpha-type women).

I recommend speaking with a registered dietician. He/She will likely advise you to return to eating 1200-1300 calories a day and try to find something else in your environment you can "control".

steffij100

i began my journey back in 2011, i started at eating 1200 calories a day with no cheat days at all, i was exercising and felt great!.
last year i began to take my weight loss to an extreme level under eating and taking in only 900 calories and a cheat day once a week, my cheat days were around 2700 calories on these days.
Anyways for the past few months i have carried on doing this but my cheat days dont stay on the one day, they go on for days, then i pull myself together and start all over again!
i found on 1200-1300 calories i dont want to or feel like cheating, so my question is should it be ok if i up my calories to 1200 i will less likely cheat and destroy my progress or will it make me gain weight as i have heard it can damage your metabolism to eat so low however as i did 6 days vlcd and then on the 7th ate more im thinking my metabolism would be ok as the overall calories for the week were fine id appreciate your help

Sorry, posted too soon!

I think you answered your own question. You say that on 1200-1300 you don't feel like cheating. And re-read your first sentence- you had no cheat days, you exercised and you felt great. Go back to that- if it takes your body a short while to adjust, it's more than worth it.

Good luck to you :flowerforyou:

Birdiebull

Metabolisms do start to slow when you're in a sustained deficit, but they bounce back really quickly! So don't worry! You should be eating at LEAST your BRM no matter what, and a certain percentage below your TDEE in order to lose weight.

I ran into a similar problem by accident. I went into a huge calorie deficit for several months after I started a triathlon training program that more than tripled the number of calories I burned with exercise per week.

Since I didn't start the training with the intention of burning more calories or loosing weight (I just wanted to get faster) it didn't occur to me to increase my caloric intake by much. Just a energy bar sometimes during a training session, but otherwise my diet remained the same. I lost weight at first but then my performance really suffering even though my weight wasn't moving.

I started seeing a sports nutritionist who said that I was in such a deficit, my body had stopped losing lbs and instead was breaking down muscle (hence performance problems) and slowing my metabolism (hence stable weight). He started me on a diet that increased my calories by 500kcal/day for 2 weeks, then by 700kcal/day for the remainder of my training. After a month of eating more, I'd actually lost 3lbs and had much much much more energy.

So don't be scared of starting to eat more. You wont lose more weight, and certainly wont lose any weight in a healthy way, if you don't start eating at least your BMR. If you're anxious about your slowed metabolism, you can kickstart it with weight training. And don't weight yourself for at least a couple weeks. You'll be surprised!

CollieFit

Are you actually trying to be healthy or is this just about being thin??

Work out what your macros should be. I doubt that on your vlcd days your body is getting anywhere near the right amount of proteins and fats that it needs to function properly. And I guess on your cheat days you're not likely to be pigging out on vegetables, so when is your body actually getting any decent nutrition?

Do yourself a favour and change your mind set. It's not a competition of "starve - you win.... cheat you lose".

AlsDonkBoxSquat

You are having compulsory cheat days because you are on a very low calorie diet, it's your body's way of telling you "lady, this **** ain't working for me." and preventing you from starving to death.

eat at a level where you feel satiated every day.

lavendy17

In addition, I think if you miss your favorite foods sometimes, have one item once in a while that you really like just so you don't feel deprived. I just had a muffin. I never eat those anymore and I miss them. Yeah, it made my daily calories go up to 1450, but that's a far cry from 2700 that you were having on cheat days.

So don't make a whole day a big binge, but don't completely deny yourself.

Raynne413

i began my journey back in 2011, i started at eating 1200 calories a day with no cheat days at all, i was exercising and felt great!.
last year i began to take my weight loss to an extreme level under eating and taking in only 900 calories and a cheat day once a week, my cheat days were around 2700 calories on these days.
Anyways for the past few months i have carried on doing this but my cheat days dont stay on the one day, they go on for days, then i pull myself together and start all over again!
i found on 1200-1300 calories i dont want to or feel like cheating, so my question is should it be ok if i up my calories to 1200 i will less likely cheat and destroy my progress or will it make me gain weight as i have heard it can damage your metabolism to eat so low however as i did 6 days vlcd and then on the 7th ate more im thinking my metabolism would be ok as the overall calories for the week were fine id appreciate your help

I had this problem when I was over-restricting. My nutrition explained that my crazy eating days were my body's way of ensuring it's survival, and I was needing more calories and more fat.

khadijak17

thank you all for the responses i appreciate your honesty i am going to up my calories because i need to get out of this vicious circle once and for all x