Brand New Seekings Advice

bps5qt587t

Been super insecure about my body and my fitness for while now and wanted to put a change to eat, I’m 204 and trying to get to 180lb, I’m practically starving myself with 700 calories a day and have been doing fast pace walks for a mile and a mix of some weight training, 4x a week now for 9 days. Any advice please I’d love, I’m trying to see results fast before I get discouraged, this is getting really hard

snowflake954

First of all, you're eating too little. It's dangerous, and there are health consequences. It can also lead to binging when your body rebels and then you develop an ED. Eat what MFP gives you so that you get your vital nutrients.

Secondly--what's the big rush? You put on the weight over time, it'll come off over time. Patience. Results will come if you're consistent.

I'd suggest you follow MFP as it's set up. Eat back your exercise calories and log faithfully. Calm down, it will take awhile, but this is the rest of your life. I imagine you want to keep the weight off when you reach goal. You should be planning for that--it's the hard part.

Lietchi

Well, of course it's getting hard, you're starving yourself. If you ate a sensible amount of calories, it wouldn't be so hard and you could take the time to find a new way of eating which will help you maintain your weight after you've reached your goal.

This is one of those 'tortoise beats the hare' scenarios

MacLowCarbing

I fear you will get more discouraged by rushing it and giving yourself such a struggle.

Little secret I've discovered: if the way you eat isn't sustainable (for life, maybe with some tweaks), when you go back to your old habits you will just regain the weight. Probably with interest.

You can't sustain yourself by starving yourself; that may help you lose weight temporarily and hopefully won't do any damage-- however at some point if you don't work towards new sustainable habits, the results won't last. Better off building those habits now, rather than driving yourself to fall off the wagon.

I wish you much success.

springlering62

Reaching out with hugs.

Starting at age 56- when common wisdom says “losing weight is hard at that age”- I lost almost 100 pounds. I went from a 22 or 24w to a comfortable size 4.

At no point did I ever eat less than 1470 per day, and that was only for a couple months, til my first dietician appointment showed me that wasn’t enough. After six months and 60 pounds, I settled in at 1970 and lost the rest at that.

I started out simply walking, and continuing with yoga, which I loved but wasn’t very good at.

As I lost weight, I felt better and became more active, and willingly added more exercise, because I enjoyed the movement, and didn’t kind “buying back” a few extra calories.

No wonder it’s hard for you. I bet you’re sunk in a stupor on the couch by early afternoon. Naps are calling your name. I know this because that’s my clear sign that I’m dangerously under fueling my body, and I make it a point to increase calories.

Yeah, that’s a thing.

I get it that you’re in a hurry. But did you put the weight on in a hurry? Probably not. Having expectations to lose it in a hurry is over ambitious.

And if you do manage to lose it in a hurry? What have you learned? Or will you fall back to old habits and put it right back on?

You’re still in the honeymoon period. Focus that energy on small changes, making new habits, and breaking old ones. You’ll need these changes into maintenance, or you’ll be in the 95% that yo-yos.

You’ll get lots of great advice here. I suggest haunting the boards like I do, lol.

lynn_glenmont

You're not "practically" starving yourself. On 700 kcals per day, you are starving yourself. As others have recommended, you should adjust your expectations and not try to lose 40 pounds "fast."

AnnPT77

bps5qt587t wrote: »

Been super insecure about my body and my fitness for while now and wanted to put a change to eat, I’m 204 and trying to get to 180lb, I’m practically starving myself with 700 calories a day and have been doing fast pace walks for a mile and a mix of some weight training, 4x a week now for 9 days. Any advice please I’d love, I’m trying to see results fast before I get discouraged, this is getting really hard

I'd echo others' advice: Don't do that.

Trying to lose weight fast increases health risks, and under-fueling workouts severely limits fitness progress. What's the rush?

Personally, I'd rather see results that last, over results that come fast.

You have 24 pounds you want to lose. That's not very much. Even losing very fast, though, it's going to take multiple months, realistically. (I'm sure you've seen or will see a fast drop up front from reduced water retention and reduced digestive tract contents on their way to becoming waste. That's not fat.) It will slow down.

Treating weight loss as a fast project with an end date can actually result in it taking more calendar time to get to goal than adopting a more manageable approach. Why? Deprivation-triggered over-eating bouts, breaks in the action, maybe even giving up altogether.

In the unlikely event you do reach 180, how do you plan to stay there? Eating only 700 calories daily, you'll have learned pretty much zero about how to eat happily long term in order to stay at that weight.

Rethink. That's my advice. Figure out how to lose weight relatively easily, not fast.

Bona fides: I lost around 50 pounds back in 2015-16, after 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity. I've been at a healthy weight since. I did what I described above: Figure out how to stay reasonably full and very well-nourished, with good energy for athletic performance, on an appropriate calories while eating food I actually enjoy. I think it worked.

Corina1143

I lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks. I lost hair by the handfuls. I would find big globs of hair on my pillow, my chair, the floor. My skin got dry and scaly and peeled off like autumn leaves falling. I got constipated, took laxatives, got diarrhea. I wouldn't repeat it for anything! Don't do it!
Mine was an accident. But the results weren't good.
You only get one body. Take care of it! Love it! Give it what it needs!
Like Springerling said, feed it enough you feel good. Then find some exercise you like and do it with joy!
Good luck!

springlering62

Just an afterthought, if you’re trying to lose weight rapidly for a wedding or reunion or other major event, don’t.

People who know you, love you as you are. If they don’t, reconsider your relationship.

Do you want to go with sagging skin, sunken eyes, hair loss, and (most likely of all) meaner than the snakiest of snakes because you’ve been severely undereating for a while?

Just a thought, since calendars often create “need” to lose weight.