Maybe TMI, but....this could be just for ladies

zombiemusicgirl

So since I can remember (I'm talking about for the past 20 years of my life and I'm 31) I have been trying my damnedest to accept life at 1200 Calories a day. There was a point when I was successful, but I was in highschool and pretty unhappy. Was it highschool or being underfed? I don't know...

So here's the tmi part. Over te summer I thought I was doing GREAT. I was holding steady at 1500 cals a day, losing steadily, and then, as always, I had 2 days where I ballooned up 6 lbs I had proudly lost, a and lost all hope. My periods had also decreased to 3 months apart. I was sure I had PCOS, and that must be why losing was so hard for me.

So then I decided to raise my calories to 1800 a day. I spent the past month at that intake, and guess what? My cycle came back at 47 days. Now I know that's still long, but when my last one was 87 days, that's pretty good.

So, I ran out, bought new rules of lifting for women, and am hoping that all this time I've been underfeeding myself. I've always been both overweight and athletic. I've also always eaten waaaayyyy too little protien (read - vegetarian adolescent in the 90's - I mostly just ate french fries and Taco Bell). I'm talking in the 5-10% range. That is, until the past year.

I'm not sure why I'm sharing this. I don't know why I share anything. I know losing weight should be hard, but I also think that it doesn't need to be a constant feeling of being a big, fat failure.

So I guess I could make meaning of this by asking: has anyone else had a similar situation?

vanguardfitness

I was just reading stuff about this earlier. Most of what you described (and it seems to affect women more) has to do with metabolic regulation and the long term effects of calorie deprivation. I'm no expert at this, but I'd google terms like "exercise induced metabolic down regulation" or metabolic down regulation.

The solution to the problem is to increase your calories by 100 or 200 a week. When you start to gain weight dial it back a notch and keep eating at those levels. Once your body "stabilizes" (whatever that means), then you should be ok to reduce your calories and see expected weight loss (and not the "i'm at 1200 calories and still gaining" problem)

LadyTest

Have you been tested for PCOS? Do you have any other PCOS symptoms? I have it and it has taken awhile to figure out what to eat and how much. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Good luck to you!!!