Need some serious help

sonemoso

Hi there
I have come from a long path of losing weight and now really HAVE to maintain. Any more weight loss would scare me and others. The thing is that I somehow lost the right view of eating and I do try and make myself have something if I don't even feel hungry (especially after dinner when I realise that I am WAY under my calorie goal). Still I barely stay around 1200 and I know that the way I lost weight was unhealthy but it's the past now.
Since I tried maintaining I started mountain biking and tennis. Now the scale went down only by 0.5 kg since the 2 months ago I started "to maintain". But the measurements have gone down loads and people asked me if I lost weight again. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? I can't have gained muscle on the caloried I eat.
I weigh my food out as well as I can and sort of got a feeling for portion weight and stuff over the months.
Today for example I had this:

Breakfast always the same with different fruit:
6:00. 20g oats + 20g wheat bran = porridge + 2 slices kiwi + 1/3 cut up nectarine
School - 1st day
13:00. Veggie soup (cabbage, carrot, kohlrabi, onion) 1 cup
Snacked on some raw cauliflower - 100g
17:00 250g lowfat yoghurt + 130g lowfat cream cheese
19:00 Big bowl salad (lettuce mix, cherry tomatoes, half a bell pepper, cucumber) lemon vinnegar dressing + a nectarine

Glanced at caloried for first time and panicked. I thought if I ate casually I would get higher finally but I was under 600!!
Sooo full and waited until I could eat:
20:30 250g lowfat yoghurt, 2 plums, an apple and a nectarine

Still way under.
And by looking at that and looking back at what I had today it feels like a lot!!!

Can't explain how for example my thighs went down 4xm in 2 months without weight loss.
It scares me. I also have no desire to eat anything "unhealthy" (crisps, chocolate). I tried not logging in for a week and all kinds of methods but still the same calorie result.

Ps: Today was a bit unusual according to the macros. NormalIy eat fish 3x a week and meat 4x a week and usually have at least 35% of my calories coming from protein.

melimomTARDIS

This is frustrating, for me as well. I'm hungry some days, and eat a lot, other days I scrape by at 1500. Losing about a pound a month still.

I also have no desire for junk, but i have been able to eat frozen yogurt bars, trail mix, and have wine or orange juice, to up my calories.

I go out and eat at a restaurant once every two weeks to bump up my calories.

HaibaneReki

This sounds like something that could happen to me too.

Before Your weight loss You must have had something You could eat tons of. Something You fought hard to resist and thanks to Your weight loss have grown a love-hate relationship with. For me one of the many things is for example hazelnuts in chocolate and cinnamon. Or milk with cereal. Or kefir. Or ICE CREAM! :bigsmile:

And guess what? Now You can have some again! Eat what You're used to do and find a portion of Your kryptonite that satisfies Your taste and not tempts You to binge and allow Yourself to enjoy it again.

Simple as that. No habits change needed. :flowerforyou:

Patttience

You are just not eating enough and your food choices are too narrow. Vegetables do not contain all the nutrients you need.

Your diet lacks protein, fat and nutrition, not to mention calcium for healthy bones.

You should be eating 2 whole pieces of fruit per day
5 serves of vegetables at about 75grams each.
You should drink 1 cup of full cream milk and 1 cup of full cream natural yoghurt or two cups of milk
You should eat a small piece of cheese - about 20-40grams
You should protein at 0.8kg per kg of body weight. Look it up in pounds if you need to.
You should try to eat about 30grams of fibre per day.
You should cook your food in olive oil and use it for dressing salads.
Eat some nuts and seeds for a variety of diverse minerals and vitamins.


You are currently eating like an anorexic person.
You will be losing muscle mass.
You are putting your body under stress, especially because you are exercising as well.
You are sewing the seeds for osteoporosis later in life
You are are doing untold other damage to your body if you continue this way.

You may put on a bit of weight at first but this will settle down and your weight should stabilise.


You have probably got too good at denying your appetite so that now you do not know when you need to eat more. So just keep on eating to reach the appropriate amount of calories.

Low fat diets are not healthy. They can actually increase cholesterol levels apparently.

thegilly6

Need proteins.

pkw58

If you use MFP to log, pay attention to your macros.. It looks like you enjoy fruits and veggies, just add more proteins. Add some avocado, it ups your calories and they are packed with great nutrition. Try some nut butter on apple slices (any nut butter, almond, peanut, etc). Google "superfood" for a list of foods to add - salmon, nuts, avocados, etc all make most of those superfood lists.

I can lose inches by walking everywhere. I am sure mountain biking and tennis make for more "compact" thighs as do most exercises when not eating above maintenance.

Best wishes on finding the right foods for the right balance!

_Zardoz_

Eat some food is the answer. What you quote as your days food is probably around what I have for breakfast. You've taken up new activities don't you want to do those well? Well you need to fuel yourself to do those. Your choices of food seems to be very narrow, Low fat and salads. Widen it, it's so easy to add calories have a banana that's 100 calories, Chuck some advocado on your salads, put some salad dressing on. Don't go for low fat options. You say your full my guess is this is more psychological than anything else.

It does sound like your relationship with food has become rather skewed so it may be worth speaking to someone about this

dedflwrs

I was worried about losing too much and at first I did and then some time passed and I actually gained a couple of lbs. Then I lost them, then I gained them, then I lost them... You get the picture. I think with time you will get used to the new you.

Right now (or at least before I left on my second vacation in a very short time) I am at my ideal weight. I suspect it won't be so when I get home and then I'll get right back at it and will be. But the amazing thing is that I will do it and won't get discouraged like I would have in my prior mindset and that's what you need to focus on.

sonemoso

Thank you for the replies
I know that ghe current way I am eating is VERY BAD. I do, but if it was so easy to just eat more I wouldn't have posted here ;( My mind is blocking me and it can be tiring at times. I started being "a rebel" today by eating 2 plums just 2 h after lunch!!! But still ...
Breakfast: Same
Lunch: 2 egg omelette with veggies
Snack: 2 plums/decaf coffee with splash of milk
Dinner I made: Lentil/Red bean soup with cauliflower, leek, some tomato purree and zucchini
Dessert: Yoghurt cream cheese mix and a nectarine

And still only 1000. Now, I ate until I was full. Never was hungry. For a while my mind even cleared (probably my brain lacking glucose or whatever and the plums helped). I never thought of food today.
So I will have to eat more again ;(
The thing is that I feel like a pig if I est MORE than my family even if it is half the caloried to what they have. Also the meals we eat tend to be low cal and them having the same as me stops me from wanting more... makes sense?

StaciMarie1974

Ditch the low-fat/no-fat options. Go for full fat dairy. Have some nuts. Have some meat, if you're not avoiding it in particular. Drink some juice, milk. Use olive oil when cooking.

melimomTARDIS

try to eat something you really like and incorporate more snacks?

You like yogurt (as do I!) try frozen yogurt as dessert,and a yogurt cup with your plums at snack?

Use a copious amount of an oil based dressing on your favorite salad? Drink your calories/juice/milk/wine....?

voodoocupcake

I have struggled with exactly the same problem and what has made a world of difference for me is that, for my job as a teacher, I eat a hot lunch that is served to me and I have to follow the same rule as the kids: the clean plate rule. I've been told that these meals are typically 1,500 - 1,700 calories and it takes a great deal of discipline for me to finish them. The way I think about it is that, maintaining or gaining is no different from losing weight. It requires effort and discipline. Not to mention the kids start calling me a cheater if I don't finish. I also eat roughly the same thing for breakfast every morning.
At the same time, I admit that when I'm not at work, I slip back into my old ways and that dinner is sometimes not what is should be. Still, to establish a routine of eating a certain amount at a certain time every day and having someone to keep you accountable can be a powerful force that can guarantee a baseline amount of calories and balance those times when you really just want a salad for dinner.

wkwebby

Two tablespoons of peanut butter is 190 calories, a half of an avocado, about 150 calories, two tablespoons of Biscoff Cookie spread (one of my sweet tooth remedies) 180 calories, 28 almonds (1 serving of Blue Diamond Wasabi&Soy sauce flavor) is 170 calories. These are just a few examples of higher calorie foods that aren't much in volume that could get you those extra 200-300 calories that you need per day.

If you aren't watching sugars or carbs, I'd go with a more indulgent dessert and you can easily pack on a few calories into the diet. However, the protein did seem a little low in your meal description.

meganjcallaghan

Ditch the low-fat/no-fat options. Go for full fat dairy. Have some nuts. Have some meat, if you're not avoiding it in particular. Drink some juice, milk. Use olive oil when cooking.

exactly. right there. you don't necessarily have to eat more volume of food if you slightly change the type that you're eating

jkwolly

Ditch the low-fat/no-fat options. Go for full fat dairy. Have some nuts. Have some meat, if you're not avoiding it in particular. Drink some juice, milk. Use olive oil when cooking.

This this!

AND PB!!!!!

VeryKatie

Try adding meat and bread to your diet.

If you're a vegetarian, add beans, tofu, fattier fish like salmon if you're willing to eat fish, edamame beans, salad dressings, cheese, crackers, that stuff.

gingerpeachy6

Hi,

Have you thought about adding a healthy protein bar or protein shake to your diet for the additional calories? It sounds like your body is now just at burn burn burn. I went thru that years ago and had to find ways of adding healthy things so I wouldn't disappear and get sick.

zamphir66

There must be something psychological going on. I know from experience that when one is at the overeating end of the spectrum, it's easy to eat right past the signals that say "I'm full." It's easy to get totally out of touch with what you're body's telling you. I wonder if something similar happens at the other end of the spectrum, like your body saying "feed me" but your mind just not hearing it, or just disagreeing entirely. It's hard to believe that you could physically be full on so little food. Like someone else said, that looks like breakfast to me -- and if I had much less than that for breakfast, I would have kill-crazy hunger by mid-morning.

None of that's probably much help, sorry. Take everyone else's advice to heart. Or mouth, as it were.

wkwebby

I just thought of another idea. Could you perhaps see if you are "addicted" to Dunkin'? Conduct an experiment, quit cold turkey, just to see that you can do it. Say for about a month.

See if you try and make excuses or can you actually do it. If you find you're making the excuses when you've committed to "quit" donuts or sweets, you may need to look into your cravings for sugar. They do say that your body can get addicted to sugar. You'll be cranky just as if you were quitting smoking, but you'll feel better after a couple of weeks and eventually find you can't take the taste anymore (if you are successful).

sljohnson1207

What do your days look like when you do eat meat and/or fish? It looks like your choices are very healthy, but overall, they don't seem to meet all of your nutritional needs, particularly because you've chosen two very intense forms of exercise. I do wonder how you mountain bike with that little bit of fuel. I agree with other posters saying that you could increase your caloric intake significantly without much more quantity by eating full fat products, peanut butter or other nut butters, avocadoes, olive oil, butter, etc.

What I'm going to say next comes from a place of love, understanding, and personal experience:
It sounds, from your written word here, that you've slipped into disordered eating, as a result of your dieting. It doesn't seem that it's gone too far, and it can be remedied, and hopefully very quickly. Quite a bit of the process is admitting an issue exists, which you have just done on MFP.

Please find out from your insurance company what type of professional(s) you can go see to talk it out (a psychologist trained with disordered eating), and a registered dietitian (trained/experience with disordered eating) is usually the target you would look for. A complete physical at your family doctor's office would also be of great value in this case.

alereck

Do you not enjoy food? I mean, I love my veggies and fruit but are you telling me you are repulsed by the thought of a good chicken and pasta? Or a homemade pizza? Ice cream? Meat? Fish? A homemade salmon burger? Did you eat any of these before your weight loss? Do you ever eat out?

I couldn't live in veggies and fruit for more than a few days.