Cheat meal-does it work?

21million

ED. A person without a disorder would recognize that the calories are too low and even if they weren't hungry they'd make a point to eat more calorie dense foods to make up for it til an appointment could be made with a doctor, if only to preserve their health. Instead, you eat egg whites, eat the egg. You eat fiber one bars, eat a normal brownie. Don't claim nothing is wrong as you eat 500 cals a day, acknowledge that its bad, and then eat a bunch of stereotypical diet food. I have had an ED in the past, it is addictive. Get help.

ChildrenCryinNCoffee

I have migraines, I also suffer from Endometriosis, so I know pain and I know pain management medications. Your doctor would verbally rip you a new one if they saw just how little you're eating. You have an eating disorder. You can argue with that if you'd like, but you're stuck inside, we're all out here viewing what's visible and all signs point to ED.

People who've been in severe accidents, major surgeries or in comas eat FAR MORE calories daily than you do.

I'd go to the ER now, they'll help and probably refer you to a social worker for a mental eval.

I'll be forwarding your account info to Support.

Loretmuller

agree 100% -

Turning_Hopes_to_Habits

Since you're already going to see your doctor, my next piece of advice would be to stop weighing yourself so often. Go to once a month, or at the very least once every TWO weeks, not one. You might be so caught up in the numbers that you lose sight of the long-term goal and start reacting to the scale. Like you're driving a car and way over-steer to avoid a pothole and end up in a ditch.

It is impossible not to lose weight on 500 calories a day. Your weight will be much more erratic, and will bounce up and down inconsistently, but the overall trend will absolutely be downward as long as you are overweight. Now, we all know people who have lost weight on severely low-calorie diets, and many of us know people who kept the weight off. But they are absolutely the exception, and it's abnormal, not normal. The vast majority of people will crash and burn on such a low-calorie diet. As someone on the forums said this past week, trying to restrict calories drastically might get you 15 pounds lost in a month, but you'll burn out. At the end of six months, you'll be lucky if you haven't gained it all back, but you probably will. On the other hand, if you do it slow and steady and easy, at the end of six months you'll have lost 30 pounds and be much better off. (I'm assuming a heavier person here, people who are close to goal might lose as little as half a pound a week doing it slow and steady and easy.)

But if you've been eating so few calories for an extended period of time (whether because of the medicine or not) and you're not losing anything, that's really worrisome. That SHOULD be a severe calorie deficit, and if it's not, you could be in trouble.

Obviously, going to the doctor is first. But I'd plan on getting up to 1000 calories a day within a week, and then 1200 the week after, and then to your TDEE-20% the third week. Eat at your TDEE-20% for weeks three and four and then weigh yourself at the end of a month. Work from there.

As someone else said, stop actively trying to eat "diet" foods. Eat the yolk of the egg, not just the white. Use the full-fat salad dressing. If you use it, give up fake sugar. Eat the real stuff in moderation. Nuts are really good for you and pretty fatty, have some in moderation. Try to fit in oatmeal, leafy greens, carrots, and oily fish into your weekly diet.

And step from the scale. Don't obsess. To answer the original question, though, you shouldn't even consider a cheat meal a cheat meal. At 500 calories a day, you could easily eat two to three times that and be losing.

Good luck. Feel better.