I can only lose weight if I eat less than 1200 calories

shakybabe

what kinds of food do you eat in those 1,000 calories?

I struggled to lose weight then switched to gluten free bread and low carbs in general - rice OR white potato not more than once a week, sweet potato allowed once a week, other days replaced with butternut squash, cauliflower rice (cauli whizzed in processor to rice/cous cous size and steamed in microwave for 5 mins - no water), parsnip chips instead of oven chips.

No wheat based cereals but I allow Rice Krispies and Oats. (allow rice cake as snack but only as dinner once a week at most - small portion) No Pasta. Gluten free bread once/twice a week at most (its higher calorie).

I don't check everything religiously for Gluten, I still use same gravy granules but only have gravy once a week on my sunday dinner anyway and I still allow a mini yorkshire pudding on sunday. I swapped regular choc brownie for gluten free brownie though. .. most days I only manage 1,000 cals unless I add chocolate bar or a Ensure plus, but I'm managing to lose... despite thyroid problems and my hormones creating problems.. (think I'm going through peri-menopause!) and been limited by physical restrictions exercise-wise.

Sometimes I throw in a carb day or treat day to surprise body... I'll probably have fish and chips and a McFlurry when I go xmas shopping but I'll burn about 1,000 cals or more pushing myself around shopping centre for 4 hours and if stay low carb either side of that day I don't tend to see much weight gain from water weight unless I eat alot of carbs several days in a row.

closermotion

please go see a nutritionist. it could definitely be a thyroid problem. but i'm thinking that most likely you are like me, and gained a rapid amount of weight in a short period of time from chronic over-exercise and calorie-restriction techniques. i started out around 140 lbs, started to lose down to 125 by calorie-restricting and a lot of exercise. now, looking back on this, THIS is when i first developed my eating disorder. then i gained back to about 140. panicking, i decided to drastically restrict, going down to anywhere from 1000-500 cals/day. because of college stress and the restriction tolls of my body, i began to stress eat/binge and steadily i went from 140 up to 160 to around 185 before i hit rock bottom psychologically and decided to get help. you really ought to talk to an expert. i had no idea what damage i was doing to my body for such a long period of time.

feel free to add me and we can chat more.

closermotion

*by 'nutritionist' i mean 'dietician.' oops.

closermotion

when my dietician put me on my current eating plan (see my profile info) i gained about 5 lbs before starting to see the scale move in the opposite direction. i'm eating around 2000-2200 calories, which is what she (and apparently a large part of the dietician community) and my family physician deem a 'healthy' amount.

californiansun

what kinds of food do you eat in those 1,000 calories?

I struggled to lose weight then switched to gluten free bread and low carbs in general - rice OR white potato not more than once a week, sweet potato allowed once a week, other days replaced with butternut squash, cauliflower rice (cauli whizzed in processor to rice/cous cous size and steamed in microwave for 5 mins - no water), parsnip chips instead of oven chips.

No wheat based cereals but I allow Rice Krispies and Oats. (allow rice cake as snack but only as dinner once a week at most - small portion) No Pasta. Gluten free bread once/twice a week at most (its higher calorie).

I don't check everything religiously for Gluten, I still use same gravy granules but only have gravy once a week on my sunday dinner anyway and I still allow a mini yorkshire pudding on sunday. I swapped regular choc brownie for gluten free brownie though. .. most days I only manage 1,000 cals unless I add chocolate bar or a Ensure plus, but I'm managing to lose... despite thyroid problems and my hormones creating problems.. (think I'm going through peri-menopause!) and been limited by physical restrictions exercise-wise.

Sometimes I throw in a carb day or treat day to surprise body... I'll probably have fish and chips and a McFlurry when I go xmas shopping but I'll burn about 1,000 cals or more pushing myself around shopping centre for 4 hours and if stay low carb either side of that day I don't tend to see much weight gain from water weight unless I eat alot of carbs several days in a row.

It really depends on what I eat, I eat a lot of soup for the easy-ness of it since I do not have time to cook breakfast or lunch. Breakfast is usually a piece of toast with no spread, butter or margarine and sometimes black coffee.

Lunch is soup or chili.

Dinner is pasta with sausage, vegetables, sauce and some cheese.

Snack if I have time is either bananas, apples, cheezits, or yogurt.

I try to drink a glass of whole milk a day if I can. Lately i havent since I have no money to buy groceries!

Thank you all for your advice, I will be making an appointment to see a doctor. I'm going to start eating snacks and a normal amount of calories a day. I just hope i can find the culprit, I've already had a full year of health problems with no answers... gotta continue on!

craft338

i did the same thing when i was younger, and i really messed up my body and my metabolism.

now, i eat really healthy, and i eat 6 or more times a day. sometimes it feels like i'm eating constantly lol. it works best if i eat small meals and snacks of 100-300 calories, but i know that doesn't work for most people lifestyles. i don't do it every day, but i try to eat that way at least a few times a week. now that my metabolism is back to normal, i lose the most weight when i eat around 1600 spread out throughout the day.

even though you might get that nice drop on the scale the day after you eat 1200 calories, you'll see a MUCH better average loss if you eat right. GOOD LUCK!!

ilookthetype

I'd suggest checking with your doc, get some blood work done, might be a thyroid issue.

Eating less than 1200 calories is not safe/good for you. You need 1200 to get you the nutrients you need. Regularly eating less than half of that is going to be very problematic in the future.

I'm not saying you have an ED, but it sounds like you might have the beginnings of an ED, I say this as a person with an ED history.

Also, if you're eating back exercise calories based on MFP's number, not a HRM you might have been going OVER your calorie goal because the burn is often way off (sometimes almost double my actual burn)

californiansun

Thank you for your advice. I'm going to start eating 5-6 meals a day and try to get into the 1500-1700 range. I hope it works!

LisaKyle11

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