one dinner out = 2 lbs!

20carrots

I was so proud of myself for having lost 3lbs in basically my first 9 days here on MFP. Then I go to a bday dinner Sat night and I was up 2lbs Sunday. I kept my eating very simple on Sunday (1000? cals) and worked out for 360 cals. Today I had only gotten rid of .6

If it takes me all week to recover from a birthday dinner at a restaurant I'm afraid about what will happen over a week on vacation! :mad:

SHBoss1673

you didn't gain 2 lbs of "real" weight. The body can fluctuate because of normal every day stuff like water weight, glycogen levels, and waste. Measuring your weight from one day to the next is futile, don't worry about what the scale says day to day, it's not a real measurement. The only true way to use the scale effectively is to use it once a week and compile a LOT of samples and look at the trend, if, over 3 months or so the trend is mostly down, then you're losing weight. Other than that type of use, the scale is an imprecise tool at best.

blondeheat

Often resturant food is very high in sodium which causes you to retain water. Also, they tend to sneak in a lot more calories than the same dish prepared at home.

Drink lots of water and don't let it get you down!

FireMonkey

Also, it looks like you didn't eat nearly enough on Sunday. 1000 cals intake and 360 burned leaves you with net cals of 640 - you need at least 1200 net. I found that out the hard way some years ago: I had surgery and was on IV and clear fluids for three days. When I got home, I had gained a pound! At that point I just gave up and blamed my metabolism. It's only recently, over the past year or so, that I've been learning about minimum calories and so on. And it works!

20carrots

I really don't get the logic that you "must" eat so many calories to lose weight. Yes in the long term it is healthy and the most realistic approach, but scientifically speaking, the fewer calories eaten the more weight that will be lost.

I once had a trainer try to put me on 900 cals a day to meet a weight loss deadline. I didn't do it, but in "theory" it would work, right?

Fieldsy

if it makes you feel better I gained 10lbs over a 3day weekend camping

Its mostly water weight and will come off in a few days

jlefton1212

20 carrots -- it isn't as simple as "calories in versus calories out", unfortunately. There are some very interesting threads on this site that will explain it very clearly, but basically if you don't consume enough calories your metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories) will slow down drastically. If you go on a 900 calorie diet, most likely your body will react to this by burn fewer calories on a regular basis (not to mention you might feel sluggish, lethargic, etc.). It is all relative, and I suppose if you were incredibly petite to begin with your minimum calorie amount might be very low, but I would look into it first.

That is the great thing about this website -- enter your height, weight, and your goal, and the site will tell you how many calories per day you'll need to consume in order to get there. There are MANY people on this site that have gone from very restrictive diets to eating MORE, and that's when they started dropping weight. :happy:

Fieldsy

I really don't get the logic that you "must" eat so many calories to lose weight. Yes in the long term it is healthy and the most realistic approach, but scientifically speaking, the fewer calories eaten the more weight that will be lost.

I once had a trainer try to put me on 900 cals a day to meet a weight loss deadline. I didn't do it, but in "theory" it would work, right?

that trainer should be fired

SHBoss1673

I really don't get the logic that you "must" eat so many calories to lose weight. Yes in the long term it is healthy and the most realistic approach, but scientifically speaking, the fewer calories eaten the more weight that will be lost.

I once had a trainer try to put me on 900 cals a day to meet a weight loss deadline. I didn't do it, but in "theory" it would work, right?

Basically, first, nobody but a doctor should be putting you on a 900 calorie diet, trainers shouldn't even be advising you on food anyway, they aren't registered dietitians and any personal training program worth its salt specifically teaches the trainer NOT to recommend any specific diet. I know this because I am currently studying for my personal trainer's certification with ACE, and it states it right in the book.
That being said, your metabolism WILL slow down if you eat too little food, and besides slowing down it will also store more fat, any fat it can. It will use protein first as an energy source, which deprives muscles from that energy and will actually canabalize them for extra energy. Why? Because your body thinks it's starving, so it goes into the famine response or more commonly known as "starvation mode".