is not eating enough cals stalling my weight loss??? HELP ME

nxd10

I have been on a low calorie regimen for several years and I have stopped loosing weight also. I read all the message boards about the starvation myth and that we need to eat more to weigh less. Okay, I started upping my calories and I have gained about 5 pounds. Some say that is to be expected. So now I am going to go back to low calories and see what happens. The problem I had with low calories was I was waking up at night starving. Really don't know if the starvation thing is true.

Forget the starvation myth.

If you're waking up starving your body is telling you it needs food. Listen to it before you make yourself sick. You don't think a body without enough calories to function will not process every single calorie that gets put into it efficiently?

It is also true that you can't just eat any calories, you need to eat good calories.

Happyinwcfl

Like you, I had to go extreme as well. I did the first 3 weeks at 500 with zero exercise & jump started the weight loss. Then I went to 700 and began the original P90. Now that I am doing P90 Master Series I needed more energy so I am now at 900-1400. In five months I've lost 35ish lbs and feel great. Since I am at a size I am happy with, but have more fat to lose I am going to try and ignore the scale so I can focus on toning while losing the fat. I will be upping calories as needed when I move to P90X.

There will be weeks you are at a stand still.. but if you stick with MFP 1200 goal & exercise.. I promise the scale will reward you. Do you use a HRM to see how many calories you are burning? I can't imagine having any energy to exercise only eating 500 calories for the day.

Good luck.

p.s. I researched the heck out of starvation mode. 1. Yes, your metabolism slows down... it just will take a little longer for a pound to come off.. aka a 4k calorie deficit instead of the usual 3.5k. 2. The slow metabolism is not permanent. 3. Your body will not absorb muscle until you hit an extremely low body fat percentage.. like 5-6% for men..

1holegrouper

Starvation mode this. Starvation mode that. As if there is some switch on our backs, LOL.

When we weigh more our metabolism is faster. When we lose weight our metabolism will slow down merely because we weigh less and have less body mass to maintain. There comes a point where the abundance of fat cells that we had are no longer there for the taking. Now we are down to the stubborn fat cells. Our body then does fight to maintain what weight it has (what some might call starvation mode). Now we cannot get by with extreme and sometimes ill advised measures. Its time to outsmart our bodies.

This means having a calorie deficit that you body will respond to with results you want. It also means eating responsibly and with an amount of calories that will not cause harm to your body.

Peggb

my dr said that its not safe to go below 1200 cals or you "starve" your body - I agree with the person who said to reenter your new weight in and see what it says you should be doing. Or get some protein shakes to fill you up with less calories Good job on the 47 lbs lost so far!!

Leeanne1974

I have lost my tracker plus 5lbs i lost in the week before joining MFP. In eight months.
I eat at least 1200 cals a day. I cut down to 900 for one week and felt amazing.. For that week. The next week I felt like crap, was tearful, down in the dumps, spotty and my hair looked awful.
I did lose that week but lost again the next week when I upped my cals again.

kellicci

Thanks for the concern lovelies but please know an eating disorder couldn't be more absurd! I was OVER being fat and went a lil extreme. That is all. I never thought it was normal, ok, or cool. I was freakin starving but it was working so I suffered through it. I will abruptly fix.

Whew, good to know that you plan to fix it!

Just be forewarned that when you start eating more you might...okay probably will....gaina few pounds right at first. So prepare yourself for that menatlly. If it were me I might even try to trick myself by setting a goal to gain 3-5 pounds (so taht when it happens I wouldn't feel like a failure) then reset my goal to lose. After you gain those few pounds and keep eating a healthy number of calories and exercising (about 4 weeks later) that's when the weight loss will start again.

Josh

Howdy folks,

I wanted to offer a brief explanation for the locking of this thread.

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