Desperate

amelodyasong

I've been on a low calorie diet for almost 2 weeks. It started really weell since I was loosing almost 1 pound per day (I was eating around 700 calories per day) but I don't know what's going on now. I've been stuck for 3 days. My weight doesn't move.. like at all....
I'm starting to get desperate because I don't see any results. I'm doing everything right!! I work out lightly, I don't eat fat. I don't know what else to do. I don't want to increase my intake because I'm afraid of gaining weight.
Btw, I'm sorry but I don't believe that they say about "starvation mode".
Did it ever happen to you?:brokenheart:

fun_b

Are you still on 700 calories? This seems dangerously low to me, I am on 1580 calories. Initially I tried 1200 but I felt so hungry all the time and could not function. How many calories has Myfitnesspal recommended for you?

GreyEyes21

stop looking at the scale and just keep doing what youre doing or change the types of foods you need. you need to eat fats to loose weight, giving your body good fats will help it release bad fats.

lawre028

Well, YOU can choose not to believe in Starvation Mode, but it looks like your body does believe in it. Can you try adding more fruit and vegetables to your diet? or just protein?

mulderpf

1. Stop weighing yourself from day to day. The initial daily loss was mostly water.
2. 700 calories a day? Really? And where do you think your body is going to get the energy to burn that fat? 700 calories isn't even enough to let your brain, heart, lungs function normally and now you expect your metabolism to function normally with that little calories?

It's really funny, because its only ever people who eat really little calories who complain about slow weight loss. I'm yet to see someone on here with a sensible calorie intake complain that they aren't losing anything.

You need energy to burn energy, otherwise you won't burn anything!!!

sharonole

hi,

Ferd64

700 calories is way too few to be eating. It sounds like you've entered starvation mode and your metabolism is slowing down to compensate. Up your food intake to 1200 a day and you can add excercise to balance that out... but you should really be hitting 1200 calories a day.

lauren3101

I've been on a low calorie diet for almost 2 weeks. It started really weell since I was loosing almost 1 pound per day (I was eating around 700 calories per day) but I don't know what's going on now. I've been stuck for 3 days. My weight doesn't move.. like at all....
I'm starting to get desperate because I don't see any results. I'm doing everything right!! I work out lightly, I don't eat fat. I don't know what else to do. I don't want to increase my intake because I'm afraid of gaining weight.
Btw, I'm sorry but I don't believe that they say about "starvation mode".
Did it ever happen to you?:brokenheart:

Sorry, two things jumped out there.

1. You're only eating 700 cals a day?
2. You haven't seen any results for all of 3 days. That's hardly a plateau.

Stop ruining your body and eat a sensible amount. Read this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

And stop weighing yourself every day and expecting miracles. I know we all wanted to lose it yesterday, but jeez.

sam308lbs

Forget everything else and first read this.You need to know what you are getting yourself into

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

Cait_Sidhe

Really? You haven't lost weight in 3 days?

1) You don't have to eat a starvation diet in order to lose weight. If you can lose weight by eating a little more, why wouldn't you? Consider this, your brain alone needs 400 calories a day to function.

2) Dietary fat does not equal body fat. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/607627-dietary-fat-cholesterol-and-fish-oil-importance

3) You might find this benficial. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

I don't want to increase my intake because I'm afraid of gaining weight.
Btw, I'm sorry but I don't believe that they say about "starvation mode".

So here you're stating that you don't plan on taking any advice. Why ask?

nikilis

why are you trying to do that? 700 is really really low. I've had a look at your profile and you have quite a bit to go, but you're doing it wrong. totally wrong. like APPLE MAPS WRONG.

your BMR is 1464 (this is the amount of calories a doctor would give you if you were in a coma)

your TDEE is 1757 which is your maintenance weight.

700 cals would only be appropriate for you if you were in the guinness book of world records for being the worlds oldest new born baby.

eating 700 cals a day will destroy your metabolism. you cant loose the weight you need to loose doing it that way.

eat a healthy balanced 1400-1600 and loose weight steadily. the way you are going you will run into health problems + probably gain it back.

mulderpf

Might I also add that 1200 calories is NOT the recommendation. 1200 calories is the ABSOLUTE minimum - most women should eat more than that!!

nikilis

here they come.

JesterMFP

I don't mean this to be horrible at all, but you're really not "doing everything right". 700 calories a day is way too low for someone of your age, height and weight. You seem to have extremely high and unrealistic expectations of how quickly your body can lose fat. When someone is extremely obese, and has a large amount of fat stored, they can lose 2-3 lbs a week, maybe even more. When someone gets closer to a healthy weight, that rate slows down. You are (according to your profile) already a healthy weight, so 1 lb a week may be too quick for your body. 1 lb a day is extremely unhealthy and unsustainable.

At first, when you cut your calories so low, you will have lost a certain amount of water weight. This happens to nearly everyone when they cut calories. If you carry on, you will lose some fat, but it is very likely that you will also lose muscle. You probably will lose a small amount of muscle anyway, as most people do when they lose weight, but having such a drastic calorie deficit will make it likely that you lose more muscle than you would want to.

I did a quick calculation with an online calculator (just an estimate). Based on your height, age and weight, if you are sedentary and don't work out at all, then you should be able to maintain your weight at roughly 1700 calories a day. At 21, I suspect you're not completely sedentary in your day to day life, and you have said that you work out as well. You need to eat more. Calories are not evil, they are just a unit of energy. Your body needs energy to perform all its normal functions, let alone the extra things you give it to do.

"Starvation mode" is a term that's thrown around here quite a lot, and is not really understood by a lot of people on MFP. You might want to do a bit of research into "adaptive thermogenesis" instead. There is no doubt that eating such a low amount of calories does have a negative effect on your body. Your body will reduce some of the functions it performs, to make sure that there is enough energy to stay alive. When you don't get enough to eat, your body will take some energy from fat stores, but you don't have a huge amount of those now. If you carry on like this, chances are your hormones are going to get pretty messed up, and you might start to lose hair. You'll also have less energy to do any workouts.

I would suggest forgetting about 700 calories. Set MFP to losing 0.5 lb a week, and go from there. You might gain a little scale weight just because you have more food/waste in your body, and you will be retaining more water. You won't gain fat though unless you exceed your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). You say you don't eat fat, but your body really needs fat. Eating fat does not make you fat, unless you're eating too many calories. Eating fat means that your body will be healthy.

nikilis

700 calories is way too few to be eating. It sounds like you've entered starvation mode and your metabolism is slowing down to compensate. Up your food intake to 1200 a day and you can add excercise to balance that out... but you should really be hitting 1200 calories a day.

you might want to calculate the BMR/TDEE before throwing 1200 out there.

Jamie_Lauren

Forget everything else and first read this.You need to know what you are getting yourself into

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

THIS^^ 100 times this.

mulderpf

Forget everything else and first read this.You need to know what you are getting yourself into

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

We should bump this once a day for the amount of people on here who think it's okay to starve their bodies to the point where their metabolism slows down to a crawl (and then come on here asking for advice because they don't understand what's going on).

cebreisch

The first thing you need to do is up your caloric intake, and you do need some fat intake. If you don't, you're body is going to retaliate. Like other's have said, you may not believe in starvation mode, but your body does, and it will hold on to every little calorie for fear it'll never see another morsel again.

If you watch your numbers, and get something like a Fitbit to help monitor the calories you burn vs. the calories you intake, then you'll do much better. If you keep your calories burned above what you intake, you're going to lose weight.

Keep in mind to, that this weight loss gig isn't a race against time, it isn't a race at all - so don't worry if you don't lose 100 pounds in a day - all you have to look at is doing things today that will make you healthier tomorrow, and the numbers will fall into place.