Anyone else discovered low calories are their only option?
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550 calories 2 days a week? Oh wow. There is no way on earth that I would drop my calories that low.0
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Thanks guys I feel a bit better about what I'm doing now as some of the posts I've made in the past about my lack of success have lead to some posters making me feel like I'm going a little crazy but reading about similar experiences makes me realise I'm not alone.0
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Definitely do lots of anaerobic cardio! When I eventually started running I slimmed down a lot. I really hope you find what works for you!(:0
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Diane why not? Look up 5:2 is a scientifically proven method of improving your health and losing weight.0
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JAT74, sorry don't know what to name to address you by. To be honest, more power to you if you can. I don't have much to lose but I really don't intend to eat only 550 calories even 1 day a week to get there. I couldn't do it.0
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I've gotta say the 5:2 thing is not for me but neither was EM2WL.
OP you have to do what works for you. Good luck.0 -
Is there some law of inaccuracy that says all scales or measurements are only allowed to be off in the same direction? If you've been weighing/measuring on a scale, and according to the measurements you've made on that scale your TDEE is 1510, then as I said you've 'calibrated' the inherent inaccuracy of your scale already, and eating what your scale says is 1200 will be your 20%.Now account for the scale inaccuracy, becaue I am not going to personally spend 3 grand on an analytical balance like they use in professional labs, and I probably should stop eating for the day at roughly 1000 to 1050 calories a day to allow for that inaccuracy.
It doesn't offend me at all. I'm not offended that you're mistaken. You're the one who is getting all upset about it.If reading a thread about other folks struggles to follow this hallowed sanctified eat more stuff and it's failures for us personally offends you, then perhaps you should stick to the threads preaching eat more. I don't go in them because they don't work for me and there's no sense telling other people who are doing well they are wrong. Also by that same logic train perhaps telling me I am wrong when I did try it is also just ignorant. But thanks anyway for your PC policing skills. You'd make an excellent HR rep.0 -
eatting real foods staying clear of GMO, processed foods, any food that has more than two ingredients in a package...2/3 variety of veges...hydrating and some tapping can help get more nutritional balance...Jon Gabriel Method has some good points..0
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Definitely do lots of anaerobic cardio! When I eventually started running I slimmed down a lot. I really hope you find what works for you!(:
running is aerobic.0 -
#1 eating 800-1000 calories a day..with do SO MUCH damage to your metabolism its ridiculous...please eat.
#2 with this amount of calories, yes you will lose weight, but you're creating an eating disorder and are starving yourself.
#3 You need to eat at least your BMR amount of calories...however with exercise your body needs more.
Please seek a new doctor and or nutritionist. The one you saw obviously doesn't have any idea what their talking about.
Eating 800 to 1000 is not damaging to your metabolism. The issue is whether you will commit to a diet with that few calories long enough to lose weight.
People have been on medically supervised diets of 400 calories a day. A few have consumed virtually nothing (again, medically supervised, I'm not suggesting that anyone do this on her or his own). An eating disorder is psychological/mental. You have to have a predisposition for it. If you have problems, obviously you should follow a conservative diet.
You can eat below your BMR if you want. There's an expert (Registered Dietitian) who posts here periodically who said it is not unhealthy. The issue is whether you will keep it up. Some can, some can't, some will, some won't.
False.0 -
Gaining weight isn't a true indication that one has been eating above their TDEE nor gaining fat mass. When I increased calories after hitting my body fat percentage goal the last time I cut, I gained approximately five pounds over the course of two weeks until my weight stabilized. Those five pounds I "gained" wasn't really a gain - I simply returned to holding a maintenance level of food, water and glycogen within my body compared to the diet phase.
It really depends on one's diet history. I notice a lot of people who have trouble losing weight/fat mass have been restricting for quite some time whether they awaringly reduced calories in an attempt to diet or unintentionally due to not really paying attention to how much they were consuming. When you restrict, your Resting Metabolic Rate gradually declines which affects the maximum amount of calories to eat to maintain body composition. If a person has spent time restricting calories, it is very likely a gain in weight will occur as your body returns to a maintenance level of calories. The longer a period of restriction, the longer it will take for one's Resting Metabolic Rate to increase back to optimal levels. So no, gaining weight when you decrease the deficit should not be perceived as failure.0 -
I was just curious OP because you said you tried several different things during these 4 months.
When you started did you reduce the number of cals you consumed only slightly like 20 to 30 percent from how you were currently eating at the time and maintaining the undesirable weight?
I only ask this because after all my reading and trying to understand all this, that seems to be the most ideal way to approach it if I hadn't already started limiting cals which I started immediately when I signed up since I had a plan going in and went with it while learning all that the members have to offer.
In retrospect, It would have been a cool experiment to start by journaling for 2 weeks anything I ate as I was eating at the time, but not counting cals till after. Then at that point knowing an average of whatever I was consuming to start with, start reducing from there little by little until weight loss happened. So long question, I'm asking since I can't go back in time and change what I've done, if you did something like this when you started? Or if it was your M.O. on one of these trying different things you mentioned?0 -
I am similar. I started out eating what MFP gave me to lose the recommended weight loss per week (1600 cals I think it was )and also ate all my exercise calories back. While this worked for the first 20 kilos it stopped working so I tried upping my calories on the advice of the eat more 2 weigh less crew so I went from 1600 to 1700 to 1800 and kept gaining, I stuck at it for a few months and gained just as many kilos back. I tried changing exercise etc nothing seemed to work. It wasn't because I had slowed my metabolism either like everyone tried to tell me.
In frustration I went to a registered dietician. I told her all the problems I was having losing weight so we had my BMR tested and it came back that my BMR is a lot lower than any online calculator gave me. I am now eating under my BMR (not unhealthy or dangerous if you have plenty of fat stores) and have been losing again.
This person makes two good points:
1) A few years back, I had my RMR measured by that thing you breathe into. It said I burn 1000 calories, which is way less than the 1200 most people assume for my height. Until I started eating 800 calories a day, I didn't lose weight.
2) You CAN eat below RMR if you have enough fat reserves -- which I did at the time I dieted at 800 calories a day. In order to maintain lean muscle mass, you have to lift weights at the same time.
3) This is my additional point: For me, following my BodyMedia, I have to eat 1200 to MAINTAIN weight now, which is TDEE - 20% (note that it's 200 calories more than I had four years ago, so my weight loss through what most of you would consider a VLCD actually improved my metabolism). I've found that eating at TDEE causes me to gain weight.0 -
#1 eating 800-1000 calories a day..with do SO MUCH damage to your metabolism its ridiculous...please eat.
#2 with this amount of calories, yes you will lose weight, but you're creating an eating disorder and are starving yourself.
#3 You need to eat at least your BMR amount of calories...however with exercise your body needs more.
Please seek a new doctor and or nutritionist. The one you saw obviously doesn't have any idea what their talking about.
Eating 800 to 1000 is not damaging to your metabolism. The issue is whether you will commit to a diet with that few calories long enough to lose weight.
People have been on medically supervised diets of 400 calories a day. A few have consumed virtually nothing (again, medically supervised, I'm not suggesting that anyone do this on her or his own). An eating disorder is psychological/mental. You have to have a predisposition for it. If you have problems, obviously you should follow a conservative diet.
You can eat below your BMR if you want. There's an expert (Registered Dietitian) who posts here periodically who said it is not unhealthy. The issue is whether you will keep it up. Some can, some can't, some will, some won't.
False.
No it's not. But as I've always maintained my weight and I keep up with the current theories, what would I know?
The amount of misinformation put out by some MFP members is mind-boggling.0 -
So your BMR is low. But it doesn't mean you can't reset it, right? It's hard to say anything when we don't know how much you've been eating the last year or so. If you haven't been eating much, yes your BMR will be low. But if you eat more for a while, you should be able to boost your metabolism again (and yes gain weight for a bit) and be able to lose again on a more reasonable 1500 calories.
A good dietitian should have told you that... IMO.0 -
No, your actual TDEE is 1510. TDEE is by definition the amount you need to maintain. Sorry that your life was wasted and you were unable to do anything else during that entire time or enjoy living or anything. But your TDEE is not 2300. And yes you would lose at 1400. You wouldn't lose as quickly as you would at 1300 but you would still lose. Yes there is a margin of error but the error goes both ways, and you've also already 'calibrated' the relative values of your TDEE and your scale's inaccuracy.
Learning is failure? You know your maintenance level. Since you only have 11 lbs to lose, you would not be needing a huge deficit to lose. You can lose on anything below 1510, including 1400, etc. The funniest part is that you're saying TDEE - 20% doesn't work and you're going to do 1200 instead. But 1200 is your TDEE -20%.All the failed experiment with road map taught me was where I maintain and that is at 1510 calories per day.
GAINING 7 pounds is failure.
My actual TDEE worked out to 2300 a day in calories minus the 20% crap following the links set forth in the road map post.
No I do not lose at 1400, nor at 1300. You forget even with a food scale there is still the margin of error all scales except calibrated yearly analytical balance scales possess and even those still have a variance of .5-1% error rate allowed.
So yes, it was a failure. I just wasted 6 months of work. the original 3 to lose that 7 pounds initially and then regained it over the next 3, so by the time I get them back off 9 months of my life will have been spent in vain efforts of weight loss.
The road map thing that people around here love to push as gospel and follow it, follow it, follow it or die by starvation! gave me that number as did Helloitsdan via PMs. I followed it, gained weight.
But ya know what you are so determined to be right when you don't know me, my lifestyle, stress level or jack diddly about me.
SO here's your "YOU ARE RIGHT!" gold star darling! Go back and play in your precious it's right thread for eat more to weigh less playground.
But for the record, GAINING WEIGHT IS A FAILURE.
i followed and gained too. per Dan, my 'ideal weight' was 140 (knew that was not the truth even for me). anyhow, lowered my cals since and have lost. just the way it is for me. i barely even factor in exercise as i'm a very active person. weight loss is mostly about our literal diet -- food intake/not.0 -
Yeah, I typed that wrong. When I tried the tdee-20% I did not eat calories back. When I eat 1200 cals a day and exercise I do eat cals back.0
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...and another thing (my EMTWL friends will not approve), i've really never seen/heard full-on *goal weight* success stories from folks eating more to weigh less. YES i have heard various NSVs and those feeling much stronger, better sleep, leaning out etc.... (and those ARE successes), but not a whole lot of 'yes, i reset my metabolism and now i am at goal weight and can now lose reasonably at 1500+ (or whatever their particular number).
the real success stories must be there right? i mean this group has over 10k members!0 -
I think part of the issue here is the obsession with weight.
Unless any of you are planning on taking up weightlifting, boxing, powerlifting, MMA, martial arts etc at a high level and have to stay in your weight class to be competitive, then why worry about it?
If you're not in the above categories, then most likely you care about aesthetics, or fitness level, so why not use these as goals instead of weight.
In the case of aesthetics, you could weigh 130lbs and be 30% BF (39lbs of your weight is fat) or be 135lbs and be 20% BF (27lbs of your weight is fat), you'd look completely different in each case, but do you really prefer the first option, because it is lighter?0 -
Dan the issue here (for me at least) isn't necessarily scale weight, but on the other hand very little has changed in my body composition during the 4 months I've been on here. My body fat is almost the same, in fact it may be only 1% less than when I started 4 months ago. In addition I've lost a few inches but nothing very significant and could be due to my muscles appearing a little differently due to weight training.
For my size I am at the very heaviest weight I should be for my height and as I'm carrying at least 31% fat I really want/need to get it down to around 20-22% ideally. I'd be lighter on the scale if I did that without a doubt and would also look much better.0 -
... people keep using "TDEE" but that term does not mean what they think it means.I've found that eating at TDEE causes me to gain weight.0 -
...and another thing (my EMTWL friends will not approve), i've really never seen/heard full-on *goal weight* success stories from folks eating more to weigh less. YES i have heard various NSVs and those feeling much stronger, better sleep, leaning out etc.... (and those ARE successes), but not a whole lot of 'yes, i reset my metabolism and now i am at goal weight and can now lose reasonably at 1500+ (or whatever their particular number).
the real success stories must be there right? i mean this group has over 10k members!
Here is a recent and pretty good one
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/968182-i-lost-a-person-but-i-found-myself-leaky-s-story
Another one that comes to me off the top of my head
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709987-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics
I've seen tons of them.0 -
To the poster who asked what I was eating before and how much of a cut did I make when joining MFP at first and did I gradually reduce calories in order to find out what maintenance/weight loss was the answer is this.
I didn't count calories at all for a while before joining MFP. I previously lost a lot of weight in 2010 going down to 124 lbs and body fat of approximately 28%. I did this by eating 850-1000 calories per day at the time and exercising around 3 times a week (mainly cardio). When I was at goal weight I relaxed my diet a little and probably went up to 1200 calories at a guess which allowed me to maintain my weight easily.
I gained the weight again mainly because at the time I was a way from home for 2 weeks per month and found that I ate/drank a lot of things I wouldn't normally such as sugary coffee shop coffees, pastries/cakes and a lot of bread/carbs. I also joined a gym for the times I was away and would walk to the gym and back (60 minutes) then work out with cardio/weights for an hour and finally at the end of the workouts I was starving so I'd buy lots of 'treats' from the supermarket on the way home.
This in combination with a generally more relaxed diet and bigger portions meant that during the course of a few months I was back to 144lbs. Then I went on another low calorie diet for 2 months to get the weight down for a summer holiday and got back to 131 lbs but my body fat was a lot higher then too so probably back to around 30-31%. After the holiday it continued to creep up again gradually as I stopped eating very low calories and again had the odd high calorie/high sugar snack inbetween healthy eating of things like pastries/chocolate/cakes (2-3 per week) so that helped the weight creep back on again.
It's impossible to know my average calorie intake during periods of weight gain but I wasn't training much then either so even if I was eating 1200 calories most days (which is likely) plus some days of 1500-1600 that would be more than enough to gain weight as I was very sedentary at that time and only doing a bit of cardio 2-3 days a week for 30-40 minutes.
Looking at what I have been doing on here, when I first joined I decided to set my calories to 1050 initially and then the following week increased them to 1150 (from memory) so ate that for 3-4 weeks. During that time before going the TDEE route and increasing calories I lost 4lbs as well as around 2% body fat. After that I took advice on here and immedately increased my calories to 1350, then 1450, then higher and I was working out a lot more (6 days a week).
I found that I put the 4lbs back on but I've not put on any extra weight above my starting weight of 147 lbs. At one stage I know I was eating around 1800 calories per day as I was eating exercise calories back but I didn't gain more weight, except for putting back on the body fat I had lost in the first few weeks.
Looking at my recent intake of calories and working out some averages it looks like I'm now maintaining my start weight by eating around 1600 calories and that's with burning off 3000 calories per week through exercise. If I take that as my TDEE then I know that in order to lose even 1lb per week which I'd be happy with I'd have to eat 3500 less than that each week therefore meaning that I'd have to eat as little 1100 in order to lose. I'm going to try 1250 first and see if I can lose on that but if not I'll lower it to 1100 if necessary. No it's not much food but if my TDEE (including exercise) is actually 600 calories lower than the calculators tell me then that means my BMR is likely to be too and that means my true BMR is really only around 800.
As for a 'reset' that won't work for me as I've already proven. In other words when I gained all this weight I was hardly exercising and I was eating above maintenance as I my then maintenance calories was probably 1200. I probably ate that some days but other days I ate up to 1600 or maybe a little more so of course I gained. When I joined MFP I then cut calories and should have seen dramatic weight loss which just didn't happen. It looks like my maintenance is now higher but that's only because I'm now training 6-7 days a week instead of 2-3 doing very light exercise. Hope this makes some kind of sense to some people!0 -
No, your actual TDEE is 1510. TDEE is by definition the amount you need to maintain. Sorry that your life was wasted and you were unable to do anything else during that entire time or enjoy living or anything. But your TDEE is not 2300. And yes you would lose at 1400. You wouldn't lose as quickly as you would at 1300 but you would still lose. Yes there is a margin of error but the error goes both ways, and you've also already 'calibrated' the relative values of your TDEE and your scale's inaccuracy.
The road map thing that people around here love to push as gospel and follow it, follow it, follow it or die by starvation! gave me that number as did Helloitsdan via PMs. I followed it, gained weight.
But ya know what you are so determined to be right when you don't know me, my lifestyle, stress level or jack diddly about me.
SO here's your "YOU ARE RIGHT!" gold star darling! Go back and play in your precious it's right thread for eat more to weigh less playground.
But for the record, GAINING WEIGHT IS A FAILURE.
I think your response to this poster was completely uncalled for. Look at what they are actually saying! All of the calculators online (including the road map and dan and everything else) uses ESTIMATES that are based on the population at large. The are STARTING points from which you can then refine and discover your individual numbers.
You've done that. Your experimentation found that for you the estimates are not right - your TDEE is lower than the "norm" which is why the numbers you are getting from all theses calculators are wrong.
Your TDEE is 1510. Not whatever the calculators say. Try eating 1510 - 20% for a month and see where you stand.
Which still means I wasted 6 months of time failing at weight loss. That 1510 minus the 20% is 1208. Which according to everything that the eat more folks preach is going to starve me to death. do untold damage to my body.
Now account for the scale inaccuracy, becaue I am not going to personally spend 3 grand on an analytical balance like they use in professional labs, and I probably should stop eating for the day at roughly 1000 to 1050 calories a day to allow for that inaccuracy.
Which will in turn set off riots because OMG! I'm starving myself.
If reading a thread about other folks struggles to follow this hallowed sanctified eat more stuff and it's failures for us personally offends you, then perhaps you should stick to the threads preaching eat more. I don't go in them because they don't work for me and there's no sense telling other people who are doing well they are wrong. Also by that same logic train perhaps telling me I am wrong when I did try it is also just ignorant. But thanks anyway for your PC policing skills. You'd make an excellent HR rep.
Wow. Bitter much? So YOU failed at EATMORE. It didn't work FOR YOU. Do you find it neccessary to be hostile to everyone who writes in this thread who SUCCEEDS with it? Is this thread about you or the OP??? Personally, any learning in the process to a healthy life should be valued...but hey. Continue with your bitterness. For every indivdual who succeeds here on VLCD, there are significantly more succeeding with EatMore.
Exactly this ^^ well said. What an angry and bitter post about everyone who can eat more and lose weight. You sound very aggressive about it all, I think you need to take a look at what you are posting before hitting the 'Post reply' button.0 -
OP, sorry if this has already been covered but, EXACTLY what are you doing for strength training? I know you said you had a home gym, bf trains you etc, but I find bf's although well meaning are not always the best ones to turn to for advice. Unless he is a bodybuilding coach or competes professionally I would be tempted to research my own workouts rather than just rely on his advice.
So my point it: What exercises do you do? Sets? Reps? What equipment do you have access to? What cardio do you do?0 -
...and another thing (my EMTWL friends will not approve), i've really never seen/heard full-on *goal weight* success stories from folks eating more to weigh less. YES i have heard various NSVs and those feeling much stronger, better sleep, leaning out etc.... (and those ARE successes), but not a whole lot of 'yes, i reset my metabolism and now i am at goal weight and can now lose reasonably at 1500+ (or whatever their particular number).
the real success stories must be there right? i mean this group has over 10k members!
I started on 1200 when I first joined MFP. Couldn't sustain it for longer than 2 months, I eat around 2000 now. I do not have a 'Goal Weight' as that statement is pointless for me. More weight for me means more muscle, which is only a good thing. I would possibly like to consider my time on here 'successful' in the fact that I started very low cal, read, learned, improved and realised 1200 wasn't an option for me, and that I could lose on around 2000 a day.0 -
This is a really great one, she actually had her RMR tested before and after and it went up
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/919536-get-your-metabolic-rate-tested-my-metabolic-reset-story0 -
What is your BMR?0
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What is your BMR?
Not trying to be a douche, but i'm pretty certain she said what it was on one of the first 3 pages? The OP seems to of covered every angle lol0 -
I'll read the reset story which I have a bit of time later. In the meantime regarding my training my boyfriend isn't training me as such, I just mentioned that to give you an idea of the type of home gym we have. We've converted our garage into a gym and have some cardio machines (Xtrainer, rowing maching, treadmill) plus we have free weights including a dumbbell block up to 30 kg. With free weights we can go quite high as we have a lot of 5, 10 & 20 kg weights and have many dumbbells/barbells of various weights/curly bar, etc. plus a multigym machine for doing cable exercises (high/low) with lots of attachments. We also have a powerplate/vibrating plate machine and some kettlebells. We have 2 benches and some abs cradles/machines.
When I do cardio I normally either do a DVD based workout such as something like Insanity or I use a combination of gym machines for 45 minutes (15 mins each on the machines mentioned above). On the treadmill I normally do intervals of walking/running. Sometimes I just go for a walk for 1-2 hours instead.
When I do weights 3 x a week I normally do the whole body and do 3 sets starting with 1 set of 10 reps then increasing the weight and doing the 2nd set of 8 reps finishing with the 3rd set of 6 reps approx. I normally do legs, chest, biceps, triceps and abs and sometimes shoulders/back but at the moment I'm trying to avoid those parts due to back/shoulder pain. I also use majority free weights and have countless weight training books for ideas about what exercises to do. I also change the exercise I do for each body part so one day I'll do press ups for chest and then the next something involving dumbbells etc.
I don't think I'm doing anything wrong with my training and it's really only been 6-8 weeks that I've been doing weights again so don't expect to see a lot of results from that yet although I am definitely feeling stronger and know that if I could drop some fat I'd start seeing a lot more definition.0
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