Question? Not enuf calories = slowed metabolism.. really?

I second finding a nutritionist.

I'll tell you where I am right now. I started off thinking that the less I eat, the more I loose. It makes sense, really. But, it never worked, it never stuck and I was a miserable witch when I cut my food down. I stumbled onto this place accidentally and really started reading more into the "eat more, loose weight" theory. It actually makes MORE sense to me than starving myself.

So, I tried it. I'm eating approx 1700 calories a day on average (sometimes less, sometimes more depending on if I work out) and I'm at a 6 pound loss for my first month. I'm not in a bad mood all the time, I'm seeing results, I feel good and I can actually eat real food. I've even ditched the low fat foods in favor of full fat ones because I wasn't getting enough. Of course, once I get smaller, I'll need less food, but we will cross that bridge we when get there.

I think it's a good idea to switch things up constantly. I do unintentionally and intentionally switch up calorie in take and it seems that it keeps the body guessing. I also do low carb and honestly that has been the most successful part of my diet but I have done many different thing including hcg (500 calories). And I definatley lost weight on that but it has been low carb that I have lost the most on. Including very low calorie. I'm just greatful I can eat as much food as I can now... I used to think I had to keep Resricting all the time...

Good links. Very different approaches.

Go to the tools sections, and use the BMR calculator to figure out your basal metabolic rate (i.e. how many calories you need to keep your heart pumping, your gut digesting, and your spleen doing what spleens do). You want to be eating at least that every day in order to prevent your metabolism from slowing down too much.

Aside from metabolism, there are two reasons to make sure to eat enough calories. The first is to make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your diet. The second is that eating too few calories encourages your body to burn muscle along with fat, which is not ideal.

Well everyone IS different, but this was my experience... right after having my second child, I weighed in at a 192 (and I'm only 5'2") so that's about 60 lbs over weight for my height... but I had already made up my mind that after giving birth, it was time to get serious about loosing weight!! So I cut my calories back to around 500 a day (sumtimes even fewer) and just did treadmill & occasionally elliptical for about 4-5 hours a week... Now I know that wasnt healthy... but in doing so, I steadily & rapidly lost weight!! In just a month and half, I had lost almost 50 lbs and was down to 145!!...which is on the very high end of a "normal weight range" for my height... (and also the weight that I always tend to get stuck at with very restrictive dieting...) lol
So do i think that eating less than 1200 cal a day will slow or halt ur metabolism?? Strictly based on MY (unhealthy) weight loss experience while being 60lbs overweight, Absolutely not!! And if ur currently satisfied with around 1000 cal a day and loosing 2lbs a week, I think adding the other 200 would only slow ur weight loss if anything.. at least until u become within ur normal weight range, and then ur diet may need sum tweaking if u want to continue loosing weight beyond that point**.. (personally, I do, because I'd prefer to be on the lower end of my "normal weight range"... but that's just me)

And as for what KIND of calories you eat, (with my experience) i don't think they're all created equal. because I've noticed that when most of my calories for the day come from drinks, there's a lesser number on the scale the next morning, as opposed to when most of my calories come from food... and lyk for instance, if you were to eat 1200 cal of something high in carbs like pasta, I think that's gonna take a lot longer to burn off than 1200 cal of sumthing lyk fruits & veggies... but idk, sum people say it doesn't matter and for them, it might not, but MY body seems to react differently to different types of calories ...so u just have to figure out wut works best for u and go with that!!

** Now for those of u who would lyk to know about my experience with trying to loose weight while being 10-15lbs above my "normal weight range", (while everyone is different and keep in mind that I'm now VERY sedentary and pretty much NEVER work out...) I've still found that cutting my calories way back has helped me loose weight, and loose it fast!! Only to a certain point though... I've cut calories back to lyk 500 a day (some days fewer) and lost about 15 lbs in 2 weeks (just bringing me down to that retched 145 mark lol)... then, nothin!! =\ So I think that's about how long (or either the weight at which) it takes MY body to figure out that I'm starving it, and shut my metabolism off lol But wut I've done after that is bring my calories back up by a few hundred, sum days eat around 1,200 and of course that'll make me gain a FEW pounds back, but not nearly everything that I lost... then my weight will usually be stuck at around 148-150 for a few weeks or so before my metabolism will adjust to my new weight, and allow for more rapid weight loss from restrictive dieting... (I've currently gotten down to 135 from following this diet routine.. (NOT THAT IT'S A HEALTHY ONE, I kno!! lol) but hopefully I'll be able to reach my goal of 115 reguardless!! So (strictly for the purpose of weight loss) in my opinion, if your eating fewer than 1200 cal a day AND have STOPPED loosing weight by doing so, then your metabolism has prolly shut down and u need to start eating a little more to pick it back up.

But as for working out... it pretty much works lyk a drug... (as for me anyway)  the more I do it, the more I have to, to get the same effect (in terms of weight loss) lyk if I've just started working out, I'll loose weight like crazy, AT FIRST... but then my body becomes accustomed to it, and I'll have to start working out longer, and harder, in order to keep loosing the same amount of weight and honestly, that's just sumthin I'm too lazy to do!! lol however, I have noticed tho, (when I'm at heavier weights) the same work out routine has more of an effect and for a longer period of time. So I actually think that (when in a "normal weight range" and accompanied with a low cal diet) exercising only when u've stopped loosing weight from dieting will have more of an effect and take less effort than vigorous daily exercise that u're body will just become accustomed to and need more of.

So: (and this is just MY personal, unhealthy opinion to weight loss) lol

But If your substantially over weight:
a low cal diet alone will drop pounds pretty quick without slowing ur metabolism... and when accompanied with exercise, will shed pounds lyk CrAzY fAsT!! =D

If ur a normal weight: Only exercising to fill in the weight loss gap of a low cal diet will have a quicker and more effortless weight loss effect.
Or if ur like me and just never want to exercise... fluctuating between low cal and normal cal diet will of course take longer than ^^, (because ur weight will SLIGHTLY elevate when eating normally again) but it will still be on a downward path (such as going down 3 stairs, and up 2, down 3, up 2... you'll still get to the bottom where u wanna be, it just takes a little longer but will still be more effective than just remaining on a strictly low cal diet ..which (when already at a normal weight) usually shuts ur metabolism down, and prevents u from loosing ANYTHING!!

So in conclusion, (finally lol I hope this EXTREMELY lengthy explanation has helped to answer sum questions without offending ne1!! but pls remember, this is just MY experience with QUICK weight loss techniques that work for ME and I'm not suggesting that any of this is healthy, or should be replicated by anyone, in fact, it really shouldn't be!!.. but good luck to everyone in their weight loss journey and if u have any questions, pls feel free to message me!!


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Well everyone IS different, but this was my experience... right after having my second child, I weighed in at a 192 (and I'm only 5'2") so that's about 60 lbs over weight for my height... but I had already made up my mind that after giving birth, it was time to get serious about loosing weight!! So I cut my calories back to around 500 a day (sumtimes even fewer) and just did treadmill & occasionally elliptical for about 4-5 hours a week... Now I know that wasnt healthy... but in doing so, I steadily & rapidly lost weight!! In just a month and half, I had lost almost 50 lbs and was down to 145!!...which is on the very high end of a "normal weight range" for my height... (and also the weight that I always tend to get stuck at with very restrictive dieting...) lol
So do i think that eating less than 1200 cal a day will slow or halt ur metabolism?? Strictly based on MY (unhealthy) weight loss experience while being 60lbs overweight, Absolutely not!! And if ur currently satisfied with around 1000 cal a day and loosing 2lbs a week, I think adding the other 200 would only slow ur weight loss if anything.. at least until u become within ur normal weight range, and then ur diet may need sum tweaking if u want to continue loosing weight beyond that point**.. (personally, I do, because I'd prefer to be on the lower end of my "normal weight range"... but that's just me)

And as for what KIND of calories you eat, (with my experience) i don't think they're all created equal. because I've noticed that when most of my calories for the day come from drinks, there's a lesser number on the scale the next morning, as opposed to when most of my calories come from food... and lyk for instance, if you were to eat 1200 cal of something high in carbs like pasta, I think that's gonna take a lot longer to burn off than 1200 cal of sumthing lyk fruits & veggies... but idk, sum people say it doesn't matter and for them, it might not, but MY body seems to react differently to different types of calories ...so u just have to figure out wut works best for u and go with that!!

** Now for those of u who would lyk to know about my experience with trying to loose weight while being 10-15lbs above my "normal weight range", (while everyone is different and keep in mind that I'm now VERY sedentary and pretty much NEVER work out...) I've still found that cutting my calories way back has helped me loose weight, and loose it fast!! Only to a certain point though... I've cut calories back to lyk 500 a day (some days fewer) and lost about 15 lbs in 2 weeks (just bringing me down to that retched 145 mark lol)... then, nothin!! =\ So I think that's about how long (or either the weight at which) it takes MY body to figure out that I'm starving it, and shut my metabolism off lol But wut I've done after that is bring my calories back up by a few hundred, sum days eat around 1,200 and of course that'll make me gain a FEW pounds back, but not nearly everything that I lost... then my weight will usually be stuck at around 148-150 for a few weeks or so before my metabolism will adjust to my new weight, and allow for more rapid weight loss from restrictive dieting... (I've currently gotten down to 135 from following this diet routine.. (NOT THAT IT'S A HEALTHY ONE, I kno!! lol) but hopefully I'll be able to reach my goal of 115 reguardless!! So (strictly for the purpose of weight loss) in my opinion, if your eating fewer than 1200 cal a day AND have STOPPED loosing weight by doing so, then your metabolism has prolly shut down and u need to start eating a little more to pick it back up.

But as for working out... it pretty much works lyk a drug... (as for me anyway)  the more I do it, the more I have to, to get the same effect (in terms of weight loss) lyk if I've just started working out, I'll loose weight like crazy, AT FIRST... but then my body becomes accustomed to it, and I'll have to start working out longer, and harder, in order to keep loosing the same amount of weight and honestly, that's just sumthin I'm too lazy to do!! lol however, I have noticed tho, (when I'm at heavier weights) the same work out routine has more of an effect and for a longer period of time. So I actually think that (when in a "normal weight range" and accompanied with a low cal diet) exercising only when u've stopped loosing weight from dieting will have more of an effect and take less effort than vigorous daily exercise that u're body will just become accustomed to and need more of.

So: (and this is just MY personal, unhealthy opinion to weight loss) lol

But If your substantially over weight:
a low cal diet alone will drop pounds pretty quick without slowing ur metabolism... and when accompanied with exercise, will shed pounds lyk CrAzY fAsT!! =D

If ur a normal weight: Only exercising to fill in the weight loss gap of a low cal diet will have a quicker and more effortless weight loss effect.
Or if ur like me and just never want to exercise... fluctuating between low cal and normal cal diet will of course take longer than ^^, (because ur weight will SLIGHTLY elevate when eating normally again) but it will still be on a downward path (such as going down 3 stairs, and up 2, down 3, up 2... you'll still get to the bottom where u wanna be, it just takes a little longer but will still be more effective than just remaining on a strictly low cal diet ..which (when already at a normal weight) usually shuts ur metabolism down, and prevents u from loosing ANYTHING!!

So in conclusion, (finally lol I hope this EXTREMELY lengthy explanation has helped to answer sum questions without offending ne1!! but pls remember, this is just MY experience with QUICK weight loss techniques that work for ME and I'm not suggesting that any of this is healthy, or should be replicated by anyone, in fact, it really shouldn't be!!.. but good luck to everyone in their weight loss journey and if u have any questions, pls feel free to message me!!


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Honey, the reason why the scale shows a bigger number when you get your calories from fruits and vegetables than from drinks THE NEXT DAY is because they are still digesting, that isn't fat weight honey. Liquid calories are absorbed into the body much quicker.

It's nice to see such a quick loss in such a short period but what happens when you eat normally again? Or are you planning on eating 500 calories the rest of your life? Very unhealthy, and you won't get the nutrients your body needs.

No, HUN, that's not wut I was sayin... wut I said was, FOR ME, all calories aren't created equal, and I didn't compare liquids to veggies... lol I was comparing veggies to pasta (or carbs) I was sayin if I eat 1200 cal of pasta, that's gonna cause more weight gain than 1200 of veggies, and I was just using liquids as an example for those who say that all cals are equal... liquid cals obviously don't cause the same weight gain as food cals do... so why would people think that all food cals are the same?? (for me, they're not)
Also, no, I dont plan to eat 500 cal a day for the rest of my life... I said that has been a quick way for me to loose a substantial amount of weight in a short amount of time ..AND even when I DID start eating NORMALLY, (and by "normally" I dont mean the same excessive amount of food that caused me to become overweight in the first place), it didn't cause me to gain all that weight back, just a FEW pounds, (that I was even able to loose at a later time)
And yeh, I recognize & even stressed throughout the whole reply that it's NOT A HEALTHY WAY TO LOOSE WEIGHT and that I don't recommend it... unless u just wanna disregard ur health for the sake of faster results...which for ME, (although it shouldn't have been) was totally worth it ...because the results DID stick!!

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