What started you on the path to eating more?

I'll never forget what prompted me...be warned...LOL, it's a sob story. :sad:

I gained 60 pounds in a relatively short amount of time (like, 4 months), after switching from basically not eating (hi Ed!) to eating 600 cals a day. :noway: I thought maybe my thyroid was out of whack 'cause seriously, what else could I blame it on?, so I went to the doctor to get it checked out. Well, you know...they took blood, she felt my thyroid, all that, NO dice. Then she spoke those fateful words.

"Well, you just can't eat as much as you used to. Cut back a little." :explode: :explode: :explode:

LOL, seriously! OK, OK, yes I would never slap my doctor, but it certainly entered my mind. So, how do I eat less than nothing? :huh: Ughhh, it still burns in my mind. :mad: I knew I had to find a solution. Shortly after I joined MFP, and shortly after that, EM2WL.

What I wouldn't give for my doctor to see that I eat 4 TIMES as much now... :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • Raynn1
    Raynn1 Posts: 1,164 Member
    Did you doc knew you had Ed? Probably why they would suggest eating less. Most people assume that eating more means we gain weight... Definitely not the case at all, as you have proven:)

    For me, it was eating at 1400 cals a day, running and doing everything "right' and still not having any movement on the scale. Realized thee was no way I could eat anything less, so I found EMTLW and went up double my cals for maintenance and have been working on it ever since.
  • nothingwithoutHim
    nothingwithoutHim Posts: 140 Member
    Yes, the doctor was the same one I went to to get diagnosed for Ed. I was like "Are you crazy?" :noway:

    Sigh. It's like they diagnose the symptoms, and not the root problem. But that's a discussion for a different day. :frown:
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
    bumping this thread cause i feel its an important one!
  • RJ74
    RJ74 Posts: 37 Member
    For me, it was eating at 1400 cals a day, running and doing everything "right' and still not having any movement on the scale. Realized thee was no way I could eat anything less, so I found EMTLW and went up double my cals for maintenance and have been working on it ever since.
    [/quote]


    This^^^ I got tired of busting my booty and my booty staying the same! :) Figured I couldn't go lower (and stay married- I'm REALLY grouchy when I'm hungry), so thought I would go the opposite way. I'm only in the "reset" portion of my journey, but loving that I get to eat again. Yay!
  • holleysings
    holleysings Posts: 664 Member
    It was when I was "forced" to eat only 1200 calories a day for 14 weeks. Before that I would eat toast at 9am, then not eat again until 3 or 5pm, when I would either eat a normal meal or fast food. Then I would eat a lot after my rehearsals at night. I probably was eating at maintenance now that I go back and look at calories. The 1200 calories a day helped me realize how much I was starving my body during my normal routine as I was not able to "binge" in the evening on 1200 calories a day as I would have before. As soon as the weight loss study I was in was over, I upped to BMR and started the process of healing my metabolism. I can now maintain eating 2400-2700 calories a day, which is crazy. (Might have to up it to 2500-3000 now that my TDEE is more accurate.) I have never eaten this much this consistently in my entire life. And I have never felt so good! I have always starved myself in some way. It will NEVER happen again.
  • I realized that there was no way I could go on enduring the hunger pains and not getting results any longer. I also realized that my runs would not be so damn exhausting if I was fueling properly for them, and sometimes my priorities are in the right place--I would rather BE insanely fit even if I don't LOOK insanely fit quite yet, so I decided I would eat. More.

    And now there's no going back!
  • MichelleRenee13
    MichelleRenee13 Posts: 363 Member
    What started me on this path was after losing 11lbs....MFP dropped my calories to 1380. I was hoping, at that time, to lose an additional 50lbs. At the rate MFP was dropping my calories, by the time I would get to goal weight, my calories would be at zero! LOL

    It hit me that something isn't right....that is when I started researching.
  • amberaz
    amberaz Posts: 328 Member
    I decided that if I couldn't lose any weight while eating only 1200 calories, then it wasn't worth being hungry and deprived any more. While eating at my current level, I haven't lost any weight, but I have more energy, and I feel much better. I actually feel like I can sustain this lifestyle--eating normally and working out 5 days per week, as opposed to starving and doing cardio or weights every ay of the week.
  • trishadams
    trishadams Posts: 104 Member
    Diary envy....Kiki would complete her diary with all this food in it and not be gaining a pound!! I wanted in :bigsmile:
  • trkinsley
    trkinsley Posts: 124 Member
    Another member mentioned the concept and the group in my newsfeed and I was intrigued, so I lurked and read and here I am. Happier.
  • splashblob
    splashblob Posts: 249 Member
    Started from the last two weeks of May to the End of July, I have been eating at 800-900kcal with occasionally 900-1000kcal once 2-3 times per a month or two.(I'm not sure about the caloric intake for the latter because I was eating out). My weight never stall though, it's stalled for a week before I started on VLCD-I was freaked out and dropped my calories to 800.

    I was initially plan to do LVCD temporarily but then I heard that once you did this, when you start eating normal you will gain a lot more. :ohwell: So I was scared and just continued eating low cal until August when I had a chance to join the communities and read helloitsdan's roadmap thread and discover how to reset my metabolism here. :flowerforyou:
  • wfte
    wfte Posts: 195 Member
    I lost 60lbs in 14 months. Started off on 2500 cals and ended on 2000 cals. A lot for some people but not considering even now I'm 20st + and BMR is 2550.

    I was considering lowering my calories more as I was reaching the end of the day with food still to eat but not hungry. I thought it should be ok, it wasn't to lose weight faster, I genuinely wasn't feeling hungry. I was quite convinced that as long as I wasn't allowing myself to feel hungry it'd be ok. I was looking to drop to 1600 cals but I was still unsure. My mum who was trying to lose weight is about 4 stone lighter, shorter, and obviously older and female and she was eating 1400 cals a day.
    Only eating 200 cals a day more than her didn't seem right so thought I'd look around the Internet.

    I'd read never eat below BMR before but that's it, just that bring hammered out. None of the reasonings or whys. A search gave me a link to a thread in this group. What I read made sense, I read more and by the time I was done I signed up to MFP and knew this was the right way to go.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    I was a classic yo-yo dieter, losing the same 20 lbs every year or two and gaining it back. I hopped back on the low cal wagon at the same time as joining MFP in May. I'd always manage to fight the hunger pangs and restrict my food intake in the past but for some reason this time it felt different. I'd only been at it two to three weeks but just couldn't stick the 1200 cals as I had done in the before (and often a lot lower, plus I never ate back exercise cals as I'd never even contemplated that before joining MFP). I had a few bad days when I had eaten a lot more over a holiday weekend in June and was about to throw in the towel but I stumbled across EM2WL mentioned on a thread I was reading, found the group and read all about it.

    I figured maybe it was time to try something new. I have a scientific brain so it all made perfect sense and I wondered (and still wonder) why I just never saw it before.

    It was scary jumping from 1200 cals to around 2200 but I did it overnight and have been loving food and life ever since.
  • ezavora
    ezavora Posts: 59 Member
    I started MFP in the beginning of July and was set to 1300 cal. I broke it up into 5-6 meals a day and it really wasnt that hard to stick with. I was exercising 4-5 days a week, only eating back some of my exercise calories. In the first month I lost 7 pounds. Then....nothing, and more nothing. I started researching plateaus and realized I was netting below my BMR and probably doing damage to my metabolism. I joined this group less then a week ago and have upped my calories to 1850. Its too soon to tell anything, and it is scary to start eating so much. The biggest thing I did was start eating a way bigger breakfast.
  • nothingwithoutHim
    nothingwithoutHim Posts: 140 Member
    Diary envy....Kiki would complete her diary with all this food in it and not be gaining a pound!! I wanted in :bigsmile:

    ROFL. Love it! :laugh:
  • evilmonkee
    evilmonkee Posts: 55 Member
    I should start by saying that I never did a VLCD in the traditional sense where the gross intake is low. I lost most of my weight on WW; I ate most of my extra points, so I never ate below 1200 calories a day. In February I decided to move from the weight machines to free weights. I started doing New Rules of Lifting 2/ week and a kettle bells class 1/ week. I was also running 3/ week.
    2 weeks into my new workout regime, I hit a plateau. I kept trudging along, getting more and more annoyed. 2 months into the plateau, I was cranky, tired, and I started seeing more hair than usual on my hair brush. The scale was still stuck.
    When I mentioned this in passing to my kbell instructor, she asked me how many calories I was netting. I gave her a totally confused look and said I ate all of my points. She said that for my activity level (training for a half and lifting heavy), I should try to eat more and suggested that I keep my net above 1200. I was eating a decent amount of calories, but I was burning a lot, so I had very low nets.
    Totally skeptical, I signed up for MPF and tried to net 1200 for couple weeks. As I upped the weights on my lifts, I slowly upped my nets. I felt like a new person- the couple extra snacks made me feel human again, and I started losing again. The scale moved slowly, but it moved, and I started losing inches again.
    I guess you could say that I was doing some kind EMTWL on my own for couple weeks before I discovered that there's a group for it sometime in May.
    Figuring out the exact amount for your body is really tricky, but it's so worth it, especially if you work out a lot.
  • catti41
    catti41 Posts: 24 Member
    What started me on this path was after losing 11lbs....MFP dropped my calories to 1380. I was hoping, at that time, to lose an additional 50lbs. At the rate MFP was dropping my calories, by the time I would get to goal weight, my calories would be at zero! LOL

    It hit me that something isn't right....that is when I started researching.

    This is me, i was like so when i lose the weight i wont be able to eat anything...not what i wanted to hear
  • nothingwithoutHim
    nothingwithoutHim Posts: 140 Member
    What started me on this path was after losing 11lbs....MFP dropped my calories to 1380. I was hoping, at that time, to lose an additional 50lbs. At the rate MFP was dropping my calories, by the time I would get to goal weight, my calories would be at zero! LOL

    It hit me that something isn't right....that is when I started researching.

    This is me, i was like so when i lose the weight i wont be able to eat anything...not what i wanted to hear

    I can totally relate! LOL, like seriously???:grumble: MFP would say "If you eat this much, you'll lose 3 pounds in 5 weeks. In reality, I was GAINING at that rate. :laugh: I hated it! At least now when it says "you will gain 5 pound in 5 weeks" it's right, 'cause with the reset, I do believe it! :bigsmile: