skipping workouts

If you have been working out on a regular basis AND living off 500 calories a day, then I'm not surprised to hear that you are feeling work down, sick, and sore. You are doing some serious damage to your body by doing all of that. Sure, you may be seeing lower numbers on the scale, but by now I'm sure a LOT of the weight you are dropping is coming from muscle. After awhile, you body becomes catabolic and it will try to do whatever it takes to survive. Now as far as your body is concerned, fat is a good solid source of energy that serves a purpose. Muscle, on the other hand, if heavy and a poor source of energy. Not only that, but it takes precious calories to move all of that muscle.

So as a result, your body will try to hold onto the fat to survive. It will then try to burn off what it considers "excess" muscle to lighten you up a bit so you conserve more energy. On top of all of that, your body will adjust and slow your metabolism so that you don't use up your energy too fat.

in other words, you will probably be happy to see the numbers on the scale drop for a bit. But after awhile it will level off. Then it will start to go up again once you start eating more (which you will NEED to do sooner rather than later.) And as I said before, even though you are losing "weight" it's probably lean muscle mass and NOT fat that you are losing. I'm guessing that's not what you are trying to do.

thanks for the info. some of it i wasnt exactly sure on. ive heard that you can lose muscle, but because i am not considered underweight would my body still be eating away at the muscle or whatever fat i have left? the scale did start to level off, but why would it go up if im only on maintenance calories?

You may not be "underweight" but that doesn't mean that your body won't burn of lean muscle mass. The two are completely independent of each other. Someone could be the "ideal weight" and have 20% bodyfat and little to no real muscle mass. on the other hand, someone could be considered 10lbs overweight but they are only 8% bodyfat. Personally, I feel that body composition is far more important. Also, even though you're not "underweight" yet, it doesn't mean that it's not an eating disorder. it just means that you're not light enough to be underweight, but are on your way. Luckily, you seem to be in a stage where you can catch and stop it before it gets too far out of control.

As far as your other question...why would the scale go up... Like I mentioned before, your body will start to adjust to the lower calories and will try to hold onto any energy you take in. Now at some point you are GOING to have to start eating more. When you do, your body isn't going to immediately readjust and go back to normal. it will take a little but of time before it realizes that you are no longer in danger of starving to death. So it will still be trying to hold onto calories while you are taking in more.

This may result in a slight rise in weight before it levels off. Once you get it to a healthy level and are eating normally, you can then try to SLIGHTLY reduce the calories is you really need to lose the fat.

You may not like the idea of having to gain weight back, but it may be necessary if you don't want to hurt yourself. The weight gain doesn't have to be permanent or even extreme...but don't be alarmed when it does happen.

not trying to be mean or anything. Just want to make sure you understand what your body is going through and what it may try to do in the future as a result.