Only 500 Calories Today!

I only really learned this this week but if you're eating so few calories your body will be or will go into starvation mode and you WON'T lose any weight. Please, please please read my post and the wonderful responses I received and it should help you get through this 'food fear' http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/102422-what-am-i-doing-wrong

Hi. I just glanced at your diary, and I'm a bit confused. It looks like your goal is 1800 calories per day... but yesterday, you earned 370 more from exercise bringing you up to 2100 that you were supposed to eat, and you were UNDER that. The only thing you went over on at all was fat! That being the case, there is no way you need to only eat 500 calories today!

Just wanted to point this out, in your "breakfast" section for yesterday your ranch dressing was obviously wrong, since it was listed as only calories and no carbs or fat. I see that you have ranch listed as a snack, if that was meant to correct the first ranch, then you forgot to delete the first one, meaning that you ate even LESS calories than you thought- almost 200 less!

Looking back at your other days, you are barely eating anything. Even if you DID splurge yesterday (even though you didn't!), that could have been added to the day BEFORE to make up for it instead of adding it to today and eating less today!

I know how it feels that sometimes you are eating too much even if you accounted for it, and even if the site tells you that you are ok. I struggle with that too. Even if I have enough leftover calories and fat to have a piece of toast with real butter, I feel like that is going to kill me. When I eat a big dinner or have something sweet after dinner, I feel like I'm hurting myself, even though I KNOW that I have room for it and it will be ok. That is hard to get over. But there is so much good information and good people on this site who will tell you that it is essential to eat at least 1200 calories a day to be healthy AND to lose weight. Eating less than that isn't ok. And if what you put into the site is to lose weight, you WILL lose. Just give yourself time. You've only just joined this month!

Saturday's entry didn't look too bad, to be honest. You stayed under your calorie goal and ate a couple salads. I personally would've picked a different leafy green for the salads and used less salad dressing, but otherwise it looked okay.

Have you thought about spreading your calories more evenly throughout the day? I eat 5-6 times/day, generally between 250-400 calories at each 'meal,' allowing myself 1900 calories on the day (because I'm generally burning 2600 according to my Bodybugg). I find that eating small, frequent meals prevents those cravings, keeps me fueled thorughout the day, and keeps me more 'honest' to my nutrition.

Also, I'd really tried to find more natural foods to eat. Those processed 'meals' that come in a box or carton, while easy, are generally loaded with calories, fat and sodium (as well as preservatives) that could be lessened if made au natural.

While I'm much older than you, so I probably have more control over my kitchen than you do in yours (I'm assuming, forgive me if I'm wrong), I've learned a ton about nutrition and eating over the past year. Feel free to look at my own diary (which included Domino's pizza last night!) for some ideas.

I recommend you read this post if you haven't already: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/101526-eating-starvation-mode-and-the-reality-of-it-all

Dropping to such few calories will hurt your body AND mess up your weight loss significantly. I'm not sure which is more important to you--you will have to figure that out, but you can cause significant damage to your body AND your metabolism.

Due to medical issues which have caused me to never process food and absorb nutrients appropriately, my body functionally acts as if I have been anorexic (or in starvation mode) for my entire life. After a year of treatment, I am finally doing better, but not without permanent damage from lack of nutrients (including chronic joint pain, memory loss, severe fatigue, hair loss, dental issues, heart valve problems, and osteoporosis--and I'm 28). This is not to mention the difficulty I had during childhood development.

I am finally getting healthy and I'm working on improving my strength and metabolism (when I started getting better--I gained a lot of weight from finally absorbing calories!). I'm currently eating 1200-1500 calories per day, working out 1-3 hours per day, and I CANNOT lose weight. My metabolism is at rock-bottom and it's incredibly difficult to turn it around. I had a relapse earlier this year and was so sick I couldn't really keep any calories down (maybe consuming 100-300 per day). When I started to get better, I was gaining weight by eating 500 calories. This is what you body does when it is starved--it will do whatever it can to keep calories and stay alive!!! I also ended up incredibly weak, because your body burns the muscle first, not the fat.


I am not looking for sympathy or to talk further about my medical issues, but I am telling you this b/c maybe you can stop doing to yourself what my body did to me. There is NO point in choosing this! Set goals to eat healthy (i.e.--how many fruits and veggies you will eat per day) and exercise. Don't set goals based on weight loss. Research shows that programs based on weight loss can cause people to cheat or cut corners by starving themselves or other unhealthy behaviors.

Good luck!