First day of logging gave terrifying results!

For a couple months, I'd exercise away 800-1200 calories 5 days a week and only eat around 1200, basically giving my body NOTHING to work with. I cut way back on exercising to decrease the deficit & am working on on eating at least 1900 but it's a small victory when I manage to net over 1500 for the day.

I cut all of the "diet" food out. I eat full fat dairy & avoid sugar-free or low-fat anything. I add an extra scoop to my breakfast protein shake. My protein shakes are up to providing me a minimum of 600-700 calories after the cottage cheese & nut butter. I eat a spoonful of nut butter or have cottage cheese, tuna & avocado as a "snack" during the day.

I've been focusing on food for almost a month now & have gone from netting nothing to netting around 1600 in that time. During my "before", having some ultra-rich chocolate mousse would cause me to lose weight because it was an extra 400+ calories that my body desperately needed.

DO increase your intake slowly so that you don't feel sick/over-full. Definitely cut back or eliminate the exercise until you get better at listening to what your body needs.

I just took a really quick look at your diary...are you sure you're logging your amounts correctly? 1 leaf of lettuce? 10 grams of feta cheese? Everything sounded like tiny little amounts to me.

I agree with everyone's suggestions, though! You'll be much healthier to eat more regularly and higher-quality foods. :-)

I agree here. Even a single slice of American *cough* crap cheese is more than 10 grams. Feta cheese is actually more dense than that. Are you sure it wasn't ounces?

Thanks for all your suggestions and support.

I'm definitely upping my intake to something sensible; I just need to learn what sensible looks like!

I struggle with breakfast, but I'm going to make a concerted effort to have a protein-rich start to the day. Scrambled eggs for me tomorrow! I'll also invest in some peanut butter (who fat, and the one with the "rusks" in). I love it and could eat that straight from the jar!

This is why I'm so surprised there's an issue - I love food!!

I never used to be a breakfast person either, i thought that i would eat breakfast and then not be able to stop eating all day, so avoided it. However, i'm trying to be sensible with food now, and am forcing myself to have breakfast and i love it! I usually have hard boiled eggs, or peanut butter on toast, so i'd say go for it

So I started logging yesterday. I really thought that I would find a whole load of hidden calories which would be the reason I couldn't shift the stubborn fatty bits I have. I was horrified to see the truth; that after what I considered a "normal" day, my calorific intake was only 507!!!!!!
<insert expletives here>
I'm a 5'2" female, 34 years old and weigh about 52 - 53kg.
What with an approximated 720 burn exercising, you can see these numbers don't add up.

When I saw this, I grabbed a chicken drumstick and a glass of Irish cream liqueur to get my figures up a little.

So, clear and extreme kick up the bum to sort this out!!

I'm guessing I need to increase relatively slowly... for a start, I don't think I could more than double my intake in one go. I just don't get hungry.

Before you start worrying, I'm not trying to get stick-thin (I used to see a dietician when I was a teenager because I couldn't put weight on, however much I ate, and I know that it's firstly not a good look, nor is it fun not being able to open doors when it's a bit drafty outside). I *would* like to tone the areas I'm not happy with (belly and hips) but I now know I'm not going to start storing muscle and burning that fat until I start eating more.

So, does anyone have any personal experience of breaking out of starvation mode - how long it takes, best ways to go about it etc? Should I stop exercising in the meantime? Noting that I don't exercise to lose weight, I do it because I enjoy it!

Please don't shout at me - this is a real shock to me, and kick up the bum!

Backstory: I'm recovering from an eating disorder so I have quite a bit of knowledge on the subject of increasing calories from so little. I started recovery on november 15th and prior to that I was eating 300-500 calories per day max and usually fasting a few times per week. This went on for several months. Before the severe restricting, I was eating 1400 calories per day and doing 4 hours of exercise (p90x and insanity. 2 DVDs of each) so I was burning around 1000 calories according to my conservative estimates. That went on for 1.5years before the restricting started.

So, here's what I did. I started with a 600 calorie per day goal. After a week I increased it by 100 calories then 2 weeks later by another 100 calories. At this point I was at 800 (it was very hard and I didn't hit it most days) then a week later I increased by another 100 calories....then two weeks later 100 more....so on an so forth until I got where I am now. 1750 calories. The weight gain was minimal--about 5lbs from 15 nov-27dec. Most of what I had lost was muscle so I'm working on gaining it back. I can't say where the weight gain would have stopped because I'm pregnant with baby #2 (the reason I went into recovery was so we could try for another baby). I also eased up on the exercise and did 1-2 DVDs per day. Now I just do 1 DVD. I hadn't done much exercise during my restrictive phase because I was simply too dizzy and weak to the point I physically couldn't do anything but walk short distances. If you haven't gotten to that point of weakness I'd say that it will probably be slightly easier--metabolism wise--to keep weight gain to a minimum especially if you've had trouble gaining in the past. They say it takes 6 months of eating a healthy amount for your systems to go back to normal and the excess weight to drop off again. Basically when you increase your calories, you will 'gain' some weight and your body often overshoots what it considers to be a healthy weight. Then if you keep eating properly, the weight will come off again. Make sure to pay attention to your macros as well and get enough protein. Good luck! :flowerforyou: