Anyone else discovered low calories are their only option?

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  • dianeb613
    dianeb613 Posts: 121 Member
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    550 calories 2 days a week? Oh wow. There is no way on earth that I would drop my calories that low.
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,078 Member
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    Thanks guys I feel a bit better about what I'm doing now as some of the posts I've made in the past about my lack of success have lead to some posters making me feel like I'm going a little crazy but reading about similar experiences makes me realise I'm not alone.
  • ellenasl210
    ellenasl210 Posts: 95 Member
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    Definitely do lots of anaerobic cardio! When I eventually started running I slimmed down a lot. I really hope you find what works for you!(:
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,078 Member
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    Diane why not? Look up 5:2 is a scientifically proven method of improving your health and losing weight.
  • dianeb613
    dianeb613 Posts: 121 Member
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    JAT74, sorry don't know what to name to address you by. To be honest, more power to you if you can. I don't have much to lose but I really don't intend to eat only 550 calories even 1 day a week to get there. I couldn't do it.
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
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    I've gotta say the 5:2 thing is not for me but neither was EM2WL.

    OP you have to do what works for you. Good luck.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    Now account for the scale inaccuracy, becaue I am not going to personally spend 3 grand on an analytical balance like they use in professional labs, and I probably should stop eating for the day at roughly 1000 to 1050 calories a day to allow for that inaccuracy.
    Is there some law of inaccuracy that says all scales or measurements are only allowed to be off in the same direction? If you've been weighing/measuring on a scale, and according to the measurements you've made on that scale your TDEE is 1510, then as I said you've 'calibrated' the inherent inaccuracy of your scale already, and eating what your scale says is 1200 will be your 20%.

    If reading a thread about other folks struggles to follow this hallowed sanctified eat more stuff and it's failures for us personally offends you, then perhaps you should stick to the threads preaching eat more. I don't go in them because they don't work for me and there's no sense telling other people who are doing well they are wrong. Also by that same logic train perhaps telling me I am wrong when I did try it is also just ignorant. But thanks anyway for your PC policing skills. You'd make an excellent HR rep.
    It doesn't offend me at all. I'm not offended that you're mistaken. You're the one who is getting all upset about it.
  • ElishevaC
    ElishevaC Posts: 3
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    eatting real foods staying clear of GMO, processed foods, any food that has more than two ingredients in a package...2/3 variety of veges...hydrating and some tapping can help get more nutritional balance...Jon Gabriel Method has some good points..
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    Definitely do lots of anaerobic cardio! When I eventually started running I slimmed down a lot. I really hope you find what works for you!(:

    running is aerobic.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    #1 eating 800-1000 calories a day..with do SO MUCH damage to your metabolism its ridiculous...please eat.

    #2 with this amount of calories, yes you will lose weight, but you're creating an eating disorder and are starving yourself.

    #3 You need to eat at least your BMR amount of calories...however with exercise your body needs more.

    Please seek a new doctor and or nutritionist. The one you saw obviously doesn't have any idea what their talking about.


    Eating 800 to 1000 is not damaging to your metabolism. The issue is whether you will commit to a diet with that few calories long enough to lose weight.

    People have been on medically supervised diets of 400 calories a day. A few have consumed virtually nothing (again, medically supervised, I'm not suggesting that anyone do this on her or his own). An eating disorder is psychological/mental. You have to have a predisposition for it. If you have problems, obviously you should follow a conservative diet.

    You can eat below your BMR if you want. There's an expert (Registered Dietitian) who posts here periodically who said it is not unhealthy. The issue is whether you will keep it up. Some can, some can't, some will, some won't.

    False.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    Gaining weight isn't a true indication that one has been eating above their TDEE nor gaining fat mass. When I increased calories after hitting my body fat percentage goal the last time I cut, I gained approximately five pounds over the course of two weeks until my weight stabilized. Those five pounds I "gained" wasn't really a gain - I simply returned to holding a maintenance level of food, water and glycogen within my body compared to the diet phase.

    It really depends on one's diet history. I notice a lot of people who have trouble losing weight/fat mass have been restricting for quite some time whether they awaringly reduced calories in an attempt to diet or unintentionally due to not really paying attention to how much they were consuming. When you restrict, your Resting Metabolic Rate gradually declines which affects the maximum amount of calories to eat to maintain body composition. If a person has spent time restricting calories, it is very likely a gain in weight will occur as your body returns to a maintenance level of calories. The longer a period of restriction, the longer it will take for one's Resting Metabolic Rate to increase back to optimal levels. So no, gaining weight when you decrease the deficit should not be perceived as failure.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    I was just curious OP because you said you tried several different things during these 4 months.

    When you started did you reduce the number of cals you consumed only slightly like 20 to 30 percent from how you were currently eating at the time and maintaining the undesirable weight?

    I only ask this because after all my reading and trying to understand all this, that seems to be the most ideal way to approach it if I hadn't already started limiting cals which I started immediately when I signed up since I had a plan going in and went with it while learning all that the members have to offer.

    In retrospect, It would have been a cool experiment to start by journaling for 2 weeks anything I ate as I was eating at the time, but not counting cals till after. Then at that point knowing an average of whatever I was consuming to start with, start reducing from there little by little until weight loss happened. So long question, I'm asking since I can't go back in time and change what I've done, if you did something like this when you started? Or if it was your M.O. on one of these trying different things you mentioned?
  • Cobwellac
    Cobwellac Posts: 75 Member
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    I am similar. I started out eating what MFP gave me to lose the recommended weight loss per week (1600 cals I think it was )and also ate all my exercise calories back. While this worked for the first 20 kilos it stopped working so I tried upping my calories on the advice of the eat more 2 weigh less crew so I went from 1600 to 1700 to 1800 and kept gaining, I stuck at it for a few months and gained just as many kilos back. I tried changing exercise etc nothing seemed to work. It wasn't because I had slowed my metabolism either like everyone tried to tell me.

    In frustration I went to a registered dietician. I told her all the problems I was having losing weight so we had my BMR tested and it came back that my BMR is a lot lower than any online calculator gave me. I am now eating under my BMR (not unhealthy or dangerous if you have plenty of fat stores) and have been losing again.

    This person makes two good points:

    1) A few years back, I had my RMR measured by that thing you breathe into. It said I burn 1000 calories, which is way less than the 1200 most people assume for my height. Until I started eating 800 calories a day, I didn't lose weight.

    2) You CAN eat below RMR if you have enough fat reserves -- which I did at the time I dieted at 800 calories a day. In order to maintain lean muscle mass, you have to lift weights at the same time.

    3) This is my additional point: For me, following my BodyMedia, I have to eat 1200 to MAINTAIN weight now, which is TDEE - 20% (note that it's 200 calories more than I had four years ago, so my weight loss through what most of you would consider a VLCD actually improved my metabolism). I've found that eating at TDEE causes me to gain weight.
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
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    #1 eating 800-1000 calories a day..with do SO MUCH damage to your metabolism its ridiculous...please eat.

    #2 with this amount of calories, yes you will lose weight, but you're creating an eating disorder and are starving yourself.

    #3 You need to eat at least your BMR amount of calories...however with exercise your body needs more.

    Please seek a new doctor and or nutritionist. The one you saw obviously doesn't have any idea what their talking about.


    Eating 800 to 1000 is not damaging to your metabolism. The issue is whether you will commit to a diet with that few calories long enough to lose weight.

    People have been on medically supervised diets of 400 calories a day. A few have consumed virtually nothing (again, medically supervised, I'm not suggesting that anyone do this on her or his own). An eating disorder is psychological/mental. You have to have a predisposition for it. If you have problems, obviously you should follow a conservative diet.

    You can eat below your BMR if you want. There's an expert (Registered Dietitian) who posts here periodically who said it is not unhealthy. The issue is whether you will keep it up. Some can, some can't, some will, some won't.

    False.

    No it's not. But as I've always maintained my weight and I keep up with the current theories, what would I know?

    The amount of misinformation put out by some MFP members is mind-boggling.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    So your BMR is low. But it doesn't mean you can't reset it, right? It's hard to say anything when we don't know how much you've been eating the last year or so. If you haven't been eating much, yes your BMR will be low. But if you eat more for a while, you should be able to boost your metabolism again (and yes gain weight for a bit) and be able to lose again on a more reasonable 1500 calories.

    A good dietitian should have told you that... IMO.
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
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    All the failed experiment with road map taught me was where I maintain and that is at 1510 calories per day.
    Learning is failure? You know your maintenance level. Since you only have 11 lbs to lose, you would not be needing a huge deficit to lose. You can lose on anything below 1510, including 1400, etc. The funniest part is that you're saying TDEE - 20% doesn't work and you're going to do 1200 instead. But 1200 is your TDEE -20%.

    GAINING 7 pounds is failure.

    My actual TDEE worked out to 2300 a day in calories minus the 20% crap following the links set forth in the road map post.

    No I do not lose at 1400, nor at 1300. You forget even with a food scale there is still the margin of error all scales except calibrated yearly analytical balance scales possess and even those still have a variance of .5-1% error rate allowed.

    So yes, it was a failure. I just wasted 6 months of work. the original 3 to lose that 7 pounds initially and then regained it over the next 3, so by the time I get them back off 9 months of my life will have been spent in vain efforts of weight loss.
    No, your actual TDEE is 1510. TDEE is by definition the amount you need to maintain. Sorry that your life was wasted and you were unable to do anything else during that entire time or enjoy living or anything. But your TDEE is not 2300. And yes you would lose at 1400. You wouldn't lose as quickly as you would at 1300 but you would still lose. Yes there is a margin of error but the error goes both ways, and you've also already 'calibrated' the relative values of your TDEE and your scale's inaccuracy.

    The road map thing that people around here love to push as gospel and follow it, follow it, follow it or die by starvation! gave me that number as did Helloitsdan via PMs. I followed it, gained weight.

    But ya know what you are so determined to be right when you don't know me, my lifestyle, stress level or jack diddly about me.

    SO here's your "YOU ARE RIGHT!" gold star darling! Go back and play in your precious it's right thread for eat more to weigh less playground.

    But for the record, GAINING WEIGHT IS A FAILURE.

    i followed and gained too. per Dan, my 'ideal weight' was 140 (knew that was not the truth even for me). anyhow, lowered my cals since and have lost. just the way it is for me. i barely even factor in exercise as i'm a very active person. weight loss is mostly about our literal diet -- food intake/not.
  • Tldavis3s
    Tldavis3s Posts: 83 Member
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    Yeah, I typed that wrong. When I tried the tdee-20% I did not eat calories back. When I eat 1200 cals a day and exercise I do eat cals back.
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
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    ...and another thing (my EMTWL friends will not approve), i've really never seen/heard full-on *goal weight* success stories from folks eating more to weigh less. YES i have heard various NSVs and those feeling much stronger, better sleep, leaning out etc.... (and those ARE successes), but not a whole lot of 'yes, i reset my metabolism and now i am at goal weight and can now lose reasonably at 1500+ (or whatever their particular number).

    the real success stories must be there right? i mean this group has over 10k members!
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
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    I think part of the issue here is the obsession with weight.

    Unless any of you are planning on taking up weightlifting, boxing, powerlifting, MMA, martial arts etc at a high level and have to stay in your weight class to be competitive, then why worry about it?
    If you're not in the above categories, then most likely you care about aesthetics, or fitness level, so why not use these as goals instead of weight.

    In the case of aesthetics, you could weigh 130lbs and be 30% BF (39lbs of your weight is fat) or be 135lbs and be 20% BF (27lbs of your weight is fat), you'd look completely different in each case, but do you really prefer the first option, because it is lighter?
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,078 Member
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    Dan the issue here (for me at least) isn't necessarily scale weight, but on the other hand very little has changed in my body composition during the 4 months I've been on here. My body fat is almost the same, in fact it may be only 1% less than when I started 4 months ago. In addition I've lost a few inches but nothing very significant and could be due to my muscles appearing a little differently due to weight training.

    For my size I am at the very heaviest weight I should be for my height and as I'm carrying at least 31% fat I really want/need to get it down to around 20-22% ideally. I'd be lighter on the scale if I did that without a doubt and would also look much better.

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