OK, you guys & gals tell me why this is bad

Here's the problem: you might not be getting all the nutrients you need. The number of calories isn't so important as the vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy. You might be feeling energized, but that doesn't mean there isn't damage going on inside, such as gradual oxidation stress on your organs from vitamin deficiencies. I'd recommend a multivitamin right away, but to be honest, nothing is going to be as good for you as whole food. You have to really focus on eating nutrient dense food on that low of a calorie consumption.

Your organs need 500 calories a day to function. If you aren't getting enough calories, your body burns fat (eventually, it will burn muscle, but that is in extreme cases, like starvation). The idea that you need to eat more calories to lose weight (the whole your body will go into starvation mode myth) that I see on these boards all the time is wrong. This is an article from a doctor that explains it: http://www.healthscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=512:are-you-in-the-starvation-mode-or-starving-for-truth&catid=102:jeff-novicks-blog&Itemid=267

Best person to ask is your doctor

I think you should start looking at what you are eating. Even if you eat lower calories like you have been, I encourage you to stop or at least greatly limit the prepackaged and processed foods. From what you described, that will eventually catch up to you. You'll hit a plateau and plus those are just not healthy! It's both exercise and diet hand in hand. Not one or the other. I encourage you to measure your food you currently eat for a week. Then switch out one typical meal for something you fully prepare yourself. See the difference it can make. What you listed as typical foods just made me cringe. I eat out occasionally, indulge in sweets here and there and don't fully deprive myself. But I take special care to make my own food 95% of the time so I know exactly what is in it. It's easier to track calories and be healthy. Plus it tastes better!

You say you aren't hungry. Lots of people on low calorie diets say this. You might want to consider how many vitamin deficiencies and mineral deficiencies have "hunger" as a symptom (and how many have 'loss of appetite' as a symptom) and whether or not it's wise to trust hunger to guide you to eat the proper levels of these nutrients.

so if its short term its fine to eat low calories to lose weight?

I wouldn't say that, necessarily, but it depends entirely on what you mean by short term and low calories, as well as your starting point and various personal variables. I'm not sure why I find reading studies fun, but there is an interesting study on starvation from the 1940s. And by starvations, I mean 1600 calories per day for six months for a group of men used to 3000. Plus, they all started at relatively healthy weights.

So, they fed 35 men 3000 (more if underweight and less if overweight) calories for 3 months. Then, they fed them 1600 calories for six months. They were given a diet high in carbs, because the study was meant to aid POWs. Then, for a couple of months they gradually increased their calories to return them to 3000, and finally they let them go hog wild while carefully monitoring them.

The interesting part is that during the calorie restriction phase, they went sort of nuts. Food porn was the only reading material they wanted, they lost interest in sex (although many reported enjoying the lack of distraction, I'd chalk that one up to the time period), they started inadvertently talking about food all time (using food phrases, like "as sweet as pie" or "happy as a clam"), and a host of other things. One guy, in a new relationship, said he'd loved her in the 3000 calorie phase, but during the restriction phase was mostly interested in scenes of eating at the movies they went to he saidshe was too much effort. Another guy asked if gum chewing was allowed. It was. So, he was eating upwards of 30 packs a day. When the researchers found out, it was no longer allowed. One dude cut off three of his fingers with a hatchet, but couldn't remember if he did it on purpose or not. He was immediately removed from the study, for obvious reasons. Some would hoard all of their food to have a big meal, others ate it all immediately upon waking, some felt feelings of guilt or disgust about eating. Some spent hours eating their meals, savoring everything, and kany of them wanted their food as flavorful and seasoned as possible. Remember, these aren't even guys trying to lose weight. Theyre just normal men eating less than normal.

But probably more applicable to all of us is what happened then after they returned them to normal calroes and let them go nuts. They reported never feeling full, despite eating meals of thousands of calories. They said they were still preoccupied with food. They ate until the point of sickness and then felt guilt and shame, but were eating again half an hour later. And, on average, they gained back their starting weights plus 10%. Two years later, many of then said they still didn't have their normal libido and some of them were still reported uncontrollable appetitites, even though most had managed to return to their normal weights. Two of them continued restricting their calories because they felt out of control.

But that's obviously extreme. Most of us aren't restricting calories despite being normal weights. Plus, we don't have researchers counting every calorie that passes our lips. But, I think some of the behavior is common for anyone restricting. Food porn, for sure, is something I see in many of my friends who are crash dieting. Hours of the food network, when they normally despise it. That sort of thing. It may not be detrimental to your health, but it could be if the rebound gorging the men experienced is something you experience too. And we know people yoyo diet, usually, when they crash diet (or severely restrict calories temporarily to quickly dropwweight).

I have pondered on this a while. When I started 'dieting' my all-time high weight was about 180lb (I'm 5'9). I was able to eat 1500 calories a day, sometimes netting 900-1000 calories a day without feeling hungry at all for about two months. However, once I crossed into the 160s and lower I was constantly hungry and developed some ED-like behaviours. I also became extremely gaunt-looking despite having a BMI of 22.

Now at 155lb I am unable to psychologically cope with any kind of deficit through diet and prefer to exercise to either maintain or lose very slowly (my goal is 150 but not fussed if I never make it there again...pretty happy with the mirror so far).

My conclusion after much thought is that if you are morbidly obese you have enough fat stores to go very low calorie for a long period of time without feeling hungry, and the loss of lean body mass is probably an acceptable price to pay for shedding all the excess fat squashing your organs etc you get the picture.

However as your fat stores wither away you will begin to feel hungry...and then the solution is to eat more (not less, as I tried with abysmal results).

For those trying to drop a few vanity pounds, low-cal and netting zero is a recipe for disaster. Far better to eat more and build a (moderate) deficit through exercise, thereby preserving lean body mass and dropping body fat.

Greetings, Scott. I was one who originally told you I was worried you'd be losing lean muscle. Reading the comments here I see they are literally all over the map in opinion. You are making great progress! Your weekly weight loss is not a dramatic 10lbs a week every week, but seems very controlled. I'd say keep doing what you are doing. Obviously, I am not a doctor.

First off congrats on your loss so far! This is how i was until i got down to losing the last 20 lbs, working out a ton and eating pretty low calories and extremely successful. Once I got close to my goal the loss just slowed down and i began eating back my calories and then dropped the next 10 lbs like it was nothing and I felt great. I think it's just your body adjusting, and once it gets adjusted you just need to change it up. I fell off track for a while and tried eating more calories and working off a certain amount everyday and it didn't work for me. Do what works for your body, and when your body changes and you're not getting the same results, just adjust. Good Luck!