Hunger Pains...

My experience...I started back eating back only my cardio calories, was losing about 1.5 lbs/week. Decided I wanted to hurry things up & so I stopped eating back any calories & just stuck w/my calorie base of 1200. I tried this for 3 weeks & either didn't lose each week, or lost only 1/2 lb. I went back to eating back my cardio calories & starting losing 1-1.5 lbs again each week. When I try to eat back my strength training calories, then it does seem to lower the amount I lose. I'm 5' 3.75", & currently 127 lbs.

Nobody should ever starve to the point they get huger pains, in fact, nobody should ever starve whatsoever to lose weight. These diets are unhealthy and plain retarded, to say the least.

You are right, generally. That being said, it's calories that matters. Eating more won't make you lose more weight. You need to burn more calories than you ate do so, you need to be in caloric deficit. I do not suggest to go lower than 500 calorie deficit tho.

Anyways, your dad is wrong. Get him a library card so he can go and educate himself on these matters.

I also disagree with poster above me. Results does not justify methods. Some diets may have great results in fat loss but bad effects on your health. You need to be smarter than just blindly chasing after results...

Hunger's a funny thing, and hunger (or lack of it) is not necessarily the best indication of how much you need to eat. I wouldn't say that hunger pains are good for you though, that just sounds like dieting-speak.

Without knowing the specifics of how much you are consuming and how much you are burning, in general you should be eating more the more active you are. Huge calorie deficits won't do you any favours. As it looks (from your ticker) that you have a way to go before you get to your goal, you can "get away with" larger calorie deficits than someone who is leaner, but eating as little as possible isn't going to be good for you or your weight loss in the long run. It sounds like you are on the right track, so I wouldn't listen to your dad on this one. Eat at a certain level for a few weeks, and then look at how fast you're losing (as well as energy levels) to see whether you need to adjust or not.

that reminds me of a "what would you do" episode with a mother who kept her kid on a strict diet and she said "hunger pains mean the diet is working" lol it made me chuckle, but seriously maybe your dad is not trying to be mean but is just worried about you falling off the diet bandwagon and gaining weight, perhaps he wants you to be successful so bad that hes being a little too harsh. Remember though, its about net calories not gross calories so if you work out feel free to eat back your exercise calories.