I have been eating 600-800 calories a day...

What would an adequate deficit be?? Also: I really like my weight right now so I dont really plan to gain like Stacy did/ get more muscular.. !! I just want to be toned really!! And when I workout, I dont feel weak or tired!! Im pretty energized!

Toned just means less body fat. It really depends on your stats are now. How much do you weigh and how tall are you. If you do not weight enough (or very low end of an acceptable weight) it's going to be very difficult to get lean because you do not have enough lean body mass to get there. I see this all the time with women and men who are very low in weight. Which means you need to bulk up and add more muscle. And trust me, you will not get ripped like staci unless you powerlift for 2 hours a day and eat 4000 calories. Right now, it's probably closer to 1800-2200 calories to cut and more to bulk.

It is impossible to get the required nutrients from a VLCD. I have looked at your profile, and it says you only had 7 pounds to lose. Is this correct?

You're very young, and extreme dieting is not a good habit to start. With 7 pounds, you're better off eating at maintenance or just below maintenance and getting your body in the shape you want through balancing your macros and through resistance training.

Eating too little will disrupt your hormones, destroy your lean mass, and make you very, very tired, so don't do it. Pick up something heavy instead and get yourself strong. You won't get bulky or put on any extreme amounts of muscle. What you will do is get tight, which I'm guessing is what you want.

As for gaining a lot of weight back, that isn't true. You will replenish glycogen. Honestly, if you've been bouncing around with 7 pounds on 600-800 calories, it is doubtful you've lost much fat. More than likely, it's lean mass and glycogen. When you're thin already, the way to lose fat is to eat just under maintenance and resistance train. In other words, body recomposition.

It is impossible to get the required nutrients from a VLCD. I have looked at your profile, and it says you only had 7 pounds to lose. Is this correct?

You're very young, and extreme dieting is not a good habit to start. With 7 pounds, you're better off eating at maintenance or just below maintenance and getting your body in the shape you want through balancing your macros and through resistance training.

Eating too little will disrupt your hormones, destroy your lean mass, and make you very, very tired, so don't do it. Pick up something heavy instead and get yourself strong. You won't get bulky or put on any extreme amounts of muscle. What you will do is get tight, which I'm guessing is what you want.

As for gaining a lot of weight back, that isn't true. You will replenish glycogen. Honestly, if you've been bouncing around with 7 pounds on 600-800 calories, it is doubtful you've lost much fat. More than likely, it's lean mass and glycogen. When you're thin already, the way to lose fat is to eat just under maintenance and resistance train. In other words, body recomposition.

Highly concur with this. That is why my official response is to eat 2100 calories, macro's around 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats and do a lot of lifting.

I actually did 11 days of around 800 calories while doing Bob Harper's "Jump Start To Skinny". I could not do the full 3 weeks of his plan because I had no energy. I lost 8 pounds in those 11 days but I put 6 of them right back on as soon as I went back to my previous calorie level of 1200-1400 a day. It took me several days to get my body back to where it was so that I was slowly losing again. So in my opinion, the low cal plans might seem to work short term, but they are unsustainable. You are better off losing slowly with a steady calorie intake. Sure it's slower, but it's safer and a better plan in the long run.

I was really hoping the body of your thread was going to say, "For breakfast."

That was my first thought too, word for word! :laugh:

This quiz may help determine if there are issues. http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/eat.htm.

I'm not saying you have a disorder, but some of your comments (excessive fear of regaining weight when you were never at an unhealthy weight to begin with) suggest a unhealthy relationship with food.

WE ARE not eating enough,

the old blue and white

Do you not have time for breakfast? ... that alone could get you where you need to be.

I do eat breakfast every day!! Its usually 100 - 200+ calories... Cereal is usually what I have!! With skim milk and sometimes fruit!

Are you sure your calorie counts are accurate?

^^This is exactly what I was just wondering... I think that maybe you are eating more calories then you realize. Do measure and weigh everything you eat?

I do think this is a factor!! many times I unable to find the foods I just ate on the list of foods to log...

If you can't find the food on the database, you can add it (provided it has a nutritional panel!)

Up it to your maintenance calories, drink lots of water and workout daily. If you gain it's only gonna be water weight and it will all get back to normal. Just my opinion, I'm no dietitian. your at your goal weight don't sweat the small stuff!

Do you not have time for breakfast? ... that alone could get you where you need to be.

I do eat breakfast every day!! Its usually 100 - 200+ calories... Cereal is usually what I have!! With skim milk and sometimes fruit!

Are you sure your calorie counts are accurate?

I usually try my best to measure what I eat!!! Today my breakfast was in the 500 range because I ate a lot of cereal with bananas and added some raisins... Is cereal a good breakfast food though? I was wondering that as well...!! I am scared I will gain weight because i did this...

oh sweetie if youre scared a little bit of cereal with fruit on it will cause you to gain weight then we might want to think about our relationship with food.

Remember there is no bad food. Your body needs nutrition to be fueled and grow (cells are constantly repairing). I hope you get the help you need.

I have days where I eat 800-1000 calories and I feel satiated. Not hungry at all. Ironically, I find that the days that I have worked out the hardest and have the most exercise calories to burn are the days when I have the least amount of desire to eat. Then there are days where I'm at 2000 calories for the day and I'm STILL starving. I track my calories and everything; however, I also believe in listening to what your body's telling you. That means not eating if you're not hungry, and eating if you are. Having a few days, here and there, where you don't eat all that much isn't really going to do too much damage to you in the long term; however, eating too few calories over an extended period of time can cause your metabolism to wig out/slow down. I think other posters have given some great advice about how to add extra calories to your meals every day, might be worth giving it a try!

http://www.livestrong.com/article/456754-is-a-1000-calorie-diet-safe

Here is a link to an article you may want to read. This website is reliable. You should really talk to a nutritionist. Eating that little calories a day will eventually catch up with you.

AUGUST 2013 THREAD

tataylllor wrote: »

This is my case! I was in ur position a few weeks ago and i did a lot of research about this and also some threads! I used to eat around 600 - 900 for like 8 months and so these few weeks ago i decided to increase my calorie intake weekly by adding 100 calories per week.. right now im consuming 1300 calories and was SUPER afraid to gain weight (still scared) but i've actually lost weight since this change... im looking to add some weight and then maintain cause im underweight, but if ur goal is to maintain DO THIS. Im very happy with the results.
You can still add me and we can share eating tips, i feel identified with ur case

I feel glad some one relates to me!!! I would be happy to add you!! Did you gain any weight whatsoever when upping calories???

PS: TO THOSE WONDERING: I do get a lot of protein and eat a ton of vegetables, just many times I get afraid I am eating to much of it. I eat lots of chicken and beef (usually steak). I love greens such as beans, zucchini, peas, peppers ( well any colour), and more!! I have tons of water and I love green tea, I do eat healthy but many times when I eat I do get afraid I am eating too much even if it is healthy and then I think straight away I am going to put on weight... I do notice many of you are saying its okay to have cake sometimes but I am really scared to throw off things even though I do hear cheating does speed metabolism..??

With utmost respect, both of you do need to be making an appointment with your family physicians.

Fear of eating, fear of gaining, daily calorie consumption of 500-900 calories a day, all point to what is called disordered eating.

Diets and calorie daily consumption of 800 or less is what is known as Very Low Calorie diets. They need to be supervised by a doctor and are generally only used in circumstances where patients are considerably over-weight and often have over-riding health concerns where it is deemed necessary to get some weight off quickly.

For people like yourselves, one underweight and the other either normal weight or also underweight, your very low calorie consumption is doing your body great harm and some of this can be very difficult to reverse.

Think about this, when you lose weight a person loses both fat and muscle. What's the most important muscle you have? Your heart! This, you really don't want to damage. It can and does, in quite a large percentage of instances, lead to death.

Also, there is no reason to deal your feelings of fear about eating, or loss of control by yourselves. Your physicians can set you up with real help to deal with these issues.