What's the stupidest thing you've ever done to lose weight?

Eating a salad. :sick:

So many too pick from but probably was the cabbage diet and the grapefruit diet. Both were extremely unappetizing and ridiculous. Also the all fruit diet was a huge mistake. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night a few days after starting this one to spend hours in the bathroom. The things we do when we are young.

I tried chewing and spitting out foods that I craved. I got scared that I was going to develop an eating disorder that I couldn't stop doing at my own will so I only did it for about 2 weeks. My weight did not change during that time.

Oh, I forgot about that herbal tea that gives a person diarrhea all night! THAT was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Agghh.

HCG. I lasted for three weeks before the headaches became intolerable. I lost about 15 lbs but felt like crap the whole time and stopped. Totally ridiculous thing to do.

I tried Alli for a period of time. That was not actually the stupidest for me, because they have you on an 1800 cal diet to start (dep on your starting weight) and then you take the pills to 'block fat' absorption, but I think I was probably (like most people) losing weight from the diet not the blocked fat.

Anyway, fat is good for me, and I wish I knew the things I know now back then.

But the stupidest thing I ever did was listen to my doctor when she told me to go on a 1200 cal/day diet. My hair started falling out and I was tired all the time. 1200 with not enough protien =/= healthy weight loss for a 288 lbs woman.

Basically starving my self and doing insane amounts of cardio...In wrestling though I used to wear tons of clothes and wear a plastic garbage bag over me so I'd sweat out even more....we did lots of dumb stuff to loose temporary weight in wrestling

I ate grapefruit for breakfast and lunch, and salad for supper. kept that up for over a week, until I passed out. Mom took me to the doctor and discovered I was anemic.

Bulimia.

My coworkers all got on a kick from some lady about these diet pills. They were all losing weight. They all eventually stopped and gained more back. My stupid thing was taking the same pills with Korean writing all over them even after my coworker experienced chest pains. I discontinued their use when I found MFP and read horror stories about heart problems and diet pills.

I was also bulimic for a few months. I would bring my breakfast and lunch to work, light stuff, and my excuse was that I could eat a hearty dinner. But that dinner sat in my stomach like a rock and I would end up almost having a panic attack due to guilt and that overly full feeling, so I would purge.

I was also in a very stressful relationship at the time. Ex BF was on vyvanse for ADHD which kills your appetite and causes you to lose weight. He seemed to think it was fun to bring up the fact that he lost 40lbs without trying and weighed less than me (granted, no definition. ... He didn't work out). I laughed with him but inside it made me feel awful and like a failure.

I got so obsessive with my MFP logging that I had to quit for a while. I would freak out and spend an hour or two considering whether to get a chicken sandwich or a bowl of Chili from the local restaurants.

Weight loss isn't supposed to cause you that kind of stress. Now that I'm in s better situation and working out again regularly, I can track my food and not flip out. This is a common problem that gets teases about a lot in the forums but it's easy to get too obsessed with logging, etc to where is actually detrimental to your life and happiness.

If this is you, just realize the slower you lose, the easier it will be to keep off. Work on having fitness goals too so you feel accomplished. And for the love of God, don't let that scale rule your life. If you're checking in on it too much, put it away and weigh monthly or bi weekly.

Edited to add: did you know forcibly throwing up repeatedly not only increases your risk of esophageal cancer, but it can cause you to rupture your retina and eventually blind you? Yeah. ... so glad that's behind me. I like my eyes.