Eating too little? can't lose weight!!

You might be eating too little. I think that you should normally try to get at least 85% of your goal calories in. When my wife is dieting, she sometimes goes overboard and then doesn't lose because I think that your body doesn't want to give it up. Also, make sure that you are drinking your water. I generally eat something every couple hours. It might be an apple, banana or a couple of whole wheat crackers. Good luck.

Your net, if what you stated is accurate (Diary is closed so I don't know) is way too low. You can exercise that much, but you have to fuel that activity with more food. Not knowing your stats I can only guess, but 500net is likely 1000 calories or more, under what you should be consuming. But again, with your diary closed we can only speculate as to the actual number. Regardless, you are eating too little.

Rigger

youre under eating and causing metabolic damage id slowly increase cals asap

youre under eating and causing metabolic damage id slowly increase cals asap

Seems unlikely if they're gaining weight. Other than a medical issue, I guess. Seems more likely they're over-estimating calories burned doing exercise, under-estimating calories consumed, or some combination of those.

Eating too little can not make you gain weight. It's possible you're over-estimating the calories you burn doing exercise, or underestimating exactly how many calories you're eating. Do you use a food scale?

But by definition, if you're gaining weight, you're eating more calories than you're burning. Eating more will only make that worse.

Eating too little can, in fact, cause problems with weight gain for people with a history of eating disorders. Do some research on the matter before you speak out of turn. People talking about subjects they don't understand makes me so angry.

OP, if you have a history of eating disorders, than you should know better than to net 500. Your NET calories should not dip below 1000. Under 1k is anorexia/bulimia level, whether it is caused by excessive exercising or just plain cutting calories from eating.

It sounds to me like you have not properly rehabilitated and need to get back to therapy and your physician to resume recovery. You have to remember that eating disorders are like other addictions. Once you develop them, you will also face the struggles that come with them.
I'm speaking from experience as someone in recovery myself. It took a lot for me to come to terms with the fact that I was not eating enough to see success in my weightloss. I was over-taxing my body and not fueling it properly and hit plateau... FAST. If you keep such a low NET, you'll find yourself gaining anytime you go over that, because your body is basically begging for it.

I have written several blog pieces about EDs and clinical starvation. I highly recommend you do some reading, and understand how VLCDs are very dangerous, especially for those of us with history. I fear you are walking a very slippery slope here, dear.

Eating too little can not make you gain weight. It's possible you're over-estimating the calories you burn doing exercise, or underestimating exactly how many calories you're eating. Do you use a food scale?

But by definition, if you're gaining weight, you're eating more calories than you're burning. Eating more will only make that worse.

^ This, but I would add that if you recently had more sodium in your diet, or started a new workout plan you may be retaining more water which could be masking any "real" weight loss you may have had.

Eating too little can not make you gain weight. It's possible you're over-estimating the calories you burn doing exercise, or underestimating exactly how many calories you're eating. Do you use a food scale?

But by definition, if you're gaining weight, you're eating more calories than you're burning. Eating more will only make that worse.

Eating too little can, in fact, cause problems with weight gain for people with a history of eating disorders. Do some research on the matter before you speak out of turn. People talking about subjects they don't understand makes me so angry.

OP, if you have a history of eating disorders, than you should know better than to net 500. Your NET calories should not dip below 1000. Under 1k is anorexia/bulimia level, whether it is caused by excessive exercising or just plain cutting calories from eating.

It sounds to me like you have not properly rehabilitated and need to get back to therapy and your physician to resume recovery. You have to remember that eating disorders are like other addictions. Once you develop them, you will also face the struggles that come with them.
I'm speaking from experience as someone in recovery myself. It took a lot for me to come to terms with the fact that I was not eating enough to see success in my weightloss. I was over-taxing my body and not fueling it properly and hit plateau... FAST. If you keep such a low NET, you'll find yourself gaining anytime you go over that, because your body is basically begging for it.

I have written several blog pieces about EDs and clinical starvation. I highly recommend you do some reading, and understand how VLCDs are very dangerous, especially for those of us with history. I fear you are walking a very slippery slope here, dear.

Thank you for the time and insight and thoughtfulness of this reply.

Eating too little CAN and WILL make you gain weight. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows metabolism as a natural defence mechanism during times of famine. Counting calories is both a silly and brutal way to live. Just stop eating all those tasty substances which are not food and eat food instead. There is nothing difficult or complicated about losing weight.

My eating disorder is very unstable, and you are completely right, i'm not recovered.
I'm glad to hear you are recovering Quasita!! How have you overcome your weight plateau?

*In recovery* Like I said, it stays like any addiction. You will always have problems with the temptations and hurdles that come with eating disorders. I didn't get diagnosed with clinical starvation until I had been undereating for about 5 years. By then, my thyroid just plain didn't work if I didn't eat. There are blood tests that can be done to determine if you have a normal functioning thyroid, but are in starvation mode. They do this through a simple fasting/fed test. I had it done only after I spent 3 months working with a trainer, eating a "low calorie" 1600 calorie diet and working out 3 times a week, and GAINED 12 pounds instead of losing anything. It was concluded that if I didn't eat, my thyroid literally stopped producing hormones, which caused me to have digestive issues, fatigue, depression... I had to go on hormone therapy to regulate it.

Anyway, when I first started on MFP, I was 485 pounds. I struggled with undereating then I would binge, which was causing me to keep gaining. So I decided to take my therapy to the next level, and keep record.. of... EVERYTHING.
I thought I was doing well at first. Then I plateaued after my first 13 pounds. People kept saying I was so big, I could eat a large deficit and be fine, but THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

How did I break it?
I got a BodyMedia Fit Link to measure my 24/7 TDEE, instead of using a calculator.
I adjusted my MFP to match the BMFL numbers.
I ate back ALL of my exercise calories.
Let me tell you, it was hard. My TDEE at the time was 3600 calories. With exercise, I was shooting up to 5-6k burns a day. But I made myself eat... and eat... and eat...
And you know what? After about 3 days... My body realized we were eating, for real... and it became ravenous. Like clockwork, every hour and a half, I'd be hungry, I'd eat some almonds. I'd have meals. I'd have to wake up in the night to feed myself. I felt gross but I was so hungry and no amount of water would make it go away.

Then, a miraculous thing happened... I started losing.
I began losing 3-6 pounds a week, by eating over 4k calories a day most days and staying active.
I had to stop because I burned so much fat off so fast, that the release of estrogen caused me some serious health problems, and only recently did I get that resolved... and I'm on my way back to what I was doing.

So basically what I'm saying is...
If you're self-diagnosing ED, don't. See a professional.
You have to get a physician and a therapist, STAT. If you're out of control, you can't handle this alone. Don't try to convince yourself otherwise. You are likely deficient in vitamins and minerals.
Make sure you're getting accurate TDEE as well as exercise burns, and eat back your exercise calories.

Less is not always better. Recent studies show that the old adage of "one pound equals 3500 calories burned" is simply not as cut and dry as people want to think it is. Our bodies don't work like that.
There is such a thing as cutting too much.
Even if you think oh no biggie... Remember... People with eating disorders develop things like osteoporosis earlier and more severely because they do not supply their body the way it needs to be supplied. VLCDs only work for short term goals, and while tempting for those of us with eating disorders, they are a very, very bad idea.

Get some help, please.

Eating too little CAN and WILL make you gain weight. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows metabolism as a natural defence mechanism during times of famine. Counting calories is both a silly and brutal way to live. Just stop eating all those tasty substances which are not food and eat food instead. There is nothing difficult or complicated about losing weight.

(edit) Never mind. Very interesting.

Eating too little CAN and WILL make you gain weight. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows metabolism as a natural defence mechanism during times of famine. Counting calories is both a silly and brutal way to live. Just stop eating all those tasty substances which are not food and eat food instead. There is nothing difficult or complicated about losing weight.

Do a search on this forum for "Starvation Mode".

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/761810-the-starvation-mode-myth-again

One of MANY. Eating too little is a bad thing. It can do all kinds of bad things to you. Really bad things over time. But it really can't make you gain weight.

The classic example, if you're interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

Their metabolisms slowed way down. All kinds of bad things happened to them. But they kept losing weight until their percentage of fat became incredibly low. Again, because I can't say this enough, eating way too little is a very bad thing. I do not advocate it for anyone. But it won't make you gain weight.

I hate it when people post this as a proper response to someone that is developing clinical starvation mode as opposed to the "myth" that people worry about typically on this site.

These two things have nothing to do with what we are talking about in this situation. The Minnesota experiment leaves a LOT of things unaddressed, and does not answer to the effects of long-term VLCD in eating disordered patients. It discusses acute starvation that was implemented on a collection of volunteers who were later closely monitored and rehabilitated by physicians.

My eating disorder is very unstable, and you are completely right, i'm not recovered.
I'm glad to hear you are recovering Quasita!! How have you overcome your weight plateau?

*In recovery* Like I said, it stays like any addiction. You will always have problems with the temptations and hurdles that come with eating disorders. I didn't get diagnosed with clinical starvation until I had been undereating for about 5 years. By then, my thyroid just plain didn't work if I didn't eat. There are blood tests that can be done to determine if you have a normal functioning thyroid, but are in starvation mode. They do this through a simple fasting/fed test. I had it done only after I spent 3 months working with a trainer, eating a "low calorie" 1600 calorie diet and working out 3 times a week, and GAINED 12 pounds instead of losing anything. It was concluded that if I didn't eat, my thyroid literally stopped producing hormones, which caused me to have digestive issues, fatigue, depression... I had to go on hormone therapy to regulate it.

Anyway, when I first started on MFP, I was 485 pounds. I struggled with undereating then I would binge, which was causing me to keep gaining. So I decided to take my therapy to the next level, and keep record.. of... EVERYTHING.
I thought I was doing well at first. Then I plateaued after my first 13 pounds. People kept saying I was so big, I could eat a large deficit and be fine, but THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

How did I break it?
I got a BodyMedia Fit Link to measure my 24/7 TDEE, instead of using a calculator.
I adjusted my MFP to match the BMFL numbers.
I ate back ALL of my exercise calories.
Let me tell you, it was hard. My TDEE at the time was 3600 calories. With exercise, I was shooting up to 5-6k burns a day. But I made myself eat... and eat... and eat...
And you know what? After about 3 days... My body realized we were eating, for real... and it became ravenous. Like clockwork, every hour and a half, I'd be hungry, I'd eat some almonds. I'd have meals. I'd have to wake up in the night to feed myself. I felt gross but I was so hungry and no amount of water would make it go away.

Then, a miraculous thing happened... I started losing.
I began losing 3-6 pounds a week, by eating over 4k calories a day most days and staying active.
I had to stop because I burned so much fat off so fast, that the release of estrogen caused me some serious health problems, and only recently did I get that resolved... and I'm on my way back to what I was doing.

So basically what I'm saying is...
If you're self-diagnosing ED, don't. See a professional.
You have to get a physician and a therapist, STAT. If you're out of control, you can't handle this alone. Don't try to convince yourself otherwise. You are likely deficient in vitamins and minerals.
Make sure you're getting accurate TDEE as well as exercise burns, and eat back your exercise calories.

Less is not always better. Recent studies show that the old adage of "one pound equals 3500 calories burned" is simply not as cut and dry as people want to think it is. Our bodies don't work like that.
There is such a thing as cutting too much.
Even if you think oh no biggie... Remember... People with eating disorders develop things like osteoporosis earlier and more severely because they do not supply their body the way it needs to be supplied. VLCDs only work for short term goals, and while tempting for those of us with eating disorders, they are a very, very bad idea.

Get some help, please.

Great response, and such an interesting story. Thanks so much for sharing.