Consistently Way Under My 1,200 Calorie Goal

1. You say that you don't think that your body is starving because you don't feel hungry. Sleeping is a symptom of starvation. People who don't give their body enough nutrients to function sleep all the time.

2. Do you like your current relationship with food? The biggest signal to me that I have disordered eating was that I didn't like my relationship with food. I sought help to change because I wanted to have a better life.

There is no reason to be embarrassed. You asked a question about something you were concerned about. You did some research and found out that you are at risk for disordered eating. You have done all the right things. You should be proud of yourself for caring about your health.

Now, you have some knowledge about yourself and what it means to continue down a path that may be unhealthy. So, the question is, what is next? Okay, so you don't want to seek a professional. Okay, but what about trying to eat the 1200 calories and see how you feel? The other thing you can do is go through other people's food diaries. Look for men about your age and size and see what they are eating. Look at their calorie count. Look at the succes board with before and after pics and ask them how they lost the weight.

I think the easiest thing you can do right now is try to introduce a decent breakfast into your daily nutrition. It could be a bowl of cereal, some toast and eggs, whatever...just start your body right in the day by giving it some fuel.

Don't think of food as something that will make you gain weight. Think of it as what your body needs to do what your body does. You can't even get up out of bed without fuel to make your muscles move, and that fuel is proper nutrition. Think of food as fuel for your body much like gas for cars.

Once you have gotten accustomed to eating breakfast, you can add a few calories to other meals or snacks slowly to bring yourself up to where you need to be.

And remember, the more you exercise, the more you NEED to eat. :flowerforyou:

Reading everyone's responses to me has kinda made me think that there could be a serious issue developing. I honestly DO want to start eating more, but the thought scares me. I'm afraid of gaining the weight and as of right now, it feels like my only means of making sure i don't is to eat as little as possible. As for seeing a professional about it, I don't know if I'd be willing to at this point.

I did some research on the internet like was suggested to me, and I did have a number of the warning signs of malnutrition and the beginnings of an eating disorder. And that scares me. I do feel a little ridiculous about this though because, I always believed issues like anorexia were mostly just ploys for attention. Sitting in this position makes me think otherwise.

I'm embarrassed.

Hey! Nothing to be embarrassed about. You can if you want but honestly there's no need. When you say 'I honestly DO want to start eating more, but the thought scares me.' This is an indicator that it may be a psychological component to this. This is common among men too. The reason we don't hear much about the men is that men don't talk as much about it as us women.

Give your SELF the gift of calling a professional for this. Someone that knows what they are doing and talking about!!

I realize this is a problem because of starvation mode and blah, blah, blah, but I often find that I refuse to allow myself to reach anywhere near the 1,200 calorie goal. I can honestly say, though, that I'm not hungry. I rarely limit myself from having things that I want. A piece of chocolate there, some sugary cereal there. I treat myself, I'm content, and the weight is seemingly coming off quickly.

Like I said, I realize that being under the 1,200 calories is a problem, but I can't seem to force myself to rectify it. I'm nervous that if I start reaching the 1,200 calorie goal, I'll either stop losing weight at such a rapid pace or I'll start gaining weight. I'm not sure how illogical that fear is, but it's there.

I've lost about 15 pounds since early November and I'm hoping to lose another 20 to 30. Friends tell me that if I lost any more, I'd look TOO skinny, but I can't say I agree with them. I feel like I know my body better than they do, and I'd like to fall somewhere in the range of 140 to 150. For a male that's 5'7" (5'8" on a good day), that's apparently healthy.

Advice?

I typically won't read threads like this because there is so much information here that you can search to show you why you must eat not only the 1200 calories but any calories you burn if you exercise.

I think we all need to quit using the term "starvation mode" ... there is at least 1 person on this site who get's pretty uppity when you use that term and begins to post links about how it's a myth. It's not. Your body DOES go into "SURVIVAL MODE".

All that being said: To the OP ... What is going on with you is fear. Fear that you are going to over eat, fear that the weight isn't going to come off, fear that if you eat food you will gain. Each pound of weight is equal to 3,500 calories consumed. PERIOD. The ONLY WAY you are going to gain any weight using this site and the food diary here is if you consume over 3,500 calories a day and do nothing but sit on your *kitten* and breathe. I KNOW it's hard to wrap your head around the concept of "eat more to lose weight" but it really works! I have been with this site since September 1 and I have lost close to 31 lbs so far. I am within 10 lbs of my goal weight which is 140 (I am 5'8") ... I am steadily losing and I am eating UPWARDS OF 1600 CALORIES A DAY with my caloric goal being 1200 plus exercise calories.

If you are losing weight like you say you are I can assure you that you are not losing fat, you are losing lean muscle. That is the first to go when your body goes into survival mode. You will continue to lose until your muscle mass cannot shed anymore then you won't lose anymore. You will think you are plateauing but in actuality your body has hit the wall and can't get rid of anything else (ie fat) because you are not nourishing the body. It will begin to not only live off the fat you already have stored BUT it will convert the little you do eat INTO more fat and at that point you may actually BEGIN TO GAIN WEIGHT.

You have to eat YOU HAVE TO EAT YOU HAVE TO EAT to lose weight. If you consume under 1,000 calories/day your metabolism will slow down as well. This will also cause weight gain. When your metabolism is revved it will burn more calories. This is one of the reasons why you hear people often say "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". It get's your metabolism going for the day ... it wakes it up, as it were.

YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT. Especially if you exercise. For instance:

You have 1200 calories/day allotted to you via MFP. Say you exercise and burn 400 calories you are really only consuming 800 calories. You should eat at least 200-300 of those calories back. You can't drive a car with an empty gas tank right? Your body can't run without enough fuel either.

Besides the weight loss/weigh gain issues you have other medical issues to consider. Your organs over time will become damaged if they are not properly fueled.

YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT.

I don't know how much more I can say on this ... Trust me, you will not gain if you are HONEST IN YOUR LOGGING. If you don't have a food scale, get one. It has made all the difference in my world of weight loss.

Friend me if you need help.

Really dont know what else to tell you!!! You have to eat to lose and be healthy!!!! Go to the forums here they is plenty of info on this site that explains why you need to eat at least 1200 calories and why you need to eat exercise calories!!! Thanks Karen for your input.... you are much better than me at getting a point across!!! ;-) Glad to have you as a friend!!!