Has anyone continued to lose weight after a crash diet?

toomanybuffets
toomanybuffets Posts: 3 Member
edited March 2 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I am a 5'9 male that lost approximately 50 pounds in 2 months by eating no more than 500 calories. This took my weight from around 245 to 195. The following 40 or so days my calories bounced around a lot. About half the time I ate around 600 calories and the other half I would eat 1600 or so calories and lift weights. I binge ate about 3-4 times during this 40 day period. I lost about 8 pounds to reach a low weight of 188. However, after eating heavily, I am sitting at 194. My question is has anyone here successfully transitioned from a crash diet to a more conservative approach in order to retain muscle? I am thoroughly unimpressed with the body composition I saw at 188, and I believe I can see signs of loose skin. I do not want to starve myself down to having no muscle and saggy skin. I see signs of loose skin, and I have numerous stretchmarks from prior weight gain. Other than needing to lose fat, my concerns are loose skin, stretchmarks, and slow metabolism from crash dieting. Advice would be appreciated!

Replies

  • bluecat145
    bluecat145 Posts: 144 Member
    I lost about 30 lbs from eating less than 900 calories everyday for three weeks. I'm 5'4. I have not gained any weight and continued to lose after upping it to 1200 (when I realized that I was making myself miserable). I am slowly upping my calorie intake (like 50 more calories a week slow).
    "Starvation mode" is a myth (at least in the way it's usually talked about). You can lose weight from crash dieting. I don't recommend it, though. It could lead to worse problems (like full blown anorexia) or you'll gain more in the end because you can't control yourself and you binge. It can kill you if you do it long enough. I really wish I was sensible and just lost in a healthy way instead, because now I have a hard time getting myself on track and I just caused myself more problems than I started with.
    As for rebuilding muscle afterward, I'm not sure. That's what I'm trying to do now. I'm pretty sure you can. Building will probably tighten excess skin, I believe. You can also had it surgically removed (that's for REALLY saggy skin).
    I wish you a lot of luck :)
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