Short Ladies

Copied below is a post on topic by an endocrinologist. He posted in the one that goes around about starvation mode. I think this will help you. As for antedotal information; I'm just under 5'1" and eat about 1450 calories a day. I try to stay active and do 20 minutes yoga every morning and walk a mile most mornings with my dog. I work out at the gym about twice a week. My weight loss is slow, but I'm 47 and have underactive thyroid. Even given that, I am losing about 1 lb a week. The real question is how active you are. If you are moving all the time 1200 might not be enough-even though you are small. If you have a desk job and hate exercise you can probably get by with 1200 or a little under.

"Sat 03/19/11 05:16 AMI am an endocrinologist, trained in metabolism, and familiar with many rigorously conducted studies in the physiology of starvation and caloric restriction in lean and obese humans. What I say below does NOT constitute medical advice.

First of all, a very low calorie diet in an obese person should not be compared to a very low calorie diet in a thin person (as more than one comment has done). The former is the standard of care for weight loss-surgery patients (under careful medical supervision), and the latter is known to be harmful. One important distinction is that endogenous protein (muscle) is conserved to a greater extent (relative to fat) in an obese person during prolonged starvation or hypocaloric dieting as compared to a lean person.

Second, the key to this woman's story is that either her nighttime and weekend binges were much more significant than she was letting on, or more likely she was underestimating her caloric intake on all days. There is no way she was doing 700 kcal/d and having a few small cookies 1-2 nights/week and gaining weight. While the body undergoes a metabolic adaptation to starvation and weight loss, it is not to the extent implied in the OP. This woman's brain alone is using ~480 kcal/d; it is impossible for an obese person to use less than 700 kcal/d. Therefore, we know she must be losing weight on the 5-6 days she is supposedly eating that level of calories. No rigorously conducted scientific study has ever shown anything other than continual weight loss at such a level of caloric deprivation.

Even with a sedentary lifestyle, zero exercise, and a marked metabolic adaptation to starvation (which will not exceed a 40% decrease in resting energy expenditure even in a completely starved person of normal weight, much less in a starved obese person, and even less in an obese person on a very low calorie diet), it is fair to assume (conservatively) that she is losing at least 1 lb of fat per week when considering only the 5-6 700 kcal/d days. The question is whether she is binging enough on the remaining days to counter the weight loss happening on the 700 kcal/d days. 1 lb of fat is ~3500 kcal, so her weekly binges would have to exceed that amount for her to maintain her fat weight.

The widespread concept on these boards that a person can fail to lose weight or even gain weight because of too few calories is pure misconception. Somewhere along the way, someone took the scientifically proven concept of metabolic adaptation to starvation and ran with it. In reality, the woman mentioned in the OP is likely underestimating her caloric intake on all days (including the 700 kcal days) and binging considerably.

There are several medical reasons why severe caloric restriction is wrong for most obese individuals (not to mention all lean individuals). One reason is that almost no one maintains this kind of dieting. In the very beginning of such a diet, there is muscle loss (metabolic adaptation subsequently occurs to preserve muscle relative to fat although some muscle loss will continue to occur at a lower level). Over time, resting energy expenditure may decrease by up to 30%, so if that individual subsequently resumes eating a high calorie diet without much exercise, the weight regain can be profound. There are other issues with such diets including increased gallstone risk, lack of adequate micronutrients, etc. Hence the need for close medical monitoring of patients on very low calorie diets after weight loss surgery.
Edited by fstarling on Sat 03/19/11 05:18 AM

I'm almost 5'3" and my cals are set at 1330. When I workout, I eat more than that. I think it was Tues. I ate over 1700 calories! I know last Saturday was probably 3000 cals! (Cheat day)

Tonight, I'm turning in 2 lbs. loss.

I just posted this earlier...don't be afraid to eat and eat exercise calories. Cheat days/free days help keep the body guessing, too. Also aid in keeping ya out of starvation.

Eat ladies!!

well from everything I have learned about the diet side of it is that its more about the deficit that you are allotted. When you join mfp and put in your info they give you a 500 cal deficit right off the bat for a 1 lb a week weight loss. This next part has applied to 99% of those I have helped so far so it may work here it may not I am not judging. If you workout you can increase that to whatever you like but for those with a lot of weight to lose 1000 cal/day deficit is the max before the body reacts and slows metabolic rate down. For those who have say 30 pounds of less to drop its a different ball game as it gets tricky here, 500-600 a day would be the max before the body reacts in that way, and the more you lose the lower the deficit can safely be. (the same reason why that last 10 pounds is usually so hard to shed). Now for a small girl such as yourselves I would think that the deficit is what you really need to look at here as to high of one will actually be counterproductive and to low will not get you slow weight loss.

yes so long as you look at that as a weekly total, just make sure that you do get them in on the rest days, also post workout drink 1-2 cups of chocolate milk, the sugar goes straight to the muscles and the protein does as well making recovery much quicker.

I am 5' 2, 132 lb, at 1400 calories a day. It took me a couple weeks to adjust to getting good nutrition on that amount of calories because before I was probably at more like 1800 plus. It's a matter of choosing low calorie nutrient packed foods... like a salad with fruit and nuts..... egg with a little cheese and whole grain in the morning, stuff like that is what i have found. Some days I am not eating the most nutrient rich food and I feel like i have no energy! Make every calorie count. You are right though you don't want to eat too little and not get what you need, or end up with your body hanging onto fat because it thinks its starving. Maybe start with like 1300 calories and see if you are losing weight after a couple weeks. If not, lower it?

I'm 5'2" and upped my calories from 1100 to 1200. Sometimes, I eat more than that. I also exercise 6 days a week if I can. I've lost 12 lbs. in 5 weeks doing this. I think though , it has more to do with your current weight. I have a lot to lose and the bad news is that my BMR has gone down to 1485 cal from 1500 cal. where it was at when I started on MFP.

After reading everyone's posting's I've decided that b/c I only have 14 more pounds to lose to get to my goal weight I'm going to change my goal to .5 pounds/week wt loss instead of 1 pound/week and it upped my calories. So I'm going to give it a whirl and see what happens!!

@qoe100- I feel you about the chocolate chip cookies. I have some in my kitchen and they are calling my name.

I am 5'1.5 and am on 1200. I am watching the carbs more than calories, but I tend to go over calories and havent really lost anything as of yet (3rd day so there wouldn't be a big change anyways). With that being said my trainer is working more on gaining muscle than cardio. Should I be worried about all the muscle gain and no cardio?

@qoe100- I feel you about the chocolate chip cookies. I have some in my kitchen and they are calling my name.

I am 5'1.5 and am on 1200. I am watching the carbs more than calories, but I tend to go over calories and havent really lost anything as of yet (3rd day so there wouldn't be a big change anyways). With that being said my trainer is working more on gaining muscle than cardio. Should I be worried about all the muscle gain and no cardio?

women do not gain muscle like men, they do not have that much testosterone in their bodies so you will not bulk up like a man does, you will build lean muscle though which is going to up your overall metabolic rate, so from a fat loss standpoint weights are better than cardio.

I'm only 4 ft 11 in and I'm finding that the calorie intake for someone my size is like nil compared to what other's get per day to either maintain or lose weight. My boyfriend is 5 ft 8 in and I'm jealous of his daily calorie allotment, LoL!

Me too. I'm 4' 11" as well. We sure can't each much, can we. :laugh: For me the answer add extra calories is exercise. As well, I've come to the conclusion that for me weight loss is slow. If I lose 2 lbs. a month I am pleased and actually it can be less than that. Slow but sure.

How about you?

Jeri in Calgary, Canada

I am 5'1" and on 1200. Because I am a student and don't like to feel restricted if I want a night out or friends round for dinner, I tend to undereat a little most days and then occasionally splurge (mostly on alcohol or take-aways). I don't know if that is a major problem, I already can see that it means my weight fluctuates a LOT within a week but so long as the trend is downwards, I would rather have days of 1000 or under, and days of 1500.

I am 5'3" doing 1200 calories per day. I have lost 12# officially. I rarely eat 1200 calories though. With exercise I have to make sure my net is not negative.

What is hard for me is seeing people who have lost the same amount of weight I have or just a few pounds more, who have dropped 2 or 3 sizes. I haven't dropped a single size! My clothes are a bit looser but I am not ready for a completely smaller size. There are people who weigh more than my goal weight who are in a smaller size than I am aiming for. Being short distributes the weight so much differently!

i'm 5ft @ 1200 but i seem to be coming in at around 1000 and tend to not eat my calories that i burn off exercises. i'n relatively new to MFP and have lost 6 lbs to date. it will be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next few weeks- maybe i should make a bigger effort to balance up to 1200.

lot's of things to think about it! excellent thread. short ladies unite!

That is one unfortunate thing about the shortness.

But it also means we don't have to lose so much weight as tall people for it to show

I love aositive twist on things.