Very confused about how to do this.

SnowFlakeWinter · October 2014

Hi everyone. I am new here and joined up because I could really do with some advice on the best way to lose weight.

I starte my diet in mid August, my start weight then was 18stone 4lb, I'm now 16stone 8lb which is a loss of 24lbs so far. I want to get down to about 10stone 7lb.

For the past two weeks there has been a change in my diet. I have dropped my calorie intake quite dramatically to less than 1000 calories on Sunday I only had about 500 calories. On Monday I had about the same and then exercised for an hour on my exercise bike. This left me feeling quite unwell on Tuesday, I felt ill and weak. Wednesday and today I haven't had much of an appetite, even though my body felt hungry. So yesterday I had about 800 calories and exercised for 30 minutes on the bike. Today I have done much better by eating about 1200 calories.

I am so confused about where to go from here. I have read that it is dangerous to go lower than 1500 in a day? Is that true?

My exercise levels in general are low - I work from home, I have a dog who I take for about six 10 minute walks each day. I sometimes dance (Just at home listening to music, for about an hour before bed) or the exercise bike for an hour or so in which time I burn about 500 calories.

What is the best thing for me to do to carry on losing weight but not become unhealthy? If I ate about 1500 per day, and burn't off 500 a day on the bike on top of the small amounts I burn by walking my Dog/dancing, would that be safe and effective?

Any tips at all would be great, thank you everyone.

shabaity · October 2014

I'd eat at least 1200 but likely more if I'm feeling bad I'd eat a bit more.

tracylbrown839 · October 2014

Whoa....

What is the rush! Wow! Think about this. You have lost about 24 pounds since August? That's a lot.

And you ate only about 500 calories a day for a couple of days and then felt unwell? No wonder.

I think you have to take a step back and seriously look at this.

What is your weight, anyway. In part, it's a reflection of how you live, what you're energy balance is - or has been, in the past.

Going on a huge mission to drop a lot of weight, and very quickly, too, doesn't really solve your problem - at least, not long term, it doesn't.

What is really required is a commitment - forever - to live in a way where your daily intake matches your activity level.

This means, changing your lifestyle. It means changing it - forever - not for a finite period of time. Otherwise, what happens is the scales dip down as you starve yourself, eating so little as to feel unwell, only to go back up again when you reach what you perceive as "the finish line".

The real truth is that there is "no finish line". Not ever.

I'm a healthy weight, with a moderately active lifestyle, healthy annual physicals, healthy resting heart rate, blood work, etc. etc. Why am I here? To try to ensure that I stay that way. To be "mindful of my lifestyle".

So, what you need to do is to begin to develop a healthy eating style, in amounts that is "slightly less" than what you burn in a day. (probably with a setting to lose 1 pound per week) and you need to adopt healthy activity patterns that you are willing to "maintain".

If you go at things this way, over time, the scales change, as a reflection of these lifestyle choices you have made. That's actually all there is to it. It's not difficult to comprehend. It is more difficult to execute.

So, if I were you, I would start to think longer term - like "how do I want to live for the rest of 2014" and how do I want to live in the year 2015. As far as calories go, look up and calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate. Eat at least 200 calories more than your BMR, as a rule of thumb, and perhaps more if you are doing a lot of activity. If you are really serious about your health, perhaps invest in a "FITBIT" or other activity tracker that can be linked with myfitness pal, and then you'll start to get real data on what your calorie burn is.

From there, you can work towards having just a reasonable calorie deficit, safe and healthy weight loss over time, and a new lifestyle that you enjoy, makes you feel good and not ill, with more energy and better health. Good health and a healthy weight is not created over-night. It's created, brick by brick, step by step, and year by year.

Sorry this is so long. Hope it helps.

whatatime2befit · October 2014

You have to make it a lifestyle change, not a drastic mission to drop the pounds immediately. Do you expect to eat, forever, only 500 calories several days a week? That isn't healthy, nor feasible long term.

1200 is the minimum your body needs to function. Going a little below it occasionally isn't going to hurt, but 500 calories is way too low.

Liftng4Lis · October 2014

Agree with everyone else. You didn't gain this is a month or two, why lose it this way?? Learn something sustainable here, its called moderation.

_HeartsOnFire_ · October 2014

Very confused about how to do this.

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