Eating far below BMR and not losing weight
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The reason you got away with that low of calories the last time was because you were morbidly obese so your body could draw from it's own stores. Depending on your frame you are now within 10% to 20% of the average BMI. In simplest terms your body knows this and there is abundant research out there that proves severe calorie restriction lowers your RMR.
Add into this the fact that you are active, then your body is going to do what it has to do to protect itself. Also the sodium in those prepackaged meals is going to affect water retention.
I'm almost 6'3, large frame and I maintain around 210 to 215 eating 3000 to 3500 calories and only walk plus strength train.
You need to up your calories in a controlled way and track it accurately. I won't argue with you and it's not what you want to here but, it's the plain and simple fact that a person can't healthfully starve themselves to a lower weight. If you lose anything at all it will be mostly LBM and/or water weight at that severe of a calorie deficit.0 -
I weigh once a week because it fluctuates anyways. Others have said it but I will repeat, you should be eating 2,000 calories a day for your size. A thousand calories is way too low and you are risking complications. I am part of a Bariatric surgery support group and some of us after surgery have trouble hitting the minimum calorie goal 1,200 with also a minimum percentage of protein. Believe me, there are unpleasant side effects if you don't eat enough. Also mentioned here.
I've also mentioned here several times that I'm planning or seriously considering upping my calories to 2000 lol. About as much as it's been suggested0 -
TheRealJigsaw wrote: »Don't be surprised when your hair starts falling off eating only 1,000 calories a day
I honestly don't think that will happen. Since it didn't the first time. But I'm upping to 2000 anyways. Just because 1000 doesn't feel like it's working0 -
GeeWillickers wrote: »The reason you got away with that low of calories the last time was because you were morbidly obese so your body could draw from it's own stores. Depending on your frame you are now within 10% to 20% of the average BMI. In simplest terms your body knows this and there is abundant research out there that proves severe calorie restriction lowers your RMR.
Add into this the fact that you are active, then your body is going to do what it has to do to protect itself. Also the sodium in those prepackaged meals is going to affect water retention.
I'm almost 6'3, large frame and I maintain around 210 to 215 eating 3000 to 3500 calories and only walk plus strength train.
You need to up your calories in a controlled way and track it accurately. I won't argue with you and it's not what you want to here but, it's the plain and simple fact that a person can't healthfully starve themselves to a lower weight. If you lose anything at all it will be mostly LBM and/or water weight at that severe of a calorie deficit.
Yeah my plan is to bump the calories up now. And *continue* logging accurately
You guys eat a lot more than me which I find impressive. I would love to eat 3000 a day but I fear the consequences. My LBM is probably a lot lower than yours. Hopefully I can remedy that in the gym0 -
Where's the thumbs-up emoticon? Thumbs-up, dude. Love your workouts, love your food. Try a Premier Protein shake after your workouts. Replenish, replenish.0
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Where's the thumbs-up emoticon? Thumbs-up, dude. Love your workouts, love your food. Try a Premier Protein shake after your workouts. Replenish, replenish.
I definitely love the running part lol. Hate lifting weights though. I've always just been so bad at it.
I've been mostly underweight most of my life except for a year where i ballooned up to 320, then a year losing it, and then now, right at the tail end of losing it, with a rebound from 200 to 240 (intentionally)
For literally 90% of my life, I've been way underweight and eaten massive quantities of food every day. Then suddenly it caught up to me.
During all that time, I just could not build up any muscle in the gym no matter how hard I tried.0 -
geniusgamer wrote: »How often do you guys weigh? I hate weighing every day. Half the days I feel good, half depressed
I do weigh every day, but I've learned to expect fluctuations. If it goes down? Good. If it goes up? Ok, I may have had a little too much sodium or in approaching TOM (obviously not something you have to worry about). It's only if there's no movement or a continuous upward streak over WEEKS that one should be concerned they aren't losing.
I'm glad you've been taking a lot of the advice given here. Doing this in a healthy matter is the best thing.0 -
geniusgamer wrote: »How often do you guys weigh? I hate weighing every day. Half the days I feel good, half depressed
I do weigh every day, but I've learned to expect fluctuations. If it goes down? Good. If it goes up? Ok, I may have had a little too much sodium or in approaching TOM (obviously not something you have to worry about). It's only if there's no movement or a continuous upward streak over WEEKS that one should be concerned they aren't losing.
I'm glad you've been taking a lot of the advice given here. Doing this in a healthy matter is the best thing.
I feel like the level of discipline which you obviously have that enables you to weigh daily without going crazy is something I'll have to work for awhile to attain.
Thanks for the advice, I'll set that as one of my goals0 -
I wouldn't bump right up to 2,000 calories a day - do it in baby steps and see what happens...if you are truly eating 1,000 now your body will be in shock if you double that. Try bumping up to 1,300 for a week and then start adding 100-200 every week until you get up to 2,000.
Also, make the crockpot your friend - there are 100's of recipes out on the internet, even ones where you can put everythign together and put it in the freezer and then when you are ready to cook it you just throw it in the crockpot and you are good to go.
Good luck!0 -
It sounds like you have the body type of solo runners I saw at the Grande Cache death race. All muscle, tendon, and bone. Loved to run. Crazy to run. http://winnipegbarefootrunners.blogspot.ca/2012/09/the-canadian-death-race-views-from.html0
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I wouldn't bump right up to 2,000 calories a day - do it in baby steps and see what happens...if you are truly eating 1,000 now your body will be in shock if you double that. Try bumping up to 1,300 for a week and then start adding 100-200 every week until you get up to 2,000.
Also, make the crockpot your friend - there are 100's of recipes out on the internet, even ones where you can put everythign together and put it in the freezer and then when you are ready to cook it you just throw it in the crockpot and you are good to go.
Good luck!
Yeah good point. I'll try to increase it by 200 calories/day each week0 -
It sounds like you have the body type of solo runners I saw at the Grande Cache death race. All muscle, tendon, and bone. Loved to run. Crazy to run. http://winnipegbarefootrunners.blogspot.ca/2012/09/the-canadian-death-race-views-from.html
At least I hope to get that body back!
It's been annoying running in a hilly area lately with all this excess fat weighing me down. Feel like I'm climbing a mountain with a 50 pound backpack on0 -
geniusgamer wrote: »I honestly don't know why 1000 is unhealthy in my case, given my health and how I feel.
1000 calories of the right stuff can meet your mineral and vitamin requirements, essential fats and proteins. Not trivial to achieve though unless it's some form of complete nutrition plan you're following.
You can probably supply 1500 - 1800 cals/day from current fat reserves but this will decline as you lose. A big deficit may be OK at a BMI of 29.5 but less so as it falls.
I'm always interested in cases like yours, 90% of people will dismiss you as a liar or whatever or have some crazy theory. It would be cool to have your RMR measured and understand what's actually happening.
An open diary might satisfy the curiosity of observers. What does your macro split look like ?
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geniusgamer wrote: »I honestly don't know why 1000 is unhealthy in my case, given my health and how I feel.
1000 calories of the right stuff can meet your mineral and vitamin requirements, essential fats and proteins. Not trivial to achieve though unless it's some form of complete nutrition plan you're following.
You can probably supply 1500 - 1800 cals/day from current fat reserves but this will decline as you lose. A big deficit may be OK at a BMI of 29.5 but less so as it falls.
I'm always interested in cases like yours, 90% of people will dismiss you as a liar or whatever or have some crazy theory. It would be cool to have your RMR measured and understand what's actually happening.
An open diary might satisfy the curiosity of observers. What does your macro split look like ?
He said he's been at a plateau for all of 5 days. I think we know what's actually happening.0 -
Yeah, 5 days is the width of a path not a plateau.0
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geniusgamer wrote: »I honestly don't know why 1000 is unhealthy in my case, given my health and how I feel.
1000 calories of the right stuff can meet your mineral and vitamin requirements, essential fats and proteins. Not trivial to achieve though unless it's some form of complete nutrition plan you're following.
You can probably supply 1500 - 1800 cals/day from current fat reserves but this will decline as you lose. A big deficit may be OK at a BMI of 29.5 but less so as it falls.
I'm always interested in cases like yours, 90% of people will dismiss you as a liar or whatever or have some crazy theory. It would be cool to have your RMR measured and understand what's actually happening.
An open diary might satisfy the curiosity of observers. What does your macro split look like ?
Oddly enough, the prepackaged meals may have helped OP out in this. Always a meat, a starch, and a fruit/veg in those. So, at least some variety. Plus any vitamins/minerals it may have been fortified with. Could have been worse. Still not a good idea, which OP seems to be realizing.
Also, OP, think about it this way. One of your goals is to reattain your former athletic ability, yes? Think how much better off you will be if you have sufficient fuel for your workouts between now and when you've lost the weight. Or would you rather make up for lost time because you weren't capable of putting in the effort you would have otherwise?
As for easy to prepare food, try a selection of the following:- Raw fruits and veg (try roasting for easy cooked prep)
- If you find the raw stuff is spoiling too fast, frozen fruits and veg
- Pasta - toss in chopped up veg and/or meat and/or cheese, make the pasta <= 1/2 of the meal (I personally like sausage + cherry tomato + broccoli or spinach + asiago or parmesan)
- Baked chicken - seriously, you can throw chicken pieces (breast, leg, etc) in a pan in an oven at 350 for 20-45 minutes with no seasoning (keep a close eye on it). Take that out and use it in chicken salad, pasta dishes, etc. If you do this skin on, you'll probably want to remove it - it usually doesn't get nice and crispy.
- Roast chicken. Lots of recipes for whole roast chicken. Crazy good, little prep work, about 45min - 1hr cooking time.
- Soups
- Hamburger
- Frozen meals. There are some pretty good ones out there. Ignore the 'preservatives are toxins' crowd. There's nothing wrong with having a frozen dinner, just don't have one at every meal.
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OP I weigh once a week...but because I am pretty consistent with exercise and my intake (logging here as accurately as possible take a look if you want) I don't flucuate a whole lot I may not lose every week but then I will whoosh and it could be 1-1.5lbs gone never to be seen again.
As for eating a lot I agree reverse up to 2k but keep in mind I lose on that...I maintain on 2300 so I suspect you could eat a lot more...even my husband who is around your age maintains on about 3500 and he's a gamer with a bit of exercise and a somewhat active job...
Now my son...20 and a welder so always on the go...can eat massive amounts of food and still lose...
If you want to run fuel your body esp now that you are not obese...you will thank us later.0 -
First of all .. eat something. At 230 lbs and 1000 cal you are not doing yourself any favors. A person your size should eat probably a min of 700 cal a day more than that.
The reason that you are not losing weight is cause your body is freaking out cause you are not feeding it. Give it something to sustain itself with and you will probably find it will straighten things out. But it may take a bit for that to happen.0 -
geniusgamer wrote: »Check your sodium, it's most likely off the chart with all of that frozen diet food. Swap one packaged meal a day out for something homemade and keep it low-sodium. Sodium -> water retention -> weight stall.
Could you suggest something easy to prepare? I have so little time these days. It's why those diet meals are so convenient
Hey Genius - A good site is www.Allrecipes.com. You can search by ingredient, and they have all the prep and cook time listed for each meal.
You can also copy the link to each recipe you choose into the MFP recipe import page, and then have it AUTOLOG the food to your database! simple!!
My only suggestion when you have the MFP search for the ingredients - you review each one manually to be sure it pulled the right one.
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I wouldn't waste your time weighing frozen dinners unless you're really curious. Even if it's a whole 20% off, then you're eating 1200, not really an explanation for a plateau.
I think the reason 5 days feels like a plateau is because all those days of frozen meals and 1000 calories is a tough, dull regimen and you want to see results daily, right? There will always be 'plateaus' after large drops in weight like you experienced, I think.
I think you'd be more patient with the normal ups and downs if you did eat more and not just pre-made meals. But then again you said you feel fine and are not feeling deprived, so maybe I'm just projecting how I'd feel eating frozen meals.
Good luck!0
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