Starvation mode. Myth or Fact?

aziapatrick wrote: »

Exercising: You could be right on that part. Prior to me starting this diet on 1/5 I literally did nothing. I was definitely heading in the "My 600 lb life" direction. I now work out 3 days a week and go up on weights and extend time on the elliptical each Saturday morning. I am now up to 16 minutes on the elliptical and 45 minutes weight training.

That's a really good start since you were completely sedentary to begin with. Just keep gradually adding more activity.

You seem very young to weigh as much as you do and to be struggling as much as you are even though you have improved your habits. This makes me wonder if you might have metabolic issues or other underlying health problems. Cheat meals are a controversial issue, and everybody will have a different opinion on how you should handle that. If I were you, I would try not to cheat and give the diet an honest shot for a couple of months. If you do this and STILL don't see any kind of loss, then you will know if you might need to seek out a medical opinion.

I took a peek at your tracker--I think that you are doing a pretty good job. Don't give up yet! Sometimes it takes a while to find the right mix of approaches.

Oops! I somehow missed that you had already lost 20 pounds in the month! That's great!

It really is important to get a scale. You can often find them for a dollar or two at Goodwill or similar stores.

I have heard from Doctors it does exist. Two weeks is not long enough to give up. You have to work towards your goal daily. Drink plenty of water and log everything even your cheat meal. You may be consuming more than you think in that once every two week cheat meal. Good Luck on your Journey.

aziapatrick wrote: »

joneallen wrote: »

herrspoons wrote: »

Because it's not working. Change the obvious first and worry about the detail later.

The obvious is her not even owning a food scale.

I'm sorry I haven't gotten one but there is NO WAY I'm having an error of more than 500 calories. If you want to attack me about a food scale then please go somewhere else.

You could be out by more than you think.

I'm not saying a number but it's possible.

aziapatrick wrote: »

I really appreciate all of the advice that has been given, I have lost 20 lbs since 1/5 so obviously I must be doing something right, even without owning a food scale. I completely agree that I haven't given myself enough time before getting concerned and will keep doing what I'm doing, minus a cheat meal (which isn't necessary for me) and review again in a month.

So you went from the scale hardly moving at all to losing 20 lbs in a month? That's approx 5lbs/week. I'd be jumping for freakin joy if I could do that. I can go weeks without seeing a scale move and I exercise 5 - 6 days/week. I don't worry so much about the scale, more about my body comp and size of my clothing.

Further if you say you are doing something right then why would you even ask? Is it validation?

It's quite possible that you haven't given your body enough time after eating to tap into your fat stores. Think about it, even though you reduced your calorie intake you're still eating regularity. Your body needs to be trained to access your fat stores, which usually happens after 18 hours of fasting.

How late are you eating dinner usually? Ideally you should give yourself 12 hours between dinner and breakfast for a bunch of reasons, I won't list them but do feel free to google it [search "dinner breakfast 12 hours"]

If, and only if you think you'd be able to do it, I HIGHLY recommend IF (intermittent Fasting) Specifically Brad Pilon's 24 hour version from his book "Eat Stop Eat". He's got a degree in human biology and cites numerous studies throughout his book, and multiple articles reference his book when discussing IF. Basically, he's legit.

24 hour intermittent fasting is just what it sounds like, it's going a full 24 hours (I usually begin around 6 or 7 PM, that way each day I'm still kind of eating, just skipping dinner the first day and skipping breakfast and lunch the second) without eating. You can (and NEED TO) drink plenty of water, as well as coffee and tea (I cheat and add as much as 35 calories of 2% milk and a little bit of sugar to 1 cup coffee) People typically fast 1-2 times per week. There is NO set schedule, do it whenever you like. It's important though, to NOT gorge yourself after your fast is over (you will be tempted to, I promise haha) simply go back to normal eating, of course I recommend eating good healthy whole foods and not Immediately devouring a pizza. I usually have a 500-600 cal meal (my daily is ~2200) with a good balance of macros (think 3 eggs, sauteed spinach and a little mayo on whole wheat toast, followed by a banana) then give myself about 1 hour to take it all in. If I still feel hungry I go for more.

While not fasting you simply eat normally, you CAN go out to eat. You don't even HAVE to count calories (I still do usually though). Because think about it, if you're fasting 2 days a week. You're tapping into your fat stores (like I said, it starts at the 18 hour mark so you're running on your body's stored fat for SIX HOURS each time you fast). In addition, you aren't eating for 2 days out of a week. That's a caloric deficit of whatever your daily "maintenance" calories are (for me: 4,400). Therefore it doesn't really matter how much you're eating when you aren't fasting. Oh one more thing, your appetite will go WAY down!

Caloric restriction is simply the only way to lose weight, we can all agree on that, you will feel hungry especially during your normal meal times, and especially when fasting for the 1st few times, but the hunger WILL pass and about mid afternoon I actually tend to get a kick of energy.

24 Hour IF is NOT by any means for everyone. It works best with men, but there are plenty of women who have done IF successfully. If you are successful though, and can do a couple fasts a week (once the weight is off, and it WILL go I promise, you can drop to 1 fast every other week or something like that, as there are a whole lot of benefits from IF besides just losing weight)

If you think you could do it, as you can tell, I highly recommend it. I can't cover all the benefits of IF in a post though, so here are a couple more good reads including the book which I highly reccomend if this seems like something you'd be interested in. It's really a no brainer, you won't have a problem losing weight if you can stick to it. Best of luck! - David

P.S. I'm guessing there will be a lot of skeptics\critics out there as even my girlfriend is one of them haha, when I told her after the fact that I had just gone 24 hours without eating she was almost furious. I later talked to her about how it's not as bad as it sounds (most people hear "I just starved for a day" when you mention it haha) She eventually tried it, and we came to the conclusion that it is NOT for her.

If you have any questions, ask away, I'll do my best to answer everything.


Huffington Post: Intermittent Fasting: Who's It For? (And, if It's Not for You, What to Do Instead)


Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon


EDIT: I just saw that you lost 20 pounds as well. Good job! But this still counts. For you as well as anyone else looking to lose weight or simply maintaining good health\weight.

I would look again at what you consume in drinks- for example, the Naked Pomegranate Acai Naked 15.2oz contains 62g sugar (AKA 5 tablespoons of sugar). The high sugar amount is insane. I would be very careful with any juice - no added sugar doesn't mean no sugar.

ndj1979 wrote: »

OP - I browsed the thread..here is your problem.
-
Not logging cheat meal
not having a food scale
not weighing/logging/measuring everything.

^ do all this for about three weeks and see what happens.

Truth when people make calories counting thread without actually counting calories. Food scale should be the number one comment to put since you have no idea about eyeballing. Yes you can lose weight without counting but that is more of a guessing game then trying to do Where's Waldo.

Oh, it's real, you just haven't been to the right Continent to see how it works.

First, my heartfelt congratulations to you for starting this process, and for being determined to carry your plan to your target weight. You can do this, just be patient while you figure it all out. Take all comments as good advice intended firmly but kindly, then apply the obvious corrections without feeling forced. It's a process, not an event, believe me.

A few comments:
 I think you do need more calories, and I know that that concerns you, but once you build more precise info on the food and exercise entries, you can make the needed adjustments. What does MFP say you should be taking in every day?

 On exercise calories, just use the general guidance in the MFP tools, and maybe adjust down a bit to be sure you’re not “buying” calories on credit!

 Eat the calories you earn through exercise, if you want, because you’re still moving forward at the losing pace set up to begin with. You aren’t dieting, and you aren’t required to suffer. You’re transitioning to a normal relationship with food. You need those calories to replace what you burned.

 Also: Does it seem that a 128 to 188 ounce daily water intake is high? I'm just asking. Do others have any input?

 And, YES! Define and LOG EVERYTHING like a darn scientist. Otherwise the MFP tracking isn't serving you long-term, even if you lose weight. I see the tracking as a way to really nail what works for MY metabolism and body, including how that changes as things progress. So, yes, I’m going a bit nuts researching and building the precise details of my recipes, snacks, sandwiches and exercise activities, but once that’s all in there, I know that it’ll be easy, but especially ACCURATE, going forward. That’s already helped me to look at lower sodium content, because some meals contain half of my allowed amount and I run over nearly every day. For an overweight guy who’s already had a few BP-related issues, that’s good to know! As other have said, take the time to log and track, and don’t accept generics and such- go back and verify EVERY specification yourself. I can’t have certain lunches if I know that I’m gonna have particular dinners, or I’ll blow the day. I know that because I have precise info in my MFP database of meals, recipes, exercises, etc.

 I think most who are transitioning to more realistic eating habits have that first week or two where they lose over 1-2 pounds per week. But, you’ll note that MFP has NO selection for target weight loss in excess of two pounds per week. You need time to take the weight off in a healthy way, at a healthy rate, because your body will naturally adjust how it metabolizes your food as it becomes smaller. Plateaus are common after the first few weeks, and I know that’s hard to handle when you want to lose many pounds.

 I need to lose 35 pounds, for example, and lost 6 the first week. But that’s not really the best part of that first week. I also did this the first week:

o I used MFP to track what I WAS eating daily, and using the calculator from the site I learned that I was woofing down 1100-1500 calories, MINIMUM, over what was healthy for me as I try to lose. I now eat what the system says, period. That’s amazing, to me.

o I began exercising every day, even a 5-minute walk counts. And I logged it. I feel as though need my mind, habit patterns and metabolism to get “fed” food and exercise as consistently as possible.

o I went to the site and used the system to build and track my personal meals and workouts every day, again focusing on the consistency.

o And, yeah, I lost 6 pounds. Give me a few weeks, and I’ll level off, and I’ll average those pounds into my first month, quarter and year of the transition. It took me years to gradually “get used” to an extra few pounds at a time, and here I am today. If I can average just a pound a week, even three pounds a month – whatever - , I’m good. So long as I am adapting my expectations, emotions and consistent approach every day, week and, month, then I won’t just be thinner, but I’ll be better than ever, from the inside out.


 Can you exercise just 20-30 minutes daily? I know that I’m applying my logic to your effort, but I’ve heard that that a good way to “retrain” your metabolism is to “feed” it consistently, both food and activity.

I'd ditch the cheat meal for these reasons:

1. You're probably consuming a day's calories in one sitting. I think consistency of calorie consumption is important, and that your metabolism tends to overreact to extremes. I'm no doc, just thinking here.

2. I think we need to retrain our expectations and emotional connections regarding food, and "cheating" seems like you're assuming that that's still the one enjoyable "like the good old days" meal of the week, like the prior eating patterns still have their psychological grip, you know? Don't fret that you're never gonna have another chance to order a basket of chips again, because once you assert your acceptance that the "good old days" are just starting, then you will be eating a lighter breakfast and lunch, then enjoying a more moderate Mexican meal that's not "snuck" into your plans.

Sorry to ramble on.

Here is the difference in measuring your food with cups and weighing your food.
Do this every day with all your foods, measuring and spoon sizes and that for a whole week and you will be shocked how much calories are not logged. Plus your cheat meal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY