Can't stop crying..

It sounds like you're under a lot of stress. Dieting is hard on your body and perhaps it's overflowing with emotion. It's best to let it out, perhaps talk to someone you trust, and tomorrow is a new day.

I agree, if you were eating so many calories before, maybe 1200 is too low to instantly drop down to. I certainly get hangry, this could be something similar. However, if increasing your calories doesn't work, it might be time to visit a doctor.

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I would increase your calories and make sure you're getting quality vitamins in you. Your body is freaking out that it is starving! I really admire how you've cut your calories so drastically and stuck with it!

In general, if I don't eat enough, I can sometimes experience some pretty intense Hangry mood swings that, at very worst, become crying fits of frustration. You may do well to recalculate your goals.

Scooby's Workshop calorie calculator has yet to steer me in the wrong direction. The numbers given I believe are pretty sensible and easier to work with than drastic cuts in calories.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

Dieting is hard. You have suddenly decreased food drastically. It takes patience to adjust to a drastic reduction in food. Not surprised that you are crying. When suddenly our comfort food is gone it's like losing a best friend.

I'd also recommend talking to your doctor. Let them know you've been feeling unusually emotional and can't shake it. Also let them know you've changed your diet.

They'll probably do a blood test and might tell you to exercise since it's good for stress. If you're taking medication, something might need to change there. You could be absorbing thing differently with the change in diet. The doc might also have you talk to a counselor, try to figure out what's getting you down, help you work through that.

Yikes. I would increase your calories. What are your stats? You prob don't need to jump your calories down that drastically in order to start losing weight. *hugs*

call your doc .

and eat more.

Please seek professional help especially since you mentioned you suffer from depression .

lostinfbg wrote: »

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to me. I feel like I have a crew! I'm going to try to address all the things you've said in one go.

I can't remember when my next med check with the psychiatrist is - I'll call and move it up. One of my tells that I'm depressed is that I don't think of the obvious - like this.

I'm 5'2, and 240 llbs. My long goal is 105, but I'm starting with getting to 215 by the end of April. Whenever I've calculated the number of calories I'm supposed to eat, it's always come out at 1200, so I wasn't surprised. Maybe I should have taken it with a pinch of salt. I can certainly eat more!

I have been exercising - it's not making me happier, as far as I can tell :-(

I've had depression since I was 8, so I'm not worried about suicidal ideation. If I get some bad thoughts, I will go to the emergency room.

Thank you all for replying. The weight of your replies really helped me. If one person says you're green, you just ignore them - but when it's all of them - I may be green.

Thank you again.

We're here for you!

35 lbs by the end of April is a pretty steep goal- you're looking at over 2 lbs of weight loss a week. You'll see a lot of websites blithely state that "up to two pounds a week" is healthy/sustainable, but the truth is that while a tall guy with a lot to lose might knock off two pounds a week without a problem, for those of us who are vertically challenged, to get to the kind of calorie deficit that creates 2 lbs of loss a week is *tough*, and it will only get tougher as your mass decreases and, correspondingly, so does your calorie burn.

You'll likely see big drops the first few weeks and you can DEFINITELY feel better and be down quite a bit by the end of April, but I'd suggest taking it at a slower pace than you currently are, where you'll be able to eat more calories and still see loss. Moderate exercise has been shown to be somewhat helpful with depression, but I bet most exercise feels a lot more intense than "moderate" at 240 lbs and eating only 1200 calories. 1200 calories a day is something like 600 cal/day off your BMR as I calculate it, and that's just BMR, WITHOUT considering exercise calories and your typical activity level. That's a pretty miserable level of restriction to be eating at- 1200 calories just isn't that much food- and yet depending on your activity/exercise level it might still not be enough to get you the 2+ pounds/week you're aiming for.

It's okay to get to your goal at a slightly slower pace and feel better while you're doing it. This is supposed to be a forever change- begin the way you mean to go on, sustainably and not miserably. And consider adopting process-based goals in addition to your dated target weight goals. Target weight goals are great, and dated goals are great, but when you attach a date to a goal that's actually, ultimately, out of your hands (you can control what you eat and what you do, but you can't actually guarantee you're going to be that weight on that date, for so many reasons) it's easy to get dispirited even when doing your absolute best. Whereas process goals- "I will log my food 95% of the time between now and the end of April," "I will work out at least 3x a week"- those are totally in your control, and more actionable than dated target weights. Focus on your inputs and the outputs will follow; focus on the outputs and it's easy to get discouraged and give up on the inputs.

Good luck! You can do this.

Side note: There's also a really good thread about depression. I don't know if it would help at all but reading some of it has helped me realize that I'm not alone.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10058170/depression-and-weight-loss