Afraid to eat :(

To find out what "starvation mode" really is, google ---Minnesota study, starvation mode. If you fit those criteria, then you've had it.. Relax. This is something you'll be doing for the rest of your life. You want to change eating habits and that takes a while. Take things slow. Buy a digital scale, weigh and measure all food and sauces, plug your stats into MFP, stay within your calorie goal everyday. If you go over now and again--no panic. Pick up the next day and go on. Be consistant, move as much as you can. If you are still in a panic, as Beachgod said-get professional help.

Well, we never encourage very low calories here, anyway, so it should work out Most people here try to lose 1 or even 0.5 lbs a week. Eat to your calories (very accurately) for a while and just see how it goes. Only eat back about half of your exercise calories, though, because the burns listed on here tend to run high. Welcome and good luck!

Whoever invented the term 'starvation mode' has a lot to answer for. It has done nothing but create confusion amongst frustrated and naive dieters. The body cannot overcome its own energy balance requirements and make you hold onto or gain weight when you take in less than you require. If you could manage that, you'd be getting studied by scientists to try and find out how you produce energy with no fuel source.

I've had spells where I've reduced to VLCD in my life. I've lost weight using them, and maintained on around 1000 - 1200 cals a day. Then I started gaining and lost it. I couldn't sustain that low level of food for life, and it was damaging my health. I ended up with T2 diabetes as well.

One diagnosis of underactive thyroid later, and medication for it, and I am losing weight on a steady approx average 1200 or so calories a day. I sometimes eat back half my exercise calories, sometimes I don't. I had some silly spells a few months ago of eating too little, but I've got my sensible head on now and am doing C25K and some weights now.

My mother, however, lives with us, and is largely immobile. It depends on the disability, but I've had to also get her to reduce her weight. I got to the point that I could no longer lift her off the floor if she fell.

I walk her round the room a few times a day, and we do light exercises with her arms while sitting. If her arms are a little weak, I help support the weight, as the movement is what's important, not the weight she can hold. She's losing at a steady couple of pounds every month or two. It's not a lot, but over time, it adds up to a saver for my back, and she doesn't feel deprived or hungry, although she does sometimes make a face at whichever healthy food I give her for meals. She's not adventurous, and yes, I do make sure she has her desired chips, chocolate and crisps within her food, as she likes them.

My recommendation would be to weigh all food, log it, and don't weigh more than once a month if the scales worry you. Go slow, and recognise that your body might be adjusting to your life change. Take your measurements with a tape measure instead. For my first 2 stone of weight loss last year, I did not weight once. I only know my highest weight, as my doctor recorded it, and I asked him once he said I'd lost 2 stone. I can cope with the scales now, but at the beginning, it would have demoralised me to do it. I even got rid of my scales by giving them to a friend until I was ready to cope with weighing myself.

I still feel that temptation not to eat at all when my scales don't move for a couple of weeks, but I've just pushed on, and they've dropped weeks later. All my body had done, was hold water in the fat cells that were lost, possibly in case I fill them up again quickly. After a while, that water goes, and it makes me look like I've lost nothing for weeks, then perhaps 2-3 pounds in the space of a couple of days.

Go easy on yourself, and enjoy the process, focusing on health before weight loss, and the rest will come.

Good luck.
:-)

Lounmoun wrote: »

Thomaskerrya wrote: »

But still, for a 4st overweight woman, being on the WW plan and not losing weight should be an impossibility.

Could you clarify your height, weight and weight loss goal?
4 st = 56 lbs and unless you are shorter than 3'4" that is not overweight or even a healthy weight at all. Is this a typo?

She means she is 56 pounds overweight.

synacious wrote: »

I have quite a number of questions for you that I'm genuinely curious about.

"I know starvation mode is real because I've been through it several times, yet my brain is screaming, 'you're not losing weight, stop eating!' I tried a VLCD twice; 600 calories a day meal replacements, and I didn't lose hardly any weight. I've calorie counted before, and if I go below 1000 calories, I don't lose weight. If I eat between 1200-1300 calories, it drops off!"

1. If the weight "dropped off" eating between 1200 and 1300 calories, why is your brain telling you not to eat?
2. If you "know starvation mode is real", why is your brain telling you not to eat?
3. If you lost weight easily on 1200 to 1300 calories, why did you join Weight Watchers to lose weight?

I'm not going to armchair diagnose you with an eating disorder, but I will say that your line of thinking is disordered. Others have told you starvation mode is not real and I'm going to echo that statement. You said that you "hardly lost" on VLCDs. The word "hardly" is subjective. It could mean you lost half a pound in a month or it could mean you expected to lose something like five pounds per week and you only lost two which is actually a normal rate of loss. The fact of the matter is that if you lost weight on 1200 calories, you'd lose on 600. If you tried VLCDs and ate at 600 for four days, then binge ate on the 5th day, that changes the diet completely hence you "not losing". Most people would binge eat on such a VLCD because it's not sustainable. Due to your partial disability, something like 1200 to 1300 is more sustainable for you since exercise is difficult and you'd be less prone to binge hence the notion that you lost more weight in that calorie range.

You need to be honest with yourself about the methods that you've used so far. Regardless of what may or may not be accurate in your posts, the fact of the matter is that you clearly state you lost more weight when eating between 1200 and 1300, so why in the world would you not want to eat knowing it didn't bring you any success?

I am with this!!!!

You lost weight eating 1200 - 1300? What's the issue?

Stay completely way from VLCD period.

I too will not arm chair ED either, but I clearly see by the post, there is disordered thinking at bay.

All I am going to say is take care of your body and its nutritional needs otherwise loosing weight is pointless.

Ok, let's ignore everything else about this entire conversation for a second.

If you know that you lose weight eating 1200-1300 calories per day then eat 1200-1300 calories per day.
There. Glad we got that cleared up.

Carlos_421 wrote: »

Ok, let's ignore everything else about this entire conversation for a second.

If you know that you lose weight eating 1200-1300 calories per day then eat 1200-1300 calories per day.
There. Glad we got that cleared up.

My thoughts exactly.

Honestly, with all the yo-yo dieting and VLCDs, it is good that you can still lose on 1200-1300. Just do that.

Hey OP. I totally get having anxiety about food.

I recently bumped up my calories to try and hit some macro recommendations and start lifting weights. Stressing me out for sure. I know I should expect to at least not lose for a week or two. Hate it.

And what do I usually do when I'm stressed? Comfort eat. It's a sticky wicket.

Dealing with all the noise in your head is the biggest struggle. If 1200 - 1300 works then definitely just do that.

As far as VLCD (not recommending it) I suspect that it isn't something you could stick with for very long. That's normal and perfectly okay. But if you did do it, you would lose. I did 800 calories for 3 months followed by 1000 for another 6-7 and lost 100 pounds. To me 600 doesn't sound like a doctor supervised program...it sounds like a quack HCG drops type of thing.

Thomaskerrya wrote: »

It is real. I tried a VLCD twice; 600 calories a day meal replacements, and I didn't lose hardly any weight. I've calorie counted before, and if I go below 1000 calories, I don't lose weight. If I eat between 1200-1300 calories, it drops off! I've had all the doctors blood tests going, I'm as healthy as an ox, despite being overweight; low cholesterol, low BP, etc. I am partially disabled so exercise is difficult. But still, for a 4st overweight woman, being on the WW plan and not losing weight should be an impossibility. Hence moving back to calorie counting. Just a bit traumatised, thanks Oprah!!!

Sounds like you should eat between 1200-1300 calories. If you've found the sweet spot what works for you, why would you be afraid to eat at that level?

And if you believe that eating less causes you not to lose, why in the world would you ever want to say 'what's the point, I should just go without'??

Thomaskerrya wrote: »

I will stick to my 1200 calories, wait a week without hopping on and off the scales and see how it goes. It nothing happens then maybe I'll see the doc again.

How about sticking to it for two months, logging all food every day, weighing once a week, to see how it goes before seeing a doctor? You can print out your food and weight log to take with you.