Little Food, LOTS of weight

What are you eating? A lot of carbs, little protein (you want the opposite)? Are you getting good sleep? Are you stressed out? All these things can affect your weight..

Are you drinking enough water?

You may not be eating enough, although it still sounds strange to me. Going way below your calories will not really speed up your weight loss and in fact can slow it down or even cause you to gain.

I lost 5 lbs the first few days...great. Then I really made sure to cut calories (under by 400-500 per day when you count exercise calories) and I GAINED 3 lbs. Trainer said to eat more (of the right foods, not the Twinkies darn it!), and it came right back off and dropped another 5.

Maybe you could try eating all of your calories and see what happens in a week or two.

Good luck!

How many calories are you eating? It may be not enough, but if you are not logging them, you may be eating too much, it's easy to overestimate.

Maybe you arent eating ENOUGH???
Your body needs a bare minimum to function - and if it isnt getting enough - it will store anything it can get its hands on to keep. Its called starvation mode.

I second this.

I was cutting calories and eating like 1200 or so and not getting anywhere. Then I started eating more like 1500 or so, and I started losing faster.

Oftentimes we must do what seems logically wrong...and even though it is hard to think that way...your stomach will thank you too.

Help! Ok I'm a total loss, I've gotten huge! I'm now 169 I've never weighed this much except when I'm Pg. I haven't changed anything as far as eating habits or anything from when before I was pg with my second child. I'm always (or almost always) way below my calorie intake and I try not to be sedentary through out the day. ( keeping up with a 3 yrs old/1 yr old and 2 puppies makes it hard to be lazy). However I'm still barely losing if at all. I don't know know what to do. I don't eat much and I'm rarely relaxing during the day. Help!

Sounds alot like me. I still haven't figured it out for sure...I wasn't losing when I had it set to what i thought it should be set at - so this week I have it set higher, to see what the *more calories* does to the scale. So frustrating.

I second ghoztt's comments. Calculate your BMR (there are plenty of websites to do this) then adjust for any exercise you might be doing and finally try to put yourself in a 300 or so calorie deficit to achieve ideal weight loss don't accept anyone else's "one size fits all" approach to how many calories you should be consuming. Also follow the advice of others about the QUALITY of the foods you eat: big tip, in general avoid starches and sugars as much as possible. Lower your carbs *GRADUALLY* until you find a mix that works for your unique metabolism. In general lower carb diets are better for fat loss but some people tolerate carbs just fine and a high-carb/low-fat diet will work for them too. As a general rule don't do any diet that emphasizes eating a majority of junk food, processed foods, foods high in saturated fats, sodium, etc. Contrary to popular belief "fad diets", huge calorie deficits, long-term calorie deficits with intense excercise, etc. are all recipes for an unhealthy body and NOT good ways to lose fat and keep it off. To lose fat you have to feed the body's metabolic furnace with a healthy and appropriate amount of high quality food while maintaining a small calorie deficit either thru diet, excercise or (ideally) a combination of the two.


If you are doing all these things correctly already then consider the following:
* Are you stressed?
* Are you getting enough sleep?
* Are you eating your biggest meals late at night? Try eating a big breakfast and stopping eating at least 3 hours before bed.
* Are you eating too few meals(with lots of time between) thereby lowering your metabolism as a result?

What are you eating? A lot of carbs, little protein (you want the opposite)? Are you getting good sleep? Are you stressed out? All these things can affect your weight..

Vegies, crackers, lots of chicken, rice, ect. I have insomnia so I sleep when I can but that's not necessarily every night, it's next to impossible to be an Army wife and mom and not be stressed out

Have you tried melatonin?