The journey to lose weight is so stupid

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tjsims88
tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So for about a month I was stuck at the same weight 170. This is while I was damn near starving myself 3 days a week(only having 500 calories on those days) Now I eat what I want (staying below 1400 calories) I weigh myself and I've dropped 3lbs in a week.. Grateful but so confusing and annoying!
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  • tjsims88
    tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
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    pcpop7 wrote: »
    What were you eating the other 4 days a week ? Obviously enough to stay in maintenance.


    I would eat about 2000which would still give me a deficit of over 5000 calories plus I was working out. I should have at least lost a pound a week
  • ummijaaz560
    ummijaaz560 Posts: 228 Member
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    How is it stupid? It's challenging but stupid?
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
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    Not at all confusing!

    You were either:

    -Eating more than 500 calories those three days

    -Eating more than making up for those three days of starving yourself on days you weren't. So say your limit says you can eat 1500 to lose weight, or 10500 a week. Day 1: 500. Day 2: 3000. Day 3: 500. Day 4: 2000. Day 5: 300. Day 6: 3000. Day 7: 2000, or 11300 for the week.

    -Some combination

    And now you're sticking to something that keeps you from over-eating, so you're losing weight! Are you weighing all solids and measuring all liquids?
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
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    tjsims88 wrote: »
    So for about a month I was stuck at the same weight 170. This is while I was damn near starving myself 3 days a week(only having 500 calories on those days) Now I eat what I want (staying below 1400 calories) I weigh myself and I've dropped 3lbs in a week.. Grateful but so confusing and annoying!

    Why were you starving yourself like that? No one here would EVER suggest taking in only 500 calories per day.
  • 2011rocket3touring
    2011rocket3touring Posts: 1,346 Member
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    During one of the crazier times in my life I would eat 2 slices of bread, cheese, mayo and lettuce every day and a half. Which was about the time my body would threaten to pass out. Took about 3 months before the weight refused to come off.
    Starvation is not the answer and 500 calories is insanely low.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    Sounds like IF didn't work but steady deficit did. I'm much more familiar with 5:2 (is 4:3 a thing or something of your own invention?), and "starving yourself" for certain periods is part of the process.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,953 Member
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    Alternate day fasting results in a lot of significant weight fluctuations. While I was doing it, I basically only weighed every 2 weeks. Any closer together, and I couldn't trust the trend since it was entirely dependent on if I was weighing after a well hydrated fast day, a fast day, a feed day... etc. And I was only doing 5:2. Plus I found I was always lacking energy to workout with the same intensity as normal.
  • tjsims88
    tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
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    flippy1234 wrote: »
    I totally get what the poster is saying. But I think she means that you hear so much crap about what to do and what not to do. It is stupid and confusing. But, she has figured it out. Do not starve your body, it needs good fuel in order to run efficiently and burn the calories that it does not want or need. It's like putting bad gas in a car. It will run but not efficiently. Now she knows to put good food in and enough of it. Weight loss is stupid because of all of the crap that we have to wade through to get the right answers and what works for each one of us.

    THIS! Exactly what I meant!
  • tjsims88
    tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
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    goldthistime wrote: »
    Sounds like IF didn't work but steady deficit did. I'm much more familiar with 5:2 (is 4:3 a thing or something of your own invention?), and "starving yourself" for certain periods is part of the process.

    Yes I figured I'd add an extra fast day for even better results
  • tjsims88
    tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
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    MissusMoon wrote: »
    tjsims88 wrote: »
    So for about a month I was stuck at the same weight 170. This is while I was damn near starving myself 3 days a week(only having 500 calories on those days) Now I eat what I want (staying below 1400 calories) I weigh myself and I've dropped 3lbs in a week.. Grateful but so confusing and annoying!

    Why were you starving yourself like that? No one here would EVER suggest taking in only 500 calories per day.

    It's actually a twist on the 5:2 diet.. Eat 500 cals on fast days and maintenance the other days..

  • tjsims88
    tjsims88 Posts: 45 Member
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    spoonyspork wrote: »
    Not at all confusing!

    You were either:

    -Eating more than 500 calories those three days

    -Eating more than making up for those three days of starving yourself on days you weren't. So say your limit says you can eat 1500 to lose weight, or 10500 a week. Day 1: 500. Day 2: 3000. Day 3: 500. Day 4: 2000. Day 5: 300. Day 6: 3000. Day 7: 2000, or 11300 for the week.

    -Some combination

    And now you're sticking to something that keeps you from over-eating, so you're losing weight! Are you weighing all solids and measuring all liquids?

    I was very strict on fast days.. I know I didn't eat over the 500. On the other days however, I would eat out a lot so I couldn't measure what I eat is guesstimate... I figure as long as I eat reasonably on those days ( I never binged) it would work because the next day would be a fast day
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Weight loss is funny that way. IF seems to work very well for some people. I know how my body is when I don't eat enough in a day, though, so it could never work for me as a lifestyle. Glad you found something that is working for you OP!
  • willworkoutforwine
    willworkoutforwine Posts: 64 Member
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    I was losing consistently on Weight Watchers and when I initially started on MFP but then I thought if I ate even less (just 1200 cal/day), I would lose even more. Wrong! I started working w/ a health coach at work and she said I wasn't eating enough so my body wasn't going to let go of the weight (in so many words). I increased my calories to 1500/day (a little more on workout days) and started losing again after 6 weeks or so of not losing.

    Those who say there is "no way" you are really in a deficit aren't always right. You might be in too much of a deficit.

    I agree that it's frustrating but it sounds like you had a similar experience, in that eating a little more than you were actually resulted in a loss. Weight loss has been a lot of trial and error for me. Good luck and keep at it! :)
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
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    willworkoutforwine wrote: »
    I was losing consistently on Weight Watchers and when I initially started on MFP but then I thought if I ate even less (just 1200 cal/day), I would lose even more. Wrong! I started working w/ a health coach at work and she said I wasn't eating enough so my body wasn't going to let go of the weight (in so many words). I increased my calories to 1500/day (a little more on workout days) and started losing again after 6 weeks or so of not losing.

    Those who say there is "no way" you are really in a deficit aren't always right. You might be in too much of a deficit.

    I agree that it's frustrating but it sounds like you had a similar experience, in that eating a little more than you were actually resulted in a loss. Weight loss has been a lot of trial and error for me. Good luck and keep at it! :)

    What happens when you're in "too much" of a deficit?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    It's not linear, that's all. You just lost the weight you should have lost those 2 weeks when you lost 3 pounds. It's very common to stall for a couple weeks and lose all the weight at once. Your fat cells just fill with water during that time, and then you drop the water weight.

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