Help! I'm not losing!
Replies
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cerise_noir wrote: »Agreed with starvation mode being a myth.
OP, get a food scale, start weighing everything that isn't a liquid (yes, weigh mayo/butter/nut butter), and use those cups/spoons for liquid only. Weight go prepackaged/preweighed items, too (they can technically be as much as 20% over or under the stated weight on the packaging). Log everything that you cook with, eat and drink. And, eat at the 1200 cal mark. With your stats, you could stand to eat a bit more and still lose the weight.
This. Get a scale and weigh everything. But don't change what you are eating just yet (which probably means over 1200 calories) until you get a handle on how much you actually have been eating. So do this for a week or so. Then start dropping from the actual calories consumed (not your current guess) 100-200 a day until you get to a point that you are losing, but not killing yourself to do it.
It's pretty clear you are eating more than 1200 calories, and simply don't know it. Given your activity level, you'd be losing at 1200. Without weighing everything, you simply don't know.
I'll give you my example. Before I got a scale I was eating a certain cereal for breakfast. I was measuring out the serving size on the box and using the corresponding calories. So 2/3's of a cup for ~250 calories (if I remember correctly). But when I got a scale, I found the 2/3's a cup was about 40% more in weight than on the box so I was eating about 40% more calories than I honestly thought for breakfast. Basically, the label on the box was wrong based on cups vs grams. I've stopped eating that cereal because I got pissed off about it.
Beyond that, you will need to give it more than 2 weeks. Sorry about that but our bodies just don't work how we want them too
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1200 is low, but not terribly low. It really depends on the individual and their individual goals. Can you give us an example day including food weights, please?
Starvation mode does not exist, otherwise this chap who went on a medically supervised fast of 382 days WITHOUT eating, would not have been possible - and lost 175lb.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/
You'd also need the organs in the body to initiate a starvation mode - which ones would do this please? Answer? This is none, even the thyroid only retards the metabolism by around 15%.
Thank you for this article! Very interesting!0 -
Just another thought, how often are you weighing yourself? If weekly you may have caught an up weight and be missing the down ones that weighing daily catches. I like to weigh daily and use a libra (happy scale for iphone) to see my weight trends. With my roller coaster ups and downs, I would hate weighing weekly!1
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
@hlizard1... Your body doesn't go in to starvation mode - if it did, how do you explain people suffering with anorexia, or prisoners of war who were starved? Do/did these people remain fat? Please dont listen to this advice.
Starvation mode is actually a real thing, but most people don't understand how it works. Those with 20 - 40 lbs to lose should not eat 1200 calories a day. It is likely the OP is carrying water weight due to an increase in activity and is actually losing body mass (mostly lean body mass, because the body is chasing those easy to get stores of energy, because it doesn't have enough energy to go after the fat).
Does anyone here who doubts the existence of starvation mode want the OP to *keep* eating 1200 a day? Because that seems to be what you're arguing. I don't agree. Starvation mode doesn't mean you stop losing weight (although your metabolism will eventually slow down to compensate, so in time, yes). It means the body starts to consume itself, usually everything *but* the fat cells. Anorexics get brittle bones, lose all muscle mass, and can even suffer from brain damage as they try desperately to get rid of an inch of fat on their stomachs. But, yes, that fat does go away eventually, but at what cost?
So, to the OP, eat 1500 calories a day instead, at least. Don't torture yourself. Add weight lifting to your exercise regime. Try different activities, jogging, walking, jump rope, cycling, swimming (if possible). Eat good fats, protein, and don't eat at such a deficit that you feel strapped of energy and grumpy all day. Eat for energy during the day. Eat to feel satisfied (lightly full) once your day has ended. Stick with it. It's normal to have weeks of no weight loss. Bloating, etc, can cause that.
This is why I think it shouldn't be called starvation mode. It's very confusing. It should be called cannabilization, because that's what it is. As a last ditch effort to keep the body running in extreme starvation, the body will start eating itself using the energy from muscles and organs.4 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »I am to be eating 1200 calories a day I eat 1185 one day 1215 another day 1205 , 1180, 1175... and so on. I am measuring everything ... correctly solids, liguids. I am 5 foot tall and need to lose 25 lbs.
Measuring is different to weighing. If you don't have one, a food scale is priceless and will allow to be more accurate with tracking.
You don't need more food. If you were eating at a deficit you would be losing.
I'm buying myself a food scale - I think they make all the difference in the world.3 -
Just another thought, how often are you weighing yourself? If weekly you may have caught an up weight and be missing the down ones that weighing daily catches. I like to weigh daily and use a libra (happy scale for iphone) to see my weight trends. With my roller coaster ups and downs, I would hate weighing weekly!
I weigh in every day too - I tihnk it helps keep me on track. Also, I think that it helps you learn how your body deals with certain conditions; i.e., responses when you up your calories (or lower) for a day or two, a heavy/light exercise day or a couple of days w/no exercise compared with what you eat, etc.3 -
For someone 5' 1200 cals is probably not too low, however if you clean for a living you should probably be set as at least lightly active and it would surely give you more calories than that. I'm sedentary and get 1200 cals. I'm also 5' btw;) and with 1200 cals and an hour of exercise bike per day (5-6 days/wk) im losing fine. I weigh everything to ensure accuracy because at 5' it is much harder to have a large deficit;)2
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Colorscheme wrote: »livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
@hlizard1... Your body doesn't go in to starvation mode - if it did, how do you explain people suffering with anorexia, or prisoners of war who were starved? Do/did these people remain fat? Please dont listen to this advice.
Starvation mode is actually a real thing, but most people don't understand how it works. Those with 20 - 40 lbs to lose should not eat 1200 calories a day. It is likely the OP is carrying water weight due to an increase in activity and is actually losing body mass (mostly lean body mass, because the body is chasing those easy to get stores of energy, because it doesn't have enough energy to go after the fat).
Does anyone here who doubts the existence of starvation mode want the OP to *keep* eating 1200 a day? Because that seems to be what you're arguing. I don't agree. Starvation mode doesn't mean you stop losing weight (although your metabolism will eventually slow down to compensate, so in time, yes). It means the body starts to consume itself, usually everything *but* the fat cells. Anorexics get brittle bones, lose all muscle mass, and can even suffer from brain damage as they try desperately to get rid of an inch of fat on their stomachs. But, yes, that fat does go away eventually, but at what cost?
So, to the OP, eat 1500 calories a day instead, at least. Don't torture yourself. Add weight lifting to your exercise regime. Try different activities, jogging, walking, jump rope, cycling, swimming (if possible). Eat good fats, protein, and don't eat at such a deficit that you feel strapped of energy and grumpy all day. Eat for energy during the day. Eat to feel satisfied (lightly full) once your day has ended. Stick with it. It's normal to have weeks of no weight loss. Bloating, etc, can cause that.
This is why I think it shouldn't be called starvation mode. It's very confusing. It should be called cannabilization, because that's what it is. As a last ditch effort to keep the body running in extreme starvation, the body will start eating itself using the energy from muscles and organs.
But it's still not going to happen for someone who is 5 feet tall and consuming 1200 calories per day and not losing weight. Completely different circumstances. (I know you aren't saying it is)0 -
Starvation mode is clearly a trigger word. I do *not* mean starvation mode as in "If you eat too little, you'll just get fatter." No, that's not true. I mean that when a person with a small amount to lose (not like the 400 lb guy in the study) cuts their calories too much, they lose at a rate of 80% lean body mass to 20% fat loss. And every pound they lose becomes worth less than the reverse--when they're eating enough to fuel their bodies to burn fat. So it's a lot of unnecessary torture.
If the OP is comfortable with 1200 calories a day, or finds out she keeps forgetting to log her morning 40 oz Mountain Dew (not that that's the case), then we might be onto something. If she's indeed eating 1200 a day, strapped of energy, and ready to give up, I'm here to tell her to eat a little more, eat a little better, and enjoy life again. 2 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »Colorscheme wrote: »livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
@hlizard1... Your body doesn't go in to starvation mode - if it did, how do you explain people suffering with anorexia, or prisoners of war who were starved? Do/did these people remain fat? Please dont listen to this advice.
Starvation mode is actually a real thing, but most people don't understand how it works. Those with 20 - 40 lbs to lose should not eat 1200 calories a day. It is likely the OP is carrying water weight due to an increase in activity and is actually losing body mass (mostly lean body mass, because the body is chasing those easy to get stores of energy, because it doesn't have enough energy to go after the fat).
Does anyone here who doubts the existence of starvation mode want the OP to *keep* eating 1200 a day? Because that seems to be what you're arguing. I don't agree. Starvation mode doesn't mean you stop losing weight (although your metabolism will eventually slow down to compensate, so in time, yes). It means the body starts to consume itself, usually everything *but* the fat cells. Anorexics get brittle bones, lose all muscle mass, and can even suffer from brain damage as they try desperately to get rid of an inch of fat on their stomachs. But, yes, that fat does go away eventually, but at what cost?
So, to the OP, eat 1500 calories a day instead, at least. Don't torture yourself. Add weight lifting to your exercise regime. Try different activities, jogging, walking, jump rope, cycling, swimming (if possible). Eat good fats, protein, and don't eat at such a deficit that you feel strapped of energy and grumpy all day. Eat for energy during the day. Eat to feel satisfied (lightly full) once your day has ended. Stick with it. It's normal to have weeks of no weight loss. Bloating, etc, can cause that.
This is why I think it shouldn't be called starvation mode. It's very confusing. It should be called cannabilization, because that's what it is. As a last ditch effort to keep the body running in extreme starvation, the body will start eating itself using the energy from muscles and organs.
But it's still not going to happen for someone who is 5 feet tall and consuming 1200 calories per day and not losing weight. Completely different circumstances. (I know you aren't saying it is)
Nope, not at all. But I don't think starvation mode is a good name for it at all because it's being equated, and wrongly so, with people not being able to lose weight. Which we know is not what happens.0 -
Starvation mode is clearly a trigger word. I do *not* mean starvation mode as in "If you eat too little, you'll just get fatter." No, that's not true. I mean that when a person with a small amount to lose (not like the 400 lb guy in the study) cuts their calories too much, they lose at a rate of 80% lean body mass to 20% fat loss. And every pound they lose becomes worth less than the reverse--when they're eating enough to fuel their bodies to burn fat. So it's a lot of unnecessary torture.
If the OP is comfortable with 1200 calories a day, or finds out she keeps forgetting to log her morning 40 oz Mountain Dew (not that that's the case), then we might be onto something. If she's indeed eating 1200 a day, strapped of energy, and ready to give up, I'm here to tell her to eat a little more, eat a little better, and enjoy life again.
Except that at her height eating too much more would mean zero or incredibly slow weight loss. Even at 1200 she won't be losing quick enough for this 'starvation' mode to take effect as she is only around 200 calories under her TDEE (minus her exercise calories).0
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