starvation mode

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brandymorrow6100
brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have not been eating enough calories, not even close which has caused me to not lose weight. I cannot, no matter how hard I try get more than 1100 calories a day. That is 3 meals, a snack, and a cup of coffee. Is this going to be enough to get my body functioning properly so that I can lose weight?

On a side note, I am walking for an hour 5 days a week, so I know that I am getting enough exercise.
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Replies

  • Rubysue17
    Rubysue17 Posts: 24 Member
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    could you give us an example of what you eat in a days time?
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,635 Member
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    Have you been accurately tracking your meals and snacks? Weighing is important, as a lot of people realize they are actually eating more than they thought they were. Chances are, if your weight is not changing, you are eating too many calories for weight loss. Alternatively, if you are weight lifting, muscle weighs more than fat so while your size may get smaller your weight may not. Not sure, but I would bank on it being one of those two things.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
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    how long of a period are we talking about not losing weight?
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Log your food in the myfitnesspal food diary associated with your username. Log your food accurately. Use the nutrition facts label of the packaged food you eat, use https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list to find absolutely true factual nutritional information about food, even http://nutritiondata.self.com/ if you can tolerate the ads in exchange for knowing that their database is not corrupted with user errors, but log your food.

    Open your diary. If you are going to ask strangers to solve your problems, let us see your food diary.

  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    I log my food every day. I have been doing so for months (if not on my diary then in an actual book). An example of the food I eat would be today: Breakfast- smoothie with one cup frozen fruit one cup of OJ, Lunch was a turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich with 2 tablespoons of avocado on 35 calorie fit and active whole wheat bread, I also had a cup of coffee with 4 tablespoons of creamer and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Dinner will be 1 salmon fillet, 1 cup of brown rice, 2 cups of spring salad with 2 tablespoons of italian dressing. Also, I am not looking to add muscle, I have plenty of muscle, but just wanting to lose about 20 pounds.
  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    I have also had all of my hormones tested, and plenty of blood work done, there is nothing out of balance, I only needed to take extra vitamin D3.
  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    Also, before I started really focusing on my food, I was getting much fewer calories, I would drink about 3 cups of coffee a day and then eat dinner.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    How many months have you been doing this? You might benefit from a couple of week break to reset things.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    I log my food every day. I have been doing so for months (if not on my diary then in an actual book). An example of the food I eat would be today: Breakfast- smoothie with one cup frozen fruit one cup of OJ, Lunch was a turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich with 2 tablespoons of avocado on 35 calorie fit and active whole wheat bread, I also had a cup of coffee with 4 tablespoons of creamer and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Dinner will be 1 salmon fillet, 1 cup of brown rice, 2 cups of spring salad with 2 tablespoons of italian dressing. Also, I am not looking to add muscle, I have plenty of muscle, but just wanting to lose about 20 pounds.

    From the sound of it you aren't weighing your food. I would invest in a food scale and start weighing everything, as most likely you're eating more than you think. Once you tighten up your logging you should start losing. Also, make sure you're hitting 1200 minimum after exercise, if not the goal MFP gave you.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited June 2017
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    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    I log my food every day. I have been doing so for months (if not on my diary then in an actual book). An example of the food I eat would be today: Breakfast- smoothie with one cup frozen fruit one cup of OJ, Lunch was a turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich with 2 tablespoons of avocado on 35 calorie fit and active whole wheat bread, I also had a cup of coffee with 4 tablespoons of creamer and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Dinner will be 1 salmon fillet, 1 cup of brown rice, 2 cups of spring salad with 2 tablespoons of italian dressing. Also, I am not looking to add muscle, I have plenty of muscle, but just wanting to lose about 20 pounds.

    You're not weighing all solids/semi solids on a food scale. With so little to lose, you really need to be much more accurate than the example you provided.

    Cups/spoons for liquids only. Log everything all the time. Consistency and accuracy is key here.
  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    I have not been eating enough calories, not even close which has caused me to not lose weight.

    Doesn't work that way. People who stay in starvation mode end up looking like they're actually starving. You're eating more than you think, relative to your daily burn - suggest opening your diary for review.

    EDIT: Saw your sample day above. Punching that into the food tracker gives about 1800 calories - well above the 1100 you earlier posted you couldn't eat more than.

    Actually, I have it in the tracker and it is 1158 so, I don't know how you are coming up with 1800, I would be thrilled if I could get 1800.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
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    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    I have not been eating enough calories, not even close which has caused me to not lose weight.

    Doesn't work that way. People who stay in starvation mode end up looking like they're actually starving. You're eating more than you think, relative to your daily burn - suggest opening your diary for review.

    EDIT: Saw your sample day above. Punching that into the food tracker gives about 1800 calories - well above the 1100 you earlier posted you couldn't eat more than.

    Actually, I have it in the tracker and it is 1158 so, I don't know how you are coming up with 1800, I would be thrilled if I could get 1800.

    not all entries in the database are correct. Double check vs packaging and USDA website to make sure you are not using garbage entries.
  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    I'm not sure what I would weigh, I mean, I eat 2 slices of turkey bacon, and go by the calories on the pack, the only thing that I eat that does not have the calories would be the raw veggies and sometimes my meat at dinner. I do have a scale and will weigh the food if it will help but I am just not seeing how. For example, do I weight my bread? It is 35 calories a slice. My fruit for my smoothies is in little packets made specifically for smoothies, 45 calories per packet, I have the smoothie and the turkey bacon sandwich every day... I do see where I could weigh my meat at dinner though.
  • brandymorrow6100
    brandymorrow6100 Posts: 12 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    brandymorrow6100 wrote: »
    I log my food every day. I have been doing so for months (if not on my diary then in an actual book). An example of the food I eat would be today: Breakfast- smoothie with one cup frozen fruit one cup of OJ, Lunch was a turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich with 2 tablespoons of avocado on 35 calorie fit and active whole wheat bread, I also had a cup of coffee with 4 tablespoons of creamer and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Dinner will be 1 salmon fillet, 1 cup of brown rice, 2 cups of spring salad with 2 tablespoons of italian dressing. Also, I am not looking to add muscle, I have plenty of muscle, but just wanting to lose about 20 pounds.

    From the sound of it you aren't weighing your food. I would invest in a food scale and start weighing everything, as most likely you're eating more than you think. Once you tighten up your logging you should start losing. Also, make sure you're hitting 1200 minimum after exercise, if not the goal MFP gave you.

    I am wondering if this is the problem, why I am not losing because I am definitely not hitting 1200 after exercise, I am barely hitting it before exercise. Do you think that is what is slowing my weight loss down?

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