starvation mode
brandymorrow6100
Posts: 12 Member
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.
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
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could you give us an example of what you eat in a days time?2
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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.0
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Starvation mode doesn't work like that.
How long has it been since you lost weight?11 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »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.
It's next to impossible to gain muscle on 1100 calories just by walking19 -
how long of a period are we talking about not losing weight?0
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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.
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starvation mode is a myth17
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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.2
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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.
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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.0
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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.
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How many months have you been doing this? You might benefit from a couple of week break to reset things.0
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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.3 -
You mention you're logging your food, but are you actually weighing it, too?
I'll drop this flow chart in here for you:
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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.3 -
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 1800.0 -
brandymorrow6100 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.3 -
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.1
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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.
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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Not properly logging your food (weighing all your solids) is what is slowing down your weight loss11
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This is what MFP says I eat in one day. I tried to add the photo but it would only let me add it as an attachment. This is a screenshot of my food.
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brandymorrow6100 wrote: »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.
Weigh everything. The package says a serving is so many grams for a slice, but your slice could be 5-6 grams heavier.brandymorrow6100 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?
Nope. If you were truly eating 1100 calories you'd be losing weight.9 -
I'll start weighing it and see if it makes a difference. I am hoping it will.0
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brandymorrow6100 wrote: »This is what MFP says I eat in one day. I tried to add the photo but it would only let me add it as an attachment. This is a screenshot of my food.
But you don't weight your food do your calories are probably off6 -
brandymorrow6100 wrote: »This is what MFP says I eat in one day. I tried to add the photo but it would only let me add it as an attachment. This is a screenshot of my food.
You're not weighing your meat, and yet you're using gram entries for the salmon.
How do you know you're eating that much?
If you were truly eating what you say on a daily basis, you would be losing weight.7 -
Maybe but I am have actually started increasing what I am eating lately, I was at about 500 calories per day if that. Of course I was exhausted all of the time but my doctor told me to eat more... I am going to start weighing it and see if that makes a difference.0
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brandymorrow6100 wrote: »Maybe but I am have actually started increasing what I am eating lately, I was at about 500 calories per day if that. Of course I was exhausted all of the time but my doctor told me to eat more... I am going to start weighing it and see if that makes a difference.
Please do. People are terrible at estimating how much food they are eating, even if they are logging it.
Even professional dietitians are. There have been actual studies done about this.
While no food logging exercise can ever be totally accurate, when you're stalled for a long time, one of the first things to try is to tighten up your logging. Eliminating margins for error makes the most sense.6 -
brandymorrow6100 wrote: »This is what MFP says I eat in one day. I tried to add the photo but it would only let me add it as an attachment. This is a screenshot of my food.
Check to see the brown rice calories on the box/packaging is it for prepared or precooked. How are you weighing it? Also are you actually putting 2 tablespoons of salad dressing or just pouring what you think is 2 ?
The coffee creamer, are you pouring or is it in a packaging? are you measuring out 4 tbsp?
Just a few mistakes on those three things could easily be a 500+ calorie difference7 -
I sorry for the negative comment but labeling your problem as "starvation mode" is just plain wrong. You first need to get honest with yourself before you ask for help. How can you call 1100 calories (if that is what it is) a state of starvation? You are obviously not starving. That was a very dishonest title to call our attention to. Take a reality check in your diet - really.3
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I sorry for the negative comment but labeling your problem as "starvation mode" is just plain wrong. You first need to get honest with yourself before you ask for help. How can you call 1100 calories (if that is what it is) a state of starvation? You are obviously not starving. That was a very dishonest title to call our attention to. Take a reality check in your diet - really.
If you would read, you would see that I stated, I just started getting 1100 calories recently and was asking if this would get my body out of starvation mode because I was only eating a few hundred calories a day before that. There was no dishonesty about it so there is your reality check.1
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