Questions about a low calorie diet

olafg · August 2011

Hey people!

I'm in the process of losing weight and I need some help and advice. I'd like to just recap on the recent months to give you a little more insight.

About a year ago I was unemployed for a few months, and during that time I tried to do a 5.8 km walk every day and that probably lost some of my initial weight, but it wasn't before April 2011 I started for real. When I started I tried to log my daily calorie intake and I usually ended up 3-800 kcal below what was recommended for me, but I didn't feel like eating more. I averaged at about 0.6-1.5 kg's of weight loss every week, and I was quite satisfied.

Lately I feel that I might be eating not nearly what I should in a day. I usually try to eat high protein food, and I rarely eat bread, pasta or rice. I try to work out by jogging/walking.

Let's just look at yesterday to visualize why I think I might be eating less than what I should.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/olafg?date=2011-08-21

Right now I don't have access to a bathroom scale, so I can't track my weight as of now, but I did my last weigh-in roughly 13 days ago and I had lost weight.

My question is really if I should try harder to eat more calories as I'm a bit worried that the kind of diet I've been running is unhealthy. I don't feel like I have less energy, and my willingness to exercise is where it was before.

Also, a "bonus" question. Could a diet like this lead to low blood pressure? I've never had high blood pressure. But recently I've felt dizzy when standing up rather quickly(feels like blood comes rushing to the head). I've also read that this could be related to ear-infection which I've I recently just had and not quite rid of yet, but I'm worried it might be something more than that.

babyblake11 · August 2011

you are most likely dizzy from not eating enough.
you feel full because youre so used to eating that little, add little bits of calorie dense food into each meal and snack and you will slowly get there. then you will start to feel real hunger too

AEcklar813 · August 2011

I think you should aim to eat at least 1200 cals daily and from the looks of yesterday it doesn't seemm like you are. Every once in a while it's ok to go under but it's possible you aren't getting enough nutrients. And while its possible the ear infection is making you dizzy blood pressure changes could as well especially upon sitting or standing. Try getting some more nutrients in there and maybe get your blood pressure checked just to be safe! Hope everythings works out well for you! And congrats on your weight oss!

AnnaPixie · August 2011

by the sounds of it you know you should be eating more!

All you're doing is slowing down your metabolism and making the months ahead more difficult than they need be. If your body needs 2000 calories per day just to survive and you feed it 1200 then you can see its going to suffer nutritionally. Plus, your body is very clever and will adapt to that low nutrition, that means, you'll stop losing weight and as soon as start eating more, the weight will come back on, plus, you will suffer ill health! (by the looks of it that's already started - watch for hair loss, bad skin etc too!)

You need to eat more!

Good luck :flowerforyou:

THCamel · August 2011

It sounds like your cutting out a lot of carbs...

A known effect of low carb diets is a decrease in blood pressure, most likely due to sodium excretion and water loss. So people with normal blood pressure may suffer from ‘orthostatic hypotension’ which is lightheadedness which occurs when moving from a sitting to standing posture. The inclusion of sufficient minerals appears to be able to prevent symptoms of fatigue, nausea and hypotension. -(Lyle McDonald)

I'm low carbing and I use to get dizzy when standing all the time but it seems to be ok now after an increase in calories.

Questions about a low calorie diet

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