calorie issues

pfeif21
pfeif21 Posts: 27
in Motivation and Support
so i have some questions... i lost a lot of weight last year but mainly because it wasnt a big "eating" year. for some reason with family sickness going on instead of emotional eating i did emotional non eating and so i would only eat maybe some green beans for dinner and exercise like a maniac. i lost a lot but i ruined my metabolism. now it seems that i have my appetite back and a really slow metabolism so even when i eat my 1200 calories or a do a few more because of exercise..the scale either doesnt move or goes up! i am so frustrated. i have tried to eat small meals six times a day and working in different foods but im at a loss for what to do. any ideas on how to eat normally again??

Replies

  • pfeif21
    pfeif21 Posts: 27
    so i have some questions... i lost a lot of weight last year but mainly because it wasnt a big "eating" year. for some reason with family sickness going on instead of emotional eating i did emotional non eating and so i would only eat maybe some green beans for dinner and exercise like a maniac. i lost a lot but i ruined my metabolism. now it seems that i have my appetite back and a really slow metabolism so even when i eat my 1200 calories or a do a few more because of exercise..the scale either doesnt move or goes up! i am so frustrated. i have tried to eat small meals six times a day and working in different foods but im at a loss for what to do. any ideas on how to eat normally again??
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
    unfortunately you're going to have to suffer through the rising scale. That's just how it works. Eventually, when your body realizes you're not going to starve it anymore, it will stop holding so tightly onto everything that enters you mouth, but until then it's gonna be tough. Try staying away from the scale for at LEAST a month. And keep up with the exercising- building muscle speeds up your metabolism. But to build muscle you have to EAT. :flowerforyou:
  • DEE4560
    DEE4560 Posts: 139
    yes I am going through the same things for the past 3 weeks I have been staying at 1200 cal a day with at least 1 hour of excersise a day every day with no weight loss. Same weight for 3 weeks. I do know I have lost inches but for some reason when you see no weight loss you feel different. So this week I am trying to change my workouts to every other day and see if that makes a difference. Does anyone feel that this might be the cause of no weight loss? I don't use my excersise calories its just too much food for the day for me.
  • xsargex
    xsargex Posts: 768
    It took me a good 2 months for my body to adjust to the changes I made in my diet. I went from seriously a 4000 calorie a day diet to 2050 cal/day. Ontop of all that, exercising maybe once a week to 4-5 times a week. The first couple weeks were hell. Headaches. Being tired. But I just pressed on and continued to dial the numbers....till I got the diet and food intake measured to give me the fuel I needed to work all day and have a fullfilling exercise. It takes committment and mental effn' fortitude.
    Its the power over the mind...not the power over your body. The body is built to be strong. You just have to have the mental capacity to allow your body to be strong. Not trying to sound like a tree-hugger, but you gotta listen to your body. Not your mind. Your brain wants to whine and cry about a little muscle pain and fatigue. Your brain tells you to eat some crappy food. Your body is saying, give me some good energy and lets run an extra mile or lift that weight.

    I constantly motivate myself everyday by being reminded that my body is my friend...my mind is my enemy. Sounds corny. It works.
  • pfeif21
    pfeif21 Posts: 27
    okay so i just gotta keep on plugging through. it is very frustrating but hopefully it will work, im not THAT heavy but it would be nice to drop ten or so pounds. thanks for all the advice and any more is greatly appreciated!!
  • xsargex
    xsargex Posts: 768
    honestly, i think some of the best advice someone ever gave me was "STOP STARRING AT THE SCALE." Its deceiving. Unless your monitoring all the other elements involved in exercise and weight loss. Its just a number. Its gonna rise and lower periodically. Especially if you haven't worked out as of recent. You need to take into consideration the following; body fat %, bmi, bmr, the calories you eat, the calories you burn, how many times a week you work out, protein, fat, carbs (good carbs and bad ones), water...... all these factors help monitor progress.

    Its really common sense. You drink fluids all day. Go work out. Sweat your bum off. Get on the scale... holy crap I lost 5 lbs. Rehydrate. Wake up the next morning...holy crap I just gained another 5 lbs. Sounds like water weight.
  • pfeif21
    pfeif21 Posts: 27
    hahaha that is very true. unfortunately i went through a rough "scale" time where i was on it all the time! which is SO bad! i was really unhealthy because, like i said, all i ate was vegetables. i thought i was being healthy because it was vegetables but it wasnt enough food for my body it seems. when i started trying to eat normally again, introducing some starches and just more food in general, i gained like 13 pounds. its been really frustrating.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    Have you had your body composition tested? If you were maintaining a starvation-type diet for a long period of time, I doubt you have much to lose. It might be a case where some recomposition will help--gaining muscle first and then losing fat if necessary. It will leave you more firm and defined. Right now you won't be able to lose much, if anything. Hormonally you're probably not in a place to lose fat. Gaining weight is normal when you reintroduce carbohydrates--you have to replenish your stored blood sugar, and one gram of that glycogen holds 3 grams of water. Like sarge said, keep away from the scale.
  • xsargex
    xsargex Posts: 768
    Sounds like you need to seek a nutrtionist or maybe do some more research so you understand how the body functions. The body NEEDS calories. Now which kinda calories you consume will determine if you lose weight/gain muscle (whatever you goal is). Its not really that complicated. Just understanding the basics would get you on your way. Take a night on the internet and just search around. There is plenty of sound information out there. The word "diet" is such a loose term. Everything thinks its about starving yourself or not eating yummy stuff. Thats far from the truth. Its about understanding whats in the food you eat, cutting out the bad junk and putting in the good stuff.
    And believe me, there is PLENTY of good yummy stuff out there. It goes back to the mental game.
    When you start to explore and find new foods that are good for you.... its like a whole new enjoyment to eating. As opposed to the same old stuff; pizza, burgers and fried garbage. After awhile, you'll reach for the healthy stuff. A reward now and then, isn't bad either. Body over mind, my friend.
  • pfeif21
    pfeif21 Posts: 27
    how and where would i go to have my body composition tested? ??? i did this so called "starvation diet" for probably six months. i didnt feel like i was starving at all but like i said i had a lot going on. i guess i was just never hungry. which is very weird. but yea i am 5'5 and a half and i weigh 142 about but during my 'starving time' i was 129... but people tell me i look like i weight 125. i will be 25 in july. ive done weights a lot and lots of running and kickboxing so im assuming i gained a lot of muscle but i just feel thick and i'd like to feel thinner. plus the number rising from 129 to 142 is really shocking to my psyche even tho im trying to teach myself to ignore the scale.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    Any gym will test your body composition. You can get self-testing calipers or bioimpedance, but those have a huge margin of error.

    Six months is a long time to be eating a very-low-calorie-diet, especially for someone who is not obese. Basically, your cell growth and renewal slows drastically in order to conserve energy. You also break down bone and muscle to maintain energy and blood solute levels. Your metabolic processes will slow to match your caloric intake. It takes a while to get really low, and takes a while to get back to normal. Your body is storing what it can now because certain hormones are heeding your cells' calls for emergency energy. It would be very difficult to gain any muscle mass with a VLCD, especially since a lot of running actually promotes the breakdown of muscle mass. I would suggest a non-weight goal so you don't repeat the cycle again. :flowerforyou:

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