I can only lose weight if I eat less than 1200 calories
californiansun
Posts: 392 Member
Hi all,
Here is a little back up story. When I was younger (16 or so) I was 220 pounds. I said enough and only ate around 500-800 calories a day and worked out at the gym a lot. I lost a lot of weight and weighed around 150-140 until my sophmore year of college. I ballooned up to 180 and went back up to 220. Now I'm 197 give or take.
When i started to eat a NORMAL amount of calories, 1500-1700 a day (it was gradual) I gained weight at a rapid pace. Now I can only lose weight if I eat less than 1200 calories (less than 1000 actually).
Why is this and how can I prevent this? I go on walks 5-6 days a week, most days are more than an hour. Two days are 40-50 minutes. And i use a stationary bike and weights at home.
I'm getting REALLY frustrated. Thank you!!
Here is a little back up story. When I was younger (16 or so) I was 220 pounds. I said enough and only ate around 500-800 calories a day and worked out at the gym a lot. I lost a lot of weight and weighed around 150-140 until my sophmore year of college. I ballooned up to 180 and went back up to 220. Now I'm 197 give or take.
When i started to eat a NORMAL amount of calories, 1500-1700 a day (it was gradual) I gained weight at a rapid pace. Now I can only lose weight if I eat less than 1200 calories (less than 1000 actually).
Why is this and how can I prevent this? I go on walks 5-6 days a week, most days are more than an hour. Two days are 40-50 minutes. And i use a stationary bike and weights at home.
I'm getting REALLY frustrated. Thank you!!
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Replies
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I have the same problem ):
I'll walk like five miles and eat less than 800 calories and still gain or if I'm lucky I'll stay the same.
It's not healthy at all but I have to keep my intake to 500-600 now just so I can see some results.
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Honestly, for a situation like that one, you probably should speak with a certified nutritionist, or at the very least, your doctor, to see what they think. :flowerforyou:0
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Hmmm my friend has a similar issue and she;s being tested for thyroid function, hopefully yours is fine but its worth looking into
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My major is actually dietetics and I met with my major adviser who is an RD. (A Nutritionist doesn't have a certification!) And she said that I could have messed up my metabolism. Kind of a bummer. Thyroid a good option, but I'm only 21! Could that be possible?0
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My friend is 17 and she has a thyroid issue. It's genetic in her case.0
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I think you should ask your doctor. You shouldn't have to starve your body to lose weight. How you lost weight before doesn't set a forever blueprint in your body telling you that that's what it has to do. Most people in a healthy condition should be able to eat that amount and still lose. The more you weigh the more calories you need just to maintain. I need at least 1600 calories a day to stay at maintenance 137 pounds. And if you're exercising you need more. So even at 1500 you should be losing something. Talk to your doctor and he might do some blood tests or give you suggestions fit specifically for you since you've had trouble losing before.0
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It could be your thyroid, even if you're young. I know a 17-year-old with a thyroid problem.0
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Hi all,
Here is a little back up story. When I was younger (16 or so) I was 220 pounds. I said enough and only ate around 500-800 calories a day and worked out at the gym a lot. I lost a lot of weight and weighed around 150-140 until my sophmore year of college. I ballooned up to 180 and went back up to 220. Now I'm 197 give or take.
When i started to eat a NORMAL amount of calories, 1500-1700 a day (it was gradual) I gained weight at a rapid pace. Now I can only lose weight if I eat less than 1200 calories (less than 1000 actually).
Why is this and how can I prevent this? I go on walks 5-6 days a week, most days are more than an hour. Two days are 40-50 minutes. And i use a stationary bike and weights at home.
I'm getting REALLY frustrated. Thank you!!I have the same problem ):
I'll walk like five miles and eat less than 800 calories and still gain or if I'm lucky I'll stay the same.
It's not healthy at all but I have to keep my intake to 500-600 now just so I can see some results.
I recommend you both visit a doctor and nutritionist. This is not good.0 -
this happens to so many people when they restrict calories too low for so long; then they eat the slightest bit more and they gain, so they drop back down again. It is vicious cycle and only leads to gaining more and more.
You can break it, but you will have to have patience. You HAVE to eat more, and you have to accept that you will gain for a while. There is absolutely no way around it; if you want to live a normal life and break out of this cycle of gaining, you have to put in the time and patience.
You shouldn't really gain that much, but it may take some months before you plateau and then start to come back down. Your metabolism needs to recover.
I'd suggest you put your weekly loss goal at 1 lb/week, and eat ALL of the allotted calories (don't even leave 100 calories per day). Log all your walks and other exercise, and eat back some or all of the calories if you need them. Once your metabolism starts to recover, the gaining will stop, you will plateau, and eventually you will drop. This would also be a good time to take up weight training, if you haven't already. Building lean muscle mass is essential to firing up your metabolism.
Once you start to lose, it will be very important to increase the amount of exercise calories that you eat -- as you increase muscle mass, the muscle requires refueling. Failing to refuel will put you right back where you are right now.
Ideally, you want to get to the point where you eat back ALL your exercise calories (remember you have a deficit built in to your calories with MFP -- exercise calorie are meant to be on top of that to refuel your metabolism).
The most important thing here is patience. Often people give up too soon and then end up right where you are forever. Don't get stuck; start eating right (avoid partially hydrogenated oils and corn syrup/sugar). Eat lots of fruit and veggies and non-processed foods. You don't have to cut out any specific food group, but use common sense and don't eat 10 cupcakes a day.
You can do this! It will work . . . but you must commit in order to break out of the cycle you're in.
blessings.0 -
I had the exact same issue! I absolutely hated it, so I saw a nutritionist who gave me an eating plan. She told me that I would most likely gain a small amount of weight before losing weight on the eating plan (weird, I know :P), but that it was just my bodies way of adjusting itself. Hope that helps! 0
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Yup... I'd recommend you talk to a doctor too. That's not normal.
I'm sorry for your frustrations! But go get yourself tested.0 -
There is an article on here about this issue. I'll see if I can find it and post the link for you.0
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I have the same problem ):
I'll walk like five miles and eat less than 800 calories and still gain or if I'm lucky I'll stay the same.
It's not healthy at all but I have to keep my intake to 500-600 now just so I can see some results.
How tall are you? This is extremely low!0 -
I know. :c
I'm about 5'2" - 5'3" and small framed.0 -
Found it! Its kinda long but it really explains some things.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing0 -
im only 25. Before I got pregnant with my daughter at 23 I tried for a long time to get in better shape. I eventually got a trainer and eating plan. Tweaked workouts and diet and nada. They were stumped and insisted I wasn't following the plan. Finally after my daughter was born I tried again. I was tired I wanted to sleep all day and was hungry constantly and grumpy so I talked to my doctor about the whole situation and a simple blood test showed my thyroid was crawling at a snails pace. We're not saying this is definitely what is going on but even at 21 it could be possible. Either way you can go.from there. Good luck and I hope you figure out what's holding up you're progress.My major is actually dietetics and I met with my major adviser who is an RD. (A Nutritionist doesn't have a certification!) And she said that I could have messed up my metabolism. Kind of a bummer. Thyroid a good option, but I'm only 21! Could that be possible?0 -
As many have already suggested, your thyroid could be the culprit. I have hypothyroidism, as does my sister, brother and our father, so in my family's case, it's genetic.
An endocrinologist can diagnose you, and perhaps your regular doctor as well, all it takes is a blood test. Easy peasy. And I think there is a site that has info for low cost or free testing if you don't have insurance...
If it turns out it's your thyroid, you'll need the right meds - my family and I are all on synthroid.
No amount of eating less will help if your thyroid (or something else) is out of whack.
Good luck in finding out the root cause! Not knowing is frustrating but taking baby steps to figure out the cause will yield results.0 -
As many have already suggested, your thyroid could be the culprit. I have hypothyroidism, as does my sister, brother and our father, so in my family's case, it's genetic.
An endocrinologist can diagnose you, and perhaps your regular doctor as well, all it takes is a blood test. Easy peasy. And I think there is a site that has info for low cost or free testing if you don't have insurance...
If it turns out it's your thyroid, you'll need the right meds - my family and I are all on synthroid.
No amount of eating less will help if your thyroid (or something else) is out of whack.
Good luck in finding out the root cause! Not knowing is frustrating but taking baby steps to figure out the cause will yield results.
I could have sworn my problem would be my thyroid since I had so many of the symptoms but I just got it checked and it was perfectly fine.Found it! Its kinda long but it really explains some things.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing
Thank you! 0 -
Good find!
I have heard many times that your body will go into "starvation mode" when you're not getting enough calories. Then it just stops metabolizing, trying to conserve everything.
It's good to have a range of available information. You did the right thing by going to your doctor and ruling stuff out. Sometimes to find what it IS, you have to find what it's NOT first 0 -
great article to suggest.Found it! Its kinda long but it really explains some things.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing0 -
what kinds of food do you eat in those 1,000 calories?
I struggled to lose weight then switched to gluten free bread and low carbs in general - rice OR white potato not more than once a week, sweet potato allowed once a week, other days replaced with butternut squash, cauliflower rice (cauli whizzed in processor to rice/cous cous size and steamed in microwave for 5 mins - no water), parsnip chips instead of oven chips.
No wheat based cereals but I allow Rice Krispies and Oats. (allow rice cake as snack but only as dinner once a week at most - small portion) No Pasta. Gluten free bread once/twice a week at most (its higher calorie).
I don't check everything religiously for Gluten, I still use same gravy granules but only have gravy once a week on my sunday dinner anyway and I still allow a mini yorkshire pudding on sunday. I swapped regular choc brownie for gluten free brownie though. .. most days I only manage 1,000 cals unless I add chocolate bar or a Ensure plus, but I'm managing to lose... despite thyroid problems and my hormones creating problems.. (think I'm going through peri-menopause!) and been limited by physical restrictions exercise-wise.
Sometimes I throw in a carb day or treat day to surprise body... I'll probably have fish and chips and a McFlurry when I go xmas shopping but I'll burn about 1,000 cals or more pushing myself around shopping centre for 4 hours and if stay low carb either side of that day I don't tend to see much weight gain from water weight unless I eat alot of carbs several days in a row.0 -
please go see a nutritionist. it could definitely be a thyroid problem. but i'm thinking that most likely you are like me, and gained a rapid amount of weight in a short period of time from chronic over-exercise and calorie-restriction techniques. i started out around 140 lbs, started to lose down to 125 by calorie-restricting and a lot of exercise. now, looking back on this, THIS is when i first developed my eating disorder. then i gained back to about 140. panicking, i decided to drastically restrict, going down to anywhere from 1000-500 cals/day. because of college stress and the restriction tolls of my body, i began to stress eat/binge and steadily i went from 140 up to 160 to around 185 before i hit rock bottom psychologically and decided to get help. you really ought to talk to an expert. i had no idea what damage i was doing to my body for such a long period of time.
feel free to add me and we can chat more.0 -
*by 'nutritionist' i mean 'dietician.' oops.0
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when my dietician put me on my current eating plan (see my profile info) i gained about 5 lbs before starting to see the scale move in the opposite direction. i'm eating around 2000-2200 calories, which is what she (and apparently a large part of the dietician community) and my family physician deem a 'healthy' amount.0
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what kinds of food do you eat in those 1,000 calories?
I struggled to lose weight then switched to gluten free bread and low carbs in general - rice OR white potato not more than once a week, sweet potato allowed once a week, other days replaced with butternut squash, cauliflower rice (cauli whizzed in processor to rice/cous cous size and steamed in microwave for 5 mins - no water), parsnip chips instead of oven chips.
No wheat based cereals but I allow Rice Krispies and Oats. (allow rice cake as snack but only as dinner once a week at most - small portion) No Pasta. Gluten free bread once/twice a week at most (its higher calorie).
I don't check everything religiously for Gluten, I still use same gravy granules but only have gravy once a week on my sunday dinner anyway and I still allow a mini yorkshire pudding on sunday. I swapped regular choc brownie for gluten free brownie though. .. most days I only manage 1,000 cals unless I add chocolate bar or a Ensure plus, but I'm managing to lose... despite thyroid problems and my hormones creating problems.. (think I'm going through peri-menopause!) and been limited by physical restrictions exercise-wise.
Sometimes I throw in a carb day or treat day to surprise body... I'll probably have fish and chips and a McFlurry when I go xmas shopping but I'll burn about 1,000 cals or more pushing myself around shopping centre for 4 hours and if stay low carb either side of that day I don't tend to see much weight gain from water weight unless I eat alot of carbs several days in a row.
It really depends on what I eat, I eat a lot of soup for the easy-ness of it since I do not have time to cook breakfast or lunch. Breakfast is usually a piece of toast with no spread, butter or margarine and sometimes black coffee.
Lunch is soup or chili.
Dinner is pasta with sausage, vegetables, sauce and some cheese.
Snack if I have time is either bananas, apples, cheezits, or yogurt.
I try to drink a glass of whole milk a day if I can. Lately i havent since I have no money to buy groceries!
Thank you all for your advice, I will be making an appointment to see a doctor. I'm going to start eating snacks and a normal amount of calories a day. I just hope i can find the culprit, I've already had a full year of health problems with no answers... gotta continue on!0 -
i did the same thing when i was younger, and i really messed up my body and my metabolism.
now, i eat really healthy, and i eat 6 or more times a day. sometimes it feels like i'm eating constantly lol. it works best if i eat small meals and snacks of 100-300 calories, but i know that doesn't work for most people lifestyles. i don't do it every day, but i try to eat that way at least a few times a week. now that my metabolism is back to normal, i lose the most weight when i eat around 1600 spread out throughout the day.
even though you might get that nice drop on the scale the day after you eat 1200 calories, you'll see a MUCH better average loss if you eat right. GOOD LUCK!!0 -
I'd suggest checking with your doc, get some blood work done, might be a thyroid issue.
Eating less than 1200 calories is not safe/good for you. You need 1200 to get you the nutrients you need. Regularly eating less than half of that is going to be very problematic in the future.
I'm not saying you have an ED, but it sounds like you might have the beginnings of an ED, I say this as a person with an ED history.
Also, if you're eating back exercise calories based on MFP's number, not a HRM you might have been going OVER your calorie goal because the burn is often way off (sometimes almost double my actual burn)0 -
Thank you for your advice. I'm going to start eating 5-6 meals a day and try to get into the 1500-1700 range. I hope it works!0
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bump0
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