Less Calories isn't equally weight loss... HELP

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Ok. So I've been doing good at consuming about 500 calories. (HCG does it, didn't see why I couldn't. LOL). Anyways, I get on the scale yesterday morning and awesome 2 pounds down. Go to work, come home and I didn't feel right.

I get back on the scale. yes, I know. Major no no. but I'd only consumed 400 calories so I thought I'd be fine. apparently not, cuz I get on the scale to see I'd gone up 2 pounds from in the morning. WHAT?! How does that happen?

Fine, get on the treadmill and burn off half of the calories I'd eaten. Got back on the scale (Yes, I know. You can yell at me now). Anyways, now I'd gone up an additional pound. 3 pounds in one day. Consumed 400 calories and burned off 200. this ain't right.

My son and I decided I needed some fat in my diet, good fat... or fiber... I'd make shake n bake chicken breasts for my son yesterday. There was one small one left, so I ate that. took me back up to about 450 calories for the day.

I get on the scale this morning to find that I've still gone up 2 pounds from where I was yesterday morning. Water retention? lack of fiber? Lack of calories? HELP. any ideas, suggestions are welcome..... Not a happy camper today.
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Replies

  • thefuzz1290
    thefuzz1290 Posts: 777 Member
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    You're eating too few calories! Up your calories and you'll see a difference.
  • sansouchi1050
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    Because I'm not aware if your diet is physician directed, I will not comment on the low calories. Just be prepared for some aggressive comments that may come your way. :heart:

    To answer your question, the big variance in your weight in a 24 hour period is most likely fluid. My weight can fluctuate 5 lbs a day.
    I would drive myself nuts weighing all the time. Now, I just weigh every other week. This let's me see trends instead of freaking out over normal fluctuations.
  • gurganuss
    gurganuss Posts: 78 Member
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    I am having a similar issue. When I eat my 1200 calories I see more of a loss. When I eat around 1000 I see a gain, so I have found it is very important to come as close to 1200 as possible, otherwise your body stores food because it doesnt know when it will be nourished again.
  • smaryamf
    smaryamf Posts: 31 Member
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    I used to do the same, but weight fluctuates a lot so it is advisable to weigh only once a week and you have to have 1200 calories a day from healthy food to keep your metabolism rolling....its really disheartening , when you dont see changes on scale...so its better you keep a day of the week on which you do your weigh in..that way you will see result...All the Best..you can do it!
  • sarahstoltman
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    people are going to start lecturing you in a minute..... you need to eat more calories, the hcg diet is frowned upon here. I eat 1300 cals a day and burn about 500-800 a day working out. sometimes I will go all week without losing a lb so ill take a day and spike my calories... next day boom im down 3 lbs :) instead of a diet take small steps to make a lifestyle change :) you can add me as a friend if you want
  • hottottie11
    hottottie11 Posts: 907 Member
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    Step away from the HCG and begin a diet plan that will get the weight off AND keep it off as maintenance is the harder part of the journey.

    You are setting yourself up for muscle loss, a depressed metabolism, and a flabby unappealing "skinny" body.

    So in conclusion, EAT. Eat the recommended MINIMUM of 1200 calories (and more if you plan on exercising). HCG will most likely NOT get you to your goals.
  • 1981simm
    1981simm Posts: 123 Member
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    I did hcg and ate al 500 calories every day and lost a bunch of weight but I started passing out and falling on the floor and with a baby it scared me cause I didn't want to be holding him when it happened so i ended up quiting and put all thirteen lbs back on the next week... I hope yours is monitored cause I did mine on my own and not sure if I missed something... good luck!
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
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    eating waaaaaay too little.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

    educate yourself :) (and I mean that sincerely, not to be mean)
  • Wendy19872012
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    Way to few calories!!

    Your body needs more calories otherwise it will go in to panick mode < which bacsically it will try and hold on to anything u eat to get energy from.

    Also cos you are eating so few calories you will be slowing your metablisim down so there for hardly any calories will be burned as your body will not be getting what it needs,

    Eventaully ur body will go in tpo starvation mode and you will become ill.

    Try this and see how it goes;

    250 Cals for breakfast
    250 Cals For Lunch
    600-700 cals For dinner

    and then 200 cals for a snack in between

    Choose healthy options and you will see the difference within a few weeks.

    Good luck

    Add me x
  • thefuzz1290
    thefuzz1290 Posts: 777 Member
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    Way to few calories!!

    Your body needs more calories otherwise it will go in to panick mode < which bacsically it will try and hold on to anything u eat to get energy from.

    Also cos you are eating so few calories you will be slowing your metablisim down so there for hardly any calories will be burned as your body will not be getting what it needs,

    Eventaully ur body will go in tpo starvation mode and you will become ill.

    Try this and see how it goes;

    250 Cals for breakfast
    250 Cals For Lunch
    600-700 cals For dinner

    and then 200 cals for a snack in between

    Choose healthy options and you will see the difference within a few weeks.

    Good luck

    Add me x

    Try 600-700 calories for breakfast then a lower calorie dinner.
  • adjones_21
    adjones_21 Posts: 234 Member
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    Yes...you will be getting a lot of lectures. You are not eating enough calories. I had a friend take that Hcg crap and yes she lost a lot of weight. BUT as soon as she quit taking it she gained all her weight back and then some!!! It is bad for you. Please stop taking it. I have lost about 90 lbs (about 55 with MFP) doing it the natural way by eating good healthy food and exercising. There is a purpose to the profile you set up....I dont see MFP telling you to only eat 500 calories a day. This site is here to help you lose weight in a healthy way. Sorry...I didn't think I would be one of the ones lecturing you. :blushing: If you would just increase your calories you will see a difference.


    Oh...by the way...the best time to weigh yourself is in the morning after you go to the bathroom before you eat. If you weigh through out the day you will always gain because of the steps that your body goes through to process your food. ALWAYS weigh in the morning before you eat and it is best to only weigh once a week. You didnt gain your weight in one day and you are not going to lose it in one day. :wink:

    What you need is some good friends to motivate you. Feel free to add me and I will do my best to motivate you. We can go through our weight loss journey together. :smile:
  • xsmilexforxmex
    xsmilexforxmex Posts: 1,216 Member
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    Definitely need more calories if youre going to lose weight consistently.. you might see more to begin with but eventually your metabolism will catch up.. it's better to start 200 below what youre used to eating then drop by 200 a week until you get to 1200. Otherwise your body thinks its not getting enough..

    As for the weight gain through the day.. probably the food in your system and fluid retention.. calories arent an automatic gain or loss, it happens over the course of several days so the recommendation is to only weigh yourself every week at most.. I personally weigh myself 2x a day and the scale is ALWAYS at LEAST 2lbs higher in the afternoon.. so just be aware of that if you are going to weigh constantly..
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

    that's a perfect article for you to read!! :) take care of yourself
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
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    Way to few calories!!

    Your body needs more calories otherwise it will go in to panick mode < which bacsically it will try and hold on to anything u eat to get energy from.

    Also cos you are eating so few calories you will be slowing your metablisim down so there for hardly any calories will be burned as your body will not be getting what it needs,

    Eventaully ur body will go in tpo starvation mode and you will become ill.

    Try this and see how it goes;

    250 Cals for breakfast
    250 Cals For Lunch
    600-700 cals For dinner

    and then 200 cals for a snack in between

    Choose healthy options and you will see the difference within a few weeks.

    Good luck

    Add me x

    Try 600-700 calories for breakfast then a lower calorie dinner.
    It doesn't make any difference how you spread them out, it's the same total.
  • corinneal
    corinneal Posts: 8 Member
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    what is HCG?
    I agree. I think it may be too few calories. 500 is VERY low! check with your doctor, nutritionist of trainer! Good luck and eat well!
  • jcpmoore
    jcpmoore Posts: 796 Member
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    Hi Latinabubbles! I can totally relate to where you're coming from. When I first started my weight loss journey I weighed in several times a day, too. It's incredibly frustrating to see that number go up when you know you're doing the right things-e.g. working out. I learned the hard way that these folks are right-weigh once a week. Our body weight just naturally fluctuates throughout the day. No matter how good we are, it's going to go up during the day. In fact, it will go up during a workout due to perspiration and water retention (a friend told me that-who knew?). I'm still guilty of weight more often sometimes, but now it's just for curiosity and I only pay attention on Friday mornings, which is my official weigh-in day.

    Here are some lessons I learned about true lifestyle change:

    1. Starvation doesn't work-we do have to eat enough calories of good food. That means about 1200 calories. I find it hard to do some days (amazing that!), but I can usually get around 1100 with healthy meals and snacks. Since it's all estimates I don't stress about the rest. This gives the body enough fuel to start burning away that fat on my thighs, belly and love handles.

    2. Exercise is good and it feels good. It takes time to show, however. It really did take about 3-6 weeks before I started seeing true weight loss from this. But it did happen.

    3. Water is the magic pill. A personal trainer told met this close on 20 years ago and he was so right. If you drink at least 8 glasses of water per day your body does so much better at everything. Weight loss is much better when you're well hydrated.

    I hope this helps you as much as it helped me, LatinaBubbles. Love ya and happy journey! Feel free to add me as a friend on this journey. It'd be an honor to share it with you.
  • joan41
    joan41 Posts: 170 Member
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    I know it is natural to think that less is best, but when it comes to eatting, less is not always best. When you eat below 1200 calories you actually put your body in starvation mode. Your body actually stores fat, because it thinks that it is not going to get anything else!! You should never eat less than 1200 calories! When I get stuck on the scale, as we always do sometimes I try to increase my calories, and watch my sodium. Just remember slow and steady wins the race. I agree with what others are saying the best time to weigh yourself is in the morning, but I do weigh everyday, I guess it's just habit. Hey this is a VERY GREAT site! People here are sooo supportive. Best of luck on your journey!!
  • nannigans
    nannigans Posts: 26 Member
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    LatinaBubbles,

    I am sure you will get a lot of negative comments that you are eating too few calories. I did a VLCD that was medically monitored at the Medical University of South Carolina. It was a very effective program and I lost 85 lbs, so it is not completely bad. However, you do need to be careful and make sure that you are being monitored in some way. It needs to be a consistent program. Its not going to do any good to only consume 500 calories today, but then take in 2000 tomorrow. The way a VLCD works is at first your body will go in to a type of starvation mode, which I am sure most people will tell you that's why you will not lose weight because the body is not getting rid of the stored fats it's trying to preserve them because you are in starvation mode. However, after doing this for several days, your body will begin burning stored fats and you will begin to see a weight loss. You will lose a lot the first couple weeks, and then you will see a steady loss after that. The diet I did was 900-1000 calories a day, and it was a great program they had group support meetings once a week, you weigh in once a week (which is great for accountability), and you learned how to eat right and read labels. You need to be careful with exercising though with only taking in that few of calories, it was several weeks in to the program before they recommended exercise.

    Part of the program I was in they did teach us to weigh every day, but only once a day at the same time of day on the same scale, usually first thing in the morning before or after you shower or get ready. There are a lot of people who disagree with weighing everyday, however, this was very helpful in my maintenance program, so when I would see a discrepency in my weight I knew it was time to buckle down again. The one thing to keep in mind your weight will very throughout the day, it can fluxuate from day to day as much as 4 or 5 lbs, so do not let that discourage you, it could be water retention, it could be that particular time of the month, their are a lot of factors that effect it. Also, you need to think about what type of food you took it, although it was only 450 calories did it contain a lot of salt or was it healthy, etc...

    Anyhow, I hope this helps and good luck on your weight loss journey....remember it's not a diet, you have to make a change in your lifestyle and it's not something you do now and it fixes your problem, its something you have to work on the rest of your life. I can testify to this, I lost 85 lbs in 2008-2009 and I did good for the first year of my loss...this past year I have gained 50lbs back and went back to my old habits, I am back on the wagon again and I am working towards losing the weight again and I am hoping that I am able this time to keep it off. I always tell everyone that eating and my habits are comparable to that of an alcoholic and it is a very hard thing to change and stick to it. Having a group to talk to and others like yourself is a big help in the journey and having family and friends as cheerleaders is a big help too!!
  • miley89
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    You're not eating enough. Your body will be holding onto fat and calories as a natural defence mechanism because it thinks it's starving!
  • latinabubbles
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    I do believe you're right. I think I probably kicked myself into starvation mode or something. I'm gonna try and stick to 1200, continue exercising and see how that goes. And of course, drink more water. ;)