In desperate need of help!

MiChaChelle
MiChaChelle Posts: 125 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys. i started logging in 35 days back and i lost 9 lbs so far.. problem is that its been 2 weeks now and my weight hasnt changed a bit. i made my diary public recently so take a look and tell me what to do plz. u'll notice that i have tons of calories left per day but that's because i work out about 2 hours every day and burn around 600-700 cals. i heard i should be eating more.. should i be consuming the cals i burn when i work out? im scared of gaining weight once i start eating more calories.. though i really feel like i shouldnt eat more cause i'm full everytime i eat already. PLEASE HELP!
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Replies

  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
    Two weeks is hardly enough time to panic. Relax. Keep working out. Eat healthy. Consume the occasional treat. Enjoy your life.

    As for how many calories you should be eating? I recommend calculating your total daily energy burn and eating 500 to 1000 calories below that. Alternatively, you could trust MFP. It does the calculations for you. Set it to lose 1 to 2 lbs a week, then eat the number of calories it recommends, INCLUDING exercise calories. That will put you at 500 to 1000 below your daily calorie burn. You'll be more likely to stick with your diet that way.

    But seriously.... relax. The scale doesn't always move. You're not 'stuck' until it's stayed the same for a month or more.
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
    P.S. as for the "full" business... if you're 'full' but still not getting enough calories, you should avoid 'low cal' diet foods and eat regular foods (substitute full fat salad dressings for the 'lite' versions, etc... ) and throw in a couple handfuls of almonds. It's really easy to hit your calorie goals is you plan well.
  • lsapphire
    lsapphire Posts: 297 Member
    Try upping your intake by just a couple of hundred for a week or so and then go back and see what happens.
  • STOP STARVING YOURSELF!!! Start eating fresh fruits and veg. eat good fats. avocado, nuts/seeds, salmon, ect. good fat gets rid of bad. you need to be eating at the very least 1200 calories per day. I am really tired of seeing you young women on here starving yourselves thin. Some people won't tell you this because they think they are being nice. I'm not that nice. I am more concerned with you being healthy!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Along withkleighsamboer.

    Why did it happen, you lowered your metabolism already by underfeeding your BMR, hence not even being hungry to hit your goal.

    Go back into your Settings - Fitness/Diet profile and change the goal to the recommended 1lb week.

    This should at least set your daily NET goal to around and hopefully above your BMR.

    BMR? Tools - BMR calc.

    Will you burn more than 1lb week?

    Sure, that guess of 1 lb is based on you selecting sedentary, which compared to the others may be more true - but that still doesn't describe all the other daily calories you actually burn. In other words, that calculation doesn't know what your true daily activity calorie burn is.

    Additionally, notice there is no comment of exercise in there - because you add that when you do it.
    Which means the deficit is ALREADY in your daily NET goal, so eat back a good 80% of your estimated workout calories - feed your body so it will get stronger.
  • marywanoKC
    marywanoKC Posts: 176
    1. You need to eat more protein and vitamin-enriched vegetables. Your muscle is "destroyed" and built on weight training and protein. Two hours in the gym is pointless if you're not feeding your body what it needs to build muscle, maintain energy, and lose weight. You need to eat more, better food, otherwise every single minute you spend in the gym is COMPLETELY pointless.

    2. Weigh yourself in the morning, after you've done your business, but before you shower, that way it's consistent. Also, I would recommend only weighing yourself one every couple of weeks. You can easily drive yourself insane if you do nothing but hop on and off the scale every day all week. Look for results outside of the scale: how your clothes fit, losing an inch in your waist, or your arm, or feeling more strength and adding ten pounds while weight training.
  • MiChaChelle
    MiChaChelle Posts: 125 Member
    I really am not starving myself.. i've been a vegetarian for a few months now and most of the things i eat are leafy and have almost no calories in them. its not that i dont want to eat more its just that watever i eat is not enough to hit my 1200 cal to start with.
  • cpiton
    cpiton Posts: 380 Member
    Two weeks isn't bad. I recently went through a 6 week plateau. Not fun.

    You need to be sure you're eating a bare minimum of 1200 calories a day. I eat at least 1310 and usually most of my exercise calories (average day: 500-600 burned). It's how I broke through my plateau. My advice: Google Basal Metabolic Rate. That's the amount of calories you burn just being alive. It will help you set your minimum daily caloric needs. :flowerforyou:
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
    STOP STARVING YOURSELF!!! Start eating fresh fruits and veg. eat good fats. avocado, nuts/seeds, salmon, ect. good fat gets rid of bad. you need to be eating at the very least 1200 calories per day. I am really tired of seeing you young women on here starving yourselves thin. Some people won't tell you this because they think they are being nice. I'm not that nice. I am more concerned with you being healthy!

    Hear hear!

    Sorry, but you eat so little. Have 1200 as your absolute minimum daily count.

    What am I seeing? You are not eating any protein, you are severely malnourishing yourself. You have a few empty carbs and that's it.

    I think you are probably retaining fluid in your insides.

    I see below in this reply box that you say you are not starving yourself but you are vegetarian: well, I know a girl who got rather chunky on vegetarianism.

    Humus is good for you, so is pesto. They have calories. Cheese is good for you. It has calories. Nuts and seeds are fantastically good for you and they have calories.

    You need to get back up to a minimum of 1200 again, if you don't want to eat off all your exercise cals that's fine but always stay above 1200. Ever seen a child with beriberi? Their stomach sticks out, their intestines are swollen and they weigh heavy due to the inflammation.
  • I really am not starving myself.. i've been a vegetarian for a few months now and most of the things i eat are leafy and have almost no calories in them. its not that i dont want to eat more its just that watever i eat is not enough to hit my 1200 cal to start with.

    I hate to break it to you but I looked at your food journal for the past week and it is all below 1000 calories and I see little to no veg. Take a look at my journal. I am a clean eater and the only animal products I eat are fish, organic butter, raw goat's milk cheese, and goat's milk yogurt. The rest of my diet is fruit and veg. I also drink a lot of water.
  • scottc561
    scottc561 Posts: 329 Member
    I really am not starving myself.. i've been a vegetarian for a few months now and most of the things i eat are leafy and have almost no calories in them. its not that i dont want to eat more its just that watever i eat is not enough to hit my 1200 cal to start with.

    just checking your diary for the last 4-5 days you are eating less then 1k on most days and on top of that burning 500 to 700 calories a day. So say you eat 900 and burn 700 you are at a net of 200calories per day, this is starvation mode plain and simple. Eat more if you are going to burn so many calories per day. Its as simple as that. You have one of the lowest net calories Ive seen in awhile.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I really am not starving myself.. i've been a vegetarian for a few months now and most of the things i eat are leafy and have almost no calories in them. its not that i dont want to eat more its just that watever i eat is not enough to hit my 1200 cal to start with.

    Misunderstood - starving your body.

    Your stomach and mind have a level of feeling full.

    Your body on the other hand has energy needs that are easily not met by such a diet and exercise routine.
    So to get the energy, it will break muscle down for glucose when those stores run down after several days of exercise.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    From what I saw you're eating 700-800 calories on most days. There's your problem right there. Like everyone else said you need to eat more.
  • pinkminy
    pinkminy Posts: 286
    If you can eat spinach , tomatoes, asparagus, peppers, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli
    Eggs particularly the whites, and fish, and oranges apples mango grapefruit nectarines and peaches.
    these foods are part of Lipoliytic foods that stimulate digestion and burn fat.
    stay away from breads and sugars and high fat dairy.
    Author : Dr Hendrick V Rensburg Title A Medical Guide to weight loss polar bears and Humming birds.
    http://www.medicalweightlossrx.com/
  • Because you're female, every time you hit a plateau like this, I would suggest taking body measurements (chest, waist, hips, booty) as opposed to focusing solely on weight. I have a friend who experienced the "weight loss plateau"--weeks when she wouldn't lose any weight--several times over the course of losing 60 pounds, but she found that she would lose more inches during those times than she did when she was dropping the pounds.

    Looking at your food diary and adding the "extra calories" that you earn from exercising to your totals, it's clear that you *are* eating over 1,200 calories each day; you're just burning off the calories that would show the totals being over that amount. As long as you're getting the nutrients your body needs in the calories you're consuming and you feel full, great! Not everyone needs a thoroughly consistent caloric intake. There are plenty of people who can eat almost nothing for weeks and then have a few days of inhaling everything and then return to eating almost nothing or vice versa and are still completely healthy.

    Honestly, I'd eat healthfully when you're hungry and I'd check your measurements. Those are probably going to be your biggest indicators of your goal toward a smaller, healthier you.
  • STOP STARVING YOURSELF!!! Start eating fresh fruits and veg. eat good fats. avocado, nuts/seeds, salmon, ect. good fat gets rid of bad. you need to be eating at the very least 1200 calories per day. I am really tired of seeing you young women on here starving yourselves thin. Some people won't tell you this because they think they are being nice. I'm not that nice. I am more concerned with you being healthy!

    Well said.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Looking at your food diary and adding the "extra calories" that you earn from exercising to your totals, it's clear that you *are* eating over 1,200 calories each day; you're just burning off the calories that would show the totals being over that amount. As long as you're getting the nutrients your body needs in the calories you're consuming and you feel full, great!

    While nice advice to measure yourself, you don't know how to read a diary, nor understand anything about human body energy needs.

    Might take another look for the diary part. Have to do your own research on BMR for the other.

    The Your Daily goal calories is higher because of exercise credit.

    There is only 1 line and 1 value for Totals, what is actually eaten. In which case you can do the math.

    Food eaten minus what the exercise used up leaves what the body has to work with for metabolism.

    Totals - earned exercise credit = NET calories your body got to actually use.

    This is how you slow your metabolism down, burn muscle, and wonder why you have no weight loss. And any splurge turns into real weight.
  • scottc561
    scottc561 Posts: 329 Member
    Looking at your food diary and adding the "extra calories" that you earn from exercising to your totals, it's clear that you *are* eating over 1,200 calories each day; you're just burning off the calories that would show the totals being over that amount.

    Where are you getting this? The exercise calories are added to the daily goal not what she actually ate. So if she at 800 calories and burned 600 she has a net of 200 calories. I see you just signed up so maybe you are reading it wrong idk. But what she is doing is far from healthy.

    ps-damn someone beat me to it lol
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So who is taking odds of a:
    Response wanting to know more about this undereating problem?
    Response of "i know what I'm doing"?
    Response of "I can't possibly eat more?
    Response of "how could I lose weight eating more"?
    Response of a new Topic looking for different opinions to eat less and exercise more?
    Or because of being in medical school, will find her answers by studying?
  • So who is taking odds of a:
    Response wanting to know more about this undereating problem?
    Response of "i know what I'm doing"?
    Response of "I can't possibly eat more?
    Response of "how could I lose weight eating more"?
    Response of a new Topic looking for different opinions to eat less and exercise more?

    I say B and C
  • scottc561
    scottc561 Posts: 329 Member
    So who is taking odds of a:
    Response wanting to know more about this undereating problem?
    Response of "i know what I'm doing"?
    Response of "I can't possibly eat more?
    Response of "how could I lose weight eating more"?
    Response of a new Topic looking for different opinions to eat less and exercise more?
    Or because of being in medical school, will find her answers by studying?

    true I dont even know why I waste my time responding to these posts. most people just ignore any help and do what they want to do.
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
    Because you're female, every time you hit a plateau like this, I would suggest taking body measurements (chest, waist, hips, booty) as opposed to focusing solely on weight. I have a friend who experienced the "weight loss plateau"--weeks when she wouldn't lose any weight--several times over the course of losing 60 pounds, but she found that she would lose more inches during those times than she did when she was dropping the pounds.

    this is good advice - but this...
    Looking at your food diary and adding the "extra calories" that you earn from exercising to your totals, it's clear that you *are* eating over 1,200 calories each day; you're just burning off the calories that would show the totals being over that amount. As long as you're getting the nutrients your body needs in the calories you're consuming and you feel full, great!

    is completely mad. You do not appear to have mastered the art of reading teh daily food totals chart. This girl is eating around 800 cals a day, when she has a total often of 1700 to eat due to exercising.

    If there were one thing I could go back and undo from my early adult life, it would be the starvation/exercise mania/depression/binge cycle.
  • MiChaChelle
    MiChaChelle Posts: 125 Member
    i am taking what u guys are saying into consideration.. and ill try my best to work on it. some of u are being harsh for no reason though, but thanks anyway
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
    i am taking what u guys are saying into consideration.. and ill try my best to work on it. some of u are being harsh for no reason though, but thanks anyway

    I'm sorry if I was harsh. I didn't mean to be. I guess I just get worried about you young things, eating so little, thinking it's so much. I did it myself.
  • we aren't being harsh for no reason. we are trying to make you realize what you are doing. I know what an eating disorder looks like first hand and you are on a downward spiral whether you want to see it or not. The bottom line is you asked for help, so take it. Listen to me when I say you are not eating enough and not eating the right things to nourish your body. I really don't mind talking with you and helping you but you have to be willing to help yourself first.
  • I would tell you to eat more protein! Drink it in skim milk as a snack and add it in breakfast cereal and yoghurt.
  • memega
    memega Posts: 73
    I really am not starving myself.. i've been a vegetarian for a few months now and most of the things i eat are leafy and have almost no calories in them. its not that i dont want to eat more its just that watever i eat is not enough to hit my 1200 cal to start with.

    If you are vegetarian try to include walnuts, flax seeds, whole grains and legumes to bring up your calories to atleast match your BMR. Try to stick with a 40:40:20 ratio of protein, carbs and quality fats.
  • AvonLucyR
    AvonLucyR Posts: 124 Member
    I agree with you needing to eat more calories...I've had the same trouble, and you just have to force them. A lot of people have recommended raw almonds. You have added a more difficult topic with being vegetarian. I understand your reasoning, but you have to keep protein to continue to exercise.

    The biggest thing I saw which I haven't seen addressed, is that your sodium count is high and you aren't drinking water. You may just be retaining fluid...It's worth a thought! Keep up the good work. You'll adjust the longer you do it, just beware of the starvation mode...once you are in it, it is extremely hard to get out of (speaking from experience as a former anorexic). :flowerforyou:
  • MiChaChelle
    MiChaChelle Posts: 125 Member
    thank u for ur advice.. im working on lowering my sodium intake..and i dont put in how much i drink every day but i am taking in around 1.5 liters per day.
  • You can get protein from dark leafy greens. They are abundant with protein.
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