Gaining weight on recc. calories

I have lost 43 pounds in the last 8 months. I keep learning new things along as I go. There are so many things about weight loss that you do not understand right off. First you need to drink lots of water, at least 8 glasses a day. Not pop or juice but water. Your body needs it. Second you need at least 8 hours or more of sleep. Sleep does more than make you feel rested. While you sleep your body metabolizes the calories that you have consumed that day. It renews and repairs damaged cells . Grows muscle tissue , heals the body. You can live ok with little sleep but to lose weight and be at your best you should get at least 8 hours or more sleep every night. Do a little experiment, weigh just before you go to bed. When you get up weigh again. You lose weight while you sleep.
I try not to eat recc calories, I know this site says yes, but other sites say no. What you eat may matter as much or more than how many calories you eat. Try not to eat greasy or fried foods, breads and starches, sugars and fats. And yes that does leave a lot of good for you foods to choose from. Lean baked or grilled meat, Fish, all vegetables, whole grain cereals, and fruits .
Diets are not good ideas. When you go off the diet you go back to eating like you did before and gain the weight back. The only way to lose and keep it off it to change your eating lifestyle. Permanently. Develop healthy eating habits that will serve you the rest of your life.
Hope this helped.

If you lost before on a VLCD, what is so bad about going that route? Why do you say that it is torture?

VLCDs are torture. They're also a great way to screw up your metabolism. My husband's metabolism is damaged and we're working to get it back to normal. He stayed on a liquid 500 calorie a day diet for one year.

Have you ever gone a year without solid food? It's torture.

What does a liquid diet have to do with VLCD (Very Low Carb Diet)? Unless I am not aware of a different acronym in use that is similar. A low carb diet would NEVER consist of just liquid, nor only 500 calories a day. What you are describing is a liquid starvation diet.

If by chance this was billed as a low carb diet, then you and your husband were mislead in some way. I'm on a VLCD per my definition of less than 20g of carbs a day and yesterday ate 3.5lbs of lamb for lunch totallying over 7200 calories, lost 2lbs since yesterday....

If you lost before on a VLCD, what is so bad about going that route? Why do you say that it is torture?

I ate 500 cal a day of a green veg and a lean protein. I love to eat and it was torture not to be able to eat with my family. Sharing meal time is a big family time for me. I felt like a pariah.

Another all in your head moment right??

As I posted just a few minutes ago I'll restate this. A VLCD (Very Low Carb Diet, unless my acronyms are failing here) should never be that low on the calories, you simply cannot be satisfied, enjoy life, nor loose weight properly eating like that. I ate well over 8400 calories yesterday and less than 20 carbs and lost 2lbs since yesterday.

O_O 8,400 calories!!! I would love to see your diary!

If you lost before on a VLCD, what is so bad about going that route? Why do you say that it is torture?

VLCDs are torture. They're also a great way to screw up your metabolism. My husband's metabolism is damaged and we're working to get it back to normal. He stayed on a liquid 500 calorie a day diet for one year.

Have you ever gone a year without solid food? It's torture.

What does a liquid diet have to do with VLCD (Very Low Carb Diet)? Unless I am not aware of a different acronym in use that is similar. A low carb diet would NEVER consist of just liquid, nor only 500 calories a day. What you are describing is a liquid starvation diet.

If by chance this was billed as a low carb diet, then you and your husband were mislead in some way. I'm on a VLCD per my definition of less than 20g of carbs a day and yesterday ate 3.5lbs of lamb for lunch totallying over 7200 calories, lost 2lbs since yesterday....

VLCD = Very Low CALORIE Diet.

Wow. You can eat a whole leg of lamb? 8000+ calories is not good, no matter what diet you are following.

Not sure what's so bad about it? This is not like a daily intake, my average is between 2500-3500 daily. My blood work is picture perfect, I loose weight eating 1000+ more calories a day than MFP recommends and have never felt better (except when I was in my 20s and doing low carb).

Also, that wasn't a whole leg of lamb, that was just the 1/2 that was left over from the night before. I've eaten as much as 5lbs of steak in a sitting too though.

If you lost before on a VLCD, what is so bad about going that route? Why do you say that it is torture?

I ate 500 cal a day of a green veg and a lean protein. I love to eat and it was torture not to be able to eat with my family. Sharing meal time is a big family time for me. I felt like a pariah.

Another all in your head moment right??

As I posted just a few minutes ago I'll restate this. A VLCD (Very Low Carb Diet, unless my acronyms are failing here) should never be that low on the calories, you simply cannot be satisfied, enjoy life, nor loose weight properly eating like that. I ate well over 8400 calories yesterday and less than 20 carbs and lost 2lbs since yesterday.

O_O 8,400 calories!!! I would love to see your diary!

Here's a screen shot of yesterday.



Screenshot cut off a bit of information, but if anyone is curious my counts were:

Calories: 8,498
Carbs: 11g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 0g
Protein: 632g
Fat: 623g

...you are just pulling our leg right? ....

If you lost before on a VLCD, what is so bad about going that route? Why do you say that it is torture?

I ate 500 cal a day of a green veg and a lean protein. I love to eat and it was torture not to be able to eat with my family. Sharing meal time is a big family time for me. I felt like a pariah.

Another all in your head moment right??

As I posted just a few minutes ago I'll restate this. A VLCD (Very Low Carb Diet, unless my acronyms are failing here) should never be that low on the calories, you simply cannot be satisfied, enjoy life, nor loose weight properly eating like that. I ate well over 8400 calories yesterday and less than 20 carbs and lost 2lbs since yesterday.

O_O 8,400 calories!!! I would love to see your diary!

Here's a screen shot of yesterday.



Screenshot cut off a bit of information, but if anyone is curious my counts were:

Calories: 8,498
Carbs: 11g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 0g
Protein: 632g
Fat: 623g

...you are just pulling our leg right? ....

Haha, nope, this is actually what I ate that day, recorded everything. This is not an average day though, like I said usually 2500-3500 cals and sometimes on the weekends 4500+ cals. I have been loosing with an average of 1000 cals more than MFP recommends every day. There ARE some days that are lower than recommended, but that's just because I'm not hungry and don't eat as much. I don't believe in the forced meals multiple times a day if you just aren't feeling it.

I feel like you're on an episode of Epic Meal Time. Bacon Beef Roll sounds pretty amazing.

I agree with what most people have been telling you: relax and stick with it. It is normal for weight to flucuate a few pounds daily. Also, your activity level may be too high, but if you are working out HARD for 90 min, then you need that 1800 calories.

I was having the same trouble as you, counting calories and still gaining a lot of weight. I got a personal trainer who helped me with my workouts and put me on a diet. Its worked. It is expensive, but I got results.

Another thing you may want to do is go to the doctor. It seems like you are doing the right things, but your body is not cooperating. I also did this and found out I have high cortisol levels which slows my metabolism, making me gain weight even though I was working out HARD 6 days a week.

Hope this helps!

Boy the screen doesn`t lie but can this be for real?? If I could lose weight eating 1000 calories more than any nutritionist reccommends I should then well, I want to do it!!

What is this crazy diet? And can we have a picture of you? Your blood work is perfect! I am pretty healthy but I can not manage to lose a pound and I try sooooo hard!!!

Why does this work for you???

I agree, the HCG diet WOULD be torture. I know a few people that have done it personally and they always look hungry, and when the weight came off you could tell (especially on men) that most of the loss was muscle and not fat, as they ended up with a weird sickly "skinny-fat" look (similar to what most vegan men look like). My personal opinion is that if you can't find joy in food, what's the point of living...it's like sex, if I didn't enjoy food or sex, what's the point of even being around?

Now, my "secret" is really no secret at all. What I do is follow a low carb diet, at this time specifically Atkins. While most people that read that probably shut their brains off and got the "Oh, that's going to kill you" response ready to type out, I assure you that I've NEVER been healthier with weight, blood work, self esteem and sense of well being than when I am on low carb.

I highly suggest that anyone that is struggling with weight loss go buy Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (there is a newer book "New Atkins for a New You", but New Diet Revolution was the last book written by Dr. Atkins personally, and I trust it more). and ACTUALLY read it, cover to cover and then pass judgment. There is so much misinformation out there about doing a low carb diet, but you will find that 99% of those that have issues with it have either A) Never once read the book and go off what the media and broscience tells them or Did a half-assed version and were not successful.

I've lost 105lbs in 9 months in 2003-2004 on Atkins, and am using it again to loose after slipping back into a standard american diet (read JUNK food and tons of carbs). I eat WAY more natural foods and vegtables than anyone I know. I eat more vegtables than a few vegetarians I know...what can be so bad about that?

I love wine and have had major issues with weight loss. Even when I restrict my calories to accommodate a wine night I find it completely stops any weight loss all together. I did extensive research on this and this is what I learned:

Your liver is responsible for burning fat. Your liver is also responsible for processing alcohol and any other toxin that you put into your body. Your liver will always process alcohol before it burns fat. Most of the work your liver does is while you are asleep. So, if you have a few drinks and go to bed then your liver will spend the evening processing the liquor and store the fat you consumed that day because it wasn't able to get to it on time. Additionally, it wont be burning any fat. So, you are not only NOT burning fat (weight loss) but you have also stored fat (weight gain). Depending on how bad you torture your liver it may take a couple days to get back into fat burning zone. Let's say you are a moderate drinker (IMO 2 times a week, Wednesday and Saturday). You go into fat burning mode on Sunday and lose a pound or so, then Wednesday you have a few drinks. You are now out of fat burning zone for a couple days. Friday you go back into fat burning zone, but then Saturday you have a few drinks again, now you are back out.....rinse, lather, repeat.

I did not have a drink (not one) for 2 months this year (January 1 - February 29) and I lost 17lbs in two months. Since the beginning of March, almost one month now I have enjoyed one wine night a week and I have not lost a pound.

In addition to the effects of wine, I NEED a carb-filled meal the following day. I am still moderate with calories but I can't eat protein and veggies only.

I know this is very discouraging news for wine lovers (trust me, it took me years to accept and I am still heart-broken) but IMO you cannot lose weight and drink. You can however maintain your weight while drinking if you do it in moderation and eat great all week.

Everybody's body works differently so it's important to play around with things to see what works for you and what you can get away with but ALL diet books will tell you to omit alcohol during the losing phase.

Since the beginning of March, almost one month now I have enjoyed one wine night a week and I have not lost a pound.

In addition to the effects of wine, I NEED a carb-filled meal the following day. I am still moderate with calories but I can't eat protein and veggies only.

I know this is very discouraging news for wine lovers (trust me, it took me years to accept and I am still heart-broken) but IMO you cannot lose weight and drink. You can however maintain your weight while drinking if you do it in moderation and eat great all week.

I hate to say this but I really don't think one glass of wine a week is preventing you from losing weight. You are correct that the liver's primary function is as a filter - But your liver doesn't take six days to filter alcohol in a glass of wine. I get that you're looking for reasons that you haven't been losing weight, but 4oz of wine in a week isn't a strong enough reason to completely throw off your diet. unless there is something medically wrong.

I will say that people who drink OFTEN need to cut back in order to lose weight... But I've been drinking a glass or two of wine a week for years, and I lost 40lbs without cutting out wine.

Your theory about being taken out of "fat burning mode" is BS. sorry.