Advice needed please weight loss/ exercise

Your weight wont matter when you walk down the isle. It's your confidence that makes you look good.

Your PT is probably right, and if you search the forums you will see *allot* of people advocating to eating healthy and exercising rather than starving yourself.

Also, you will always have a bit of gain after starting exercising, if your muscles are sore (if they are not then you are not exercising hard enough :P).

Mfp says eat at least 1200 cals per day + a few more on exercise days. Perhaps you should try measuring yourself as well, and try and find out what your body fat percentage is, and keep an eye on that, not the scales. You could be getting slimmer, but not lighter.

Well done on the 60lb, that's a huge amount to lose since January!
Your pt is probably right, low cal diets combined with exercise will not work long term, you are probably netting minus cals and eventually your body will stop releasing fat.
You have the right idea with the weight training, but on so little calories you WILL lose muscle and end up skinny fat, as there is nowhere else for your body to take fuel from.

This won't be what you want to hear, but you don't have enough to lose now to aim for 2lbs a week, and this definetly won't continue as you get smaller without seriously f*cking up your metabolism and developing an eating disorder!!!!

Ideally you should aim for:
75+ to lose 2lbs
50-75 1.5 lbs
25-50 1-1.5lbs
10-25 1lbs
0-10 0.5lbs.

If you goal is to fit in your dress, being smaller is more important than weighing less.
I would set your goal to 1.5lbs, eat ALL your cals including exercise, set protein to at least 25% and carry on the heavy weights. You might not build much muscle while in a deficit but it will maintain / tone what you have and reduce body fat so you will lose inches faster.
If you carry on what you are doing you may weigh less but will be flabby, and will end up with lots of loose skin if you lose too fast which is not a good look for a wedding!

For comparison, I weigh 201lbs (14.5 stone) and want to get below 10 stone. I eat 2000 cals a day, exercise an average of 500 a day (boxing, spinning, swimming, weights). I lose 1.5 EVERY week, and am down 44lbs, 2-3 dress sizes and 12% body fat since October :-)

By 'starvation mode', I mean in the true sense - where your body will be destroying muscle mass etc. You'll still lose weight, albeit slower (obviously anorexics, for instance, continue to lose weight), but you lose less and less fat over time and more and more of the various tissues you don't want to lose.

I really do appreciate all of you replies and support. I have a review with the gym on the 24th of the month. They will do my weight body fat etc and do me a new plan. I will talk to them about my options and see what they recommend.
I really haven't got a clue what I should start eating I need a nutrition plan done for me. It's been a long time since I've eaten properly. I'm glad I have lost what I have to date it has given me a fab start. My hearts telling me that now for the sake of my health and fitness I need to start eating and lose this last chunk of weight a different way.

Good plan, the vlcd may get the pounds off initially but they dont teach you healthy eating habits to keep it off long term.
The main thing is to stick to your macros, eat home cooked food as much as possible and make sure to get plenty of fruit/veg/water.
Can you get your review in earlier? Another 2 weeks of vlcd won't do you any favours if it's obviously stopped working!

My diary is open if it would help you with any meal ideas!
I've recently changed macros to 40c/30p/30f, it takes a bit of planning to get right but it's not too hard and I never feel like I'm 'on a diet'.

One thing I've heard is that in coming out of a vlcd you should raise your calories slowly. Add 100-200 to each day for a week, then another 100-200 until you are at a more sane level.

That sounds like a good idea, out of all the macros protein is probably the best for your body.

As above posters have said, increase by maybe 100-200 per week, you can do this mainly from protein if you wish, then gradually add carbs back in to make up the rest of your cals.
My sister (mrsweasley123) is doing low carb at the minute with plans to increase carbs in the next few weeks,, so she might be able to help you with the best way to reintroduce carbs.

I'm in a VLCD group. You can friend me to get in if you wish.

Am I best to increase my calories and protein first? Once I'm up to so much I could then re-introduce carbs slowly? I am in ketosis at the moment, so I want to make sure I do things gradually? Without a big weight gain which I know people get when they start on the carbs.

No one can answer your question specifically without knowing your weight and what you are eating during a day. We can only assume and guess. Can you estimate what your bodyfat percentage is? As a guess, you've reached a bodyfat percentage in which your body will start burning more muscles instead of fat. If you are in ketosis then stay in ketosis but make sure you drink lots of water since your kidneys are being overworked. Some women have said they've gotten kidney stones while in ketosis but I believe drinking plenty of water will flush out any of the stones before it gets serious. You also should be taking some supplements along with this diet. Take some omega 3 fish oil, potassium, and a multivitimin to ensure proper heart circulation. Stay away from the multivitimins that say over 3000% daily value because they can make you sick.

Have you been experiencing any abnormal heartbeats?

When you say VLCD, how many calories are you eating per day?

If you want to lose weight just for a wedding in such extreme manner, you are going about it all wrong.

Why not save/invest all that money you are paying on gym memberships, personal trainers, 'diet foods' etc and buy a 4 week ticket to India instead??

Not only will you lose 90 lbs in 4 weeks, you will also experience new things ( assuming you haven't been before) and be no less healthy than if you were to pound it out with aggressive cardio and eating 3 grapes a day.

Take lots of TP with you...you'll need it.

MMA fighters, boxers, and some bodybuilders do some form of a VLCD right before competition. Fighters like those in MMA will train at 10 to 15 pounds above their body weight and do a VLCD 2 to 3 weeks before they weight in. More specifically, they will do a diet called PSMF. It's basically an all protein 800 calorie diet with the addition of cardio to drop the last 10 pounds a fighter needs to make the weight in.


Also, with a quick google search you will find that doctors will recommend a VLCD for the obese as an obese individual will lose very little muscle mass. If you are 15+ pounds overweight then you are considered obese according to the BMI index. Just saying a diet is unhealthy or wrong really doesn't provide any helpful information for anyone and just feeds into a type of fear mongering without any facts other then your opinion.


As someone who has done a VLC-Diet and researched it a bit, I can tell you that the real downside to it is an abnormal heartbeat which can lead to death. This is the reason why a doctor will recommend supplements to ensure proper heart circulation.

You're trying to lose 120LBS in 10 months?

Wow. You do know that your chances of keeping that weight off are, well, slim, right?

Are you doing this with a doctor?

Why would keeping that weight off of her be slim? If she stops exercising 4 times a week and goes back to eating junk food then I would agree with you but it is entirely possible for her to maintain her ideal weight if she does not stop exercising 4 times a week on a normal 16,000 calorie diet or whatever her calorie maintenance would be. All she has to do is maintain her ideal weight for 2 to 3 months for her body to understand that that is her goal weight. I believe some people say you need to maintain for 8 months but I believe 2 to 3 months is all you really need to get your body adjusted to the new weight.