Need help! I'm at a loss here!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2004
Need help! I'm at a loss here!!
8
Fri, 03-26-2004 - 8:26pm
I am beginning to think, maybe I am just not meant to lose weight. I have done a whole week of 900 calorie days and 40 minutes of exercise and.......gained weight. Has anyone here tried that 500 calorie diet? I am at a loss as to whether or not I am able to lose weight. I am SO angry at myself for letting myself go like this, but I figured 900 calories a day would atleast lose some weight. Any ideas as to what I can do to get this going again? Last week I had 1100 calories a day, and lost weight. But, I think it's because it was my first real week. I heard you should take in fewer calories every week. I am really beginning to HATE eating.

My normal meals are

Breakfast (nothing)

Lunch 45 calories

Dinner 530 Calories

I then do my 40 minutes of exercise (then go to work)

PM Snack 210

Thanks so much!

Brenda

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2004
Fri, 03-26-2004 - 8:59pm
Hi Brenda,

Taking in too few calories can actually backfire. If you take in too few calories, it can put your body in starvation mode and it holds on to all the calories and stores them as fat. That might explain why when you were eating more calories you lost weight, but when you reduced it you gained.

Also, are you drinking enough water? If you don't drink enough water, your body will hold onto that too, which will show a gain.

I just noticed, too, that you don't eat breakfast and hardly eat lunch. That will slow your metabolism way down so that it's almost impossible to lose weight. It's actually better to eat small meals every 3-4 hours to keep your metabolism going.

I hope this helps!

~~Linda

~~Linda

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 03-26-2004 - 9:00pm

Brenda, if you want my honest opinion, then your not eating enough food!

  Shawna-- Proud Cl for 100 Pounds or More to Go 

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2003
Fri, 03-26-2004 - 9:16pm

Brenda.........I definitely agree with everyone else.

 
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2003
Fri, 03-26-2004 - 10:48pm
My first thought is that you are eating too little. Sometimes when you don't eat enough your body will hang onto the weight. I would stick with 1100 calories, but do not go to 500 calories. That is far too little. And make sure you eat something for breakfast. sharla
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-17-2004
Sat, 03-27-2004 - 1:00am
I agree with the rest of the ladies here...some wise advice they gave you and took the words right out of my mouth! You are not eating enough! Good luck to you!

Kerry

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2004
Sat, 03-27-2004 - 7:52am
this might sound bad,.... but... I wish you would give atkins a try. you don't have to worry about calories to start with at all (don't take that rule to the extreme tho). you eat until you are full. *am not a doctor* but i have done lots and lots of reading. i've formed the opinion that the human body needs to be fueled with as many things that come from nature as possible. (maybe easier said than done, but after the restrictions you've set for yourself already and stuck too .... this would be easy-peasy.) like the others said,... from what we have learned and lived... we think your body is starving and that is why it won't let you lose weight. i think we all want to help you. we are all trying to do the same thing you are by losing a lot of weight.

www.atkins.com

look at the success stories. maybe you could pick up the atkins book from the library or the store.

no matter what you decide to do, i wish you luck. and kudo's for exercising like a good girl.


Serena

273.5/247/150

Atkins since 1/5/04

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2004
Sat, 03-27-2004 - 9:42am
I posted about it in the breakfast thread, but I'm going to specifically recommend it to you. Go to the bookstore, or library, and curl up and read Kathleen Daeleman's book Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen. The first 60-80 pages give some sound advice about diet and nutrition, from someone who has been in your position. In case you don't know, Kathleen is Chef Kathleen from the food network (television program) show Cooking Thin. She was fat all her life, until she got a job as a "health spa" chef, of all things, and as she said...getting thin for her was a matter of keeping her paycheck. Anyway, she lost 75 lbs eating sensibly and has kept the weight off for 12 years at least (the book says 12 years and it was printed 2002, so 14 years now). The second part of her book is a cookbook, and the kinds of things which are really do-able. I'm not here to plug a book, but I bought it just yesterday and I couldn't put it down without reading cover-to-cover and I think it might really help you to take a look at it.

Listen, you have to eat breakfast lunch and dinner. You can't starve yourself, and if you eat sensibly and exercise just a bit (take a short walk every day for instance) in time it will come. I'm going to quote from Kathleen now: "Each day, you wake up and **need** to consume x number of calories based on height, weight, physical activity. The goal is to balance calories over each day and each week--calories in versus calories out."

Good luck. This is entirely do-able.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 03-27-2004 - 11:08am
Here's a tip that (sort of) comes from Weight Watchers. It actually is from a website of a woman who discovered this while on Weight Watchers, and I know several people who have found it really effective! VARY your calorie intake. I personally don't like the idea of going much below 1200, so that is what I'm basing this on, but you can adjust it for yourself. Basically - eat 1200 one day - then 1500 the next - then maybe down to 1000 - then back up to 1200, etc. I think one of the reasons that this really works is because the body never goes into "starvation mode" where it slows down the metabolism to make up for the lack of food, because you have the 'higher' days in between. That seems to keep the metabolism running hot so that on the "low" days you burn fat. Now, keep in mind that I'm NOT a doctor or nutritionist, but I really can't see the harm in trying this, especially if you have already been restricting your calories so severely.