500 Calories A Day!

I have lost a great deal of weight and people at work are noticing.  In fact, many have come to me to ask advice about nutrition and diet. 

First of all, I tell them that I lost my weight slowly by eating a little less (never less than 1,200) and moving a little more.  I have directed them to many reputable sources of information and offered encouragement.

With so much information available, I was very surprised to hear what some of my co-workers have resorted to in order to lose weight  Examples:

• 500 calorie a day restrictions
• Hormone injections
• Tuna and tomato diet
• And of course the more popular diets, such as Atkins

It was hard for me to believe that so many people have so much bad information when it is so readily available.  Have you experienced any crazy diet stories or actually done them yourself?

Oh yes I've been on several. At age 10 it was a low cal low fat diet from the Doctor. It was 1/2 sandwich at lunch with 1 C campbells soup. Breakfast was 1 C oatmeal with banana's. Dinner vegetables, lean meat and 1/2 of starch. Hardly enough for a growing girl who exercised a lot.

Then at age 15 I was on the grapefruit diet. Then through my twenties and thirties I was on Weight Watchers 4 different times. Then I tried the Atkins diet and got very ill on that one. I also tried the slim fast plan and got sick on that one too. I tried the cabbage diet and the eat fruit all day and veggies the next and so on diet. Ughhhhhh

Now i'm on a life long plan. A new way of eating not a diet. I'm so much happier. Yes it's hard at times figuring it all out and listening to my body but it's not any where as hard as when I was on those fad diets.

Well, let's face it. Which is more tempting:

Lose 18 lbs in just 4 days! Continue eating all the foods you like to eat! Only $12 per day!

Or

Lose 1-2lbs per week by increasing your activity level and making small but significant lifestyle changes.

...Uh, 18 lbs, please. Yeah, right there, just take it right off my ass, that'd be great. Everybody loves the quick and easy route, man. The good information is available, but it's not as well-advertised or persuasive as the bad stuff. 

Oh, and I did the 'Lose 11lbs in 9 days" diet and took a few different diet pills...I'm pretty embarassed about it now, and I'm lucky nothing bad ever happened.

Several years ago, my sister gave me a tuna diet.  There were three menu's, one for each of three days.  day 4 eat normal.  Then doing the three days over again.  My sister was ALWAYS tired on one of the days.  So I sat down and figured out the calories.  No wonder she was so tired that day!  It was a 500 calorie day!  The three days worked out to 500, 800, and 1000 calorie days. 

Wow that 1200 sounds much better! I didn't think I could eat that much an still loose! I've been on and off of dieting for the last year and I lost 60lbs, from 198 to 138 but to be honest I didn't do it as healthy as I should have at times.  When I really got crazy, I was eating about 300 calories a day and burning 800+ at the gym....now my metabolismis shot.  I just decided to do it myself and I'm 15, but now looking back i can see I've created bad habits.  I would deffently say to all people starting out to do it right with a 1200 calorie a day diet and not rush it.  Im currently stuck, i still have 20 to go and im deffently going to try higher calories for this last 20.

It's the triumph of hope and desperation over experience....   It takes effort & patience to lose weight slowly through improved diet, portion control and exercise.  It's not quick or glamorous or 'scientific'.   Since Victorian times the advice has consistently been 'eat more vegetables & fewer potatoes, get more exercise'.... and it hasn't changed all that much in the intervening 100 years.  But for some that's just so much old hat and they think there has to be some other reason why they gain weight...... an 'allergy', their blood group, a chemical imbalance....

So something that offers a quick result, a pseudo-scientific approach and reassures people it's not their fondness for eating too much that has caused them to gain weight is always going to be a winner.  "You're not fat because you eat lots of doughnuts... it's because you're sensitive to carbs" 

I tried the Cambridge Diet in my twenties for about 4 weeks (nasty) and the Atkins Diet (more as an experiment than anything else) about ten years ago.  Both times I lost weight pretty quickly, regained it even quicker and added a few extra lbs for good measure.   Now that I eat better food, watch the portions and force myself to be more active... guess what... my weight problem is history.

Many moons ago, when I was a teenager, I tried the "strawberry diet", which was, actually, eating only strawberries for three days. I can't remember where I got the idea from. As I love strawberries, it must have sounded like a good idea.

I lasted about a day and a half and then gave up because I was totally sick of strawberries by that point. I didn't lose any weight, so the only outcome was that I couldn't stomach another strawberry for about two years afterwards!

I've been experiencing something similar at work. When asked, like you I explained that I lost weight slowly by changing my eating habits and increasing my activity, always eating between 1500-2200 calories a day and have been maintaining pretty well since July.

I've tried, but the women I know really seem to think my way is too slow or it only worked for me but wont work for them. *sighs* Did I use to be that unaware? Probably. Definitely.

I think the funniest diet I ever tried was "The Mars Bar Diet".  A small bowl of cereal for breakfast, a mars bar for lunch and a mars bar for dinner.  I did drop a ton of weight (of course put it back on later) but my goodness I still can't look at a Mars bar without gagging (17 years later!!).  and I'm really not one for eating chocolate now either!

yeah i lost 15kg and everyone at work was noticing..was a lil daunting actually.. but as soon as I explained that I'd lost the weight by countin calories and exercising they kinda lost interest.. too hard for sum ppl aye.. :P

bak in the day before i knew wat a calorie was in high school my friends and i went on the 'water diet'.. pretty self explanitory.. i think it lasted maybe a day and then as soon as i got home i stuffed down dinner + a weeks worth of junk lol

From age 20 or so until I turned 45, I weighed in the range of 125 to 135, except while pregnant and the year after the babies.  If I gained a few pounds, say over a holiday, I'd go on a crash diet and lose it.  With each baby, after they were weaned I lost most of the weight, then would go on a diet to get rid of the last 5 pounds or so.  I tried some really stupid fat diets, but since I only needed to lose a few pounds, it did work and it did stay off - until the next time.  I'd say I dieted about 3 times a year for a few weeks at a time.

However, when I hit menopause, suddenly I couldn't lose those few extra holiday pounds.  I'd go on a diet that worked in the past and wouldn't lose.  So I'd eat less (everybody knows you have to eat less to lose, right?) and I'd lose maybe half a pound.  After struggling for a few months, I'd just give up and immediately (amazingly fast) I'd gain it back, plus a few more pounds.  I had horrible eating habits from all those years of off and on dieting.  I did attempt to be sensible and joined Weight Watchers 3 times, but I'd lose about 20 pounds, stall, starve and give up, and back would come the weight.

From age 45 until age 62 I put on 90 pounds.  It just crept up slowly, about 5 pounds a year.

Now I'm losing it by doing what I was advised to do by my very first CC friends 3 years ago - stop dieting! Never starve yourself.  Start learning about nutrition and exercise and start making changes to those old, bad habits.  Make sure they are changes you can live with because you are in this for life, not just for now. 

I've lost 42 of those 90 pounds now and my BMI is finally below 30, which was my first goal.  I still have a long way to go, then I know I have to learn how to maintain my weight for the rest of my life.  I'm confident I'm doing this the right way.

I think like many of you I have tried various diets in the past.  Slimming world, 500 calories a day, cabbage soup, not eating.. many diets.  and in all honesty I can't really recommend any of them.  This seems to be the one working for me, I am taking note of everything I am eating at the moment, I know if I eat chocolate it has as many calories as some meals!  I would rather have a meal then one chocolate bar, so it is making me thingk about my choices.  I am not saying i don't still get them the wrong way round. lol

Somone I used to work with pretty much lived on tuna, peas and carrots.  Anothe ron fruit, another on weetabix and water.  Not of can me enjoyable or maintainable in the long term,  so I will stick with this as long as it is working for me. 

Thank you everyone for the responses.  I was surprised at the number of crazy diets mentioned.  They just don't work.

This post has motivated me to set-up a nutrition class at my work.  I contacted a local hospital that has community outreach programs.  They are willing to come to our location, free of cost, and have a registered dietitian do a "brown bag lunch".

I hope that many of my co-workers will take advantage of the valuable information!

I did the HCG diet.  Hormone injections and 500 calories a day.  I lost 35 lbs. and have done OK at keeping it off.  I have put 5 back on but I was happy to find this site.  It was never my intention to use that diet as a magical way to get the weight off, but I had almost 50 lbs. to lose and I wanted something to jump start it.  It was no fun I tell you and I can't really recommend it as a solution.  By the end, I would brush my hair and so much would come out in my brush.

So I'm using this to lose the rest of the weight.  I'm much happier with this way!  Also, I don't care if I see another cup of Wu-long tea for a very long time!

I had a friend who decided she wasn't going to eat anything. When she felt like she was going to pass out she ate a cheese cube. She said she got it from a book she read.

If we don't start teaching kids that starving themselves is going to screw them up for life, we'll never get rid of the obese epidemic. These posts are seriously scaring the crap out of me.

My sister once tried the 'granola diet'. I think she might have made it up though. She would get one large granola/sports candy bar type and cut it into six pieces and eat it threw out the day. She also worked out in the morning, a little bit at half day, and at the gym again in the evening. She lost a lot of weight though which was awesome! But I didn't think it was worth it before.
Then her boyfriend broke up with her and she gained it all back :|

I think we all would be well-served to read this thread below:

An Unofficial Calorie Count Guide to a Fad-Free 2009

We have been conditioned to think that we can have any 2 of these three:

1. Fast

2. Cheap

3. Good

In most things it's true, but since people are people and not things the truism fails.  There is no fast weight loss solution that is good unless you redefine fast.

Original Post by jackattack07:

If we don't start teaching kids that starving themselves is going to screw them up for life, we'll never get rid of the obese epidemic. These posts are seriously scaring the crap out of me.

Yeah but it's hard enough to talk to a child about weight without damaging him/her.  I know my parents failed miserably with me and I couldn't even tell what was wrong until I left home b/c I'd only ever been exposed to their greasy fattening cooking.  Funny thing was they were the ones (and still are) who comment constantly on my weight (like how much I'm losing now! ^__^ )  I didn't know anyone else was eating any other way and started doing really weird things to avoid "Family Dinner" with them. Yes with capitals, it was such a nerve-wracking part of my day because it was the only time I HAD to eat and once I started it was impossible to stop.  And they got mad if I didn't eat at That Specific Time, but got more mad if I ate at any non-specified time.  Even turning on the stove to cook for lunch got me in trouble on many an occasion.

So through my teen years I tried:

- Up Day Down Day (eat 20 percent of your normal calories one day, then as much as you want the next day, then 20 percent, repeat.) by strategically telling my parents that I ate at work or with friends.  Did this one a LOT cause it was easy to pull off and somehow knowing that I could eat that cookie TOMORROW motivated me.

- Water fasting.  It's kind of scarey that I actually pulled this off for a full 2 days.  Felt really powerful and creepy.  Never again.

- ONLY eating "Family Dinner." Employed when I was in high school and couldn't go out  with friends on school nights / explain away not eating.

  I got to college completely miserable with myself and started gobbling veggies and taking hydroxycut.  I made a score table (organization soothes my nerves) and had a certain number of "points" per day.  Eating less than 800 calories earned X points, 800-1000 earned less, greater than 1000 was labelled "Pig."  And Monday Wednesday Friday I didn't get any points if I didn't work all 800 calories off at the gym.  There were points for the health value of my food, and drinking enough water, getting HW done, but it was a scary system.  I can't believe I held to it for several weeks.  My self esteem was just ridiculously low and I felt like proving that I could lose the weight if my parents weren't around was the only way to fix it.

I have never dieted... I remember being really frustrated when I was overweight and read lists of "weight loss tips" - you know, the good advice - cook from scratch, drink lots of water, eat loads of vegetables, enjoy your food, don't be ruled by the scale - because I would always think "but I already DO this... how am I supposed to lose weight, starve myself?!"

In the end I just had to eat a lot less of the good healthy stuff I've always eaten, and exercise a bit more. I remember a friend telling me "I know you eat really healthily, but unfortunately you can't really shift proper amounts of weight unless you stop eating and do the gym 7 times a week thing". She could and still can lose about a stone in a couple of weeks, I know it's bad for her, but I see her at her normal size (similar to me, a nice-though-not-thin UK size 10ish) and then if she's going on holiday or whatever I see her 2 weeks later and she's a size UK6. It IS glamorous, it is frustrating. It's a good job I'm not a very impatient person.

Sometimes I am irritated I was ever overweight because I think I have always had a much healthier attitude to food than many people I know who are still and have always been thin, eating nothing but processed crap and cake and skipping breakfasts and lunches  rather than exercising and hating themselves. I guess it just crept up on me... And I had to make a change. But I don't think my unhealthy mates ever will... they get positive reinforcement for their bad eating habits because they look good and society approves.