Dear Calorie Count, I have some mean words for you

One of your moderators recently deleted my post in the Forums, accusing me of "promoting starvation diets" because I said that a dieter should never eat below 10 calories per pound of their body weight. This moderator then proceeded to lecture me, saying that NO person should EVER eat below 1200 calories a day.

I find it very disappointing that Calorie Count support such close-minded and obsolete data, and banishes anyone from ever expressing anything else -then targeting them as people who encourage anorexia. I'm sorry, but I find this extremely rude. Eating disorders are DISGUSTING, and I cannot believe ANYONE in this world would EVER accuse me of encouraging someone to starve themselves.

I currently study at one of the top 5 Universities in the world (I have taken out the title for privacy reasons), and I have taken many classes in regards to Nutritional Health. This topic of issue has always been an interest to me, and I have done incredible amounts of research on healthy weight management techniques.

For ONE example of proof, my suggestion to eat at least 10 calories per pound of body weight is supported by the MedLine Plus Medical Encyclopedia- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/artic le/001943.htm

Your treatment towards your members is very hurtful. I am astonished at the amount of guilt you try to instill onto posters who are only expressing their knowledge of certain factual content.

I did not say anything along the lines of "you should skip meals, you should go on a fast, you should only work out and drink nothing but broth for a week." I cannot believe one of your moderators accused me of promoting self-starvation.

To me, it does not seem like some of your moderators are being helpful. They are people who are on power trips and need to take out their useless emotions onto the rest of the world.

Well this is at least a little more interesting than all the "PG Leaving" threads.  

The OP's equation is flawed.  Everyone is different.  Not every 5'3" 40 year-old woman who weighs 155 pounds needs 1550 calories.  Of course, you have to run a deficit to lose wt, pref by way of exercise.  So if the above mentioned person wants to lose wt she will have to eat less than she burns.  

There are many ideas about how to eat properly, how much, how to exercise,... but the fact is that no ONE WAY is the ONLY way for everyone.  I find it best to offer my experience as just that and not the end-all truth for all.  

If you are studying nutrition or consider yourself to be a healthcare professional you should know that there may be a certain measure of liability involved in advising others.  This site belongs to CalorieCount.com and if someone took advice posted here and it killed or injured them, CC.com could possibly be implicated for liability, but so could you.  They are watching out for themselves.  You should too.  We are all guests here.  Be polite to your host/hostess.  

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Original Post by mimi_js:

Eating disorders are DISGUSTING

No, they aren't. They are terrible coping methods, and everyone who has an eating disorder has to focus on recovery and getting their life back. But to call them disgusting is pretty insulting to all the people who are fighting to recover from this particular form of mental illness. I wonder if you would find other forms of mental illness equally disgusting?

By the way, have you read the thread on crying vaginas yet?

I've gotta find that one.

Let's have some facts and stop the blame storming .... From Ask Mary:

The 1200 calorie a day minimum recommendation for women has nothing to do with the “starvation effect”.  Rather, it is virtually impossible to consume a nutritionally adequate diet with fewer than 1200 calories, and even with 1200 calories, older women need to take calcium supplements to meet their requirements and many younger menstruating women need iron supplements too. Women who are taller and younger should eat more than 1200 calories because there is no advantage in following a restrictive diet that creates feelings of deprivation.  In fact, everyone should eat meet the Calorie Target recommendations for safe weight loss.

Original Post by nycgirl:

Let's have some facts and stop the blame storming .... From Ask Mary:

The 1200 calorie a day minimum recommendation for women has nothing to do with the “starvation effect”.  Rather, it is virtually impossible to consume a nutritionally adequate diet with fewer than 1200 calories, and even with 1200 calories, older women need to take calcium supplements to meet their requirements and many younger menstruating women need iron supplements too. Women who are taller and younger should eat more than 1200 calories because there is no advantage in following a restrictive diet that creates feelings of deprivation.  In fact, everyone should eat meet the Calorie Target recommendations for safe weight loss.

 great idea to inject some logic into the mix! And this does make sense to me. 

Original Post by mspw:

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Original Post by mimi_js:

Eating disorders are DISGUSTING

No, they aren't. They are terrible coping methods, and everyone who has an eating disorder has to focus on recovery and getting their life back. But to call them disgusting is pretty insulting to all the people who are fighting to recover from this particular form of mental illness. I wonder if you would find other forms of mental illness equally disgusting?

By the way, have you read the thread on crying vaginas yet?

I've gotta find that one.

 save the crying vaginas!

Original Post by nycgirl:

Let's have some facts and stop the blame storming .... From Ask Mary:

The 1200 calorie a day minimum recommendation for women has nothing to do with the “starvation effect”.  Rather, it is virtually impossible to consume a nutritionally adequate diet with fewer than 1200 calories, and even with 1200 calories, older women need to take calcium supplements to meet their requirements and many younger menstruating women need iron supplements too. Women who are taller and younger should eat more than 1200 calories because there is no advantage in following a restrictive diet that creates feelings of deprivation.  In fact, everyone should eat meet the Calorie Target recommendations for safe weight loss.

The calorie target on CC told me it was okay to eat 1200 calories a day. I disagree, and I think so does the OP (at least that's how I interpreted her post). I for example weigh 130lbs...I think what she's saying is that I should never eat less than 1300 calories a day. Obviously this doesn't apply if you're under 120lbs, but I think her point was that 1200 should not be the minimum for everyone...it should be higher than 1200 for the majority of the population. Anyone who weighs 120lbs or less should not eat less than 1200 calories a day, but those who weigh more than 120lbs should eat more than 1200 calories a day. The calorie targets on CC seem to assume that 1200 is the minimum for everyone, whereas I personally do not think it would be healthy for me to consume only 1200 calories a day. 

It's just a disagreement. You, as a moderator of CC believe eating 1200 calories is okay, as long as that's what the calorie target recommends. I, and I think the OP, believe that consuming only 1200 calories is not okay for most people. I think that was the point of her post. 

Original Post by epiphany323:

well mimi, same thing happened to me. I made a comment in a thread that one shouldn't force food into their mouth if they are not hungry and my post got deleted. Then I was lectured with suggestions that one should eat more calorie dense foods to make up for the calories they might not get if they don't eat.

So like the good calorie counter that I am i'm become like sheepand just tell everybody to eat. Even if they have to eat foods they don't like or make themselves sick by forcing food in their mouth they need to eat those 1200/1500 calories.

Eating foods that you profess not to like is in many cases recommended by someone's therapist/doctor as many foods are eliminated using various excuses as part of the mindset you go through with disordered eating.  Encouraging them to ignore medical to help in the recovery process no matter how unpleasant it can be is not useful.

If eating 1200 for adult women or 1500 for adult men is making them feel sick then it's time to consult a medical professional as this is not the reaction of a healthy body in most instances.  It's one thing if it's a day or so with a mild illness, but otherwise it's a matter of concern.  If you're talking about an individual who has had disordered eating patterns then it's an entirely different issue.

Original Post by epiphany323:

well mimi, same thing happened to me. I made a comment in a thread that one shouldn't force food into their mouth if they are not hungry and my post got deleted. Then I was lectured with suggestions that one should eat more calorie dense foods to make up for the calories they might not get if they don't eat.

So like the good calorie counter that I am i'm become like sheepand just tell everybody to eat. Even if they have to eat foods they don't like or make themselves sick by forcing food in their mouth they need to eat those 1200/1500 calories.

Nobody's forcing you to get sick eating. We're saying if you have trouble eating the recommended minimum of calories per day (and really, it's a pretty tiny amount) then you should eat more calorie-dense foods. Eat some avocado, nuts, peanut butter, cheese or dried fruit. Cook with more butter or oil; use full-fat salad dressings and eat full-fat dairy or some whole eggs. You'll soon see what I mean about 1200 calories not being much at all - it all depends on what you eat.

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Nobody's forcing you to get sick eating. We're saying if you have trouble eating the recommended minimum of calories per day (and really, it's a pretty tiny amount) then you should eat more calorie-dense foods. Eat some avocado, nuts, peanut butter, cheese or dried fruit. Cook with more butter or oil; use full-fat salad dressings and eat full-fat dairy or some whole eggs. You'll soon see what I mean about 1200 calories not being much at all - it all depends on what you eat.

^ Hear hear!!!

So true merylwhite!  Brilliant of you to make this point!

Most of the people advocating eating less than 1200 seem to be using the reasoning that they're too 'full' to eat more.  That would have to do with the volume of food consumed, not necessarily the calories.  Anyone can fit 1200 calories into their bodies within a 24 hour time period!  You just have to choose more dense foods.

Nobody is advocating eating less than the bare minimum.

Take a look at this post in another thread about this same thing. It's a mod by the way. This is the situation I am talking about. But after training your mind to only eat healthier foods like veggies then you are supposed to eat foods calorie dense that might make you sick? It's a post by a mod btw that says they sometimes don't get all their cals but they eat nuts and other stuff to get it up there.

http://caloriecount.about.com/eat-all-calorie s-even-hungry-ft149646?utm_source=notificatio n&utm_medium=email&utm_term=forumrepl y_viewpost&utm_campaign=forumreply#18

In that same thread I think I explain how one can run into the problem of getting enough calories.

I once had someone that knew I was lactose intolerant tell me to drink 2 glasses of whole cow milk to get my calories up. Yeah it'll have me rolled up in the fetal position in a few hours with some serious stomach cramps but at least I'll get my calories right? It's advice like that, that I'm talking about when I say make you sick.

I myself use granola bars as a way to up my calories at night if I didn't get enough during the day.

So calm down.

Original Post by epiphany323:

Nobody is advocating eating less than the bare minimum.

Take a look at this post in another thread about this same thing. It's a mod by the way. This is the situation I am talking about. But after training your mind to only eat healthier foods like veggies then you are supposed to eat foods calorie dense that might make you sick? It's a post by a mod btw that says they sometimes don't get all their cals but they eat nuts and other stuff to get it up there.

http://caloriecount.about.com/eat-all-calorie s-even-hungry-ft149646?utm_source=notificatio n&utm_medium=email&utm_term=forumrepl y_viewpost&utm_campaign=forumreply#18

People are advocating eating less than the bare minimum for some people if they are following the height/intake rules initially suggested by the OP.

The mod is agreeing with what I said - to eat more calorie-dense foods like nuts and granola bars when you're low on calories for the day.

All the foods I suggested in my earlier post are healthy foods. Healthy is not the same as low-calorie. If you have trained your mind to only like low-calorie foods, I'm sure you can train yourself back again. After all, if you have been only eating low-calorie and low-fat foods then you are likely depriving your body of fat; which is essential for a healthy body. You've been pretty seriously messing with your body if eating nuts, dried fruit or foods containing healthy fats make you feel sick. That's a situation you should seek to remedy, not prolong.

People are too obsessed with calories and weight.

Measure your food per serving.

Read labels, move your body, low salt, low fat, low sugar, drinkwater

Enjoy life

Stop "DIETING". Eat three main meals and three snacks