When I diet, I don't consume enough calories...

I have a really hard time finding a... nice medium in how many calories I need to consume. When I diet, I completely cut out ice cream and sugary snacks as well all the nutritional stuff too.

I go from binge eating to not eating enough. I can't help but to go from one extreme to another.

What should I do to comsume more calories, but to stay on my diet??

Today I only comsumed 700 calories as opposed to the 1800 I'm supposed to be eating to maintain my current weight. I don't want to maintain my current weight, but I also don't want to slow my metabolism down.

Chronic undereating is pretty unhealthy... sub 1200 cals a day will kill you eventually so it's best to stop that immediately.  Starving always ends up with  bingeing... so you can kill two birds with one stone.  If you need 1800 to maintain your weight you could start losing weight on 1300 a day.

The only way to resolve this one is to plan ahead.  The CC food log is a really good tool for this.  Sketch out what you think you might eat for the day ahead.... three main meals, a selection of snacks.... enter the foods into the log and let the analysis button tot up the calories.   Now you can easily see where the gaps are and you can decide to increase your portion-sizes or add extra foods as appropriate.  Whereas if you only log your foods at the end of the day you've no time and probably no appetite to stuff down an extra 600 cals.

As a rough guide aim for 400 cals per main meal and top up the remaining cals in snacks.  Try to get a broad selection of fresh foods.... vegetables, wholegrains, lean meat/fish, oils, fruit... and you'll find 1300 cals goes quite  a long way.

I know that feeling way too well. If I don't diet, I just stuff myself with fatty food, chocolate, lots of bread, butter, you name it... I LOVE food, and good food doesn't include broccoli with cottage cheese and tuna. But then, when I start dieting, it takes over completely, and I find myself obsessing about counting, eating very little, thinking about food all the time.

It's like you get scared of eating, because then you're not doing good, then you're loosing control like when not dieting - and to maintain the diet habit you need to overdo it..

I know soooo much about healthy, nutritional diets, small changes, metabolism and how to keep it working, what to do and what to not do - but do I apply this knowledge to my own dieting? No, and I see myself failing over and over again.

Sorry, this reply became all about me and I don't have an answer for you, but perhaps we're experiencing sort of the same... and both seeking an answer to a steady and healthy weightloss. I believe it's all about feelings and habits, but how do we change these?

Everything that gijane said.

Do you want to know why you binge after restricting?
It is because you are starving yourself and the binge is your bodies way of getting the nutrutients that it needs.  I have learned in the past three years that when your body needs a certain nutritient that it willfind anyone possible to get it.  If I feed my body what it wants every day, I do not binge.

Once I started eating my target calories for the day, everyday, after about six months I notice that I did not binge anymore.  By consuming 1700-2000 calories everyday, it stopped completely. 

I can now consume 1600 calories a day and not feel like I need more food.  Four years ago, I could never feel full.  I ate 75% junk.  Now I eat about 80% healthy, whole foods and 20% in whatever I want.  I feel full for the first time in my life.

So my advice to you is to consume 2000 calories of healthy, whole foods every day for six months and see if the binge cycle goes away.

Yeah, I just get so caught up in the diet that I'm afraid to eat anything. And I do know what is good and what is bad to eat. However, I'm afraid to feel full because then I feel that I'm stuffing myself. I don't want to suddenly start consuming 1800 a day because I don't want to gain anymore weight.

Maybe I should start adding a little more calories everyday?

Also I'm terrified of fats when I diet. I don't even want to eat a piece of string cheese without feeling quite horrible about "slipping up"

Adding calories slowly everyday is a good idea. I think it would help if you stopped looking at it as a diet and started considering it a change. You can eat ice cream or string cheese, in moderation. There's nothing wrong with fats, you need a good proportion of them.

If you want to lose weight, you'll have to eat more. You don't have to eat 1800 if that's your maintenance amount, but find a decent number that you can lose on.

I've also noticed that I eat empty calories. For instance, I eat carrots and celery and cucumbers in large amounts but they have hardly any calories in them.

If I'm eating constantly and still not getting enough calories does my body still go into starvation mode?

Original Post by andrea_smith:

If I'm eating constantly and still not getting enough calories does my body still go into starvation mode?

Ye

My calorie counting started when I said, "I wonder how few calories I consumed today?" after a really hectic day. I came to this site and calculated I had only eaten 1050 that day! I felt sluggish and horrible so I began to track and make sure I got at least 1200 cals/day until I was between 1200 & 1500 per day. I still didn't feel much better until I started zig-zagging my calories - I range from 1400 - 2200 every week to keep my metabolism "guessing." I've found it also helps me psychologically; if I really want a muffin one day, I say to myself, "Save it for Friday" (the 2200 day) because I'm "supposed" to get more calories that day anyway. Usually by the time Friday comes I don't want it anymore, anyway. :)

The other thing I did was use this site and other nutritional sites to investigate high "good" calorie snacks; ie nuts and fruits and yummy food combinations (eg cottage cheese and apples).

Good luck! You'll do great!

i do this all the time. and as easy as it is for other people to say "STOP IT" its so hard to actually stop it. take today for instance, i ate bad, so tomorrow i probably will just have a coffee and a light meal and workout. obviously thats horrible but it also has helped me to lose weight. but i do know that if i want to be a more consistent eater, i need to stop this. here's what im thinking. first, i know im not going to eat more than that tom just b/c thats how my brain functions, so ill let it slide just like i did the bad day today because dwelling gets me nowhere. second, on thursday i will up my calories a bit, until im at 1200 by friday or saturday and go from there.