Eating like crazy & loosing weight...back from starvation mode

It sounds like a weight loss ad. I have been stuck at 99 kg for weeks and before that hardly moving. I have also started to have medical problems such as vision, balance and sleep disorder. I have been ignoring all the good advice from people here telling me my calories per day were too low (1200). I lost about 50 lbs since April. My starting weight was around 250. I picked up a ebook for muscle gain info more than weight loss and was overwhelmed by the info. The book is about loosing fat not weight. I really did not understand what starvation mode was. My body was eating itself from the inside out and there is not much vitamins in muscle so my eyes were effected by the lack of vitamins even though I was taking multi vitamins. It also effected my sleep pattern and other things. I kept thinking they are all nuts, I feel fine, have energy and so on. About a week ago I doubled my calorie intake and went from 3 meals to 5 meals a day with protein and carbs included in every meal. It is hard to eat that often and I feel full constantly but the wierdest, best part of it is the scale is moving down and I really have much more energy and are pushing allot harder now at the gym. For anyone reading this who is obsessed with pushing the scale down at all cost, be carefull because as I discovered from going to 2 doctors this week for health problems caused by my diet, the cost may be higher than you think.

I pretty much doubled them in one day, but that said, I went from 1000 /1200 to 2000/2400 where I should have been anyway the entire time, but it seems like so much food to eat, so often. So far, luckly I have not gained any weight, it has only been a week, but I have stayed the same or gone down each day but I have been pushing harder on the cardio and workout knowing I have to burn more calories. I am not adding any extra time, just pushing harder and I now have the energy to push where before when I got tired, I would just stop. The extra food is a motivation to not stop.

Great job! I too was eating too little and went into starvation mode. I took some time off from calorie counting to reset my mestabolism and now Im back and eating enough and, starting to lose weight again!

I'm in the process of doing this too and its not easy. I'm glad its worked for you as well as some others that have messaged me. It's giving me hope!

I'm doing that now, too. But its very hard for me! I mean, one avocado has more cals than many of the dinners I've eaten these past few months!

Good for you! Hopefully, more people will be inspired by your success.

As far as the transition goes, it really isn't hard to eat more calories, even twice as much—once you have accepted that such is necessary. I am 5' 3 1/2" and 108 and I eat around 3,000 calories to maintain. I do it by eating foods that are good for me but high in calories, like nuts and avocado. I add olive oil when I am cooking. I add peanut butter to my protein shakes and other foods, etc. You don't really have to eat more so much as you have to eat foods that are more caloric.

Original Post by petite_powerhouse:

Good for you! Hopefully, more people will be inspired by your success.

As far as the transition goes, it really isn't hard to eat more calories, even twice as much—once you have accepted that such is necessary. I am 5' 3 1/2" and 108 and I eat around 3,000 calories to maintain. I do it by eating foods that are good for me but high in calories, like nuts and avocado. I add olive oil when I am cooking. I add peanut butter to my protein shakes and other foods, etc. You don't really have to eat more so much as you have to eat foods that are more caloric.

 I agree. Its the convincing yourself that you actually need to eat more calories in order to lose weight, that was the hard part. I admit at times when I am frustrated, I still struggle with it a bit. However, now that I am convinced because I have had success with it, eating more is not really a problem.

I'm really glad I stumbled across this post!  I think I'm not eating enough... I am also having problems with my vision lately (& I take multivitamins) and am getting headaches.  I also have a lack of energy to workout and have trouble sleeping.  I haven't been able to lose much weight lately either... the most I've lost recently is about a 1/2 pound or so.  Definitely going to up those calories!  :D

Yea at first I was not going to post, because I felt a little dumb to have to end up going to two doctors because I was so obsessed with the scale. It is hard eating so much as noviliegh said some meals are now more than I consumed some days. When I was busy at work I would skip lunch and have a 700 calorie day and brag about it. K9stylist I am glad you saw this post and are taking action. I went to the gym after I posted this today and did my first real leg workout in many months, I actually had energy at the end of the workout and wanted to stay longer. I was a little shocked tonight on the way home as I was actually hungry for dinner after all the food today. I have not had hunger pains besides when I would wack out and be starving all of a sudden and binge out on what ever I could reach. Most of the time I had very little hunger over the last two months. I hope that this post stays a little active so it gets bumped up and is seen by more people as I think there are more people out there going through the same thing.. maybe start a new group for scale junkies....

I am having this problem and I'm at my wits end with it.  I work out 6-7 days a week.  I run, bike, swim and lift weights.  I can burn anywhere from 500 (on my rest days) to 2700 (on my hard days) just from exercise.  I felt I wasn't enough so I upped my calorie intake to 1800-2000 about 3 weeks ago.  So far the scale hasn't budged one lb!  I'm so frustrated.  It's effecting every area of my life.  I am becoming obsessed with food, counting calories, tracking my workouts, etc. 

As far as my stats go, I am 5'6 and weigh 144 lbs.  I was down to 135 at christmas, but have slowly gained since.  I know if you are reading this you are probably thinking "muscle weighs more than fat" but I have had my body fat tested and I know this isn't the case.  The last time I had my body fat tested, it was 14%, but I know it's increased since then (that was about 3 months ago).  Now someone might not think that this is a huge concern and why am I so upset.  It's not that I think I'm "fat", but I work so hard at this and I'm gaining weight.  I like to explain it like I'm a kid studying for a final for 24 hours and I still get an F.   

I have an appointment at the doctor to figure out if there is anything physically wrong with me, but I know they will tell me to not eat so much.  So now I'm trying the other extreme.  I'm going to drop my calories back down around 1200/day. 

I guess I'm posting this in the hopes that someone knows where I can turn for help.  I have considered getting the body bugg (which tracks calories burned using 4 different sensors) and then you enter what you are eating. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions?  I don't know where or who to turn to.

Original Post by arclipper:

I am having this problem and I'm at my wits end with it.  I work out 6-7 days a week.  I run, bike, swim and lift weights.  I can burn anywhere from 500 (on my rest days) to 2700 (on my hard days) just from exercise.  I felt I wasn't enough so I upped my calorie intake to 1800-2000 about 3 weeks ago.  So far the scale hasn't budged one lb!  I'm so frustrated.  It's effecting every area of my life.  I am becoming obsessed with food, counting calories, tracking my workouts, etc. 

As far as my stats go, I am 5'6 and weigh 144 lbs.  I was down to 135 at christmas, but have slowly gained since.  I know if you are reading this you are probably thinking "muscle weighs more than fat" but I have had my body fat tested and I know this isn't the case.  The last time I had my body fat tested, it was 14%, but I know it's increased since then (that was about 3 months ago).  Now someone might not think that this is a huge concern and why am I so upset.  It's not that I think I'm "fat", but I work so hard at this and I'm gaining weight.  I like to explain it like I'm a kid studying for a final for 24 hours and I still get an F.   

I have an appointment at the doctor to figure out if there is anything physically wrong with me, but I know they will tell me to not eat so much.  So now I'm trying the other extreme.  I'm going to drop my calories back down around 1200/day. 

I guess I'm posting this in the hopes that someone knows where I can turn for help.  I have considered getting the body bugg (which tracks calories burned using 4 different sensors) and then you enter what you are eating. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions?  I don't know where or who to turn to.

 You said you burn 2700 calories just from exercise, are you sure thats just exercise or your total burn?? If so, I highly doubt that you are eating enough because if you have more than a 1000 calorie deficiet you will end up in a starvation mode regardless of eating 1800 calories.

Yes.  That is just from exercise.  3 days a week I bike for about 2 hrs. and 45 min.  That alone burns around 2000.  On some of those days, I also run 6-7 miles. 

Can I seriously be burning that many calories from exercise though?  I have a hard time believing that is true.

I just bought a polar to find out what I am really doing burn wise. I go for a 4 hour trek up a steep mountain every sunday at 5 am and according to cc I burn between 2500 and 3400 depending on which excercise you name the trekk. I was still eating the same as other days, so I had between 1000 to 2000 deficiet from that alone and was bike riding that day as well. My scale was not moving an inch after a 3000 cal day so I know how you feel. My body was not giving anything up as it kept it to stay alive. Maybe yours is doing the same. I highly doubt if you go back down to 1200 you will do better, your body is holding the stored fat so it can maintain the bike rides. From this ebook I have been reading, it says your body will adapt to any level very quickly. Maybe try a zig zag, go up to 3000 for a few days and then down to 1800 again for a few days and see if you can bump your body out of its memory mode.

Original Post by keb1984:

Great job! I too was eating too little and went into starvation mode. I took some time off from calorie counting to reset my mestabolism and now Im back and eating enough and, starting to lose weight again!

I'm struggling with this same thing and it is driving me completely NUTS.  I'm 5'4 and 29 years old.  I was 121 lbs at the beginning of May and got down to 112 around the end of June because I wasn't eating enough (about 900 to 1100 calories a day).  I was calorie counting but I didn't know that that was too few calories.  When I found out in July I started upping it to 1200 and that seemed to be okay, but I was pretty sure I still wasn't eating enough (still bruising a lot, etc.) so I was trying to go higher.  Then I went on a cruise and ate way too much.  I gained at least four pounds.  It's post-cruise now and I've been eating about 1500 calories a day for the last two weeks.  I've gained at least eight pounds at this point, probably 10.  Frankly, what I *want* to do is go back to 1000 calories a day to hurry up and drop the weight.  I know it would work, but I also know it's really unhealthy so I'm not doing it.

I know a lot of people have been through this, but honestly, how long has it taken people for their metabolism to readjust and start burning more?  Please, please tell me it's soon.  I'm trying really hard to keep doing this, but it's making me absolutely miserable...

(Oh, and for whatever it's worth, I had my BMI measured in the spa on the ship and they said it was 1206 calories (!!!), which seems pretty low compared to the 1500 or so that the CC calculator told me.  )

Were you gaining at any point through all of this?

Were you gaining at any point through all of this?..

Not sure if this question was for me or someone else, but I have only been eating more for about a week and so far I have lost a little weight or stayed the same each day.

the ebook I have been refering to is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. 

miachalinitialy,

what is a polar?  How does it work and how much does it cost?  I had mentioned buying the body bugg earlier in a post.  Those are around $199 (with my friend buying it at her employees discount) and an additional $80 to get a digital readout.  Although I'm sure it will be well worth the money, I want to compare other products.  Thanks!

edit. I cant read :)

i dont think anyone here has faced starvatiopn the way i have....... i was surviving only on air and water b4 i came here. for 2 months i was on absolute starvation i only had coffeee and it killed my hunger and spoiled the taste of my mouth. i was so happy since my weight did falll but then it stood still for weekss and weeks and the minute i had even a glass of juice the other day my weight was 1kg extra..., lol... so i got scared to even start to do the low calorie diet as i knew i would gain even by a slice of apple..... and i did..... so i started slow..... 100 cal, 200 cal 300cal, 400, call and now i take around 1100 cals....and feelin great. sure i gained weight initially but then with extra workout and better nourishing food like veges and milk i didnt feel heavier i felt nice and light and i enjoy my calorie allowance its so much for me... he ehhe its like a treat........ so all u guys ...remember if ur losing by eating...then ur losing it right.