Gone from eating 2000-3000 cal a day to about 100 - 200 - This hurts!

Trying to trick my stomach into getting a tad smaller, been doing this for 24 hours, and MY GOD this is painful!

I ate 2 lots of mushrooms yesterday.  Didn't realise they were so lacking in...well...everything!

Woke up this morning very dizzy and my stomach feels like I've had major surgery on it.

How the hell does my girlfriend to this to kick start dieting!?

Hello!

Well, it is completely useless to starve yourself like that! Just eat healthy and stay within your daily calorie target!

Have a balanced, low fat breakfast containing fruit, whole grains, yoghurt, etc... 

Eat a light, small snack at between breakfast and lunch. For example a piece of fruit, cracker, a yoghurt, some dried fruit, or some veggies.

Have a filling but healthy lunch and have a light dinner! And try drink at least 2liters of water a day.

Make sure not to feel HUNGRY at all! Your body needs power, more specific FOOD, to work and burn calories!

So eating a few mushrooms a day isn't the right way to lose weight! 

Good luck!

Wow, I never heard of this diet plan! It's craaaaaaazy. Do what she said. =) Excellent advice.

You'll never stick to this diet plan if your stomach hurts! Lose weight the healthy way..

I disagree.  This isn't a long term plan.  I'll be doing it till tomorrow evening.  It's just to shock myself into wanting less food.

Unfortunately I'm pretty sick of how much weight I've put on.  It's an uncharacteristic amount mainly brought on by being at University and being very unhappy living where I am (Cambridge, UK for anyone who's local, THIS DOWN ******* SUCKS!)

I have will power, it's fine.  My girlfriend lost like about 5 stone in 3 months a couple of years ago (according to her, and the comparison photos).  She dieted very hard, and it's taken her (and myself) 2 years to gain 2-3 stone. 

Not everyone has no will power and will go "OMG NEED BAGELS" if they're neglected of food for a while.  I'll re-introduce food slowly and steadily over the next few days.  I'll be fine.

The funny thing is that you wont lose more weight by starving yourself. You will eventually lose more weight eating healthier than eating just a couple of mushrooms. Since you just said that you felt dizzy waking up in the morning, it meas that your body is in LACK of energy! How can your body start burning fat if it has no energy to do so? Eat a bit more, you'll have more energy, you can go and work out, burn more calories and lose more weight!

Believe me! I know all about it! 

You can't 'shrink your stomach' - it's physically impossible.  And starving or fasting is likely to make you binge more, not less: as it's far harder to have willpower when you're hungry.  You're setting yourself up to fail with this plan.

Eat a healthy diet instead: fruits and vegetables, good lean protein, swap all your white carbs for brown (bread, rice, pasta), cut down on sugar.  Build in a few of your favourite treats, but in moderation, so you don't feel deprived.  You'll feel satisfied, have more energy and will be less likely break your diet.

Good luck

I wasn't saying it was to speed up weight loss specifically.

Just to train my mind in to wanting less, which I now subsequently do.

I'm not stupid, but fact of the matter is, I have 2 years weight gain to get rid of, and I need to do it as quickly as I can.

THIS ISN'T A DIET PLAN!!! WTF!?  Why does everyone ASSUME I'm going to do this for the rest of my life.  Jesus.

If I simply just eat "in moderation" weight isn't going to go anywhere is it?

Wish I'd never opened my mouth.

Original Post by lm467:

THIS ISN'T A DIET PLAN!!! WTF!?  Why does everyone ASSUME I'm going to do this for the rest of my life.  Jesus.

 

If I simply just eat "in moderation" weight isn't going to go anywhere is it?

Wish I'd never opened my mouth.

 Uh, yes it is.

Sounds like you need to trick/train your mind into knowing what 'moderation' is.  200 cals a day is starvation.  5000 cals a day (for a normal functioning person) is binging/gluttony.  2000 cals a day (+/- depending on your stats) is normal maintenance, and some people even lose weight on that!

EDIT to add:  You made it perfectly clear that this is not you 'diet' but just a 'kick-start'.  Either way, it's not smart, healthy or helpful in any way.

No dude.  I think they get it isn't a diet plan.  It's just a lot of people, with many years experience letting you know that by only eating mushrooms for a couple of days, it really isn't going to do anything for you.

Hell I've done it.  Fasting juice.  Thinking if nothing else it would give me a mental kick start.  But I always ended up in the same place you are now, just feeling like crap.

And weight will go away if you eat in moderation.  What these lovely folks (again with years of experience and a vast amount of knowledge) are telling you is that you actually don't have to do anything extreme to loose weight.  Loosing weight is not a fast process, 2 years of weight wont go away tomorrow - I personally wish it would, but it doesn't.  And when it does go fast, it usually comes back with a vengeance, because the way it was lost either destroyed your metabolism, or it simply cant be maintained.

So let me give you an example, say you are 5'11, 200lbs, 20 years old, and light activity.  You would need to eat 2000 calories a day, and you would loose 1 lb a week. 52lbs in a year.

I hope that is the way you plan on going.  I know you said this is just for a jump start, but is it working out for you?  Personally I'd feel like a heap of poo, and sounds like you do to.

At least throw in some shrimp, or something with protein.  You can eat a lot of shrimp.

Im 23, not really sure about my weight, I think I'm around 17 stone (238 lbs) now, and 6' dead.  Luckily its kinda gone everywhere, and I'm shaped like a girl, so I understand the whole complaint about hips!

Infact my main issue is jean size.  I'm fond of slim fitting jeans, but 36" is getting tight, and I want that to change immediatly. 

Admittedly the diet of the last 2 years has been mainly crap and a lot of beer, hehe.  No getting round that.  That plus a girlfriend (you know how it gets) lead to a lot of eating out.

I have probably put on 3 stone in that time, eating pretty terribly, which I guess could be worse.

Either way, I know I should eat properly. 

2000 a day sounds like an awful lot.  I don't want to maintain my weight, I want to lose it.  I've cut alcohol completely out of my diet for the last month at any rate, and in a few days am moveing pretty much right next to my gym (it's a good half an hour away from us now whichisnt exactly an inspiration - so lazy).

Hopefull I'll be fine.

But yeah, ok, rant over and sorry.  I need something to eat, I don't like my eye-sight being affected.  Stupid body, why can't we run on duracels!

I entered all your stats- If you are doing light activity- to maintain your current weight, you have to eat 2900 calories.  2000 calories, is a 900 per day deficit, and probably as low as you want to go.

I know it sounds crazy, and it's totally hard to wrap your mind around eating plenty to loose weight, but it's true.  Eating less will actually make it harder.  It's counter intuitive to what most of us have been told our whole lives but it works.

Also one thing that I noticed that got me over the initial shock, was when I actually counted how many calories I ate, it was waaaay more than I thought.  That butter on potato, the beer with dinner, a little of this a little of that added up pretty quick.

It's probably likely you've been eating on the higher side of what you thought, and dropping to 2000 will be a big adjustment.

Just the other day I thought I was eating so healthy and good, but when I added it up at the end of the day it came out to about 50 calories over what I burn each day :(.  Those little things can really throw it off.

Oh and all my weight gain has happened since dating my boyfriend, so I totally know what you mean.

Good luck!!  Get some food in your belly ;)

I get your point of "shriking" you stomach.  But I dont think you will find it very helpful.

You might find it works for a while.  But the stomach is very elasic like a balloon.  It does not take much to strech that bag.

Honestly - eating well but within your calories is less painful.  Getting used to less food just takes a week or so.  And if you are good at planning your meals may not even have to cut back on food volume at all.   Eating lots of fresh veggies will enable you to eat a lot of volume for little calories.  Healthful foods are usually like this.  You can eat a larger portion of lean beef than you can fatty beef for the same number of calories.  You can eat more turkey breast per serving than the same number of calories of pork.  Just plan well, eat well. 

NOt trying to attack you but I don't think you are going about it properly. THere is no way one or two days of 100 - 200 calories is gonna "trick" your mind into thinking it can survive on less. It would most likely cause you to eat more to make up for the thousands of calories it missed on those 2 days.

I know everybody is different but it took me a whole year to trin mybody to survive on less than 2000 calories a day.

You are headed for a binge.

Want a great plan? 

Give up the beer.
Eat at least 2000 calories per day of healthy foods.  Proteins, whole grains, fruits, veggies, dairy and good fats.
Have one cheat snack every day or two, just a 200 calorie portion of something that you crave.

I lost 32 pounds (14.5kgs) eating 2000 calories per day and I am not as tall as you.  Check out my profile for some great links to help you out, pick and choose what works for you.

PS after eating only 200 calories for 2 days, you may lose some water weight, but let us know in two weeks if you have a gain in your weight of more than two pounds.  You can blame it on your little jump start.

OK!! Now you got the king of this kind of craziness!! When I was at 600+ pounds, I went a week without eating anything, and it damn near killed me!! 

Short term stunts like this may help you get your program started, but there simply is no replacement for hard work over a long period.  You are only 23, so do you want to yoyo your weight for the next 60 years, or do you want a healthy plan to last a lifetime. 

There simply is no replacement for strong calorie management, plenty of activity, and determination to stick to your fitness program.  Life is a marathon, so you have to look at you fitness program in the long term. Losing a few pounds in a week is fine, but the real goal is leading a healthy, active life.

Have a greta day, and keep us posted!!

Ok,

Update on the whole situation.

I'm in too much pain to deal with this.  Never ever thought that this would occur.

SITREP: Moderate chest pains, crippling stomach cramps, massive headace, no appetite :S.

Feel like I'm having a small heart attack, what the hell :S

Tried to cure the situation with a sandwich (I've decided to stop being a fool and eat) and that hasn't really worked.

I could do with some sugar maybe.

Eating wise, and probably my weight wise, I used to work in an off license, so I'd life around 30+ cases of beer an night, which resulted in me being slim with a pretty decent physique.  Once this stopped I think i've been slowly putting on weight for the last 5 years.  That's probably all this is.  Uni obviously with it's drinking/eating crap culture has added to this.

Right, I'm going to go eat something, not in a bingey way.  Too crummy feeling to "binge".

Hey there, I've done this kind of thing myself to kick-start weight loss, but NEVER on that kind of scale.  I get what you're trying to do... when I eat a lot I need to eat more to feel full, when I stop doing that for a few days, I suddenly feel full after a normal amount of food again.  This DOES work for me.  Now, before people get all pissed and think I'm advocating an unhealthy weight loss method, obviously this is not for a full-time routine, and as I said NEVER do it on this scale.  100-200 cals a day is getting to a point that will seriously affect your health (as you have seen with the vision issues, stomach pains, cramps etc...)

When I've done this I'ld drop down to about 1100-1200 cals or so for a couple days and make sure to keep myself there (now, I'm a 4'10" girl, who weighs somewhere around 100 lbs - I think between 6-7 stone)  IF you still want to try this, I'd suggest you go to 1800 for a day or two, then up to a healthy eating plan on about 2000 a day.  You should be able to function at that level without causing yourself any harm, and it's still enough of a deficit that it should help with the "shrinking stomach" feeling.  Hope that helps!

Just like when you feel stuffed and bloated from overeating, the pain from undereating is your body's way of telling to cut it out.

I wouldn't go to sugar for the cure, protein with some healthy fat plus healthy carbs is my suggestion.  I think the sandwich was a start on the right track although you will need more calories.  It will probably take a day or two for your body to stop punishing you for your mistreatment .  Give yourself a half hour or so and try drinking some juice or a smoothie.  Then give yourself a bit more time and have something else.

This is one of those popular dietary myths that I hate.  To begin with, your body is not your girlfriend's body so why would you think that yours would react the same (if she even recalls the reaction correctly or the cause for the reaction).  You're male, probably taller and more muscular.  Neither of you is the same age that she was when she thought this worked, so both bodies have changed and will give different reactions.  She probably did have a reasonable calorie intake with her "kick start", just not in the period of time that you're talking about.  She might have skipped breakfast but had a large meal the night before or not eaten all day and had a large meal at night or drunk the calories and not counted them.

Umm, look. If you want to get your body used to eating less, the best way to go about doing that is to... wait.. here.. it.. comes..

Count calories.

Since I started countin calories, being more aware of the foods I put in my mouth and the calories I burn by exercising, I notice I eat less. I have no problem maintaining 1500 calories a day, some days I even have to make myself eat more. Yeah, I have to MAKE myself eat. Just get in the mindset of healthy eating. Where there's a will there's a way.

Hey, you know, another way to go here, if you want to "kick start" things, is to increase your activity level by a lot.  When I started I was 5'7 252 lbs female, and in the beginning I ate 1650Kcal a day, but was burning around 2600-2800Kcal with my exercise. In my first month I dropped 25 lbs (atypical, i was carrying a lot of extra weight). If you leave a significant caloric deficit (but not more than 1000, your body goes into starvation mode) and you do it consistently, it is all good. 

People may disagree with me, but I hard core believe that if you're not working out, you're not healthy.  Count your calories and log your burn, and get active, you'll get rid of the extra weight in no time.  You'll be surprised.  Its much easier for men to lose than women, usually, also.  Instead of the extreme, commit to counting your calories for a month and to daily exercise.    Also, if you are increasing your exercise, make SURE you're getting enough protein.  This was a BIG problem for me in the past, and it seriously contributes to those feelings of weakness and nausea you're talking about.  Eat a bit of protein of some kind at every meal, lots of fruits and vegetables, low fat, high fibre.  It works.  Learn what the nutrional requirements for your body are, and keep an eye on your daily total.  I've dropped more than 60 lbs in 5 months, and I just make sure to get lots of exercise and maintain a deficit between 500-900Kcal daily.  Do it the right way, you'll be less hungry, crave less crap food, and feel more awake, vibrant and alive.  This works dude.  Just trust the process.