Why haven't I lost any weight?

so I am trying to lose weight as fast as possible, and yesterday I barely ate anything and I did not lose any weight at all. Yesterday I weighed 110 lbs and this morning when I woke up I got on the scale and it said 110 lbs again. All I ate yesterday was dry cereal for breakfast and a salad for lunch. nothing else tho i did drink a lot of water but that should only help me lose right? I probly had like about 400 cal total yesterday so can somebody tell me why i didnt lose any weight? thanks.

I'll open the gate for the wolves...enjoy.

in before the starvation mode swarm

Hi whitney,

I think part of your problem is your not eating ENOUGH. I know, it didn't make sense to me at first either, but you have to eat AT LEAST 1000 or more calories in order to lose weight. I think its because if you eat so little, your body will think that you're starving it, and it will hang onto every piece of fat and food that it can and you'll never lose weight. I'm sure you'll get more replies from people on here more experienced than me - I only just started yesterday!! Good luck though 

what?

I gained 30 pounds from your "DIET". That's all I can say. I will let the experts explain. Someone please help her.

thank you. i know a lot of people have said that you need at least 1000 cal and i have even heard 1200 cal but i find that if i eat 1000 it will cause me to gain. idk y cuz no one else seems to have that problem. thanks for your reply tho good luck to you too

A. Yes, you aren't eating enough.  Period, end of story.   It's counterintuitive and I'm having my own set of issues with eating 1400 calories a day to LOSE weight, but ask around...most people on here will tell you it works for them. 

B. It doesn't happen overnight.  If it did we'd all be thin as rails. 

C. The scale is not your BFF.  MOVE.  Dance.  Ride your bike.  Swim.  Go to the gym.  Find a big old shelter pooch who will love you for a nice 30 minute jog.  Rollerblade.  Do something that gets your heartrate up and your endorphins (nature's cheapest drug) going.  That and a reasonable amount of calories will yield results MUCH faster than depriving your body of the nutrients you need to stay healthy AND be thinner.

 

That's where the 30 pounds came from. My metabolism was so messed up I was gaining on 1000-1200 calories when I started eating again. It's hard to follow the eat to lose advice, but nothing is more true. Good luck

Whitney,

Some basic math will tell you why you didn't lose anything yesterday.  To lose a pound, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than what you eat.  That is  impossible to do in a 24 hour timespan, even if you ate nothing (well, unless one was foolish enough to eat nothing and still workout for a ridiculous amount of time). 

BTW, your tactic of severe calorie restriction in order to "lose weight as fast as possible" will not only fail to work, but is very unhealthy and not encouraged on CC.  Healthy weight loss is not in the form of a quick fix:  it is slow, steady, giving your body the calories and nutrients it needs, and getting physical activity.

Have you used the tools on CC to figure out your recommended calorie intake?

yes I did and i said like 1300 i think. but i think thats too much for me. my normal calorie intake is like 800 or 900. and its been that much for about the past 4 months.

Original Post by whitney86:

what?

 Hi Whitney.  Your body needs at least 1200 calories per day to properly function, period.

Eating, or not eating, as you are doing at this point is extremely unhealthy as I am sure you do realize at 22 years of age-you sound very intelligent.  There are no quick fixes.

I see that you have been on this site for some time now and I see no reason to reiterate what you have more than likely read before-you will get your share from the moderators.

 

Original Post by whitney86:

yes I did and i said like 1300 i think. but i think thats too much for me. my normal calorie intake is like 800 or 900. and its been that much for about the past 4 months.

 Google 'Starvation Mode' sweetheart & you'll see why you're not losing any weight!

Original Post by whitney86:

yes I did and i said like 1300 i think. but i think thats too much for me. my normal calorie intake is like 800 or 900. and its been that much for about the past 4 months.

 This is why you're not losing weight.  You are not giving your body the fuel it needs to maintain a normal metabolism.  You can look up "starvation mode" in any number of forums, or visit the CC library.

If your normal calorie intake is 800 to 900 then you have definitely definitely definitely messed up your metabolism. Not only that, but you are literally destroying your body. Your vital organs cannot sustain their proper function on that low of a deficit. A woman needs a MINIMUM of 1200 in order to just keep living and breathing and functioning normally. Not only should you follow CCs advice and eat 1300, but you should probably go up to like, 1500 to get your metabolism back to where it should be. you should be more worried about fixing the damage (which will mean putting on a few lbs at first) if you want a long term solution. Whitney, this is like, possible ED we're talking about here. Please, please, please, EAT.

I'm going to leave the starvation mode talk, and how you're not eating enough so that your metabolism is shot, to people that are more familar about that than I.

But to expect to see a change in the scale after one day, is crazy.

Let's say your burn around 1200 cals a day. A pound of fat is 3500 calories. If all you burn was fat, you'd lose 1/3 lbs a day by not eating anything, most scales aren't that acurate.

Thing is, by eating nothing, you'll burn virtually no fat. Instead, your body will consume muscles and even internal organs, because it "knows" that it's not getting enough nurishment, so it shuts down the parts of the body that are very expensive to maintain from an energy standpoint. By getting rid of tissue that needs calories, your body "needs" less to survive.

Also, water's pretty heavy, 8 cups weighs 4 lbs. It helps with long term health, but day-to-day provides a large fluctuation in weight.

ok let me clarify something. i normally DO lose weight. i eat about 800-900 cal a day, exercise, and i usually dont have a problem losing. so i think my metabolism is not ruined. I was just  curious  why when i normally have no problem losing weight after eating 900 cal, i didnt lose anything after eating just 400 cuz i was expecting to lose a couple of pounds after yesterday. and also since somebody said something about messing up my metabolism,  what if i ate 1200 cal a day and then just didnt eat anything after like 5 or something would that still mess me up?

You may have lost weight eating that little, but believe me- you didn't just lose fat! How long did you eat that little & how much did you lose- and when did the loss stop?

um well I've been dieting since Feb 27th. I have lost 26.9 lbs. and I haven't stopped losing. I lost weight just yesterday. but I didn't lose anything today. what do u mean i didnt just lose fat?

you will lose weight if you cut your calories that far, but as irishmum said before, you lost more than that. you lost muscle and parts of your vital organs (like your heart). and after doing that for awhile, your body adjusts to that small of an intake, thinks it's starving and STOPS burning cals. And yes, eating 1200 and stopping your cal intake at 5pm is like, a bazillion times healthier than what you're doing now. So, good idea. Do that.

Will someone please post a link to that famous starvation mode article that's been linked on CC a million times?