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I'm ate 900 calories yesterday when I normally eat 400, and I gained .5 pounds....?

I'm seriously confused.

For a while now I've been eating from 400-500 calories every day [I know it's bad for me, I have been losing weight], but recently I think I reached my weight plateau so I googled stuff about it, and advice came up to vary my calorie intake. I decided I might try it.

SO yesterday I ate 900 calories because I knew I couldn't gain weight because I still burn more calories than that naturally, but I was wrong.. this morning when I stepped on the scale it said I gained a little more than a half pound.

Please can someone explain to me why this happened? [and give me some advice on how to get off of this plateau]

You need to get off the scale and start eating a lot more. If you are over 21, you need at least 1200. If you are under 21, you need at least 1500. You are ruining your metabolism but even more scary, you are risking your life.

The reason you gained more was that you had twice the amount of food in your stomach than you are used to. Granted, it's still way to little, but what you gained was not fat, but simply the added weight of food.

Regardless stop starving yourself and start taking care of yourself. You do NOT have to starve to lose weight (and without knowing your stats, I don't even know if you should be losing weight).

I know I really should eat more, but before when I ate 1,200 calories a day I simply did not loose weight. So I started this and it's pretty hard to get off of.. 

Your answer makes sense. I feel a bit better I guess, this morning I was freaking out really bad.

What do you think it is going to happen when you start maintaining? Do you plan on eating that much for the rest of your life?

Anyone should be able to lose weight at 1200 calories.  If you can't its because you've starved yourself enough to screw up your metabolism so bad that you don't lose weight with an obvious deficit.  Unless you want to spend the rest of your (short) life having to each smaller and smaller amounts to lose weight while your body slowly deteriorates from malnutrition and your brain eventually stops functioning you should make some changes immediatly.

First you should eat your maintenace calories until you fix your metabolism.  This will initially cause you to gain weight because right now your body thinks it is starving (probably because IT IS) and will hold on to anything you give it desprately.  When you body adjusts and realizes you aren't going to continue starving it though then it will balance back out.  At that point if you want to lose weight you should start doing so in a heallthy way, which means under no condition eating less then 1200 a day if you are female and over 21, more if you are younger.

In case it wasn't clear enough, the diet you are on now is sure to cause extreme damage to your body and metabolism.  If you are on it for to long your metabolism may be damaged beyond repair.  You also WILL suffer from malnutrition and your body WILL deteriorate.  It is honestly IMPOSSIBLE for this not to happen when you eat so little on a regular basis.  Unless you really want to screw up your ability to function normally, eat a healthy amount, lose weight normally, or even LIVE then you really need to change this NOW.

Now I know that all probably came across as a bit harsh, i'm not normally one for lots of caps and so on, but really I think you need to understand the severity of the situation and i've seen one to many people destroy themselves this way because they didn't know how dangerous it was, enough is enough.

Canabalism:  When you underfeed your body, you release an enzyme that has the sole purpose of breaking down muscle to consume the muscle as protein.  It is why many runners have an emaciated body not big chest like a powerlifter or body builder.  Listen to your friends, you need to live on much more than 900 calories or you will become ill. To little protein can cause bone problems.  And if you started your diet with a pot belly, you will lose weight through starvation, but you body will sculpt itself to a smaller version of you with a smaller pot belly. It will sacrifice muscle before fat.  Adding protein to protect the muscle, fiber to clean the body and colon are essential.  Lastly, working out allows you to eat all you want, but be sensible and eat healthy food.

Now with that said, lets go eat a snickers bar! Just kidding. It has taken me a ton of exercise and diet to begin to regain my old body (which was fit and cut) I am not there yet, but like you I get support and help from this message board. Cheers

M

you can argue for eating 400-500 calories as much as you want but I think you know you won't be able to keep it up in the long run, and that it's absolutely unhealthy for you. 

if you want a healthy body and healthy metabolism, you're gonna have to eat at least 1200 and you know it. yes there will be temporary gain but it should level out and you will ultimately lose, and become healthier, rather than malnourished.

Original Post by iron-mike:

Canabalism:  When you underfeed your body, you release an enzyme that has the sole purpose of breaking down muscle to consume the muscle as protein.  It is why many runners have an emaciated body not big chest like a powerlifter or body builder.  Listen to your friends, you need to live on much more than 900 calories or you will become ill. To little protein can cause bone problems.  And if you started your diet with a pot belly, you will lose weight through starvation, but you body will sculpt itself to a smaller version of you with a smaller pot belly. It will sacrifice muscle before fat.  Adding protein to protect the muscle, fiber to clean the body and colon are essential.  Lastly, working out allows you to eat all you want, but be sensible and eat healthy food.

Now with that said, lets go eat a snickers bar! Just kidding. It has taken me a ton of exercise and diet to begin to regain my old body (which was fit and cut) I am not there yet, but like you I get support and help from this message board. Cheers

M

 Ok. I had to respond to this one...that's just to funny. Iron-Mike: I think the term you were looking for is catabolism...not canabalism..."cannibalism" is the act of humans consuming the flesh of other humans; a'la "Hanninbal Lecter".

You've messed up your metabolism so that you now burn fewer calories.  To get out of this you are going to need higher calories and a weight gain.  When I was in that situation, a nutritionist put me on a 2000 calorie diet.  I gained back 8 pounds in 2 months then my weight leveled off.  After a month at a steady weight, she began cutting calories each week until I started losing again.  I now can lose on 1400 calories when before I was gaining on 900 to 1000.  Of course, I was obese at the time.  A very thin person might need to gain back more weight and not lose any more.

Here's what you are doing to your body (from Ask Mary)

The body burns muscle to meet the needs of the central nervous system.  That system, which accounts for at least 20% of calories burned, can only burn glucose, a carbohydrate  The body doesn't really store glucose, but protein, from the muscles, organs tissues, and cells, can turn into glucose, while fat cannot.  Protein breakdown continues until the metabolic rate shifts to burn fewer calories from all sources.  That shift is familiarly called "starvation mode" and it is a life-sustaining adaptation. To forestall starvation mode, lose weight slowly, do muscle building exercise to offset muscle loss, and eat about 20% of your calories from protein.

I'm going to make a wild guess here that you are already at a low weight and probably don't need to lose any more.  Right?

Since you know that eating 400 cals is bad for you why do you continue to do it?

I hate to be so frank but you need to know that you are STARVING yourself and you will ultimately do serious damage to yourself, if you haven't done so already. And that damage might be permanent if you don't make changes immediately.

Calorie Count's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. We do not support starvation diets.

Weight loss/weight gain does not happen over night ... and weighing yourself every day is not a good idea as the NORMAL fluctuations (can be up to 5lbs+) that happens as a result of water retention, bowel movements, clothing, scale variation etc is not acounted for. This is why we have a trend line on Calorie Count. 0.5 lbs is nothing, in fact I would be surprised if your scales error wasn't even larger than that.

How old are you? What weight are you? How much do you want to lose?

An ADULT female needs no less than 1200 calories. A teenage female should be taking in the bare bone minimum of 1500+ calories. If you don't lose weight on 1200-1500 cals a day you have something seriously wrong with you and should see a doctor. And by lose weight I do not mean eat 1200 cals and check the scales the next morning - I mean changes over several weeks.

If you are having trouble getting rid of your starvation diet you need to consult with a professional as it could be the start of a disordered pattern of eating, which as I said, will lead to physical consequences.

So what do you plan to do?

My guess is that by sticking to a diet of 400-500calories for such an extended period of time, your body has had to become very efficient in utilizing the little fuel that you've been giving it. So, when you started eating 900calories your body's initial reaction is to hang on to this precious fuel for as long as possible and make it last through another starvation period. Eating 400-500 calories is far to little and your body would have been starved for food, so it needed to find a way to keep energy in reserve in case you decided to revert back to eating too few calories.

You have to slowly increase your calorie intake and not care about the scale for a while. I don't lose weight when I eat 1200 calories either.. I lose weight when I eat 1800! Doesn't that sound nicer to you? :)

and just to let you know theres no perminate damage to metabolism, it just may take a while to repair it. you WILL lose weight on 1200 calories, mind you it may not be fast but you will lose. the reason you say you didn't lose is either you didn't try it long enough, you weren't counting right, or you didn't take a suffiecient look at your overall progress. the weight loss may be as low as .3 lbs a week but it will be there, you just have to look REALLY REALLY hard sometimes

believe me hunny i understnd this dilemma completely. im a recovering anorexic so believe me when i say that its scary 2 think of tryin 2 eat 3 meals a day... or even 2... which in essence is probly all ur eating on 400 cals. the best advice i can give u would b to start slow. add a little bit more calories a day. u could eat a snack size portion of food every couple of hours. a yogurt, 100 cal pack, apple... make it every 3 hours. then u'll get the cals in and not feel like ur overeating. if u feel uncomfortable then throw in an extra mile on the elliptical. i kno its hard but as long as u work into it and give ur body time 2 adjust all hope is not lost. hope this helps :)

Chelbelle

ps- all of us on diets r susceptible (or however u spell it, lol) to taking it 2 far so as well intentioned as all these people are dont let them make u feel bad. it's alright and u can get through it

"i know it's wrong.. but i'm losing weight"

that is so sad to read

girls today will literally KILL THEMSELVES to be thin.. you need to google image search "terry schiavo" is that the look you're going for? because it's the one you'll get

I'm 109.5 pounds right now and I'm 5' 3". I know that sounds normal, but I don't look skinny at all and it just bothers me a lot.. and I'm 16 years old. I'm trying to loose 10 pounds.

I know I now sound like an immature teenager trying to starve herself.

Most of my calories come from low-calorie fruits and veggies, I actually am never truly hungry during the day.

I am planning on increasing my normal calorie intake I suppose.. I am just so terrified that I'll gain a lot of weight.. 

if you 'dont look skinny at all'' at 109 and 5ft 3 its for one, or both, of 2 reasons

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (note that its always present in anorexics)
• Youve lost your muscle mass, so you look flabby. Starving your body of the energy/calories it needs has this effect, as it starts to attack its own tissues as a source instead.

ktjo--hit it right on the head in my opinion, but I think it is  combination.  

Seriously, you should consult your parents, doctor or other trusted ADULT, not your peers and ask for a "no bull" truth, they will tell you the truth if you "don't look skinny".  If you are scared to do this then you already know that you have a problem--as in you are already skinny but you can't see it.  

My sister in law was the weight (and your height, she is also very thin and fine boned) when we first met her.  I remember thinking she looked like she was starved and looked like she was a 10 year old kid instead of 20.  We could see every rib in her ribcage and her shoulder blades and collar bones stuck out oddly.  She wore jeans (4th of July--98 degrees with 95% humidity) that day and mentioned that everyone tells her she is too skinny and that her legs look like twigs.  She also was nearly all but flat chested--I remember worrying about my brother's interest in this girl who looked so much like a child--it was all around icky.  She now is at a healthy weight of 115 and looks fantastic.

I have read that if you go too long on low starvation calories you can experience hair loss from your head and actually grow soft downy hair on your face due to your hormones getting messed up.  I would rather look healthy and fit than bald with a furry face.  

Also, are you exercising on top of this low calorie diet?  

You need to bump your calories up to 1500-1800 and add exercise if you are worried about gaining too much--but not exercising so much you burn all of the extra calories you consume!

I know I do not know you but I am worried about you, please seek some sort of help.

by eating 400-500 calories a day you body was basically going into starvation mode. so when u did intake a closer to normal calorie range you body took and store that because its confused and dosent know if it will get the calories it needs to function properly. so your best bet would be to eat small meal throught the day 3 meals, n snacks like maybe a fruit nbtw.

your body is going into survival mode. your body thinks that you don't have a readily available food source. so then your body scrounges for fat and latches onto it. Eat at a minimum 1200 calories a day.

If you don't believe that you're thin at 109lbs and 5'3 you may have Body Dismorphic disorder. I suffer from this. I find that the only way I can tell if I look "thin enough" is if I take a picture of myself and then look at it. Give that a try. PLEASE.

Also, you may simply not have a small frame. There are different body types and at your age, yours may not be entirely clear. If you want to grow into a woman (or get any taller) you will need to eat at least 1500. If you find that you gain weight and don't maintain a healthy weight with those calories, exercise more but don't eat less than that.

I started starving myself when I was in 7th grade off and on until I was 21. I'm 4'11 (much shorter than my parents who are 5'7 and 6'0) and I'm 22 so I definately am stuck being short probably because I prevented myself from growing by not eating enough.

 Hang in there. I feel for you. I really do. I even remember not feeling hungry even though I was eating only once a day. It will take time. If you like, gradually increase your calories, like 100 more than you're eating now,every few days instead of eating 1500 right away. If you find that you can't do that on your own you should definately get some professional advice.