Posts by felise18

Original Post by oldguysrule:

Original Post by chubbyarms:

Wow mzakariya I like that saying:

Eat breakfast like a king.
Eat lunch like a prince.
Eat dinner like a popper (beggar).

I am never hungry for breakfast most likely because I eat late at night.  I am going to try eating earlier in the evening and see if I am hungry in the morning.  I usually have to force myself to eat something.  I am never hungry until around 11am or sometimes later.  Then I find myself with a snack attack around 9-10pm so I try to go to bed but can't always sleep.  Plus I have 5 children and I like to take my late nights to myself watching CSI.  That's when I snack.  I was doing weight watchers and having trouble staying within my points.  I have hit a bit of a plateau and am looking to break through that.

 

The saying is a very good one, but its "pauper, not popper."

People crave fat, salt, sugar, and convenience at night. They don't crave oatmeal, bananas, or scrambled eggs. That is another reason that successful weight management most often goes with people who eat a big breakfast.

For me, lack of TV means that I play guitar or read at night and tend to fall asleep early. I like getting up a little hungry and making a really good breakfast. It starts the day off well.

 

 

I crave bananas, apples, popcorn (air popped with no butter), sometimes pb, cereal, grits, eggs..I think you get it. Depending on the day my craving could be completely healthy or complete junk.

Even if I eat at 3 a.m, I still get very hungry in the morning. Naturally I'm sure it's different for everyone. :)

Original Post by cl99:

I have heard ths advice a lot and I have tried eating more for a while, but saw no results...if anything I gained!

I feel like perhaps I have reached a plateau and need to mix up mu routine a bit. It is definitely frustrating though!

Of course you are going to gain. You're depriving your body of what it needs. In response to that it will hold on to any amount of food you put into it. You're making it worse by continuing not to eat. Your body will gain weight initially  after you up your calories, that's what it's supposed to do. You, however, are not doing what you're supposed to do. The minimum calories needed for a woman is 1200. Sedentary or not. That's the minimum. The minimum for a male is 1500 calories. No exceptions.

You're going to do serious harm to your body if you don't change what you're doing. Trying to lose weight on 1,000 calories a day is pointless. Your body will refuse to let go of anything.

I input your stats. For age I used 25 and for activity level I do lightly active and sedentary. For sedentary you should be eating 1200. For lightly active you should be eating 1400. If you are moderately active, or you are younger than 25, then you need to eat more than 1400.

Edit/P.S : 3 weeks isn't very long at all. Not everyone can lose weight immediately and you are slowing that down even further by your  eating habits. Losing weight successfully isn't about ignoring your hunger and starving yourself. It's about making better choices and getting some physical activity. You're depriving your body of the nutrients it needs to function. For someone who needs to eat 1200 calories, that's going to affect you even further. Even people who eat the full 1200 have trouble getting all of their daily nutrient requirements. Now you have cut that down even further by eating 200 less. It may not seem like a lot to you but every calorie counts towards something. Unfortunately for you, it's the wrong something.

 I'm getting frustrated as well. I joined CC in November but to be perfectly honest with myself, I've probably only had a real eating and exercise routine since January. Until the last couple of weeks, I was exercising 5 days a week for 30 minutes or more (cardio and weight lifting), but other than the fact that I start to feel lazy when I don't exercise, I'm not seeing any changes.

I wish I had taken measurements from when I started in November. It's possible I've changed and just don't know (I don't have a scale). I just started measuring myself in Jan. The last couple of weeks I've been completely unmotivated to do anything. Starting to feel like there is something I'm missing that I'm not doing.

The reasonable person in me is saying that it's only been 4 months. I'm always telling people it takes time, but taking your own advice is hard work. I also try and reason with myself that I've only been consistent for a month. Christmas and Thanksgiving really set me back. But then on other days I feel like I'm just making up reasons to not exercise more. I love strength training but cardio is such a drag. After 10 min I'm ready for it to be over, and not even because it's hard.

So I understand how you feel. I'm in no rush to lose by any certain date, but it's still discouraging when you don't see or feel any changes at all!

Oh well...at the end of the day I'll still exercise. Can't seem to go a day without doing something physical.

Original Post by helz15:

Original Post by felise18:

Original Post by helz15:

Hi Again, I just wanted to say, that although I don’t consider ‘starvation’ the healthiest way to loose weight, I certainly agree it will work. I have certainly lost weight through effectively starving myself (eating very low calories) and it worked and I kept the weight off for 3 years. Even when I did put weight back on, it was only about half of what I lost in the first place. So I do consider that to be fairly successful. As far as I am concerned, you are more than welcome to vent your frustration on this site. And I tell you something for free, I have been doing it the ‘healthy’ way for the past month, and I get a lot more frustrated doing it this way than I did doing it your way. If your loosing 1lb a week and you suddenly out of nowhere put on a lb, it’s a disaster, a week wasted (or at least that’s how I feel). Whereas if you are loosing 3lb a week, and you suddenly out of nowhere put on a lb then its not that big of a deal, you still lost 2lb that week. You know your own body, and you know if what you are doing is starting to make you ill, so as long as you keep an eye on yourself, then I think you will be fine. I just wouldn’t advise you use this method for repeated weight loss as I’m sure it is putting a lot of pressure on your body. It might be worth you considering moving across to a less harsh method as you near your goal, otherwise you may find it difficult to not put weight on when you reach your ideal weight. Maybe start eating close to you maintenance calories at weekends or something.

Wow, when did this site become about starving yourselves? If anything this site promotes the exact opposite. It's not healthy because it's not something you should do. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to what this site stands for. But, hey, you are free to do what you want as you said. But also when you end up gaining it back, or stalling due to lack of nutrition, we will be here with open arms to redirect you.

I haven't met anyone who was able to restrict their diet so much, lose weight and keep  it off successfully without half of it coming back (and plus some).

Anyway, have a good week. And hopefully that won't happen to you.

 Are you talking to me or Kellskells? Because I am not starving myself. I can just connect with the OP because I have done it before.

Its funny how some people are so quick to judge, just because something doesn't work for them, doesn't mean it wont work for somebody else.

And this goes out to alot of the people that have replied to this thread, when you don't agree with someones methods, if you really care, you might want to think about being a bit more constructive.

Starving yourself isn't one of those things where you can say " It works for me. And what what works for others might not work for you". Starving yourself isn't healthy. I wasn't commenting because you can relate to what she's doing, I commented because starving yourself isn't the way to go. It can cause a lot of health problems in the future. It's not something you can shrug off and go your own way on. But if you honestly don't care about your future well being, then by all means, completely ignore the advice we gave.

I'm not going to stop giving my opinion about starvation just because you find it offensive. Advocating it is offensive to me, and to anyone who has gone through it and had serious medical problems. You, too, should be careful what you post on an open forum. Teenagers and under eaters are always on these forums - take responsibility for what you post.

Original Post by beijingbelle:

Original Post by felise18:

...Stop trying to find ways to eat a dangerously low amount of calories and still be healthy. There is no way to do that...

 

...I don't believe I mentioned this at all, this extremely irrelevant to what I posted. Furthermore, I am not even underweight, I was just curious about weight's effect on health. I know many people who have muscles but seemingly no fat, and was wondering if just because they were heavy due to muscle, were they still at risk for health problems from being fat-free? Hah, but of course, as with many of this forum, you are quick to jump to the conclusion that my problem must be an eating disorder.

Not every underweight person eats a dangerously low amount of calories, nor are they (continually) trying to find ways to maintain such a life.

I don't see how that would change the answer I gave. It doesn't matter whether you are the underweight person or not. I would still give the same answer. If you just wanted an answer about the difference between muscle or fat gain, you should have left out the part about " an underweight person not wanting to up their calories". That's not possible. Their underweight for a reason - that reason being because they aren't eating enough or not eating the right things. Same answer I gave previously. Gi-Jane and Hedgren covered the rest.

Have a nice week~

Original Post by barrycalah:

Hi scaroppo thanks for the quick reply.

I hope myself that 4 or 5 days might not be too bad. I'm just feeling really weak and hoping not to have done any damange.

I guess I'm averaging between 1400 and 1500 (realistically closer to 1500) per day. I am 5'2, work an office based job so am very sedentary all day but I do manage to get 30 mins on the elliptical most days per week. It's not much I know but it's all I can do with my shedule.

The calculater says I burn 1600 at sedentary and the elliptical I guess burns about 250 (approx). I think (if I am working this out right) that by eating 1400 and burning off 250 I'm getting a defecit of around 500?

Although saying this I'm only losing around 0.5lb per week. I thought this might be because I'm only within 10lbs of goal weight though.

Sorry for such a long response! I'm still kind of learning where I have been going wrong!

Yes, that's why. When you're within the healthy range of your BMI, it becomes harder to lose weight. The closer you get, the slower it happens. You're not doing anything wrong. Just be sure to change up your routine every few weeks (4-6?) (changing it completely or just making it more intense) so your body doesn't become use to the same thing.

Good luck and congrats on that half pound! :D

Edit/P.S : I have seen some posts suggesting to some to decrease the deficit when closer to your goal weight. Which would mean you would eat around 1600. I would ask around a bit if you want some more info. :)

Original Post by pitaman:

But my calorie requirement is 3650.  So how would i maintain my weight if you say a person would gain weight by eating 3000 calories?

Losing weight is all about eating less than you burn and eating a balanced diet. If your body burns 4,000 calories a day and you eat 3600, then you are creating a deficit of roughly 400 calories. Which means that in one week you should lose about a pound. Might not happen every week, though. Or it could be more. 3,500 calories does indeed equal a pound, but if you're not over eating (eating over 3,600) on a consistent basis, you won't gain weight.

The problem with eating whatever you want and still lose weight is that most people don't balance their diet. Your body can only take so much, salt, fat and carbs. That's why the Food Pyramid exists (although it's not perfect). If you eat too much salt, your body will retain water. The saltier food is, the less nutritional value it tends to have. Such as fast food. The same goes for everything else. Your body needs balance.

Eating sweets, salt, fat, carbs and protein is fine. But if it's not balanced, your body will be lacking something and won't function the way it should. Our bodies are complex machines. Feeding it only one type of food, or letting it get out of balance will always reap consequences.

In a society where there is a fast food place on almost every single street, it's easy for people to over do it. Give your body plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and meat (or vegetarian substitutes if you are one). Treats are perfectly fine, just in moderation.

Original Post by theholla:

First of all, the only way to gain - regardless of whether it is muscle or fat - is by upping your calorie intake. You can't build muscle without some surplus calories, and you can't gain muscle without also gaining some body fat. That is why serious body builders follow a "bulking" and "cutting" cycle - bulking to build muscle, cutting to lose the fat that they gained during bulking.

Also, like isika pointed out, you do need a certain amount of body fat to function. This is especially importent for women, who can develop amenorrhea if their body fat dips too low.

I agree with this 100%. There is no way you can gain anything - be it muscle or fat- without upping your calories. Stop trying to find ways to eat a dangerously low amount of calories and still be healthy. There is no way to do that. Eat how much you're supposed to, that's all there is to it.

It will definitely take some time. Like Dereno said, I think it depends on the person. I also think it depends on how long you were eating those few amounts of calories. Sometimes the longer you do things like that, the longer it might take to get your body back on track. You should continue to eat what you know you are supposed to regardless of the initial weight you might gain.

Your body needs time to adjust itself to your new way of treating it. It could take a few weeks or a few months. Also taking from Dereno (:P), you should focus on doing what you know is right now and your body will catch up to what it should be doing, not so much about weight right now.

Original Post by jenningermany:

I assume you're male.  Is that right?  If so, you should try to never eat below 1500 cals a day, and you should never have a deficit of more than 1000 cals a day.  Around a 500 cal deficit is recommended.  Obviously, there are exceptions like illness that make it impossible to eat anything.

To add to felise18, not only is your body working harder to just keep you alive, it has to work harder to move.  I'm only 120 lbs, 168 lbs less than you.  Think what my muscles would have to do if I loaded up a bar with 168 lbs and then tried to get out of bed, walk the dog, go up and down stairs or anything else - all day long.  Not only would I have muscle cramps out the wazoo at first, but my body would also need a lot more calories to get by.  That means that you can lose weight in the beginning by eating more calories than a smaller person would, and you'll possibly lose weight faster.

I'm happy you posted. :)

I wasn't sure if the female minimum was the same for males.

Thanks. :D