unfortunatley, im thinking i was right about starvation.

okay, now before you get upset or concerned, by no means am i suggesting that anyone ever staves themselves to loose weight.

now then. back to the topic at hand. okay, so i lost weight by eating less and working out and basically becoming OBSESSED with food and working out and all of that. Then when it suddenly hit me that i was no longer fat, i could be 'normal'...i started eating more regularly. very baaad mistake on my part. every time i was tempted by food, i would let myself have it using the logic that "im not fat, im not on a diet...". and so some of it came back. but beliveve me,once you starve yourself and then give yourself food again, your body will not let you go back. so now, over summer, im trying to get my perfect body image. no mroe messig around. i want to feel confident and satusfied, while still being able to eat like a human being...and not be obsessed about it.

heres the problem. im not sure if its because ive slowed my metabolism into 'starvation mode', but im not loosing like i used to. i work out..and i certainly dont eat over what i burn... so whats up? is it muscle? i dont think i got FATTER. im so confused. just when i trused that i could loose weight and eat...its not working. im very frustrated because i try so hard but im not sure what else i can do.

anything you can say will help. as long as you do not lecture me on how starving is wrong, i know that already from person experience. once again, im not saying its better or more effective.

-thanks.

means you have to gain a few.  to loose even more.

jumpstart your metab by doing weights and cardio, and eating more for a shortr period of time (some ppl do it like for 5 days) to get it out of the mode... then you clamp down on your calories. 
i suggest you try the zig zag diet (concept is to keep your metab guessing while still in a calorie deficit overall with mostly calorie deficit days and 2 high days)  You can read about it later  or in my profile for the link about the zigzag diet.

Hope that helps.

omg I did the exact same thing!

I used to lose like a pound everyday, or every 2 days...and it was like so easy. Then I went to mexico and I lost 6 pounds there because I barely ate anything, only drank and I was so active. Then I got back and my image in the mirror shocked me and I actually thought "holy crap I am too skinny, I need to start eating mroe normally now" so i did, and yest I admit I started over eating just cause of that though in my head and here i am 3 months later and 15 pounds heavier...and it just WONT come off! its horrible.

the obsession with so-called metabolism changes is a myth. Its false, metabolism has not been shown scientifically to jump around like that,  it doesn't make any sense. People just don't understand the human body.

The human body is very very efficient at burning energy. You just  have to CAREFULLY consume fewer calories and burn more, and wait and let it happen.  If you are trying to get a "perfect body image" its possible you are already quite lean? If so, getting the last fat off is NOT easy, and the body protects that as that could save you from starving in Nature.

You can exercise like crazy and eat very little to get down to a minimum weight, but guess what? You body will push back, if you are healthy, and put a  little more weight on. Why do you think Hollywood starlets take so many drugs? Because that will make  you thin alright, and destroy you.

If you want to look lean like a professional athlete,  then guess what? You have to train and eat like one. The body operates according to the laws of thermodynamics,  and its very efficient. If you "starve yourself" you will lose weight, and as soon as you stop doing that,  the body will trick you back into eating too much,  which is natural. Unless of course you develop a serious eating disorder.

Why not just eat healthy, control the calories to a proper level, and exercise at a high level? That's the only honest way...hard work. Either that, or do cocaine/meth like the Hollywood starlets, and put oneself into an early grave.

VERY well said, tbds! I agree.

I've spent years yo yoing up and down starving myself to a decent weight then going back to eating 'normally' and putting it all back on again. One week ago I made a huge decision. This time I'm NOT ona diet. This time I'm changing my eating and exercise habits for good. It's  a lifestyle change and it's permanent. I can't go back to eating 'normally' because it's unhealthy and that's what makes me put the weight back on (and some !) every time. This week I have written down everything that I have ate and drank and kept an eye on my exercise levels. I haven't starved myself - I've eaten really healthy food - loads of fruit and veg and lean protein- haven't had any processed foods at all. Done a reasonable amount of exercise on most days but not all. The main thing was I made sure I ate breakfast lunch and dinner and sometimes had some fruit for a mid morning snack. Every time I've lost before I've skipped meals sometimes only eating once a day. I ensured I could eat enough this time not to get hungry by eating the right kinds of food.

Guess what ? I've dropped 5lbs in seven days ! My target was only to lose 2 but I guess this is due to the initial impact of changing my eating habits. I must admit I was nervous at the thought of ensuring I didn't skip meals - thinking I had a really slow metabolism- but as a previous contributor has said- there isn't really any such thing- your body is a complicated energy consuming unit and it adjusts to what and how is being put into it.

Don't give up - keep eating - the right things in the right way and I'm sure you'll see results !

Quoting from tbs:  "If you "starve yourself" you will lose weight, and as soon as you stop doing that,  the body will trick you back into eating too much,  which is natural."

Have felt this way for the last 12 yrs trying to lose.  I would only consume 1000-1200 calories while walking over 20-25 miles a week.  Then my horrible carbohydrate cravings would resume after my weight loss had stalled out at 10 lbs.  It was as if my body had a mind of its own and was separate from my brain! 

Bravo tbds! 

sorry to have sounded a bit harsh in my earlier message, but its frustrating to hear the same misconceptions over and over. But it must also be very frustrating for those who feel "stuck".

Its not easy to lose weight, the body is very efficient. Its not that we are in the alleged Starvation Mode, (which we are not in almost all cases),  its that  the body is mind-boggling efficient. So we delude ourselves, thinking we are eating so little, and exercising so much, but if the weight is staying the same, and the person is overweight, then what's more logical,  that they are Starving, or that they are Deluding themselves about food intake and exercise?

For myself, I am losing weight right now, quite rapidly in a sense, but to me it FEELS SLOW. This is even though I am a  large male, who is logging all my calories as accurately as possible, and making sure they stay below my BMR calorie level. Being a large male its easier to burn calories, so I am dropping about 3 lbs a week. Even that feels slow in a sense! Imagine if one was dropping less than one pound a week. You are not even going to notice that on a daily basis. The only way people notice things on a daily basis seems to be if they literally don't eat, and see the WATER weight come off the scale.

So we have to take the LONG VIEW. We have to carefully make  sure we are eating healthy calories, that are just below what the body needs. Its not easy to figure all of  that out. Its not easy to count calories fairly accurately. I got very very serious about this, and have researched it pretty well, and as I said am dropping about 2-3 lbs a week now, pretty much exact as the numbers says, in terms of calories.

So anyone who reads this, instead of getting hysterical and stopping eating, please do some research first. Stopping eating is NOT going to work, as you will go right back to eating, or even get an eating disorder and really mess yourself up. Is it natural to force yourself to stop eating? Do animals do this? Only if they are sick, or are going to die. So don't fool around.

Why not instead find a HEALTHY nutrition plan, eat lots and lots of veggies, fruits, and the correct  amount of whole grains,  lean protein, dairy, etc, and if you want to starve yourself, why not starve yourself of all junk foods while eating healthy? Then exercise, and be patient. If you are overweight, and the weight is not coming off about 1 lbs or so a week, then you are not doing something right, most likely eating just a few too many calories, or not exercising at all, or very little.

If you are already pretty lean, the reality is those last lbs can be very difficult,  and you are going to have to work your tail off in exercise.

But folks, perhaps this message board needs some expert FAQ about this so-called "starvation mode". There is no way every second person is in this mode, it doesn't make any sense. You really have to abuse your body for awhile to make that sort of change,  and you are going to be dizzy, sleepy, tired, and craving binge foods, etc. Don't go there.

Just eat healthy whole foods in the correct amounts and exercise and most of  the excess weight will come off, slowly and NATURALLY.

If you want to look like a celebrity, then guess what? You get to hire a trainer, and work out several hours a day like a celebrity. (one who is not on drugs, that is).

The human body burns calories in a very very efficient manner. It seems most folks don't understand just how efficient. The body evolved eating veggies, fruits, roots, and the occasional meat, etc. Try to eat 2000 calories of veggies in one day. 1000 cals of veggies is roughly 20 cups, or 20 apples! Anyone want to eat 40 cups of veggies in a day to reach 2000 calories?

So the foods we have now are just too dense in calories, so  its hard. So just be patient, and know if you are doing things right, it will work, slowly but surely. Slow is the ONLY way,  as this way it can stick for life, as you are forced to change your lifestyle, and not just drink liquid food for a month, drop 20 lbs, then go back to eating solid foods,  and put it all  back on. If you take the weight off WHILE eating well, then you have changed your lifestyle. Its possible to do.

There is an excellent book out now called The Beck Diet Solution by psychologist Dr. Judith Beck, which is not a diet, but gives psychological techniques on how to manage our Cravings, and has a logical program of long-term weight-loss. Check that out from the library, or follow an accredited program by trained professionals.

Not eating and "starving yourself" is always going to backfire, it has to, think about it. If it didn't, you'd get extremely sick and end up on an IV in the hospital.

I am happy to read "tbds" response. I just hope there is no such thing as a starvation mode. "juicebox", you might want to check your sodium intake. Too much of that would just bloat you up big time.

PS: there  clearly is something like a "starvation response" in the human body. But science has not yet figured it out. But its pretty clear it takes quite a bit to get into that area of "starvation". I doubt many here without an eating disorder know what "starvation" really is.

But even then, the human body can't break the laws of nature. It would have to transfer energy from other systems, or shut them down, this is why people who really are starving sleep all the time, and can't move.

In almost every case the problem is we expect that if  we stop eating Big Macs and jog a few blocks, the lbs are going to melt away. The human body is about 100x more efficient than we think, that is what tricks us. The links below explain all of this.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/diet.htm/printab le

http://health.howstuffworks.com/calorie.htm/p rintable

I'm going to assume by "starve yourself" you meant that you ate a severely restricted diet?

If so what happens is that you not only burn fat, your body is forced to burn muscle. When you then start eating normally, you have less lean mass than you did before the severe diet. Your lean mass is what utilizes your calories - your fat doesn't.  So yes, you start gaining weight back at a faster weight than before.

This is what they mean by "yo-yo'ing" incidentally! And I believe this is what we tend to mean when we use the term "starvation mode."  You are actually better NEVER dieting at all, than going on extremely restrictive diets.

Tbds - you're wrong about metabolism. Metabolism does change. Your body has ways to slow you down when you're not taking in enough calories. And can sometimes even speed up if you have taken in more than normal. Heck, read up on the latest research about the different types of organisms in the gut, and how one type can digest calories more efficiently than the other type. It really isn't as clear-cut as "calories-in/calories-out." That's the OLD way of thinking, and plenty of science is comping out every day to change it.

But I agree with the rest of your posts - I just think saying "so-called metabolism changes is a myth" is overreaching or oversimplifying or maybe just clumsy wording. Since you say later that the body is very efficient, it seems you understand that metabolism does indeed slow down/speed up to keep the weight stasis.

thanks everyone for your advice. i wasnt going to mention this before, becuase every time i mention it in a thread i get lectured. but i think it might do some good. maybe. im 14, which means im still a child. and i know that the best way to be healthy is to eat good foods in the right prortions and to exercise and stay active daily. in fact, im so obssessed with weight that i could probably write a book based on all the reasearch i looked up. but it just doesnt seem to work that way for me. becuase i crashed dieted so young, it took an emotional toll on me. its not as simple as dont eat and loose weight verses eat and gain weight, but thats almost how it seems. its so frustrating because my whole life ive never like who i was. but after this summer i start at my new school and when i walk those halls on the first day, i want to be who i want to be. the other day was my birthday and i wanted to look nice so i tried on a pair of my jeans that i hadnt worn for a while becuase i felt like i got fatter. but then i told myself, "you didnt gain THAT much...youll still fit into your jeans it wasnt that long ago that they fit perfect..." so i tried them on and i could barely fitt eh maround my fat legs and they wouldnt even button. theyre size 0. imagine me, in 6th grade size 7-9 to 8th grade size 0. i worked SO hard. and now here i am. heading back to where i was. i hate it. i need to loose 10lbs. by sept. 5.

end of story. :[

ok. i read your story, and its almost the EXACT same thing that happened to me. i was down to 110 pounds and then i told myself i could eat now. so i did. and i went up to like 124. (over about 6 months) now i can't lose anything. i'm totally stuck. and i basically look the same as i did, but just a littttttle fuller. i want to lose about 10 pounds too- or atleast get down to 118. i want to be a size 1 again too :( email me or something, we could do it together!!!!!!!!

I am a big believer in positive thinking.  I agree with almost everything said in these posts so far about the science, calories in/calories out etc.... Its all true, and very good advice.

But Juicebox, if you want to feel good abotu yourself, and lose weigth in a healthy way, you need to be more positive about yourself.  You need to think about what you want to look like as if you already look like that. 

That doesn't mean your ideal weight is really a number you may be fixated on right now.  It's a feeling, a confidence, and the more you beat yourself down, the further away from it you're going to be.

Good luck.  I hope you figure it out!

I agree with tdbs. Look for an article on the web called "The Truth about Metabolism" by Stacy Whitman, which quotes obesity specialists. This article says yes, if you severely retrict, you can slow your metabolism by 5 to 10%... up to 15% if you restrict as low as 800 calories a day. Your weight loss would not stall, you just don't get the full benefit from the deficit. You would continue to lose at a slower rate in relation to the size of the deficit. This and other articles say that your metabolism will rebound when you resume normal eating.  It doesn't mean if you increase by 100 calories, then you would suddenly balloon. YOur metabolim will just return to normal. Another good article is on the Weight Watcher's site, called "Starvation Mode Myth." This article explains the math, and also sites studies.

I do agree that people tend to binge after severely restricting calories, and that's what causes the weight gain... not because their metabolisms go crazy. 

If you disagree, please post some article which quotes obesity specialists or some study.  I have been unable to find any, but am willing to learn.

juicebox,

I read some previous posts and you used to weigh (highest weight) 130, right? And you're 5'2"? And right now you're somewhere between 105 and 130?

That isn't overweight, sweetheart. It's not unhealthy at all, and it's not unattractive. It would be much easier, and would do MORE to help your feel attractive, to work on other aspects of yourself - confidence, smarts, humour, self-esteem, social skills - than to try to change your body! There's nothing magic about 105 lbs, or that extreme size zero. There really isn't.

If you focus too much on surface things, you sacrifice something inside yourself - you really do - and you will attract different kinds of friends/boyfriends than maybe you want. Adolescence is when we decide whether we're going to be deep or shallow - and like attracts like.

juice,
I'm not a professional but my guess is that you are not losing weight as easily as before because you have very little (if any) to lose. 

It frankly sounds like you don't need to lose any weight at all.  What you need to lose is your attitude.  Believe me, I know what it is like to start new schools, but honestly, being a size 0 versus a size 5 is not going to make or break your school experience.  You are.  Learn to love yourself.  Growing up is hard enough, you are making it worse with these unrealistic expectations. 

Your legs can't be that 'fat' if you were able to pull up those size 0's.  You are not fat, you just have no self-esteem.

Don't mean to be harsh, but seriously - if you base  your self-worth on your outward appearance than that is a recipe for disaster. 

no hard feelings avacadogrl. to be honest, i completley agree with you. Ive always known this about myself. There has never been a time in my life where i have been good enough for myself. i set my expectations for myself higher than, at times, seems acheiveable. i know that. i know that high expectaions will only lead to disappoinment. but in my point of veiw, i have failed myself so many times that i dont ever let myself fail. if i was down to a size 0, 103 lbs...then i know im capible of being there. and im not. knowing that just kills me. i have personal self-esteem issues, but im not just going to like myself for who i am. i will like myself when im who i want to be. its very exhausting, and its my fault. but im working on it.

sorry for the rant, but i dont want any of you thinking i dont have any reason for thinking the way i do. and please dont suggest i see a therapist. ahaha