Wait a minute...and you guys say 1,200 calories isn't enough?

http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/109 888.html

According to the general response to this thread, 1,200 calories a day for a teenager is just simply too little & unhealthy. However, I just entered my stats into the Calorie Target Tool, and it tells me I should eat 1,200 calories daily to lose .8 pounds a week. Is this a good idea? On the other hand, to be perfectly honest, I rarely go over 1,000 calories a day, and my weight loss seems to have hit a plateau...

And yes, you can tell me I eat too little, but I eat frequent, small meals of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meats. Usually I never go over 1,000 calories because I never need 1,000!

So, to sum it up, to keep losing weight should I eat even fewer calories, or should I up my calories?

Also, a lot of people on this site say that this site isn't DESIGNED for teenagers. if you're 21 or younger, you shouldn't go lower than 1,500 calories, and that is if you're in a coma.

Your currently starving yourself and killing your metabolism. Boom. end of story. Up your calories to get yourself OUT of starvation mode to meet your burn maintainence to get your metabolism back up, and then you'll lose weight.

Also, expect to get a few flame remarks for your posts if this board get some more attention, this is technichally promoting a pro-ana diet.

Original Post by amesthe:

And yes, you can tell me I eat too little, but I eat frequent, small meals of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meats. Usually I never go over 1,000 calories because I never need 1,000!

I used to eat below 1000 regularly and even read these forums and thought that the "1500 minimum" rule couldn't possibly apply to me, that I was fine eating that little, and in my attempt to lose I often hovered around 700 calories daily. Soon, I started getting sick very often, had no energy, blah blah blah, my body was obviously telling me something - "I WANT FOOD!"

So, to sum it up, to keep losing weight should I eat even fewer calories, or should I up my calories?

You should up your calories to maintenance level for a while, and wait for your weight to stabilize. These days, I can comfortably eat 2000+ calories daily without gaining weight, and trust me, it's 100% worth it.

if you're sensitive, don't read this...

but what you are doing is INCREDIBLY UNBELIEVABLY WHOLE-HEARTEDLY DOWRIGHT FREAKING STUPID.

direwolf is correct, this site is NOT designed for teenagers. if you are eating that few of calories each day, although you don't realize it, you may have a serious ED.  DO NOT second guess anyone on CC that tells you, a teenager, that 1200 is too little. if you are going to continue posting such threads that describe such pro-ana behavior, i suggest you find yourself a new site. i apologize for the rant, but you're killing yourself in the long run.

quite frankly, if you ask me, you've got yourself in denial. denial that deep down inside you know you are eating far too little.

also, you may be eating lean meats, veggies, whole grains and all that jazz, but i know for a fact that you CANNOT POSSIBLY meet the daily recommended serving amount for every food group given such drastic calorie restriction. you think you're being healthy but you're not.

Your body adjusts. Your body certainly can live on less than 1,000 calories a day, even if that's not optimal. I think the mods here overdo the calorie limit policing as if there's a universal limit for every human being.. when there really isn't, and that's unfounded. There are athletes out there who, based on numbers like those alone, would have a negative energy intake on many days, and yet they maintain a healthy weight.

But don't get me wrong, I see no good reason to eat anything below 1300-ish calories a day... and at most, that's only for someone maintaining their weight, not trying to lose. Nobody needs to eat that few calories, and nobody will get fat or find it impossible to lose weight on 1300 calories a day. You are on a plateau because your body is conserving energy since you eat too little. Why would you expect your body to let go of fat when your eating is telling it that it needs all the fat it can get? There's no doubt that under 1,000 calories a day is not going to lead to any beneficial bodily changes in terms of weightloss for a normal person. You probably have lost lots of muscle by now as well, since you undoubtedly get insufficient protein to maintain your muscles with.

The way you sustain weightloss is through eating healthy amounts of food, and you create a calorie deficit through short, difficult periods of exercise. Simply slashing your calories only ever works for so long and it's the wrong approach to weight loss. It's also the reason why so many people fail to lose weight, because they believe they should just eat less and it'll happen.

To that end, I think calorie-count is a bit irresponsible in its advice for weightloss. It actually recommends creating a deficit just by eating less, and that shows a poor understanding of successful and sustained weightloss. You should be burning the fat through high-intensity exercise (There is a difference between the effects of low and high-intensity exercise), and not simply eating less food.

Original Post by ibez:

To that end, I think calorie-count is a bit irresponsible in its advice for weightloss. It actually recommends creating a deficit just by eating less, and that shows a poor understanding of successful and sustained weightloss. You should be burning the fat through high-intensity exercise (There is a difference between the effects of low and high-intensity exercise), and not simply eating less food.

Uh, nobody here would ever recommend losing weight simply by cutting calories and not exercising. Sorry.  You can start off that way (sometimes small steps are easier to maintain then jumping in to a heavy workout routine and strict diet) but it's not feasible to expect any significant loss, or even a healthy maintenance by cutting calories and sitting around on your butt.

On to amesthe - Dire is correct that this website is designed for adults.  Anyone under 21 should add 300 calories to the recommended amounts.  A teen girl should never eat under 1500 calories a day, and that's the bare min of what your body needs just to exist.  You're more active then that, so yes, you need to eat more then 1000 calories a day, no matter what YOU think is enough.

Try a website like http://www.teennutrition.net/ for more info.

Original Post by kukua:

Uh, nobody here would ever recommend losing weight simply by cutting calories and not exercising. Sorry.

I think he meant the Calorie Count website tools, not the community.

Teenage bodies are not the same as adult ones so the CC tools should not be used if you're under 20.  Teenagers use a lot more energy doing the same activities as an adult.  Teenage bodies (and brains) are at a crucial stage where they are developing and growing ... for which they need more energy than an adult and good quality nutrition.   Deprive the body of food at the wrong stage of development and you can end up with all kinds of long-term issues...  stunted growth, skeletal weakness, infertility, mental health/depression.

If you're overweight and you've stopped losing weight it's most likely because your body is malnourished and trying to conserve its energy.  If you feel like you don't need more than 1000 cals it's because you've killed your appetite with a starvation diet.

If you want to lose weight and be healthy you should aim for around 1800 cals a day, focus on getting the very best nutritionally and then  increase the amount of exercise you do.   Teens need about 1 hour a day.

As most above have said -- the tools on this site were designed for fully grown adults (not just height-wise, btw), therefore if you are in your teens, you should be using tools designed for teen:

calculator and calorie information for Teens 
Nutrition, Exercise & Weight Management for Teens
More Nutrition & Health for Teens
Weight Management for Kids/Teens

Eating not enough food will often yield the same results as eating too much (you gain weight...). Take a look at these websites to get a better idea of how that happens:

• Dieting & Metabolism (explains starvation mode and why undereating is counter-productive)
• The Body Neglected (explains what happens when you undereat a long time)

And, although I hope the other members have convinced you that you need to eat more, I must remind you:

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Thanks ankow, yes that is what I'm saying. Obviously the community is quite informed but I think the tools can create the wrong image for someone new to the site. It just gives you a daily calorie goal, so no beginner would figure out to eat maintenance and get to that calorie goal through exercise. Of course, many people, even after learning of exercise, do the wrong exercise.. like long periods of light jogging, or using low difficulty exercise machines... 

honestly, you can keep eating 1000 calories and think everyone else is wrong...or you can trust what the professionals say and eat more.

eating 1000 calories a day eventually put me in the hospital

Here's carefully researched info from the CC Q&A, under the Advice tab.  Please take special notice of the part I've bolded.  What will happen is, you'll gain weight every time you eat an extra cookie.  Don't set yourself up for this grief.

Why must I eat at least 1,200 calories a day when I want to eat less?

In order to get the daily food servings you need for a balanced diet, it takes about 1200 calories a day. With careful planning, you could have a balanced diet on 1000 calories, but the restrictiveness of a very low calorie level can lead to binging and weight cycling, which will take you further from your weight loss goal. What's more, very low calorie diets can cause excessive muscle breakdown and metabolic adaptations, which can drive down your calorie requirements. In the end, you'll need fewer calories to maintain a higher weight.

Hi amesthe ~

Calorie Count tools are geared for adults not teenagers.

1200 calories is the minimum for an adult.  From one of your other posts, you provided your stats as:

Original Post by amesthe:

I'm 13, 5'4", and I weigh around 105 lbs.

I put your stats into this calculator for teens and got the following:

1760 Calories - Inactive (Never Active)
2070 Calories - Low Activity (Less than 1 Hour a Day)
2370 Calories - Moderate (About 1 Hour a Day)
2870 Calories - Very Active (More than 1 Hour a Day)

Unless you're 100 lbs overweight or something, why would you want to lose almost a lb a week? Why the hurry?

Your being extremely ignorant. Your body needs at least 1500 calories for a sedentary teen girl. Seriously, do yourself a favor and eat more. If you keep on doing stupid things you'll lose your period, your hair etc. Don't think it won't happen because it will.

The reason your not loosing anymore weight is because your body is starving and hanging on to anything it can. That's telling you something right there. YOUR BODY DOES NEED MORE THAN 1000 CALORIES!

If your only 105 pounds at 5'4" then you don't even need to loose weight, so I'm not giving you anymore advise. If I came off as harsh it's because I find post like these extremely annoying. I think you know what you shold do.

/sigh 13 years old?! When i was 13 i grew like...7 inches taller in 5 months or something. Crazy stuff happens. You shouldn't try to fight how your body is growing and changing. You're going to gain weight as you go through puberty. It's called boobs and hips. Don't ruin your body at such a young age.

 

Actually, if i had access to this site at your age, i would be scared out of my mind to under eat. There are so many sick and recovering young women on this site, begging you to take their heartache into consideration, and to NOT STARVE YOURSELF DURING SUCH AN IMPORTANT TIME.  Its like...you have to be a full blown idiot to not heed their advice.

I'm sick and tired of everyone acting so naive about starving themselves.

 

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