[gggirls]

I receive the Shape Up America newletter - not sure if any of you get this or not but it finally put my enough calorie struggle in perspective. It's a long post so I only pulled out a portion of it - (Heather - can I post the link)

When you cut calories to BELOW your RMR, your body fights back. Restricting calories below your RMR is like asking your car's engine to run on too little gas. If your car is sitting in the driveway with the engine on, it is burning gas as it sits there. If you put the car in drive and step on the gas, it burns gas at a faster rate. What happens if you choke off the supply of gas to your engine? It sputters and eventually stalls. The same is true for your metabolism.

What happens if you cut your food intake BELOW your RMR? Your body fights back. It actually DECREASES its metabolic rate. If you are eating an insufficient amount of food to meet your RMR, you will not be eating enough to maintain your body's functions properly. You can do this for a day or even two days without consequences. But chronic restriction of calories below the RMR is not unusual among dieters. This type of severe restriction can go on for an extended period of time (weeks or months), but NOT WITHOUT PAYING A PRICE. That price may be your health.
When you restrict calories too severely, your body is forced to make tradeoffs. Your body will struggle to preserve the highest priority bodily functions. Brain and heart function will be a very high priority whereas reproductive function and bone will be sacrificed.

There has to be a better way, and there is. Severe calorie restriction is totally unnecessary and counterproductive. The alternative is to take the long view and be willing to LOSE WEIGHT SLOWLY by restricting calories only modestly. You need to know your RMR and avoid restricting calories below your RMR. Here is what you need to know:
Your RMR makes up the major portion of your daily calorie needs
You should protect your body's RMR as you do a high performance automobile. You need to eat enough calories to meet your RMR each day.
A racecar requires high-test fuel for optimal performance. Similarly, your body requires wholesome food in adequate amounts to protect your RMR
Building healthy muscle and bone by eating the right foods and exercising will actually INCREASE your RMR and help you manage your weight
Protecting your RMR will pay you dividends because you will feel better and be more vigorous and active - which allows you to burn more calories.
To increase your metabolism:
Exercise daily
Build your muscles through strength training
Build bone by doing "weight bearing" exercise like walking or dancing (or any other exercise or sport that you perform while up on your feet)
If calorie restriction is too severe, the fatigue that results will undermine your exercise regimen. You will not have the energy you need to exercise. You may actually rest more or sleep more - which leads to an overall reduction in calories burned. Here is a typical scenario:
John burns 2000 calories per day of which 1600 calories per day is his RMR requirement.


John wants to lose 1.5 pounds per week, so he cuts his calorie intake by 750 calories. This leaves John with 1250 calories - some of which is from nutrient poor soda and "junk food." The 1250 calories he allows himself is well below the 1600 calories he needs to support his RMR.


This drastic reduction in calories and poor quality food causes John to feel fatigued and he sleeps a lot - in fact he starts sleeping late and does not want to go for his daily workout in the early morning.


After a week or two of feeding his body only 1250 calories a day, John is surprised and frustrated that his weight loss is not the 1 ½ pounds per week he expected. It is scarcely ½ pound per week! This is because to conserve calories, his RMR has decreased drastically and he is exercising less and sleeping more.

Food is more than Calories - USE WHOLESOME FOOD TO MEET YOUR RMR
Food is one of the great mysteries as well as one of the great pleasures of life. Food contains much more than vitamins and minerals and energy (calories). It contains many, many compounds that play an important role in protecting your health and well-being. Only a tiny fraction of those compounds have been identified and every year many more important compounds in food are found. Few have been studied adequately. We are just at the beginning of understanding how special compounds in fish and vegetables protect against cancer, how dietary fiber protects against cancer and heart disease, and how many other valuable compounds found only in food protect your health. Think of wholesome food as your health insurance policy.
No vitamin-mineral pill is a substitute for good wholesome food. EAT HEALTHY FOOD TO MEET YOUR RMR

Many of the special compounds found in food are important to keep your metabolism running optimally. To protect your health and maintain your metabolism, you should plan to meet your RMR requirements with wholesome foods. A wholesome food is a good source of protein, vitamins, minerals and many other things your body needs. Sodas, candy, desserts, chips, should not be used to meet your RMR.

Not sure if anyone else is struggling to get enough calories but this certainly hit home with me.

Hugs,
Carol

[Heather]

Carol-- That's good info!

You can post the link -- in fact, linking back to the source is appropriate! The ones we most worry about are when people are linking to competitors, or trying to sell things!

[gggirls]

Here's the link - this is a great resource site

http://www.shapeup.org/atmstd/sud10v3/sud10s7.php

Thanks Heather for the info.

Carol

[rainbowsmiles]

Dear Carol...WOW!!!!
That is some of the BEST Nutritional Information that I have read. In fact, I printed it out. Thank you soooooooo much for sharing that and for sharing the link.

I have said this before but I will say it again...

KNOWLEDGE IS SO EMPOWERING!

When I started this journey 5 weeks ago....I thought...gee I know what foods are good and what are not...surely I can do this on my own. However, I decided against that in the end. I decided to "throw out" everything I knew about eating and losing weight and GO BACK TO THE BASICS. I decided to read as much as I can about Nutrition. Not dieting. Not about fat free foods. Not about high carb low carb high fat, low fat, etc.... Instead I decided to focus on nutrition. I started by looking up...What is a Calorie. It may have been a pre-school approach but in the end, I WILL graduate with my Masters!!! Re-learning...has cause a ton of "lightbulb" effects. Things I knew but forgot. Things I didn't know. Things I wish I didn't know! haha

Then, I found this site. What a wealth of information there is right here among all these threads. Yes...all of this "research" takes time and devotion. I am "INVESTING" IN MY SELF AFTER ALL. I have discovered that you need knowledge first and foremost. Above all consider the source. Go find that knowledge from reliable sources. Then, apply that knowledge. I keep thinking, it can't be that simple. It is.

THEN....find YOUR support network and rely on that support.

Did I mention how HAPPY I am that I found this support network???

It is amazing to me how dear you all are becoming so quickly and how much I look forward to coming to my little cove of an office and diving into my friends words of encouragement and support here at 3fc.
God bless you ALL.
rainbowsmiles

[texarkgal]

Thanks for the info and link Carol, I found it quite informative and helpful.

[NotTheCheat]

Carol - Great article! Thanks for posting!

[Debbie54]

Carol, thanks for the great article. All the time I was thinking less was more, but apparently that's not the case. I think I will delve more into how many calories I should be eating and find out what my daily calorie usage is.

I gained a lb. I know it's because I screw up on weekends and it takes me the next week to get it off. I've done this 3 weeks in a row now. I refuse to do that again to myself, especially after giving up that cake. I've already got my menus planned out for the weekend, and I'm sticking to it. I'm not going to change my ticker because by next week, I WILL be down more poundage!!!!
Debbie

[gggirls]

Now where's the part that I understand it intellectually but putting it in to practice - it's nearly 530 pm and I have had less than 500 calories today. DUH!

[Heather]

I have never, ever had that problem. I can't even fathom it!

[gggirls]

I can't believe I'm having that problem either - but I am working on it.