It has been a few posts since you guys were talking about this, but I'd like to bring up the whole no-energy thing again if you don't mind xD

I am suffering from fatigue, lack of energy, low heart rate (doctors think it is abnormally low for me anyway), depression, etc..
I'm not sure what I should be doing right now. I seem to actually have LESS energy after eating, probably because my body is diverting energy to digesting it. I feel so sluggish and not wanting to do anything besides eat more. I feel a little better after exercising, it's really the only thing that gives me temporarily relief (although it is hard with the muscle fatigue), but my doctor has recommended holding off on the exercising.

Also, if I eat only when I am hungry I will end up not eating enough, and my doctors think my body is in starvation mode right now. But force feeding myself is resulting in unhealthy thoughts and feelings and I still don't feel good. Just needed to rant.

I do agree that our bodies need more calories on some days than others though.

Teff What are you eating? If I eat too many carby foods, I have a washed out sluggish feeling. We are told that carbs are energy foods and it may be for some people, but I am not one of them. I can only eat a limited amount. Once I start eating a lot, all I want to do is sleep. I also do this some times when I start a new diet. It might not hurt to keep a journal of what you eat and how you feel after eating it. I've never done that but I've heard of others doing it. I have kind of learned over the years which foods are going to make me tired or trigger a binge/craving for me. This is one suggestion and I'm sure others have some other good ideas as well. Good luck on finding your way.

Teff-What helped you lose 80 lbs? Did u lose the weight by counting calories or did the weight come off when u had the eating disorder? I havent noticed a change in my energy, I have always felt tired and I think mine stems from not getting a good nights sleep. My husband is a wild sleeper but once we move in a week we will be able to use our king size bed instead of the queen we have now. Exercise helps with my anxiety and when I had depression it helped with that also. Are you finding it challeging maintaining your weight loss? How long have you been a IE?

Last night I began thinking about what you said about calorie needs are different from day to day. I remember when I was doing WW that some people got to thinking about what they called Wendy's plan (I think it was). It is similar to the cycle calorie counting or carbs depending on which you were doing. Some people used it to lose weight and some used it to break a stall. Last night I suddenly realized that the reason it worked was because the body didn't get used to a set of calories or carbs each day. It was supposed to "confuse" the metabolism so the body would not go into starvation mode and hold on to everything you ate because it wouldn't realize you were on a diet.

Maybe our bodies are smarter than we think and when people follow that plan, they are working with the body and not tricking it. If we are doing IE properly, I think we would find that our body probably does this automatically. I've heard of many who successfully follow IE say that some days they are hungrier than others. I have days when I feel like I am eating all day long. Then I have days when I don't eat hardly anything. Am I tricking my body? I don't think so. I am beginning to think that maybe this is really what is "normal". This is the way I ate as a child. I used to babysit. I found that children when left to their own will eat when they are hungry and most of the time they will make good choices if left alone. I kept a little boy as a toddler. His mother and I learned that on the days that he at a good lunch for me that he wasn't very hungry at dinner time. On the days he didn't eat good for me, he ate a good dinner that night at home. We soon learned not to worry about him because he was eating when he needed too. I learned the same thing with Tony's grandaughter when I kept her.

I think IE is just teaching us to back to the way our bodies were created to work and we don't have to worry about how much or how little we eat if we will just learn to listen to our bodies.

We came home from church and ate tv dinners that DH had bought the last time we went to the store. I wasn't in the mood to cook. I ate the fish and almost half the mac 'n cheese. I probably gained most of my weight the first time eating lots of mac 'n cheese. I was surprised when I suddenly realized that I did not like it and put it down the disposal. I don't know if it was too much carb for me or the fact that I was so tired before I ate and or time change or what, but I ended up sleeping all afternoon. I later got up and decided to make some tea and eat something. So I finally decided to make me a bag of 100 calorie popcorn. I ate about half of it and suddenly realized, I didn't want any more. I sure hope this means that my IE is beginning to kick in. Maybe this is just an example of how we have days we are hungrier than others.

One of my problems lately is that I don't want to mess with cooking. Just wonder if anyone else has this problem and what you eat when you don't want to cook. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Usually if I don't feel like cooking my husband will cook or we will go to a fast food joint and I will get a salad or something. We eat out about 2 times a week, sometimes I am just to exhausted after dealing with the kids and dog and he is exhausted from work to cook. Also I noticed that if I do eat a big meal to where I am full I can go a lot longer before I get hungry again. My pants are getting loose I find myself pulling them up a lot more. I haven't counted calories since 3/4 and Im feeling good.

My kids eat the same way their are times when they will not be hungry but by dinner or lunch they will eat a lot, and then their are days when they will graze all day. We don't make them finish their food since we give the left overs to the dog as a treat. I tried the Wendy plan when I was on WW and for some reason it felt like days when I needed more to eat those were the days when I had to keep my points low. I do think varying your food intake keeps your body guessing and it helps with weight loss. I tend not to be hungry in the morning when I first wake up but I make sure to eat at least a cup of yogurt or cereal but my next meal I eat whenever I get hungry so it could be noon or 2pm before I eat again if my body is hungry it will tell me. I learned a lot from watching how my kids eat.

Carly Interesting you say you are not hungry in the morning. I am the same way. When I went on a low carb diet years ago and was part of a support group, I would eat yogurt for breakfast. Everybody had to post what we ate. I was told that I could not eat just yogurt for breakfast because I would not lose weight. I love yogurt for breakfast and could easily go back to it.

A few years ago I heard someone on tv say that when she travels she orders a fruit cup for breakfast in the hotel. When I married Tony, we kept his grandchildren when their Mom worked. His DD loves healthy foods like I do, so instead of junk foods, I kept fruit for the children to snack on. One day I told DH "I couldn't be a vegatarian, but I sure could be a fruitarian if there is such a thing". I found that I loved it as much as the kids did. Now that I'm on IE I make up a bowl of fruit for breakfast and it keeps me satisfied until noon or later. It is so nice to be free to choose what I want to eat, when I want to eat it and how much or how little I want. I'm learning it doesn't take as much satisfy me any more. I guess this is why I love IE.

I have ten kids and have been tired most of my life. Recently I learned that the only thing that works for me is to eat less. It seems the more I eat, the more tired I am. It works better for me even then exercise because for 6 mo. I used the eliptical faithfully 6 days a week.

Forgot to say that I was really breathing hard for 20 min on the eliptical and it was difficult to keep that up day after day. I have felt so much better since I started eating less.

My daughter who is 5 loves to eat healthy. I could be a fruitatarian also lol. I love summer because Watermelon is my favorite fruit and we always buy 3 bags of grapes everytime we go grocery shopping. My kids love fruit but my husband will only eat fruit if I'm eating it right in front of him. My husband loves junk food and he maintains his weight by eating big meals and then going hours before he eats again. He drinks beer about 5 days a week but I have been watching him closely since he hasn't had to work in a couple of days and he is constantly moving or doing something around the house. Its hard for him to just sit still and do nothing. He loves all you can eat buffet and he will eat 3-4 plates and then he wont eat for about 6-7 hours after that. He doesn't not eat intentionally but he stays satisfied for a long time after he eats a huge meal. He listens to his hunger cues and has always been in shape. My son is just like his dad he loves junk food but he maintains a healthy weight for his age but he is also constantly moving unless he is sick but when he is sick he only takes about 2 bites and then he is done eating.

Also my friends who are smaller I noticed that when we all used to go to the club and then hit burger king afterwards they would not eat anything or maybe order something small whereas I would order a huge meal and eat it all. I never understood how they could go to BK or Ihop and not splurge. For them I guess they ordered a small amout since that is all they needed to feel satisfied whereas I would order a lot and get really full and then wakeup and eat breakfast not realizing that I should still be full from the very early morning meal. Some of them did eat healthy but then there were some who didnt but stayed skinny.

I Love yogurt in the morning, I get to eat a bigger variety now that I'm IE. Now my life doesn't revolve around food and Im not thinking about what my next meal is gonna be

I haven't worked out in a couple of days but Im trying to slowly get back into going for walks again. Its been so rainy in Kansas and I prefer to walk outside in the fresh air and just haven't been able to do that in a week.

I just caught up on reading all the posts. Thanks everyone for all your help. I will be allowing myself to get hungry and listening for the growl. I do believe alot of times I am eating when I am not truly hungry. Really helpful to know I'm not alone in this energy and fatigue issue. Everyone take care!!!

Good morning, ladies...I get Kelly Bliss' newsletter, and today she had a link to a blog called "Weightless". I haven't read it all yet, but I read a few entries, and there's some interesting stuff there.

The writer is coming from a "Health At Every Size" approach.

Here's the link to the blog in case anyone else would like to look:
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/weightless/

*** Spoiler alert: BRAGGING ***

Hi ladies, I feel kind of guilty to post something so shallow after all these great posts that we've been having and I promise I will answer to. But I need to post this:

I bought a party dress this weekend (I am going back home for a month and we have a huge birthday party we are going to, really excited =D). Anyway, it's a size 8P... which I understood to mean "plus". But when I googled it today... it turns out it means petit! so, I know petit is usually code for short rather than overall petit, but still, I'll take the petit to the plus! ^^

That's all....

end of bragging

That is awesome!!! My clothes feel like they are getting loose but I think it has a little to do with me having a positive outlook like some skinny people do. Im trying to think more positive about my body and I think it might be working. I think its awesome to post your goals and how well you are doing.