Why is it so hard for me to believe that works? I've been on a calorie restricted diet since January. Periodically I plateau and every time people tell me "You're not eating enough! Eat more!" It's always so hard for me to do it. I'm so scared I'll lose control and gain back every pound.

So it happend once again I've been plateaued for about three weeks (the longest plateau so far) and so I decided to up my calories from 1200-1400 to 1600, and guess what happened? I've started losing again! I've been losing about a half a pound a day for about a week.

It's so hard for my brain to believe that eating MORE will help me lose! I know it's true. I've yo-yo dieted myself obese. I've starved myself fat. I've gone from starvation to binge my whole life. So eating more feels like a binge and it scares me!

In the past, after the plateau has past, I have always dropped back down to the lower calorie level, but know I'm thinking about trying to stay at 1600 for a while. Will this keep me from plateauing? Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there a way to prevent the plateau?

hello i know just what you mean this last week and a half i have been low on calories and not lost one thing. so i brought it up by 100 and now i am losing again. it is so weird i never thought i could eat and lose weight. i don't know about getting stuck at the same weight i have not been doing it that long yet.

adah

Hello--

I know it is very frustrating for me also... Just when I think if I eat 1200 calories or so a day and I will keep losing.. But it just doesn't work that way all the time.

I know for me, I have the most weight loss when I keep my body guessing. I try to change it up every week or two because I really believe that my body gets used to whatever I am doing and sticks to whatever weight I am at. That goes for calorie intake and exercise for me.

Okay think of it this way...food is fuel...your body need fuel to work properly, if you starve it...its not going to work right. The other aspect to this is hormones. Your body had triggers....they are called leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is your friend. When your body is getting what it needs, it produced Leptin which tells your body that you are satisfied and to stop eating. Ghrelin is not your friend....when your body is NOT getting what it needs the ghrelin kicks in and says "I'M HUNGRY>>>FEED ME!!" Ghrelin increases before you eat and decreases after you eat. so when you dont eat enough...here comes ghrelin whether you want it or not! Thats why its so important to follow those calorie guidelines and to give your body what it needs so that its natural defenses dont work against you.

Its calorie in vs. calorie out, but your body HAD to have the calories it needs just to function.

Such a hard concept for us lifelong dieters to wrap our heads around but its nothing more than science.

OK eating more is still working. I've lost four pounds since Sunday eating 1600calories day after plateauing for 3 weeks!

Thanks for the advice everyone. Redeemed --- I think I will try changing things up and keeping my body guessing. I've heard other people say that works for them too. As if losing weight wasn't hard enough, it's so frustrating that your own body is fighting against you!

If that is true, where's the book that outlines exactly what needs to be done.

I can follow technical since I've been a lifelong auto mechanic and technician (over 15 years in the industry), so if you can let me know of a book at lets us in on the scientific plan I'll buy it!

A specific book huh....well gimme some time to research that a little bit. But ALL of the diets out there are basically calorie in vs. calorie out. They just dont all break it down that way.

the truth of the matter is in order for you to lose weight you are going to have to either eat less calories than your body needs or you are going to have to burn more than your than you are injesting. Your body burns calories no matter what you do, even if all you did was lie in bed all day long you are still burning calories. It takes X amount of calories everyday to maintain your current weight. If you eat more than that X amount...you gain. If you eat less or burn more you lose.

when it comes down to diets, no matter which ones they are, basically get you to decrease the number of calories you injest. They all just have different ways of doing it (WHEN FOLLOWED PROPERLY) Of course so many try to find the loop holes, try to follow plans their own way and dont lose, and then wonder why. If you burn more calories (with exercise) than you take in, you will lose weight regardless of where those calories come from and if you eat more calories than you burn each day, you will gain weight, regardless of where those calories come from. That being said you'll learn that where calories come from does make a huge difference in the amounts you can still eat...leading to less times of feeling hungry. Plus whole foods are just better for your body than junk food is.

Simple science. 3500 calories = 1 lb. You can find this information in just about any nutrition book, most diets go over these facts with you. Look up BMR (basal metabolic rate). If you were to decrease your current daily calorie consumption by 250 calories a day...just cut out 250 calories, and burn 250 calories a day with exercise, you'd lose 1 lb per week. Cut 500 and burn 500...lose 2 lbs a week.

Oh just thought of a great book for you....Dr. Oz's "YOU on a diet" is a good one to read. Also, his "YOU the owners manual" you'll learn alot about how your body works and why.

Sorry to ramble, hope that helps some.

thank you for sharing! I am thinking of doing the same thing. I'm wondering how you would keep your body guessing though w/o "starving yourself fat"?

Simply juggle your calories around everyday. Let's say you want to eat an average of 1600 calories a day. Your calorie juggling would go like this:

Day 1- 28 points, 1400 calories
Day 2- 33 points, 1650 calories
Day 3- 29 points, 1450 calories
Day 4- 43 points, 2150 calories (Super High Day)
Day 5- 28 points, 1400 calories
Day 6- 32 points, 1600 calories
Day 7- 30 points, 1500 calories

This is known as the "Wendie Plan". If you click on my blog below in my signature, you can find out what calorie range you should be in and see how the calorie juggling for the week would go.

Of course, you can adjust the days every week so if you had a BBQ or wedding or something else that comes up with goodies you may want to enjoy, you would simply use that as your high calorie day. Also, if you had a rough day and went over your calorie limit today by let's say, 300 calories, simply adjust your calorie total for the rest of the week to make up for it, by subtracting 50 calories per day (or 100 calories for 3 days.).

Hope this helps.

Why can't someone eat an average of 1000 calories a day, and juggle it around in conjunction with exercise?

Wouldn't that work?

OR, is there some medical research that has proven we need more than 1000 calories a day?

yeah, it would work but you'd be hungry all day and miserable. Probably not have much energy. Your body would eventually start working against you. Any losses would most likely be more lean muscle tissue rather than fat. Thats very low calorie and shouldnt be done unless you are under the supervision of a doctor.

It didnt come on overnight its not going to come off overnight.

What difference will a doctor make?

I've found doctors to be of very little help unless you need surgery or something. An honest doctor will tell you they really don't know much and most of what they do is experimentation...at YOUR expense!

This is why I'm looking at exersice, and getting the proper nutrition instead of blindly running to the doctor to get jacked up on their expensive drugs that have all those un-godly side effects

A good doctor doesnt run to drugs. A good doctor tries to fix the problem not medicate it. The reason for being under a doctors care is to monitor your progress. Eating very low calorie is hard on your body, your heart, liver, gallbladder etc. They monitor your blood levels, make sure you arent getting anemic or your blood pressure getting too low.

Like you said, exercise and proper nutrition are the best things you can do for your body. You dont need a doctor to do that.

Thank you Steelslady! I'm going to try that. I think I can do that.

You've very welcome. Give it a couple of weeks, it does work.