Quote:
Originally Posted by twinieten
How many times have you not lost weight or you stall and you've been told you're not getting enough calories? I never quite understood that due to the fact that plenty of people lose weight by starving themselves.....
I'd love an explanation on how this works. At what point do I know I'm not eating enough?
I have a goal of eating 1000 calories a day, which gives me a calorie deficit that could potentially give me a 2#/week loss. Of course, this is based on a sedentary lifestyle, and 2050 calorie need. I'm learning that on the days that I work, I exceed this, and also on days that i exercise. My output might be closer to 3000 calories a day, and maybe I do need to eat more. I don't want to put my body in to starvation mode, where it hangs on to calories for dear life, but I want to lose, and the faster the better.
Thoughts?
You sound so much like me! Ha, I started perusing the forums in the beginning and
freaked out when I read that eating too few calories would cause a person to stall out and their body would start holding onto everything.
Like another poster said, there are conflicting articles out there about this topic, so it's hard to know what to believe.
I used this idea as an excuse to avoid exercise in the beginning - I didn't want my body to go into such a calorie deficit that it would start holding on to everything I ate. But then I realized I was preparing for a stall out that hadn't happened yet.
I picked 1,200 calories as my minimum in the beginning, and it was hard to keep to that level because I was used to eating so much more than that. But as I started exercising and incorporating more veggies and less processed foods, I've managed to keep my level in the 1,000 - 1,300 range. Some might say 1,000 a day is too low, but I feel satisfied at the end of the day. I'm not going to force myself to eat if my body says it's okay. (And 1,200 is the global standard, it's not going to work for every woman with every body type out there.)
So now? I just do what I've been doing. It's been working for me, and until it stops working, why should I question it? Since incorporating exercise (30 min. cardio and ~45 min. weight training) 6 days a week, I've lost 2.6, 2, and 2.2 pounds a week.
Prior to adding exercise, I rarely hit the 2 pound mark, though I did GAIN 2.2 one week. So maybe try incorporating regular exercise into your schedule without changing your calories and see what happens.