Ok, I had a bit of a melt down this morning when I stepped on the scale, this has not been my week. I started my diet on 6/28 and had been doing quite well and lost 23.6 lbs in about 3 weeks. I knew that of course this was going to slow down, but it just completely DIED on me. I went from losing a pound or so, to one day just .2, to losing nothing, to GAINING .6, and then GAINING 1.4.

I know plateau's happen, but after just 3 weeks?! Also I know how the body can adapt quickly, and i also know eating too little can backfire, but for years I never once paid for that.
*bit of backstory.... For the better part of the last 7 years I was close or actually underweight, and struggled pretty heavily with a variety of disordered eating behaviors. I always was waiting for the day my metabolism would die/it would become impossible to lose more etc, but it rarely/if ever happened. Now it does when I desperately NEED and HAVE (i abuse caps lock sorry!) to lose weight. Also i have no idea, but i also...gulp this is hard to admit....put on about 100 lbs, no i am not kidding, no i was not pregnant, in about 7 months. I obviously went insane, started compulsively overeating and not purging, etc. That in itself must have put my body through the wringer*

I definitely was eating too little from the start, but I still can't believe that I'd plateau that soon, arrgh. I tried to up my calories (was still under 900) for a few days (this basically started last fri morning) and panicked of course when I didn't lose any. Yesterday I actually didn't eat at all (i know better, but...its so hard to break that when I am so heavy right now-and i read one study that short term fasting *can* at times kickstart a metabolism, or so this one study says) and gained over a pound overnight. I broke down this morning and just cried, I feel pathetic.

I just, I'm going to keep on keeping on. I had a hard workout today, and I'm going to try to have a better dinner then usual. Perhaps I can keep myself of the scale for a few days. Wow, I'm rambling like a champ, but the basic point is...help?! Advice, stories, how you got past this if you went through it? I keep telling myself that its impossible to be burning off as much as I am and dieting strictly to stay this heavy but my goodness I am going crazy here!
(and you get a golden star if you even made it through my overly verbose post, sorry for all my whining!!)

i don't want to sound harsh here because i don't know what you;ve been through but..
you have to stop purging/binging/not eating. you are distroying your metabolism like that. Eating under 1000 calories doesn't help either. i am your height and am losing weight at 1600 calories and exercise everyday.
good luck. i hope you find a way to get healthy with your eating habits and to a healthy weight and a balance lifestyle.

I don't know how it's even physically possible to lose almost 24lbs in 3 weeks.. If you were severely undershooting your calories for your body weight (which at 900 or less sounds like it) - your body may be in shock right now. You've probably burned a lot of muscle weight which can also kill your metabolism (not 'kill' as in forever, but for the moment). You just need to start eating the correct amount of calories and weight training to conserve muscle to keep your metabolism going. You may see a sharp spike on the scale (a gain) at first because weight training holds water in the muscles to repair.. But at least you'll have lost it healthily, have a far better chance of maintaining it, have a healthy metabolism and not end up 'skinny fat' with a low number on the scale but a shot metabolism and no muscle and a lot larger than someone of the same weight with a healthy body fat/muscle ratio. :-(

i think counseling would be really beneficial for you. your eating habits aren't normal, or healthy.

The reason you've plateaued is because your body is panicking because you're not feeding it enough to function. If you're not eating enough you'll go into starvation mode and won't lose anything at all.

Eat three meals a day (sensibly, though) and exercise properly. And don't get depressed. Plateaus happen, deal with them. Don't go flinging yourself off a bridge and getting all 'woe is me' because your scale hasn't shifted. Focus on how you feel and how you look, surely that's more important than that little needle moving down a few notches.

Thanks everyone, I do appreciate it. I know I have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. I'm working to up it to 1200 and then up calories a bit more to a sane level. I go back and forth from being in an utter panic thinking someone will know "how" to "fix" this. I am sure a good bit was muscle/water and I'd like to give my body a chance to healthily lose weight this time around. I just need to stay off the scale for a bit, as hard as it may be for me to. Thanks again, and sorry for being such a basket case.
(i think an issue i have is do to eating so little for years and maintaining/slowly losing at times i tell myself that i screwed myself and therefore have to eat so few calories to lose, etc. then again i'm also paying for those sins 100x over i suppose)

(and i've been in/out of therapy. i quit as i started gaining weight due to shame, but will meet with someone new for the first time in about 2 months, i know i have to work on my emotional baggage and such too)

The thing that struck me is that you lost 24 lbs in 3 weeks. Uhhhhhhh....I think most of us here would like your problem, sorry to be glib. Your body is probably just catching up. Also, as most of the people here have stated, 900 calories is not good. You have to be basically starving the weight off, and this will cause a plateau as well.

I have always read don't go below 1,200, and I think that this is sound advice. Good to know that you are working towards eating that. You will probably start seeing results again if you start eating properly.

Good luck!

^Thanks, and i really definitely don't mean to be insensitive and gloating in any way about what i did lose...very much hope it does not come across that way!
(hey i pretty much seem set up to experience gaining back some and have lost muscle, so not as great as it sure first seemed. also the first week of this i had just come off a pretty decent dose of sterioids and some psych meds that caused gain)