in search of motivation
 

Hello, my name is angel, I am 33 years old, I have been on this site before but got distracted and lost motivation - I really need motivation I don't know anyone where I live, I could use healthy eating ideas, I walk 2miles a day don't seem to help - I don't think I eat enough to be honest - maybe 700 calories a day? I need to lose atleast 150lbs my goal is 135 any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

Lost in the USA
Angel

700 calories will not even keep your basal metabolism going. Basal metabolism is your heart, lungs, liver, digestion and so on. So 700 calories would be considered a "starvation diet." You probably need to eat at least 1,500 calories per day at minimum. (Many people who are larger/taller or active teenagers need about 2000 calories a day) Walking is good for health, but at 2 miles per day it really will not impact weight loss much. If you are only eating 700 calories a day, I would think all you can do is sleep, you know, like stay alive. Most people become overweight because while they should be eating 2000 calories per day, they actually eat 6000. three -500 calorie meals and 500 calories worth of snacks and incidental eating can be easily figured using a calorie counting book. The way to get more food out of it, so you won't feel as hungry is to fill up with higher fiber lower fat food. In fact, I have found that the higher fiber you add to your diet, the faster you lose weight. So "fiber" would be a good tip. Don't do fiber pills, it is simply not enough, eat actual fresh vegetables, fruit, or other fiber food like brown rice, lentils, pea soup. As a Vegan, I can get at least 70 grams of fiber per day. Most Americans get 16 grams. The government minimum in the US is about 30 grams. Ancient people, and hunter gatherers eat between 50 and 100 daily (according to modern observation of traditional societies). Not enough fiber is a major reason that people are overweight.

While cutting calories to 700 is not usually recommended, an overweight person can survive on 700 -900 calories a day -- not just sleeping -- because the body metabolizes fat to make up the caloric deficiency. The 700 to 900 calories must be excellent nutrition -- protein, micronutrients, fiber, etc.

There are medically supervised diets that cut calories down to 600 or 800.

You'd be much better off eating double that amount and increasing the exercise. On average I only walk 2-3 mile a day but I also include swimming.

Bariatric surgery is probably one of these medically supervised diets. Obviously, doctors can also keep you alive while you are in a coma. Fat is usually the last to go, it is usually glucose, then muscle, last goes fat. Hm, I guess muscles are protein. The point being, does the op want to know about a humanly possible diet, or a medical experiment.

By medically supervised diets, I was not referring to bariatric surgery. I was referring to Medifast, which uses low calorie, high protein, nutritionally supplemented "shakes". I would not use such a diet, because I want to eat real food, not something from a factory or lab.
The body does have a preference order for energy sources; it is glucose (blood sugar), then glycogen, and when glycogen is depleted, then fat is metabolized (either turned into glucose or as ketones). Your body needs protein to repair protein structures, so if you ate nothing, then yes, your body would cannibalize some muscle tissue to keep the heart in good repair. However, breaking down muscle tissue is resorted to only to make higher priority protein repairs, NOT to burn the protein as fuel. For the purposes of energy expenditure (as opposed to repair of essential protein structures), the body will burn fat BEFORE protein, after glucose and glycogen.
This is why I said that the 700 calories had to be excellent nutrition, with the basic daily requirement for protein, plus the fiber and micronutrients from vegetables. An adult's daily requirement for protein can easily be achieved within 700 calories.
Starvation occurs after your body has lost almost all of its fat stores. If you have extremely low body fat, and then eat only 700 calories a day, yes, your body will use protein for fuel at that point, and you are starving.
Your body will not metabolize muscle tissue unless 1) you are not fulfilling your daily requirement for protein, or 2) the body has run out of fat to burn to make up the difference between daily calories and energy expenditure.
For someone like me who is not tall, not extremely overweight, and not young, my basal metabolic rate is about 1250. I get some but not a huge amount of exercise, so at 1500 calories a day my weight loss would be imperceptible. I try to eat 700 to 1000 calories a day of excellent food - normal moderate protein, moderate non starch vegetables, no grains, and moderate healthy fats. I am not starving, and I feel great.
700 to 1000 calories a day of alcohol and doughnuts is altogether different.