After reading this thread (and more like it) I've officially upped my calorie intake. I was at 1200 a day, then 1300 a day...I've barely lost ANYTHING so I'm going up to 1500 a day. Of course, today is a day where I'm not remotely hungry. What's that all about? *sigh*

*of course, I was also eating JUNK but it fills me up!*

Originally Posted by :
I think it is safe to say though that for most people, crash diets do more physical and emotional harm than good. Eating for nutrition while losing weight is probably more important than is generally assumed. We tend, I think, to assume that an overweight person can't or wouldn't be malnourished, but often that's not the case. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are common in overweight and obese folks (and repeated dieters who aren't overweight), so I think it's another reason not to restrict calories to the point that any deficiencies might be caused or exacerbated.

Kaplods is so right. I've been fighting with myself over whether or not to up my calorie levels, but am so afraid I'll slow down on the weight loss (which is rapid right now, but not ridiculously so)...but for the past week I've been having a lot of problems like shaking, weakness, and dizzy spells, and for the past two days I've wanted to do nothing but sleep. I didn't know if it was because I've been drinking green tea everyday (and I normally don't have caffeine throughout the day) or my diet, but I've finally decided I've been experiencing hypoglycemia (almost constant)...and that is not good.

It's not worth hurting your health to lose weight so fast, when you are losing weight to help your health in the first place; so today I upped my calories and will continue to do so until these symptoms stop and I feel energetic again. It will probably take a bit longer to get the weight off, but I won't stick to the diet at all if I feel like crap all the time. I haven't even had the energy to cook in a week.

It's kinda like walking a tightrope, isn't it?

I think another aspect of this that may go unnoticed for a while is tiredness. There's so much media coverage wrt how sleep deprived we are, most folks think nothing of being tired. Everybody is, right?

But what I see from folks who are ill from poor nutrition is that they are so sleepy.
This sleepiness is often mistaken for depression too.

Without citing any specific scientific reference I'm willing to step out on a limb here and say that your body will conserve energy by sleeping.

Originally Posted by SusanB:
I think another aspect of this that may go unnoticed for a while is tiredness. There's so much media coverage wrt how sleep deprived we are, most folks think nothing of being tired. Everybody is, right?

But what I see from folks who are ill from poor nutrition is that they are so sleepy.
This sleepiness is often mistaken for depression too.

Without citing any specific scientific reference I'm willing to step out on a limb here and say that your body will conserve energy by sleeping.

I think this is so true, and such an unrecognized component of crash dieting. It's possible that while metabolism may not change, or change much, that a crash diet can leave you absolutely exchausted, and therefore much less likely to burn as many calories as if you had boundless energy, and were using that energy to move your body.

It's certainly been my experience that if I eat very little, I have less energy and sleep more. We've even seen it in the fat cat we adopted, we put her on a diet and she lost about 1.5 lbs very effortlessly and after that -- nothing. The more we restrict, the more inactive and lazy she becomes to the point that you can't entice her to play her favorite game of chase the string. She just looks at you like she's saying "You've got to be kidding." Like human dieters, she became obsessed with food, and would sit and stare at us while we were eating, or her food bag and YOWL.

We upped her food intake and started playing more string games with her, and it's helping, but weight loss is still slow and complicated (boy can I related).

Finding the balance, that magic level at which you have maximum energy and yet can lose weight, can be complicated and difficult.

Well, I just got my proof. I weighed myself this morning and have only lost one lb in one week, instead of two or three, so my weight loss is singnificantly slowing down. I also woke up earlier than normal because I ate more yesterday and felt energy (and awake and bright) when I woke up, instead of (tired and drugged feeling). I slept for twelve hours a night for two nights in a row and could barely get up. My body has finally rebelled and has gone into preservation mode and the only way to change that is to give it some fuel. So I guess I'll be upping my food to 1500 calories a day minimum and see if I can't break through this.

Well, one week isn't really long enough to judge weight loss. Could be any sort of blip!

*sigh* I would love to be losing a pound a week. Instead of this stupid plateau that I've been on for over a month. 1500 calories sounds reasonable though. Good luck.

Thanks a ton to all wonderful Ladies outta here, I have high regards for all of you and respect your opinions a lot, its great to have your expert comments on the aspects of the problem I'm going through.

Now I do feel my main query is still somewhere unanswered, something important which I'm confused about, STARVATION & METABOLISM, Starvation is the normal response of the body when its seeing deficit of food, and the result of this is Metabolism going down. Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself in other words if I'm seeing SR my Metabolism i.e. the no. of calories I burn during the 24 hours should go down while in my case or as per my BodyBugg (which is considered to be 94 % accurate) shows my expenditure to be around 3300 to 3800 everyday. I'm 100 % sure that in no way I go beyond my 2000 cals quota..I count every morsel I put in my mouth and weigh most of the things before eating. I even log my food daily in my fitday software and it shows my cals to be around 1700/1800 while I do add another 200 to this value to make sure I balance out any underestimated value.

[ Mel : I'm a guy..given the workouts I do daily, do you think 2000 cals is high for me..I simply can't go below 1800 else I start starving & feeling weak ]

If SR is simply metabolism going down then why isn't mine going down, if I'm not suffering from SR then why am I not losing weight ? I even did my Body Fat composition analysis around 30 days back and yesterday and its nearly same :( . Does 3500 calories burnt means losing 1lbs of fat essentially or it counts losing other things such as muscles water etc as well ?

Somebody suggested me to seek help from an Endocrinologist to check if I'm suffering from any Thyroid related problem..again i don't have any such symptoms and I already lost 34 + lbs in the first 4 months ..I do not see this as a problem again. The big question is why I'm still not losing ? Sure I'm little desperate at this point..it may be even losing 1 lbs in a month but I want to see some kind of progress here.

Sorry for so many questions and again a long response..I hope you all can understand my frustration here :)

And here's my current workout schedule :

Monday :

Cardio : 45 Minutes Brisk Walk + Weight Training : Chest, Back, Biceps, Upper Abs [ 2 X 4 Sets for each Part ]

Tuesday :

HIIT 20 minutes + Forearms + Calves + Lower Abs

Wednesday :

45 Minutes Brisk Walk + Weight traning : Shoulders, Tricpes, Legs

Thursday :

Jogging for around 3 Miles

Friday :

Repeat the same schedule as Monday

Saturday :

45 Minutes Brisk Walking + 30 minutes cycling

Sunday :

Rest

I couldn't find it, did you ever say how long of a plateau we're talking about, whether you're losing anything at all, how often you weigh, and whether the exercise is new in the past month?

Mel, based on your current weight, age, sex, height, activity level, I think you should be eating at least 2500 calories a day. According to the chart, I'd say you need 2900-3200 to maintain right now (assuming you are moderately to very active with that workout schedule).

But that's if you fit the standard formula. You may not. I think your body is hanging onto fat because you are working out too much on too few calories.

I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by JulieJ08:
I couldn't find it, did you ever say how long of a plateau we're talking about, whether you're losing anything at all, how often you weigh, and whether the exercise is new in the past month?

Hi Julie,

I haven't lost anything since second week of last November, I weigh every Saturday morning in the same clothes, This exercise routine is new i.e. I chose two weeks back, before this schedule I used to do daily cardio 90 minutes which involved 45 minutes of walking + 45 minutes of cycling on road + 3 days strength training ( 2 Body Parts Each day with 3 X 3 Sets for each muscle group of ) making total 18 sets on each day. During my weight training I always aim for failure point.

I have recently stopped cycling & now included Jogging + HIIT & have changed my weight training schedule which I indicated in my last post.

I have been staying at around 194/196 in last 2 months, today morning I was again 195.8 and 4 days back I was 194.3. Shall I increase my cardio and make it double of what I'd been doing i.e. 90 minutes daily ? I'm just little worried if that would contribute to overtraining ?

Rinku? You said that your body fat % was nearly the same??? Is that down a little?

Have you ever read Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle? I believe that once you are in a weight range that is 'pretty nearly, pretty nicely fit' some minute differences come into play.

Hi Susan,

My Body Fat is around 29 % which is not healthy and I want to go down to something around 14 - 18 % BFM. Yes I did read the Tom's Book and after that only, I started my weight training sessions..approx 5 months back. I still have lot to lose to get down to a healthy level.

Shall I try increasing the duration of my cardio to 90 or more minutes now ?

Refresh my memory? How many calories are you eating?