In a moment if inspiration I finally remembered my FitDay Username and Password I used last year when I was trying to lose weight. I looked through it and was SHOCKED at what I found!!

I was literally starving myself! I ate around 1100-1200 calories a day. Never more than 1500. Sometimes I didn't eat even 1000 calories. (at my weight I could eat 1700-1800 cals a day and lose without exercizing)

What made me happy is that now that I am trying again I am eating LOADS more food and calories and despite this my weight loss is progressing at the same rate, or a little faster than it was when I was starving! Not only that I'm wayyy more committed and not miserable like I was then. Much more likely to stick to the plan!

If ever there was proof that the key to losing weight is NOT starving yourself, this is it!

I hear exactly what you're saying chica. I got out of bulimia treatment last July, and the conclusion basically from the nutritionist was that I was anorexic with bulimic tendencies. I had done severe restriction for so long that my stomach lining had fed off of itself so no matter what I ate, that would cause me to automatically throw it back up, and most of the time if was foods that I LOVED, that's how I knew there was something wrong in the first place and why I ultimately went for treatment. I thought once I got out of treatment and had my knowledge of the little dietary guidelines book thing the lady gave me that I'd be ok from that point on...Not even 2 weeks after I got out, I noticed myself gradually getting back into restricting bigtime and I wasn't even thinking about it. I guess I'd done it for so long. I have gotten to where I try to eat 5-6 times a day, albeit small meals, but at least I'm not starving anymore. But then again, like you said, you have to increase your calorie intake to where you can burn fat, and that's what I can't get my body and mind to comprehend I guess. Right now I'm maybe between 900-1000 calories a day. Back before I went to treatment last summer, I was barely hitting 300 calories a day, I'm surprised there wasn't more damage done than what had already happened. I never voluntarily purged as far as throwing up, but mine was more due to excessive exercise. My mother and everyone around me keeps saying that I need to go to college and get my degree and become a nutritionist, or at least a psychologist to help other people out who are dealing with eating disorders, having been through one myself, which is where I'm torn right now. I haven't the slightest clue about what I want to do with my life right now, and I've messed up so much in the past with everything I've ever 'planned' on doing that I don't want to do the wrong thing

That is SO true. I have had so much more success and stuck to this "diet" (it's not a diet! It's a lifestyle change!) so much longer than any other I've tried anytime in recent history and I credit it to 3 things - I'm planning out meals in advance, so I can plan accordingly if I know we're going out to eat or having a more fattening or calorie dense meal; I'm making exercise a priority; and most important of all I am not denying myself! I actually have a king-size dark chocolate hershey bar in the kitchen and I let myself have a square if I really want it. Never ever would have considered that before. It was Off Limits, which inevitably meant that I ended up binging and eating the whole thing, and more. You are absolutely right and I'm glad that you're having so much success.

Dark chocolate in small portions is actually GOOD for you. It has anti-oxidents and can lower blood pressure. The bars and the new "dark chocolate" kisses are actually perfect portion sizes and I have my "medicine" at least once a day!

Solus, I have to thank you for doing this thread. Up there when I said I was doing somewhere between 900-1000 calories a day, I just decided to write down what all I am eating. I am surprised:

Breakfast
1 packet regular instant oatmeal - 100 calories
2/3 c. water - no calories
1 c. black coffee - 9 calories
1 1/2 tbsp. NF hazelnut Albertson’s coffee creamer - 37.5 calories

Lunch
1 5oz baked potato - 100 calories
¼ c. turkey chili - 47.5 calories
½ oz chopped onion - 4.5 calories

Snack
1 small red apple - 80 calories

Dinner
1 can tuna fish - 150 calories
1 tbsp fat free mayo - 10 calories
1 tsp dill relish - no calories

Snack (post-workout)
4 oz fat free yogurt - 60 calories

Grand total calories: 598.5

I think my biggest deal is that I started the thing with good intentions, to lose this last bit of weight that I have, so I restrict, but then people say to eat more to lose weight, and before I figured out how many real calories I was having, I thought I was pretty close to 1000 a day. Can you just fill up on fruit to make up for it, ya think? My biggest concern is trying not to fill the other however many calories I need with empty calorie foods because my parents have chips and cookies in the kitchen, which I sometimes feel like, "Well, I don't really have my calories up there for the day, but I don't want it to ruin the diet." I have a candy machine in my room with Reese's Pieces in it (my weakness) so I'll eat like 10-20 little candies throughout the day sometimes but not everyday.

Wow, you should definitely eat more calories! You need some veggies in there....many have virtually no calories at all unless you add fat to them when cooking or dipping, so you could add lots without affecting your totals too much. Otherwise, fruit is a good idea and maybe another yogert. I have a recipe for a fruit smoothie that is 300-400 (depending on what size fruit I use and how many I add) calories and I sip on it all through the morning...

1 apple (or any fruit here really)
1 banana
1 C LF yogert (I use LF instead of FF because it is the HEALTHY fat and your body needs SOME)
1 C skim milk
-puree in a blender-

for extra sweetness I add 1/2 C red seedless grapes which adds another 50 calories. It's a great smoothie because it has 2 servings of dairy, 2 fruit, and is a good protein. For even more protein without a lot of calories you could thow in some FF cottage cheese. It doesn't really affect the taste or consistancy but it really packs in the healthy goodness!

I agree with Solus, you really do need to get more calories than that. If you eat less than about 1200 a day, your body goes into starvation mode and starts conserving fat and burning up muscle instead. You will still see weight loss but it's not the right kind, you don't want to keep fat and burn muscle. Just looking at your meals for the day, I'd say you could combine your lunch and dinner into one meal (although tuna and baked potato don't compliment each other, you could easily eat both as one meal and not overeat). You could add a little peanut butter to your apple as a snack, or have the apple AND some yogurt and have another snack later on in the day. Maybe try some fish and steamed vegetables for dinner? If you have tuna every day, you may want to cut back because of the mercury content - the FDA suggests eating no more than 6 oz of albacore tuna per week. Your body can metabolize the mercury but it does it slowly, so you need to watch your intake a bit. Try having some grilled chicken with low-fat cheese, or maybe egg white omelets or sandwiches instead to get the same protien without the mercury. Solus has some really good suggestions too and I agree with her that you could eat a lot more veggies and fruits without adding a whole lot of calories, which I know is something we all pay attention to. I am a little bit worried to hear that you're eating so little since you've mentioned that you have battled with eating disorders in the past. Please be careful, okay?

Lesnars, maybe since you have a history of ED, a calorie-restricting diet is not right for you. I can imagine that it would be REALLY hard not to go back to the habits of anorexia if you have to think about how many calories you are eating. Everyone is different, and you probably want to talk to a doctor or nutritionist who is familiar with people who have had EDs, but maybe a non-restricting plan would be better for you -- I mean like one of those plans where instead of saying "don't eat more than x grams of fat" you have a plan that says "eat as much broccoli as you can handle."

Anyway, it's just a suggestion. Otherwise, a good way to add calories is to add something like wheat bread, rice, or pasta to your diet, which packs on calories pretty quickly. Or use more fat when preparing your food (like olive oil). A protein shake or something like that will also be able to give you a calorie boost, and is good especially if you are working out a lot.

I'm not expert, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Good luck!

Lesnars - you really should consider added peanut butter or some sort of fat to your diet. Your body needs a certain amount of fat and everything you listed is quite low. Perhaps you should use fit day or some other calorie counter to make yourself accountable for both the maximum *&* minimum # of calories you are consuming.

Good luck & take care of yourself.

Well my mother and I went grocery shopping earlier, and I bought some frozen dinners that don't have too many carbs, but have a little over 200 calories. I'm really going to try to work on getting that calorie count up. I also got bigger baking potatoes for lunch. I ate a sandwich and some chips for lunch, and I had that feeling in my stomach like the therapist told me about last summer that I'd had about when my stomach lining was feeding off of itself. I am guessing it's due to that diet I've been on for the past few months. Just that bit that I had for lunch was more than what I usually eat anyway. I used to drink these diet frapuccinos that I have a recipe for, so I think later if my mom goes back to get milk, I told her to get us a gallon of skim milk as well so I can drink those again. I know there's about 150 calories in those once everything is mixed up. As far as like what you guys mentioned up there about having peanut butter, on my old diet setup that I was given at treatment last summer, the nutritionist told me to have a piece of toast with 2 tbsp peanut butter on it and half of a banana. I did that for a really long time til we bought a crapload of oatmeal and I started eating it all the time. The peanut butter toast was awesome though, I loved those, so I may start those again. The store we went to had bags of tilapia fish fillets on sale for $2.50 so I bought 2 bags. I figured I could eat one of them with some brown rice and chunky salsa with some vegetables for dinner instead of the usual tuna fish getup I'd been eating. I'm trying to get my mom to eat better gradually too. She's had high blood pressure a few years now and she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes back 6 years ago. She's only 46, and I want to keep her around a little while longer