*Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are eating too few calories. Not only is it difficult to receive adequate nutrition at these calorie levels, but you could also be putting your body into starvation mode. Starvation mode lowers your metabolism and makes weight loss more difficult. We suggest increasing your calorie consumption to 1,200 calories per day minimum.
I chose to ignore this for a long time, thinking it was just because I was eating less than the "goal" calories they had set for me (1200 calories/day). I thought it couldn't hurt anything, that I'd just lose weight faster. But then as I kinda stopped losing weight after the first 14 lbs, I started thinking about the "starvation mode" that people talk about your body going into. I guess I thought it was a myth? Invented to keep people from making themselves anorexic or something? Anyway, the message from myfitnesspal started sinking in, and I realized that the 650-1,100 calories I had been eating was not enough to keep my body going. I started asking questions about this to Peggy and to my friend Shelly, a nutritionist at UAB, and sure enough, I was not doing the right thing... whoops!
The numbers...
Apparently 1,200 is the minimum calories that any woman should eat. My basal metabolism (the calories my body would burn just by existing) is probably around 1,600-1,800 a day (calculated HERE). I figure I burn about 500 calories in each of my 3 weekly workouts (1,500/7 days = approx. 200 extra calories each day). To lose 1 pound, you need to eat 3,500 less calories than you burn. So to lose two pounds/week I would need to eat 7,000 calories less than what I burn, or 1,000 calories each day. So, even if the highest estimates of my basal metabolism hold true, to lose 2 lbs./week I'd need to eat less than 1,200 calories a day to lose 2 lbs. a week (1800/day basal + 200/day workouts = 2,000/day - 1,000/day to lose 2 lbs = 1,000). Well crap. Sooo, I guess 2 lbs./week may be too advantageous a goal until I can get my metabolism up higher (from gaining muscle, improving my body fat %, etc.).
So, now the challenge is to eat both healthy and enough calories. Don't get me wrong, before I started all this, there were many meals (yes meals, not days) at McDonalds or someplace similar that would've gotten me up to and above my 1,200 calories. But to eat enough healthy foods to get up to 1,200 calories is fairly challenging. For instance today, I ate a full sandwich and most of my salad at Olexa's for lunch, a lean cuisine & a 100 calorie dessert for dinner, and I'm still down by 355 for today. Not to mention that I want to lose more than 1.6 lbs/week (2000/day - 1200 = 800 calorie deficit/day x 7 days = 5,600 calorie deficit / 3500 calorie deficit needed for 1 lb. = 1.6 lbs)... grrr!
The first few days after figuring out I've been eating too few calories I ate some of those "bad" foods that can quickly get me up to my count (french fries & onion rings at Blackwells, french fries at Cantina, splurging at Flemming's, potato chips at home). Even doing so, getting up to 1,200 is pretty hard without it leading to me overeating or feeling terrible about my eating choices. Aside from Flemmings & potato chips on Wednesday and Thursday, I'm still below my 1,200: Monday 1131, Tuesday 1170, Wednesday 1,445, Thursday 1,245, Friday 1,036. And I don't feel right about "dieting" while eating fried foods, snack foods, etc. Sooo what to do?
Anyway, I never thought this - eating too few calories - would be the problem. I guess my willpower is stronger than I gave it credit for. Now I've got to figure out what I should be doing (I'm theoretically aiming for 1100 calories), and how to do it (no more "bad" foods!)... Thoughts?
to Brittany of 2011:
On another note, with one month down, I want to remind the Brittany of 2011: if I have made it through this month of stress & disappointments, blow after blow, and am still not eating emotionally, not self-destructing, you can make it through anything! Don't compromise with yourself, keep it up for all we've accomplished through hard work.
