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MzMonday · 3rd September, 2008

From what I have read a woman's body needs about 1200 calories to sustain itself when it's sedentary (heart beating, blood to the brain/lungs, etc). If you have eaten real low calorie for a long time, your metabolism dropped because your body was convinced you were starving to death. When you go into this starvation mode your body will start eating itself, including your fat and muscles (e.g. your heart). Not only that, but your body says "oh my god, we are starving" and then it hangs onto every single little piece of energy it can and stores it as fat because it's terrified that if it doesn't, it will die.

There are people who go on VLCD (very low calorie diets), but those are more in the range of 600 calories per day and they are specific diets with specific food requirements to make sure you are getting what you need. As far as I know most people don't stay on them for more than a month, then they switch out for a higher calorie diet for a month, and then switch back. At least, that's how I think it works, I haven't tried it and I am not interested - I am having a tough enough time keeping my calories between 1500-1650

Your metabolism is hurting if you have eaten this low calorie for a long time. You are just going to have to increase your calories over time and accept the initial gain. Long term, if you get your metabolism back where it should be, you will have an easier time losing. I know the initial gain sucks but not much to be done about it. And measure, odds are you are losing inches if you are working out that hard

3rd September, 2008	#5 (permalink)
MzMonday Likes to post MzMonday's Profile Albums MzMonday's Photo Gallery Join Date: 30th August, 2008 Location: Denmark Posts: 108 My Mood: Rep Power: 2 Diet: Calorie Counting	From what I have read a woman's body needs about 1200 calories to sustain itself when it's sedentary (heart beating, blood to the brain/lungs, etc). If you have eaten real low calorie for a long time, your metabolism dropped because your body was convinced you were starving to death. When you go into this starvation mode your body will start eating itself, including your fat and muscles (e.g. your heart). Not only that, but your body says "oh my god, we are starving" and then it hangs onto every single little piece of energy it can and stores it as fat because it's terrified that if it doesn't, it will die. There are people who go on VLCD (very low calorie diets), but those are more in the range of 600 calories per day and they are specific diets with specific food requirements to make sure you are getting what you need. As far as I know most people don't stay on them for more than a month, then they switch out for a higher calorie diet for a month, and then switch back. At least, that's how I think it works, I haven't tried it and I am not interested - I am having a tough enough time keeping my calories between 1500-1650 Your metabolism is hurting if you have eaten this low calorie for a long time. You are just going to have to increase your calories over time and accept the initial gain. Long term, if you get your metabolism back where it should be, you will have an easier time losing. I know the initial gain sucks but not much to be done about it. And measure, odds are you are losing inches if you are working out that hard __________________ Week 1/Sept 8th, 2008: 205lbs (6lb lost) Week 2/Sept 15th, 2008: 205lbs (2lb lost) Mini Weight Loss Goal: 185lbs (26lbs from start weight) by Christmas