Very Low Amount of Calories - Frowned Upon, Yet Advised by Some Doctors

[littlemiss]

Hey everyone.

I lost weight a few years back by only eating 1000 cals a day, I lost 5 stone in about 7 months, the results were amazing (my doctor had advised me to eat 1000 a day as I had health probs from being overweight). I got a lot of stick on this forum because of the lack of calories. I didn't re-gain it all straight away, it was only after falling pregnant again a couple years later that it all went back on.

I was reading an article last night about a girl who had gastric band hypnotherapy, I've never considered weight loss surgery so its never popped into my head, but reading this got me thinking.........after surgery the stomach is tiny and the people only eat a small amount of calories, it appears to be the less the better.....no doubt they take vitamins and go through certain re-feed programmes and whatnot. My point is....if a small amount of calories is so bad for you, then why do doctors allow people who have had WLS to only eat a small amount??

When I was eating 1000 cals a day, granted the first 2/3 days were difficult but after about a week I got used to it, sometimes my cals would be around 700 and i'd have to force myself to eat food to bulk my cals up, when I did this I always felt like I was gorging.

For example - I eat 700 a day, feel not hungry at all, but when I need to force myself to bulk my cals, even through eating a handful of nuts or something, it threw me off track and made me think of bingeing. I think its because I had gotten used to only eating when hungry, or eating to take away hunger, the eating just to bulk up cals did something to my brain.

I am not planning WLS or anything like that, but I would like to eat a lot less cals and just wanted people's opinions on WLS and the like, where the food intake is hardly anything yet the lbs fall off and stay off.

For the record, I have 7 stone to lose.

 

[Morgenmuffel]

I think people who have weight loss surgery don't necessarily eat that low calories, they just eat a lot lot less than they did before and that causes the weight loss. The bigger you are the more calories you burn just to maintain the weight you're at, so that also means you can eat more calories than a smaller person and still lose weight. For example putting both your data and mine into MyFitnessPal, It says that I need 2500 calories a day to maintain my current weight and you need 1940. To lose 2 lbs a week it says I should eat 1500 calories a day and you should eat 1200 calories a day. Of course that is a generic calculation, everyone's body works differently and Men for example generally lose weight faster.

I think that as long as you are doing a diet that fits into your lifestyle and you're happy with you will be able to get where you want to be. A lot of people do do the VLCDs very successfully, although I believe that when they are down on 600 cals a day that they are only allowed to do that for 30 days at a time and then have to eat higher for a little while, not too sure though. Just make sure that your diet is healthy and you are getting everything your body needs because you don't want to make yourself poorly. Maybe make an appointment with the nutritionist at your GP surgery, they can look at your food diaries, make suggestions and explain what you're doing right or wrong.

Good luck!

 

[Stackhead]

The biggest difference between you and someone who has had WLS is constant medical supervision, tailored supplements and nutritional advice. Get those three and there's no reason why you can't jump down to 700 calories a day, just stop doing it when the dr says so.