Starvation Mode...Now what...Need to fix it
 

Ok I admitt it, im in starvation mode. I have learned so much from all of your posts!

In my world if you didnt eat and exercised you lost weight. SO thats what I did. I started by eating like 500-600 calories for weeks then I increased a bit or "cheated" for one day on the weekend.

It was working for me I lost 35 lbs. Now I am 3 days and 5 lbs from my first goal and so depresed! I have not moved the scale in a week and I am running and doing a work out video.

Missing this first goal is a huge downer, however I know why... I am in starvation mode. If I ate 1000 calories a day I was feeling awful about myself.

So now what how do I fix it? I need to keep going and do it the right way.

I am drinking my water faithfully now and trying to eat over 1000 calories a day. Hard to retrain my mind to eat again after 2 months of dont eat count everything and praise when i was under 600.

Everyone here has been so amazingly helpful, can I get you opinion one more time? How can I fix this and how long before the scale moves again? :mad:

I'm no diet expert. But 1 thing I do know, is that starving yourself for 2 months is a BAD idea! You have to look at it as a lifestyle. If you lose the weight quickly by starving yourself for 2 months you're going to put it all back on and more. All within reason. You don't want to slow your metabolism down. Thus why big breakfast in the morning, constant healthy snacking, and little dinner at night keeps your metabolism up and your weight down. :)

Well it sounds like you know what you need to do, now you just need to do it!

How about a little info about you?

Male or Female
Height
Weight
How often do you workout

I'd venture to say than you probably some some (if not a good bit of) muscle at that low on calories.

What works for me is to eat 6 times a day, 3 meals and 3 snacks. I try my best to stay healthy and to watch my macros. When cutting I try to be ~500 cals deficient per day. Without knowing the info above I can only assume that you were AT LEAST 1000 cals deficient.

You just need to get past your mental road block and do it.

Good luck.

In general, and this goes for anybody,

I cannot overemphasize enough the importance of heavy weight lifting in anyone's weight loss arsenal. When I first started out on losing my college fat, I lost 20 lbs just from pushing and pulling HEAVY and fixing up my dietary habits. I did no cardio whatsoever during those first 3-4 months because it bored the heck out of me. I eventually had to make myself do it but that was after I had already gotten to my current weight.

If you start lifting heavy, your hunger will go up and you won't feel so bad about eating more calories than you are used to, but I guarantee you will be burning many, many more calories than you'll be eating.

And for any women who are still clinging to the myth that heavy weight lifting will make you look like an ox, here is a video of cutie-pie Dr. Jean Gutierrez, assistant prof at GWU, dumbbell benching her bodyweight for 8.
YouTube - Jean Gutierrez Lifting 65lb dumbells.mov

Sorry I left out information:

Female
37
5'7
started at 207 8/12
currently 174 10/12

Anyone know how long it will take me to start loosing again once I up my calories?

Also I work out cardio 4-5 X per week 30-45 min. But I have not been doing that for long!

Rita

If you try to incorporate some free weight lifting (and not the 3 lb pink dumb bells!) into your routine, I would guess you would start seeing result within a week. Even if the scale doesn't drop as much weight as you may want, you will start to feel slimmer.

I have seen it suggested that you increase your calories to your maintenance level(recalculate this using your current body weight) for 2 weeks to reset your metabolism. However, if you are willing to follow Nik's sage advice and lift heavy you may be able to acheive a reset in just 1 week as he suggested.

I agree with some of the previous posters about getting your attitude right. You need to approach this as a lifestyle change and not just a short term diet. That means restricting calories only enough to lose weight at a healthy pace (meaning 1-2 pounds per week). If your approach is short term your results probably will be as well.