paging lara (again) :)

[debbie]

hello, hows' the collar bone feeling? i hope you are healing nicely. :)
got a question or two for ya.
as you know i am trying to lose weight. i cycle and also do my light weights and sit ups after i cycle. so i do this 4 days a week. i am averaging 14 miles a day.
i eat under 1000 calories a day. i am losing weight. i still have 30lbs to go. now i saw my dr, was not happy about the weight gain but was glad i got off the birth control, he gave me some tips on foods to eat to lose weight. he feels a pound or 2 a week is sufficient. what if i can't? i am losing, i eat less than what the diagram shows but its' difficult. i work out alot. i also swim 3 or 4 days a week. so what do you think?
i dont' eat an sodium hardly. i drink diet drinks, i drink a lot of water. i'm just wondering will my weight keep dropping?
gosh i never had a weight problem until i was on that darn birth control. i am so glad to be off it. so was he. lol
thanks again for your support and guidance through this tuff time. :)
debbie :D

[Amélie]

you should NOT eat less than 1200 calories, or your body will stop to lose weight and go on "starvation mode".
trust me, I've been there.

[debbie]

what happens? i've been doing it ever since i got off the pill. i thought 1000 calories a day was plenty. eeeek!
ooops. guess i will have to readjust my intake. humm....
thanks for the heads up. :confused:

[Amélie]

what happens: at a certain point you won't lose weight anymore because your body thinks you're starving and does therefore lower its metabolism.
eventually you won't get your period anymore and have other side effects because your body uses the little energy it gets to keep the organs and such that you really need to live alive.
I'm sorry it's difficult for me to use medical terms in English, but I'm sure Lara will explain this a lot better.

[debbie]

i understand. i will adjust my eating habits. i just always ate like a bird, i don't feel hungry. my aunt is the same way and she is skinny. but your right i do have to make some adjustments before i end up with more health problems.
thanks for your help girly. ;0)

[MareMare]

Debbie I don't think you should be worried about not losing weight, look at you you've lost plenty in less than a month! you're exercising regularily and you don't pig out on junk foods lol but I agree I think 1000 calories per day is a bit low Lara recomended that I stay around the 1800 calorie a day lol I think I've been doing a good job at that. Actually, my bf has been noticing that I eat less now. I'm barely hungry anymore. But for my last meal of the day I eat the most but the rest of the day I eat okay. lol I hear a lot of europeans do that. they have small meals throughout the day and have a huge meal at dinner. lol.

[debbie]

i do need to adjust my eating habits. i am going to start doing it now. he wants me right at 1500 calories. and i exericise my head off. geesh so i have to eat more.

[MareMare]

You'll do fine debbie! I know we all want to lose weight fast but we're looking over the important thing, that we're getting to a healthy weight the HEALTHY way we aren't trying to starve ourselves or making ourselves feel guilty for eating lol. So we gotta stay healthy while we're trying to get healthier. lol. I don't know if I made any sense.

[debbie]

i know what you are saying. i'm just impatient. lol
but your right. :)

[Lostlipgloss]

I hope weight loss is going good for you.

Okay, well Amélie you say don't eat under 1000. But with my weight I've been told to eat 1200 max. So should I just be eating more?
-5'6
-105 pounds

[Amélie]

lostlipgloss, who told you that?

I'm not familiar with the American heights/weight system (we have metersd and kilograms here), but usually 1200 calories is the absolute minimum that you should only eat if you want to lose weight.
I think you should ask lara or your doctor.

[leagunner]

I hope weight loss is going good for you.

Okay, well Amélie you say don't eat under 1000. But with my weight I've been told to eat 1200 max. So should I just be eating more?
-5'6
-105 pounds


Hey lostlipgloss... are you trying to maintain your weight or gain weight? 1200 is not enough to even maintain. You're most likely not eating enough. I'm not sure how old you are or how active you are, but chances are you should be eating between 1600-2000 calories a day. Here's a calorie calculator that will tell you how many calories you should be consuming based on your height, weight, etc. Debbie, this might also be useful for you.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question457.htm&url=http://www.wvda.org/calcs/fcals.htm

But as you probably already know you are under weight, so chances are you should be eating more than that to put some weight on and return to a healthy size. Your BMI is only 17 and the minimum to be considered healthy is 20. To be healthy by medical standards/BMI, you should probably gain at least 10 lbs.

Debbie - here's a great calculator that will tell you how many calories you need to "lose" in order to lose weight. Usually a good rule is to figure out how many calories you need to eat and then take away 500 or so (depending on exercise level).

http://www.caloriesperhour.com (there's also some other useful calculators on here). The first part always has subscription stuff, but if you scroll down the calculators are there and you do not have to subscribe.

[debbie]

it really helps thanks!!!

[Lara]

Debbie--I'm sorry I got to this today instead of yesterday!!! At least you got some good advice. The girls are right, you shouldn't be eating so few calories especially with your activity levels!!!! What will happen is that your metabolism will slow down (going into starvation mode) and you will not lose weight after a while. Then, when you increase your calories, you will gain weight (Amelie is right). PM me and I will help you with your eating program. Too much detail to post here. :)

[debbie]

i emailed you.
thanks again lara. :)

[Lostlipgloss]

I can't remember where I heard it, I read it somewhere. But I do remember seeing that.

Okay, I won't gain weight. Right now I'm going through some kind of anorexic thing - and I'm forcing myself to eat. I'm will not gain weight, because then I'm just going to feel fat. I know I'm underweight, so I DO eat healthy instead of junk. I just feel like I look fat. Yeah - I won't let myself gain weight, and last time I tried to gain weight, I couldn't gain any no matter what I ate.

So, I'm quite happy right now making sure I eat enough everyday. I don't count calories though or anything, just eat. Infact, I'd like to lose more weight. But instead of doing that, because I know it could make me really sick, I just will stay where I am and make myself build muscle.

But don't worry about me getting sick, because I already told my doctor I'm pushing myself to eat. I'm still eating, just not the three meals a day. More than that, just smaller portions.
Thanks. <3 --> emo love!