Eating Less and... Gaining Weight?

miss muffet

miss muffet

New member
I've been eating well and exercising 1.5 hours daily with one rest day for the past 6 or so weeks. Why is it that I haven't lost any weight? I've done some research, and it seems that the root of the problem may be that I am not eating enough calories (only about 1000 kcals per day). What's the deal with eating more calories and losing weight? How does this work? And how can I begin eating more in order to see some weight loss?

Thanks for any help :)

By the way, I'm a 5'4" female, 158 pounds with a goal weight of 130.
 
miss muffet said:
I've been eating well and exercising 1.5 hours daily with one rest day for the past 6 or so weeks. Why is it that I haven't lost any weight? I've done some research, and it seems that the root of the problem may be that I am not eating enough calories (only about 1000 kcals per day). What's the deal with eating more calories and losing weight? How does this work? And how can I begin eating more in order to see some weight loss?

Thanks for any help :)

By the way, I'm a 5'4" female, 158 pounds with a goal weight of 130.
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You're body and gone into starvation mode b/c you aren't getting enough calories. You should eat at least 1400 per day--probably more. There is a ton of information on this forum about this subject. I would do some reading. Steve is also a great person to talk to about this, or Leigh or Tony.
 
thanks a bunch for that information... thing is, i'm wondering why "starvation mode" happens in the first place. i understand that if you eat too little, your body freaks out and stores what you eat because it "thinks" it needs to conserve food in case there's a shortage. but the body doesn't really "think," does it? i'd say it responds. so to rephrase the question... what causes the body to respond in such a way that it stores energy instead of burning it? also, how does eating more change this response?

hope that makes sense :p
 
I weigh a lot more than you, but have been trying a similar low calorie diet. I've been trying to stay around 1300 calories a day. The weird thing I've noticed is that on the weeks when I might not do so well sticking to that, (averaging about 1500 a day) I actually lose more weight. Kind of strange. Granted, I haven't been doing this that long, but it is something I've noticed. I'm a little scared to permanently go up to that much though, which seems weird, but I'm scared the scale is wrong and I'm going to start gaining. Not a good attitude, I know, but maybe try increasing your calories by a couple hundred a day at first, and do that for a week and see what happens, and then maybe add a couple hundred more? If you do end up losing more weight, then that's great and you get to eat more, but if you don't, then you know it didn't work. I'm not sure how long it takes for your body to get out of "starvation" mode though.
 
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Depends on how bad it is. It could take up to a month. I would follow SM's advice about upping it a couple hundred cals per day each week. Don't worry about increased cals--your body needs it. There is no reason to be under a bare min of 1200cals per day. You will probably gain a few lbs when you do this--but it is necessary to get your metabolism back to normal. You will not lose weight until you do so. It's kind of like spending money to make money. I read a really good post by Steve about this very isssue a few days ago, but can't rememeber where it was. I would send him a pm about this. He has a diary as well. Nice guy--he'll set you on the right path.
 
that's a great point wimedtypr, but i have been taking measurements and those haven't been going down either! as for exercise, i do 1/2 hour of resistance training 5 days a week and 1 hour interval training (cardio) 6 days a week. that's why i think there may be a flaw in my nutrition.
 
I eat between 1500-1800 calories a day and I have lost 28 pounds in about 4 months. The more you exercise, the more you should eat. Your body needs fuel to operate. My maintenance calorie level is approximately 2350/day. Yours is probably close to that too. 1200 calories is definately not enough. That's a reduction of approximately 50% of what you should be eating. If your maintenance number is 2350 and you subtract 500 from that would be 1850 calories a day and a loss of one pound a week. If you factor in exercise at about 500 calories per session, that would be two pounds a week total. So eat, but do so in moderation and be active as well, it will come off I promise.
 
Just to chime in on this one. I'm a little new here so forgive me if this has been discussed already.

Be careful that you don't exercise a bit too much. Resistance training 5 days a week is a lot. Your body needs some time to recover from these bouts. Also, 1 hour of interval training 6 days a week is a lot. Your body needs to recover from these sessions as well, especially if the intervals are performed at a high intensity.

It's great that you are getting a good amount of what I assume is high intensity exercise, but just be careful that you avoid overtraining because it could end up having negative effects on you reaching your goals.

Matt
 
i don't do high intensity interval training. i just do plain old interval training :) and i do all of my weight training with a personal trainer, so he makes sure i'm not doing too much. he's great, always asking how i feel and making sure i'm not overexerting myself. i never work the same areas of my body back to back, in fact there's usually a two or three day gap in between. i don't feel like i'm doing too much at all. overall i burn probably about 500-600 calories with my workouts.

nicole, thank you so much for your help. i'm going to gradually up my calories to 1800, keep up the same exercise routine, and see where to go from there.
 
What's the point of lifting several times a week if you're not eating enough protein and other nutrients that build the muscle? Muscles simply and positively cannot grow on just weights, they require fuel to grow.

Basically I believe you should follow your instincts. You know you're not eating enough and you're smart enough to realize its making you hold onto the weight. Frankly, who cares about they "why" behind it, just start eating a normal amount so you don't do any damage to your body (no offense meant here, but stop behaving like you're an anorexic--that's a dangerous line to cross).
 
Blancita, at first I had no idea I wasn't eating enough. I was sure I was reaching at least 1600 calories a day -- I had 5 well-portioned meals with protein and vegetables at each one. When I began to realize that I wasn't losing any weight or dropping in measurements, I figured that something weird must be going on. I looked carefully at my nutrition and found that I was only getting around 1000 calories when I thought I was getting much more than that. So the question arose -- Am I not losing weight because I'm eating too less? Woah, that's weird. I'm a university bio minor... what can you expect? I'm very curious to know the why. I think you can go through life doing all the right things, but it's quite an unfulfilled life if you don't know why you're doing them. The "why" part of life makes us grow, I think. It lets us learn how to apply the same principles to other areas.

As for behaving anorexic... I truly have no idea where your'e coming from! It was never my intention, and I'm sorry if I ever implied that.
 
Ooooooops, my hasty post came off wrong and I'm sorry. I just thought eating 1000 calories per day for several weeks, while at the same time doing daily hardcore exercise, seemed sort of anorexic-ish. I didn't know that you thought you were eating more calories.

As to the whys, I agree they are interesting and important, but I just wanted you to start eating more immediately and figure out the whys in due course.

Hope the scale starts moving again soon :).
 
No worries at all :) Thanks for your concern, advice, and support, Blancita! Happy to report that I'm definitely eating more now.
 
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