The result was an initial loss of 1 lb followed by the rapid gain of 1lb and then a slower gain of an additional 4 oz (scales indicate that gain is all fat, as the water percentage is the same). I weigh self in pyjamas every 7-10 days just before bed after elimination (please, excuse my directness). I have compared with separate weighing's in separate locations to try eliminate systematic measuring errors. Is it possible to have such a low metabolic rate withou t any other symptoms? Also, I know it is not safe to go below 1,200 Calories without medical supervision, should I seek it? [I have upped my exercise from 2 miles to 2.5 miles per day].
8 days a go I said that I would try a ... - Weight Loss Support
8 days a go I said that I would try a 1,200 Calories diet. I have now done this for the last 8 days.
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gphw
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I'd be interested to hear what you ate on the average day. Talking in calories you might as well be writing this in ancient Greek because I don't get calories. How can 50 calories of chocolate cake be equal to 50 calories of salad. It's the most ridiculous nonsense. Cake is refined, takes almost no calories to eat/convert to energy and burns fast. Salad burns slower and takes calories to convert to energy and is therefore in no way equal. A calorie is not a calorie.
Today I ate - natural yoghurt for breakfast, half a tub of crab pate, 1 small slice buttered multiseed toast (my cheat for the day!) and some cucumber sticks for lunch and a small gammon steak with salad and a lime, cider vinegar and olive oil dressing for dinner. I've just felt a little hungry so I've had 3 cashews. I've drunk either water or tea, mostly green tea. The only exercise I take is a set of floor exercises to aid my core muscles which take about 10 minutes.
How many calories? No idea. Couldn't give a toss. What do I weight right now? Again, no idea. I only get weighed at the doctors whenever I visit. At the last visit I had lost two stone in 46 days. My advice is to stop micromanaging every last calorie and every last ounce. It depresses you and removes your focus from what's important - the food! My only stipulations on my diet are no added sugar or sweetener (and as few natural sugars as I can manage) and as low carbs as I can comfortably be. I'm a lot less strict with the carbs because I think the odd slice of bread is not the end of the world but I have a noticeable change in my appetite the second I consume sweetener or sugar. Being more hungry means my metabolism could sink and I'm working hard to ensure that doesn't happen. It took 16 torture-filled days to get off sugar, btw, but completely worth it as I no longer crave anything. It makes dieting so much easier.
Hi - agree about the cals with cake and salad. Also the fat in the cake makes a difference. Also agree TOTALLY about the sugar and hunger. I'd not known about that before, but monitored it, and the more sugary things I've had, the more hungry I get, although it tends to be more of a fainty, nauseous type feeling. Having cut down on the sugar, I feel much better. Losing slowly but just by eating less and making the food I eat more sensible, I don't feel deprived. For instance, I had a large slice of cheesecake last night to compensate for the dreadful journey from work. This morning I feel more light-headed and nauseous. Not worth it. So I shall think again the next time...... its all in our heads, we just have to recognise it and conquer it.
I am very glad that you can lose weight very easily. Unfortunately, if I do not micro-manage I very rapidly over-eat. I can put a stone on in a few days if I do not keep my intake under strict control. My problem is that I tend to be an all or nothing person. So, either I completely control my diet or I just eat with abandon. No in-between I am afraid.
Hi there this all or nothing probably does not help, when you are on low low eating your body thinks it is being starved so as soon as you eat it grabs the goodies and stores it in case of another starvation period. try egg on toast for breakfast, protein to keep you satisfied, salad and fish or some protein for lunch and meat and veges for dinner and perhaps one or two pieces fruit for snacks or carrot sticks with hummus. no going hungry.
I went from 80
To 76 to 77 to 80 all in 3 weeks 
If you've been doing it for 8 days you may not have any weight loss results to show for it yet. It isn't a smooth progression. You may need to look at how you are assessing your intake and measure things initially.
I work on the basis of 1200 calories because I have health limitations on the amount of exercise I can do. But I treat it as a guideline - some days I might not quite make it to 1200 calories - I am absolutely not about to go and eat something else if I am not hungry just to make it over 1200 but equally (I say equally, more often) I'll be over as I haven't cut anything out of my life completely (that I want to eat anyway) and I don't think anyone who didn't know me would know that I was actively trying to lose weight.
i should add that I have found that daily weighing works for me - partly because I can see how much my weight goes up and down eg I've dropped 0.9kgs since yesterday. None of it is an exact science - not the calories, not the scales. So long as the general trend is down, it's good!
From reading this and your previous posts you appear to feel that there is some underlying issue preventing you from losing weight and you could well be right. The problem is a lot of doctors and health professionals will treat this with some scepticism and you can't blame them, it's something they hear all the time. Most of us that have been very overweight during our lives have probably used this very excuse when speaking to others or ourselves 
about our weight problems on many occasions, I know I have! I liken it to phoning BT to complain about broadband speed, they hear it all the time, it's their number one complaint, normally because customers compare their speeds to friends or family and are disappointed to not get the same performance but every now again someone will have a genuine fault that needs intervention to fix it.
If I was you, then I would start keeping a methodical food/exercise diary, whether you do that online then print it off or you do it the old fashioned way, it does not matter, as long as it's accurate as possible. You'll then have some quantifiable data which you can present to your doctor, who will then hopefully investigate further. You could also ask to be referred now to a dietician, who'll probably ask you to keep a diary anyway but they should be more qualified on advising you on your calorie intake and nutritional needs.
Good Luck.
I have essentially been doing this for some time, but for the last 8 daysmy set diet is
Mon-Sat (monotonous but easy to follow):
30 g Special K: 115 Cal
125 ml skimmed goats milk: 60 Cal
Booths of bulky low Cal vegetable soups : 300 Cal
small roll : 150 Cal
zero per cent fat yoghurt: 100 Cal
8 cups tea with skimmed goats milk (no sugar): 80 Cal
1 40 g bowl of rooled oats (water + sweetner): 10 Cal
Added skimmed milk (12 ml): 115 Cal
2 Apples, handful of grapes or 2 tangerines: ~250 Cal
Total: 1180 Cal
Sun:
No breakfast
Small roast turkey dinner (no yorks, no stuffing, 3 little potatoes, mainly veg.): ~800 Cal
8 cups tea with skimmed goats milk (no sugar): 80 Cal
2 small rolls + flora: 400 Cal
Total: 1280 Cal
Exercise is about 2.5 miles (based on Google map estimate) fast walking to and from work across country paths. Week-end I attempt to walk ~2-3 miles per day around local park + shopping + housework. No other major exercise in day, still recuperating but getting stronger. For a person of my weight the exercise is probably worth ~300 Cal/day based on standard walking energy usage calcs.
Just looking quickly, your diet looks to be very carb/sugar dense. I'm no way qualified to advise you but you could try:
Replacing the Special K with eggs and bacon.
I'm not familiar with the soup but just be aware that a lot of pre-made soups can have high sodium levels, quite often more so the health brands as it tends to be seen as a healthier preservative.
Ditch the Roll/Bread, if you absolutely need a replacement then try a Rye alternative, something Ryvita for example but not the "Ryvita Thins".
Swap the zero fat yoghurt for a plain full fat one and flavour it with some berries if you need/want to. I have in my hands right now, the yogurt I eat which is St Helens Farm Natural Goats Milk which has (per 100g) 4.3g of Carb of which 3.2g is sugar and I have a Shape 0% fat (per 100g) 10.4g of Carb of which 9.1g is sugar. The Full Fat yoghurt although contains more calories will keep you fuller much much longer.
Watch your fruit intake especially the old grapes and other sugar dense fruits, you could replace them with berries which are much lower carb. Pre-packed frozen berries are a great option, as they are frozen in season, so at their best, you can have them on hand, no wastage and they are cheaper!
Potatoes are not great either, if you feel you still want them then try swapping them for Sweet Potatoes.
There will be members here that will advise you to cut out more, it's up to you, you can go as radical as you want but from my own experience whatever you do, needs to be doable and sustainable in the long run. It's about finding a healthy compromise that works for you.
Good Luck.
Take a look at this. I don't follow this exact diet as Mark sometimes uses sugar, but the general health advice is excellent. marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2i...
Hi gphw,
I agree with OlsBean.
I think you should seek it - the specific medical advice about your particular situation.
There could be a number of reasons why you are seemingly not losing weight although you have apparently significantly reduced you calorie intake.
Often these sorts of tales happen as a result of the person not actually reducing their calorie intake by as much as they think they have, either due to failing to count some of the things they eat or drink, or by mis-calculating the amount of calories in the food they eat. (Or even sometimes by people not counting the food they eat in certain situations, e.g. the go to the gym and afterwards have a latte and a cream doughnut, but somehow they never get into their food diary!
However, weight loss is not a simplistic mathematical equation and a wide variety of things can impinge upon why a specific human body doesn't reduce weight when put into situations where you would expect it to. In particular, various hormones control a number of functions such as fat storage and fat burning and a variety of things can affect how your body produces these hormones.
Good luck with your weight loss efforts.
Hi gphw,
I agree with the above, that your best plan is to keep a food and exercise diary for a couple of weeks and make an appointment with your doctor to discuss. There could be a underlying reason why you are finding it hard to lose weight (e.g. hypothyroid), so it would be worth checking it out. I remember from your last post that you said you eat mostly the same things each day - so you could take in a day by day list to the doctor? Make sure you include absolutely everything you ate or drank and all exercise you are doing. GP should be able to help work out where the problem might lie.
Don't get too stressed about gains from one day to the next, particularly if you're weighing at the end of the day. Many things can influence weight as well as loss/gain of fat. For example, how recently you ate or drank, sodium content of food, recent exercise, time of the month (for women). I find that weighing in the morning after going to the bathroom is the most stable measure (excuse my directness too!). But even then it does vary a lot for no obvious reason. I weighed 1kg more yesterday than I did on Monday and then 1kg less today than yesterday morning and I have no idea why. There is no possible way I gained 1kg of fat overnight on Monday and then lost it again during Tuesday
I have also gone through phases of a couple of weeks with little or no weight change and then without doing anything differently I suddenly lose 1-2kg in the space of a week. So, it is worth keeping up the effort and hope to get some results, even if nothing happens immediately. Losing weight is kind of frustrating in that way sometimes.
Hope you manage to figure things out.
My answer is buy a smaller plate and eat kid size portions I've lost over 3 stones in 5 months without giving up any food group whatsoever
That's interesting stuff, Concerned. Fig. 7 is the important one for those of you who haven't got time to go searching through the whole article. Isn't it strange that doctors knew a mixed or high carb diet was less effective as far back as 1956 and yet that's still what they suggest today.
Looks like one should eat fat with a little protein and virtually no carbs. One loses fitness, according to associated papers but gains a faster weight loss. Not sure what a very high fat diet would taste like or how one would go about making such foods appetizing. Lard, margarine, butter, various oils, possibly peanut butter but without carbs? Does not sound very edible. Probably would have to be some form of liquid diet. Given fats have more than double the Cals of carbs/proteins the bulk would be light and I can see hunger may be a problem. 1200 Cals ~ 5 ozs (135 g) cf ~ 11 ozs (300 g). Assuming 9 Cal/g and 4 Cal/g respectively. Perhaps bulk with green veg.
If you are following a low carb high fat diet you do not need to count calories! This article gives you several science references on the advantages of lowering your carbs.
authoritynutrition.com/23-s...
Different people need to cut out different amounts of
carbs. Some people can lose weight by cutting out all refined carbs or switching to low GI carbs. It certainly doesn't stop you from being fit and you can make appetising meals easily.
Just noticed your set diet, gphw. I had to smile. You appear to be eating my banned list!
But in all seriousness, your diet is quite concerning. This is exactly my problem with calorie control. It gives people license to eat truly weird food and expect their body to act favourably. You aren't losing weight because your body thinks the supply of real food ran out and it is storing up for the famine. Not only that, the brain needs fat to function and you have replaced all the healthy fats in your diet with transfats - the ones which cause heart disease. Ditch the margarine immediately. America is on the verge of banning marg and I'm hoping the UK will eventually follow. It's been marketed as healthy for years but it never has been.
Special K was a lot more special before they upped the sugar content. Now you might as well be eating Cheerios - the honey ones. I searched the cereals and found Lizi's Granola. It still has sweetener but I've been assured by the company they are working on a 'no sugar' version. In the mean time their original recipe is about the lowest sugar content you can get. You also don't get hungry after it.
And bread rolls should be the first thing you cut back on, not a main staple. Lose a bread roll here and there and replace them with something packed with nutrients, like cashew nuts. You have to be careful you don't eat too many, but a few cashews fill you up for hours and are really good for you.
Please think it through. I genuinely think your diet as it is might be harmful.
Oh, and 1200 cals is too few at this stage in your dieting. If you really must count, count higher!
I'm on a version of a high fat diet. I don't eat fats unnecessarily but if cooking requires it, out comes the butter or coconut oil. I quite often eat omelettes, bacon and eggs, asparagus in butter, sometimes cauliflower cheese (the sauce being made of butter, cheese and cream instead of using flour.) I only eat one high fat meal per day, making do with a salad or small soup as the other meal. I think it's a fab diet and I've lost two stone in less than two months.
The downside is you have to lose sugar from your diet completely. I won't lie - that sucks. The first 16 days was quite torturous, but after that I broke my sugar addiction and started to develop new habits. It's probably helped me that I've spent the better part of my life preparing for a time when sugar would be banned. Most of my family are diabetic and I've always just considered it a matter of time. It hasn't happened so far and if I'm able to maintain this diet, it might never happen. And I think there's a good chance that's possible.
But losing sugar means losing almost all processed food. It's a big commitment as almost everything has sugar in it, but it is so worth it. And if you can go home, chuck a few veggies in the pan with butter and serve up within ten minutes, processed food doesn't seem so necessary.
Oh, and absolutely no margarine! You also shouldn't use veg oils or heat olive oil. Olive oil cold on salads, butter or coconut oil to cook with. Look it up if you want to know why. The previous link to Mark's Daily Apple explains it. I need to sleep now!
Hi gphw,
I think it's really important to remember that sugars and carboydrate are parts of a proper, nutritious and balanced diet and I think care needs to be taken about 'demonising' any particular food type. (Equally, fats - of the right types - are part of a healthy diet)
For sure, for many people, carbs form a far bigger part of their food intake than is appropriate for their exercise and activity levels. (Often fats too).
Also, they often eat those at the expense of other parts of their diet, often prefering sweet or fatty food over fruit, veg, fish, fibre and other more nutritious foods.
Also, if you turn the clock back a few hundred years, "sugar" as we know it, i.e. refined cane sugar was a hugely expensive luxury for the wealthy few. Ordinary folk if they had access to some sort of sweetener it would have been fruit or honey.
And I have no doubt in my mind that one aspect of both sugary/sweet or fatty/creamy foods is that once you get into the habit of them, they are what you will want to eat. Eat sweet sugary foods and you'll want sweet sugary foods. Going 'cold turkey' or weaning yourself off of them, if that is your habit, will give you better control of your food intake and therefore of your body weight.
And in many cultures, such "nice" foods are often given as "rewards" for good behaviour to children and so the message to eat these sorts of food can become entrenched in many people at an early age.
But all that to one side, as adults we probably need to make food decisions based on better notions than those that we held as children. Despite the fact that many retailers and food manufacturers would encourage us otherwise.
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