1200 calories - Will it make me Gain? - Diet & Nutrition Message Board

jessiesgirl · 04-10-2003, 11:46 PM

Hi everyone. For the past year, or year and a half, I have been eating very unhealthily. I wanted to lose weight and lose it fast, so I bascially starved myself. I did lose wweight, however now I am having many problems. For such a long time I ate under 1,000 calories a day. I thought that 800 was too much. Over time it has taken a toll on my body, I have become anemic and have started to lose my hair and started getting acne. I weight 144 pounds (I'm about 5'1")right now and would like to get down to around 120 but I no longer want to be a slave to 500-800 calories a day. I want to do it healthily because I want my health back. I want to eat 1200 a day now, but I'm afraid it'll make me gain weight. Will it? I'm so used to barely eating that whenever I eat more than usual I gain weight fast (but what I mean by "eating more than usual" is eating ALOT, I go overboard, like binging. so I can see why I gain weight fast).

Will those extra caloies be stored as fat? My body is not used to getting that much food, I'm afraid that it'll start to store it as fat. For the past week I have been wanting to eat more, starting at 1,000 (and slowly work up to 1,200), but I can never do it! Everyday I get too scared to go over 900. Anyone have any words of wisdom for me?!?!?

Thanks,
jessie's girl.

Rixtar · 04-11-2003, 07:52 AM

An 800 calorie per day diet will certainly make anyone over 80 pounds loose weight. I myself used a 800 calorie per day PHYSICAN MONITORED DIET to loose weight. The key phrase being PHYSEICAN MONITORED.

How do you know you are anemic. Did you have blood work done? If you haven't had a complete blood panel I suggest you get it done right now. Dramtically reducing caloric intake without supporting information of a complete blood work up can lead to serious complications. Some of which include damage to the liver, gall bladder, intestinal tract, osteoporosis, comprimised eye sight, skeletal problems, kidney disease, reproductive system problems and heart failure.

This is a serious matter do not dealy you may have caused long-term damage to yourself.

Absinthe · 04-11-2003, 07:55 AM

Words of Wisdom:
Eat when you are hungry.
Eat just enough to satisfy without feeling stuffed. Eat slowly.
Eat whole foods whenever possible.

This post is almost identical to your earlier ones. Did you not like the responses?

MarkTime · 04-11-2003, 08:54 AM

jessiegirl,

hi! just found this site today, I find it really interesting. I read your post, but I'm not sure I agree with your basic premise.

I mean if 800 calories a day is not healthy for you, how do you know 1200 calories is? I guess, finding the healthy amount would be something a doctor should decide since you have more significant health problems, like losing hair.

The other thing is, I would feel equally a slave to 1200 calories a day as I would 800.

I am a yo-yo dieter. I guess you could say I diet and binge...but I don't describe it that way. I go on binge diets, and then I eat whatever I want, and then binge diet again. What is binge eating?

Well I do know what you mean, but I will tell you something that I feel very strongly. Weight that is gained very fast, can be lost equally as fast.

As a regular yo-yo'er I know this to be true. Don't ever worry about a binge, because you will gain a tiny bit of weight, (my body, at least, will reject the first binge...i.e. it will come out if you know what I mean)...its not until the 2nd one that it start storing up the fat...but even if I do that...I have also brought my body out of its starvation mode. Once it leaves that mode, you can trick your body into some real quick weight losses all over again.

That's what most people forget, yes, when you starve yourself you go into starvation mode and you lose weight only very slowly.

But when you binge, you gain, but you also break the starvation mode, you can then do a quick diet again, and fool your body into losing a few pounds until you go into starvation mode again.

So don't every get down on yourself for anything. Even a binge can be healthy. I can binge just long enough to leave my starvation mode and then crash diet, and end up losing more weight than I gained over all...people think the yo-yo only goes up in the long run...WRONG, I can yo-yo my way back down too.

I must seem wackadoo...and maybe I am, this could be ephedrine talking...and I've never heard anyone else give my advice, but its worked for me for years. I yo-yo all the time, for me at 5'11" male, I have an upper limit of 200lbs where I decide I am too fat, then I go on a real strict diet for a while, but other than that, I bounce around between 160lb-200lb and never worry about it.

jessiesgirl · 04-11-2003, 11:23 AM

Rixtar - my diet was not even usually 800, it was below that. Like I said I thought 800 was too much. I did it on my own without a doctor and stupidly did not take any vitamins. I don't know for sure that I'm anemic, but I suspect it because of my hair loss which I'm sure is because iron deficiency (I've been reading up about it ALOT) and because I bruise alot and easily. I have not had blood work done so I don't know exactly what damages I have done, but I do know that I did something to my gallbladder because I had to get it taken out.

Absinthe, yeah I did post something similar before and it was helpful, but I did NOT say in my other post that I wanted to go to 1200 calories. I hadn't made that decision yet, but now I know what I want to to do, and I just wanted to know, specifically, if I raise it to 1200, if I'll gain weight.