Low Calorie Dieting

There are several of us in this group who have struggled with eating disorders
and compulsive exercise. We can tell you firsthand that you can't just keep
cutting your calories lower and lower and exercising more and more. It looks
good on paper, but in the real world it backfires in the worst way.

What happens when (this is going to sound familiar) you're eating 1100 calories
a day, training for over an hour 7 days a week and your weight loss stops. Are
you going to eat even less? Train even more? It becomes a no-win situation.

If I'm eating 1400 cals a day and training my guts out, pretty soon my body
(which is generally smarter than me) is only going to burn 1400 cals a day in an
attempt to conserve energy and save my life. So, well, darn. I'll cut it down to
1250. I'll start losing again for a week or two, but pretty soon my body is only
burning 1250. Then 1000, then 800 (been there). Before I know it my own
metabolism has decided that I'm a complete jackass and has shut itself down
completely. Now what? My body isn't burning any extra calories on its own. The
only way I can create a calorie deficit at all is through more exercise. Only I
don't have any energy, my entire body hurts, and everything turns purple when I
stand up fast. Not a pretty state of affairs!

There's an alternative, of course. Instead of doing things to slow your
metabolism down (starving, compulsive exercise), you can launch a plan to speed
your metabolism up (BFL). Some things that contribute to a fast metabolism are:

1) Small, frequent meals. Every time you eat, your metabolism increases
slightly. Eat 6 or 7 times a day and you'll burn more calories throughout the
day.

2) Eat more protein. Not only does protein help support muscles, it's hard to
digest. Nearly 30% of the protein calories you eat are burned up just to digest
and use the protein.

3) Do intense exercise early in the morning so that you burn calories at a
higher rate all day.

4) Lift weights and eat enough to build muscle. The more muscle you have, the
more calories you burn just sitting around on your butt. Post eating disorder,
I've gained nearly 16 pounds of lean mass. Each new pound of muscle burns an
additional 35-50 calories a day. That means I now burn 560-800 calories a day
MORE than when I was starving overtrained diet ninny. And those aren't treadmill
calories. I burn those when I have my feet up on the coffee table watching
cartoons.

Really think about this. Plenty of us have reached our goals by becoming
well-fed, well-trained, well-RESTED athletes. You mention people going 5 weeks
without seeing results. They're not wasting time. They're setting themselves up
for a lifetime of successful new habits. I pulled out my first challenge stats
yesterday. I lost 3 pounds in 12 weeks. Failure? Nope. I lost 3/4 inch off each
arm, 2 inches off each thigh, 1 3/4 inch off my hips, 2 inches off my waist, and
2 inches off my abdomen. My body fat dropped from 20.3% to 15.1%. This while
eating an average of 1,600 cals a day plus a full (VERY full) free day.

You have to ask yourself, do I want to change my way of life slowly and
permanently so that I stay lean forever? Or do I want some insane crash diet,
quick fix, compulsive exercise thing that I do for a few weeks and give up?

Check out my What I Eat page. I eat a lot. :-)

http://skwigg.tripod.com/wow/id3.html

Renee