Can I still loose weight?

Question

I've been eating very little (300 calories a day plus excercise) and i wanna stop it beacuse its becomming an unhealthy obsession. Can I still loose weight if I slowly move towards a 1,000 calorie diet with healthy eating and excercise? I'm scared if i just inrease my calorie intake quickly I'll gain a lot of weight so i want to do it slowly. will it work?

Answer 1

Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it.

In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," stress the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…

Phillips wrote,

"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."

Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter.

Calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid because you are being lied to. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow.

Anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends to scare away potential customers! The law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.

I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance. I also believe it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.

The law of calorie balance says:

To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.

If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest idea how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down).

So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here's a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:

Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.

Rather than writing down every calorie one by one from every morsel of food you eat for the rest of your life, create a menu plan you can use as a daily goal and guideline. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal at least one time in your life for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your primary menu as a template.

Using this meal planning method, you really only need to “count calories” once when you create your menus, not every day, ad infinitum. After you've got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.

So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.

For more information on calories (including how calculate precisely how many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at

http://www.fightfatphilly.com/tom_venuto_fitness_articles.html

To learn more about building your best body ever, simply go to http://www.ChristianHealthandFitness.com to download YOUR FREE copy of ‘The Christian’s Guide To Maximal Fat Loss’ sample plan. You will also find some more great fitness tips from Matt Shuebrook at http://www.FightFatPhilly.com/articles.html and http://www.MyPhiladelphiaFitnessExpert.com

Answer 2

You dont lose weight by stop eating. You lose it by spreading out your calories. Eat every 2-3 hours. Eat low fat, low carb, high protein diet. Workout 3 times a week or more. Do cardio when you can.


It's not hard at all. Erase the whole "3 meal a day" mentality and replace it with a 5-6 meal a day and you will boost your metabolism.

Btw, the body adjusts to calories very well. Raising the calories won't be as drastic as you think. I ate a gallon of icecream on my cheat day and I didn't gain a single pound. The trick is to raise metabolism. (<3 ice cream)

Answer 3

By the way, what is ur weight? It may be ok according to ur height. All this weight loosing spree may really be an obsession (anorexia nervosa variant) as u yourself seem to suggest. Very very low calorie diets (VVLC) have long been discarded by health professionals as an advice to even the morbid obesity patients because of so many essential nutrient deficiencies that can result form this making the body prone to many diseases. You should immediately stop VVLC. "Eat healthy & excercise more" is the key. Good luck.

Answer 4

1000 calories is still too little. Your body will be eating its own muscle, and you will become a flabby skinny person. Get some good nutritional advice and be sensible.

Also, for pity sakes, don't slit your wrists over gaining a pound-get some perspective! You've beeneating so little your weight is going to fluctuate while you work things out, but you'll be healthier in the long run.

Answer 5

300 calories a day is extremely dangerous. the minimum amount of calories you should consume is 1200.i don't know how u get up in the morning to even function because your body is eating itself away! eating so little calories will make your body go into "starvation mode" which promotes fat storage and lowers your metabolism. your body wants to conserve the little energy it receives from the amount of food you are eating, so it decreases your metabolism to prolong the energy fueling, thus making you weaker and weaker...which affects your ability to exercise at high intensity. u need to get your heart rate up to lose weight, but without sufficient energy you'll just plateau.so just eat 6 small meals a day, up to 300 calories per meal. weight loss is simple...energy out > energy in....but at a safe rate

Answer 6

I've lost 5 kilos in my first week. It's my 10th day and I have included salad with some protein (eg. egg/ lean chicken) as you suggested. After 4 years of trying, the fat is finally coming off. It truly feels like magic!

Get started today!

Answer 7

you won't gain weight. You're not consuming enough calories to gain weight. Your weight loss will slow down, but that sounds like a good thing

Answer 8

Recommended daily allowance is 1500-1800 for women
and for men it is 2000-2200 calories which please note.