On 450 calories today and need some help getting through this evening!

[ThisIsClare]

I'm on 1,000 calories a day now. Dropped from 1,200 after losing weight at that and then plateauing. However on a Monday I only taken in 450 calories to make up for the extra calories I usually eat at the weekend. It's not impossible - I make a soup with some protein in it, blend it, and drink it throughout the day.

Luckily I don't have any tempting food in the house (lots of chocolate but I'm more of a savoury person and am also good at resisting temptation). However I'm due to do a food shop after work this evening and I will need some help and motivation not to throw myself on the yogurts and fruit when I get back home.

Can anyone share their tips to avoid temptation when you're hungry? I will be going to be early and watching TV to chill before hand. But any tips to avoid stepping into the kitchen and undoing the hard work from today? Thank you!

It's one day why is everyone getting so her up about it, haven't you heard of the 5:2 diet? Fasting?

OP here are some low cal options:

Homemade soup
Miso soup
Veg stir fry
Egg white omelette
Chicken breast and lots of veg

Sounds like a recipe for an eating disorder to me

*het

@ThisIsClare

As for exercising: can someone please explain to me (because I honestly don't get it), why eating, say, 1,500 calories a day, and burning 500 through exercise, is better than eating 1,000 calories a day and not exercise? Doesn't the body still only have the same 1,000 calories to work with?

Because food isn't just energy/fuel. It's also nutrients.

Eat 1500 kcals a day and burn 500 = you are still eating a large enough volume of food, probably with enough variety, to take in all your nutrients.

Below 1200 it becomes very hard to eat the right level of nutrients just because the volume of food is so low. At 450kcals it is pretty much impossible.

Deprive your body of the right level of nutrients and it'll start doing all sorts of crazy shit. Unable to repir itself. Unable to fight illnesses properly. Unable to make the right hormones at the right levels to balance everyting (mood, energy, appetite and so on). Sensory impairment (e.g. vision problems). Response rates drop, making things like driving dangerous.

And on and on...

Those saying it isn’t healthy, have you looked in to the fasting diet/5:2 etc?

This is mad but if you must:

• drink a lot of water/sugar free squash/diet fizzy drinks
• brush your teeth when you feel snacky
• go to bed as early as you can
• accept that you will be hungry

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/179316#symptoms

Scary stuff....

For God sake, eat some fruit.

You're going to seriously fuck with your metabolism if you keep doing this. This is not intermittent fasting. It's heavy dieting AND intermittent fasting, and you're going to really hurt both yourself and your capacity to continue to lose weight.

As others have said, exercise isn't just for calorie loss and food isn't just about calorie intake. You need to get enough nutrients to actually keep your body healthy. That's easy enough on 1500 calories, harder on 1000, and basically impossible on 500. And exercise is for strength, stamina, cardiac health etc, not just weight loss.

This is what people are talking about by saying your attitude to food is disordered. You seem to think that it's normal to constantly be trying to lose weight, even if you're a healthy weight. Or that you should be constantly fighting to have as few calories enter your body as possible. The goal of healthy eating is to find out which nutrients your body needs, find out how much exercise you need, and find out what your healthy weight is, then balance those things with each other. Not to just be constantly striving for a lower body mass at any cost.

I'd recommend going to chronometer and putting in what you eat on an average day and also on you 450 cal days and see if you are actually meeting your nutritional needs. At 8.8 stone it's more important to your health that you get enough nutrients than that you lose more weight. I say this as someone who has a history of anorexia and works hard not to fall back into that mind set.

There are plenty of people who eat 3000 calories a day completely void of nutrients and people who eat a healthy 1000 calories a day diet with lots of nutrients. 450 is very low but won’t kill you if it’s one day a week and overall you get all the food groups you need. I worry more about people living on pizza and donuts all week.

Being healthy is about more than being slim.

Someone the same height and weight as you who is active, all other things being equal, is likely to look slimmer because they are leaner and toned rather than soft and they don't get to spend their Mondays scared to eat. If they're eating 1500 calories worth of good food then they will be better nourished and less likely to be nutrient deficient than you. Even if they fancy a doughnut, they'd not be depriving themselves of other nutrients to do so.

haven't you heard of the 5:2 diet? Fasting?

All of op's days are very low calorie days, though so a fast day in between is too much.

450 calories? Luxury!

I'm intermittent fasting and my limit for today is a big fat zero.

OP
Herbal teas
Miso soup
and brush your teeth after meals

What is is your sedentary TDEE?
As that will be your guide to make intermittent fasting sustainable

Can I ask what weight you are trying to get to?

Exercise is important OP, I am one inch shorter than you but weigh the same and and am size 6, plus I get to eat more calories. It's a healthier body composition. Muscles support us, I don't want to end up frail with low bone density.

Marigold bouillon as a hot drink
10 cal jelly
Herbal tea

My TDEE is 1,600. I need a deficit of 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week. However given I don't exercise at all (I used to exercise lots, five days a week - two to three hours a day of weights and cardio. I hated it and made little difference to my figure even with a PT three times a week - I was a size 10-12 and the fact was hiding any muscle I was building up) I take that TDEE with a pinch of salt. Because at 1,200 a day I've stopped losing weight. Hence the current drop to 1,000.

My aim is to go down to 8 stone, which is my ideal weight. I don't look skinny at that - just right.

Thank you @greendress789 @Cocopogo and @VodkaSlimline

@PandoraP excellent point. I manage to stay at 1,000 during the week by eating eggs (I snack on hard boiled eggs), lots and lots of vegetables, plenty of fish and white meat, some fruit and a few treats like yogurt. I am pretty sure I get more nutrients this way than, as you say, people who eat pizza, drink alcohol and snack on chocolates and biscuits.

8 stone sounds fine for your height, I just worry that this isn’t sustainable if you are really hungry or is it just on your 450 day? I thought if you were having a day or two of fasting you were supposed to eat more than 1000 on the other days but I’m not expert.

Oh and I have herbal tea or read a book when I’m needing distraction from snacking

I regularly plateau on my 1300 a day but I just carry on then after a few weeks I'll suddenly have a bigger loss and then it will carry on as normal. No need to keep dropping calories or the same thing will keep happening. Slow and steady is the best way