dreamingangel's Journal, 16 Jul 15

Very nice, congratulations on your weight loss. ;) 

Wonderful! You are doing so well! 

You really don't want to stay under 1200 calories on a regular basis. Your body will go into starvation mode and the weight loss will shut down. Congrats on your fantastic loss so far! 

I do the same thing with my fat clothes - get rid of them or else you may be tempted to slide back and fit into them again. Eyes forward! 

@Johanne: No you won't! Starvation Mode is a myth! It's not real, it does not exist. Otherwise people in Africa, who are actually starving, would not be starving, because they'd gain weight with every calorie they eat. http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/ 

Starvation mode is a myth - and even if you don't want to believe that - you should know there is at least quite a bit of supporting evidence refuting the existence of "starvation mode" to not tout it as "fact". (IM SO SICK OF HEARING THIS BS!) If you are getting the proper nutrients, a smaller woman can definitely eat less than 1000 calories a day and be healthy and continue to lose weight.  

A note on BMR: I don't know how tall you are, but putting you at 5'5" and 30 years old (random factors) your BMR would be less than 1500 calories a day. Depending on your activity level of course, let's say you burn 400 in cardio every single day, that would take you to metabolic rate of 1900 a day. At 1000 calories in, you'd only have a 900 calorie deficit. While definitely not an exact science as BMR and fat loss are largely dependent on your current composition, it would still take 4 days at this rate to lose one pound. That's with only 1000 calories a day and doing a 400 calorie cardio burn! It's not easy, and the smaller you get the harder it is for the pounds to come off - BUT - one pound at this stage is awesome and it sounds like you're sticking to the lifestyle it takes to go the distance to get where you want to be. You should be really proud of yourself because those little losses aren't as motivating but they really do add up. Oh, and rock those Skinny Levi's, girl :) 

*BMR Scenario above based on your goal weight of 170 lbs - sorry I misread your profile! 

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! @Johanne I try to keep my calories between 1200-1600 most days. Sometimes I just don't manage to consume enough calories. (I feel so weird saying that after I used to consume 1500 calories in one meal) I'm not sure how official the starvation mode thing is, but I do know I lose better when I stay above 1200 calories. @fitfatty I don't know anything about what's myth or fact, but I do tend to lose better when I keep my calorie intake above 1000 calories. I'm actually a little afraid of what's going to happen as I slim down. I'm just about halfway to my first goal, but I suspect the calorie intake will need to be reduced further as I go. This site set my calorie goal at 2000, and I changed it to 1800, but I usually fall somewhere from 1200-1600. It makes me feel better to think I could go that high, LOL.  

You are not in starvation mode (this is bunch of bull that will be saved for another day), it's called nutritional ketosis and it rocks!!! It means that your body uses stored fat for fuel, which is exactly what you want! If your body thinks it is "starving" you will know because you will be hungry! The human body is a miraculous machine!!! 

Dreamingangel, good girl. To those of you who believe in ketosis, it's great for losing weight . . . not so great for maintaining. I'm 71, been there, done that. @grmpfhmbl, the true starving Africans haven't started eating normally again. Of course you will continue to lose forever if you continue to eat 500 calories a day, if you don't mind a bit of malnutrition.