Starving to lose weight?

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Zedd1

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I'm trying to lose some weight but am not having any luck so was wondering about starving/fasting.

My details are that I am in my late thirties, male, and on the border between normal and overweight for my height. That doesn't sound bad, but it looks really bad and it's quite uncomfortable too. It was gained over lock down due to drinking, my own stupid fault.

For the last 8-12 weeks I've tried eating healthy, exercising, and drastically reducing alcohol consumption. Not a pound has come off. I walk 50km a week, go for runs every 3 days, do strength training every 2-3 days, and go swimming once a week, and my calorie intake is definitely lower than average - 1500 per day. I'm being honest, I am not eating junk food every day, no sneaky treats, nothing - it doesn't make sense why I'm not losing anything. I do drink on a weekend but have cut that down to fridays.

Since this hasn't worked, my idea is to drop my intake to 700-800 calories per day - a tiny breakfast and a medium meal in the evening. That's it. I'm already exercising and not eating enough, so if this new approach doesn't work, my next idea is to stop eating completely. If that doesn't work, I don't know what to do.

Just want to know what others think about fasting and if they've experienced results, etc.
 
if you are going to try fasting or its close relative, intermittent fasting, i'd suggest getting a little smarter about how nutrition works. give this lecture a look and see if it helps you understand how fasting works (and more importantly the difference between fasting and starving... not the same thing).

Dr. Jason Fung - Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem

if you are indeed at a BMI in the 25 neighborhood, you are in a tough zone. at this weight your body is going to try it's best to put on some fat stores. these are tough lbs to lose.
 
Honestly I hat to be hungry !! When I'm hungry it feels like my insides are literally turning I hate to be on a diet that leaves me feeling hungry and unsatisfied ....
though there might be physical manifestations, addictions are a product of our minds. the main difference is that food is the one addiction we cannot live without. ask someone who has kicked heroin or cigarettes if they thought breaking their addiction was easy. hunger was easier to deal with a century ago. there weren't thousands of places you could go to immediately satisfy your cravings. today your mind cannot deal with the fact that food is all around but you are denying your impulse to eat.

i intermittent fast, so hunger is part of my daily life. does it ever go away... no. does it get easier to deal with... yes. there are times i feel hot... there are times i am worried... there are times when i am hungry. we have a lot of concerns we have to deal with every day. your solutions to hunger can either be to satisfy your momentary craving, or just ignore it. i can't say i have eliminated the first completely, but i can definitely say i have the second somewhat under control.
 
I'm being honest, I am not eating junk food every day, no sneaky treats, nothing - it doesn't make sense why I'm not losing anything. I do drink on a weekend but have cut that down to fridays.
So have you been doing this for 8 weeks or 12? Have you lost nothing at all? How about inches (or belt notches)? How much do you drink when you do drink? And how are you measuring your calories? Do you weigh your food or are you estimating? These things can make a BIG difference. If you have a sitting job and you´re of average height you may only be burning just over 2500 kcal/day with the amount of exercise you´re doing, depending on intensity. 1500 kcal/day eaten when you´re burning 2500 should have you losing 2 pounds a week. BUT if you´re drinking 10 pints of lager every Friday (which some people do) you´re under a pound and a half a week. If your calorie counts are off by just 200 kcal a day (in a small study dietitians underreported their daily calories by 223 kcal/day that when they were estimating even though they were trying to be as accurate as possible; non-dietitians underreported by 429) that´s almost another half a pound a week you´re not losing. And if your first weigh-in was in the morning, naked, with an empty gut and bladder, without water retention while the last one was in the evening, clothed, with a full gut and/or bladder, and while retaining water (for example because you´re using more artificial sweeteners now, or because your exercise regime became more intense) that could be a difference of 6-10 pounds in the wrong direction. Not saying you´re doing any of those things but not knowing you they are things I´d want to rule out before going to a drastic fast. Because if you can only lose weight by fasting you´re likely to regain it as soon as you start eating normally again. If you´re accounting for all the variables mentioned above and you´ve been at it for 12 weeks without losing at least 4 pounds and/or a couple of inches I´d say it´s time to see a doctor because something might be off with your hormones.
 
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