sweetthinspiration:

This is a great article, written by one of tumblr’s own.  It covers:

• How to eat when you’re serious about losing weight
• How to eat when you’re trying to be smart about being serious about losing weight
• How the VLCD can work (if you’re serious about being … haha never mind)
• How, in a nutshell, you can be just fine on under 1000 calories per day if you choose the right kinds of calories.

So yeah, in this article she explains, better than I do in my FAQ, how to eat when it’s time to finally make it happen. 

I think my introduction may have just doubled the length of the article so I’ll shut up now =8-0

matchstickmolly:

For those of you that don’t already know, starvation mode is an evolutionary mechanism (note from sweetthinspiration: I would say “design”, not “evolutionary”) that your body imposes on itself when it’s not getting enough food. It thinks that there is some sort of famine, so it tries to conserve as much fat as possible by drastically slowing down your metabolism.

I’ve heard to stay away from starvation mode, you should consume at least 1200 calories. There are girls who are going to stay over 1200 calories, just to be safe. (This is the safest way to do it, this guarantees you will not have any health problems and that your body will stay as efficient as possible. No nutritionist will advocate eating less than this, and that’s because it can be very unhealthy) There are girls who aren’t going to eat anything. (This is the least healthy way to do it, starvation can cause severe psychological damage, as referenced here.)

And then there are girls who are going to heavily restrict, eating anywhere from 500-1000 calories a day (me.) And they’re going to do it whether or not its healthy, because they have a goal in mind and would like to reach it as quickly as possible. Judgements and preaching aside, they’re going to do it. So here’s how to do it as efficiently and safely as possible.

The biggest point I can make (and the biggest defense to my position) is that your body requires nutrients, not calories. You’ve never seen anyone taking calorie pills right? That’s because you don’t need them as much as you need the nutrients in the food, the fiber and the protein and the carbohydrates that are going to give you energy. The only reason your metabolism would take a dive and your body choose to cling to fat is if it wasn’t getting nourished.

There is a huge difference between 800 calories of junk food and 800 calories of very healthy, nutrient-packed foods. If you’re going to eat very few calories, you’ve got to make them count. Fruits and vegetables, extra vegetables, egg whites, yogurt, high-fiber cereals, whole grains, and more vegetables are a great place to start. You cannot take a big chunk of your calories and dedicate it to something that isn’t going to nourish your body, that will hurt you. There is no room for deviation in a very low-calorie diet, and if you eat something unhealthy you will have to go over your calorie limit and still get the nutrients your body is used to getting. Because you’ll be hungry. And you should always eat when you’re hungry.

There are a lot of factors that will influence just where your calorie intake will fall. Genetic factors, the size of your stomach, the speed of your metabolism, your activity level and the quality of food you’re consuming will all have an effect. If you’re hungry and you’re already eating very healthily, you’re not eating enough, so kick it up a little. And remember that you need to have a range, not a limit, because you will move more or less every day.

This article states that a starvation diet, when most people are almost guaranteed to start conserving body fat and slowing their metabolisms by leaps and bounds, begins when your body is getting less than half of the calories it requires. So regardless of what you decide for yourself, please don’t ever eat any lower than half of your BMR, plus exercise. Your BMR is how many calories your body needs to complete basic functions like breathing and blinking for an entire day. You can find out your BMR here.

But you move around. So if you want to be a little smarter about it, I’d use this calculator, choose little to no exercise, and then half the recommended calories for maintaining your weight, after you subtract for exercise. Remember though that this is just a guideline. If you’re not that hungry, eat less, if you are, eat more. I’m going to keep saying that because guess what? You get to be the expert on you.

Now you understand that to eat very low-cal, you need to eat high-nutrient, you’re going to need to cut empty calories out of your diet. Foods that do not nourish you do not have a place here.

1. Don’t ever drink anything but water. Really, there’s no point to it. (Tea and coffee are fine.) Fruit juice has a crazy amount of sugar, so don’t drink that either, and definitely don’t drink pop. The jury is still out on diet soda, I suppose, but I wouldn’t drink it unless soda is already an integral part of your diet and you can’t see it go.

2. Go non-fat. In stuff like yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk, low-fat is great, but there’s no reason to not just go all the way and eat non-fat. Fat has 9 calories per gram, so sometimes the full-fat versions have twice as many calories as the non-fat.

3. Measure your food.  Of course you’re counting calories like a madwoman right now, but your bowl of cereal, if just poured haphazardly, is likely at least 50% bigger than the “serving size” listed on the box. Your peanut butter toast probably isn’t just a tablespoon, like you’re assuming. To very accurately measure your calorie intake, you absolutely have to measure everything out.

4. Drink a glass of water before you a meal. It will fill up your stomach so you’re likely to eat less. Also, thirst is often mistaken as hunger, so if you think you’re hungry, you might just be dehydrated.

6. Find better versions of the food you love. Try different things all the time, if you think it might be good, it just might be. There is often a healthier replacement option for the food that you’re eating now that you can’t bear giving up. I love peanut butter, but even the reduced fat version was still super high calorie. I kept looking and now I have a version that has  85% less fat and 40% less calories than regular peanut butter, and it’s actually good. The point is, try everything.

7. Remember that your body is not a calculator, or a machine, and it will not run happily on 753 calories just because you told it to. It will not stop craving cookies just because you decided you weren’t going to eat them. Very low calorie diets are very hard. It’s okay to eat something unhealthy sometimes, so don’t cut your calories to nothing if you eat something unhealthy. The heart wants what the heart wants, same for the mouth. If you want to eat a cookie, eat one, don’t count it toward your calorie intake, and give yourself the same amount of nutrients and calories as you would any other day.

(Source: matchstickmolly)