Super Low Calorie
This has been a really strange week for me. After a couple months of binging over the holidays I expected that it would take a month or two to bounce back to my usual plateau. Well I didn’t. Over the past 5 years I’ve been trying all sorts of lifestyle adjustments with diet and exercise. One thing I haven’t tried is a very low calorie diet. The reason, frankly, is that I thought I simply couldn’t do it. I just love eating way too much. I was able to learn to make several very healthy dishes that I’m able to eat day in and day out. I mostly learned that eating any sugar or carbs instantly adds several pounds. Though I think that’s mostly because I transform into Cookie Monster the moment I have any, and then overdo it. And in general found a plateau I was… ok with. This new plateau… not ok with.
Usually weekends are my achilles heel. But thanks to whatever random confluence of events, LAST weekend I just didn’t eat much, and stayed no-carb. I ended up eating less than a thousand calories on Saturday and Sunday, and amazingly didn’t feel that terrible, so I figured, why not keep it going? So that’s what I’ve done for the whole week. In fact, the past several days I noticed that I didn’t particularly NEED to eat dinner, but still did just out of habit. And finally yesterday I decided to try skipping it. Yesterday I did 770 calories. Now I’m really curious how low I can go. Today I’m coming in at 557. I feel hungry right now, but so far I’ve found that if I ignore it, it eventually goes away. I’m discovering just how much of my eating is habitual rather than necessary. The first ever-so-slight discomfort and it was “time to eat”. Turns out that’s just my programming. And it can be overwritten. I had NO idea!
I’m doing research on this and finding the usual whirlwind of contradicting ‘facts’. Ultra Low Calorie diets prolong life and it’s the simplest way to lose fat.
Also Ultra Low Calorie will kill you faster and only destroy your muscles leaving your fat, and then when you go back to a regular diet you’ll get even fatter.
I came across this article about why “starvation mode” is a silly concept.
While I’m pleasantly surprised to discover this super power I never knew I had before, it’s certainly not something I want to do all the time. I’m still just way, way happier when I’m eating 4,000 calories of donuts, pizza and cookies a day. I have yet to find the power to navigate the moderate position between the extremes. But I’m feeling hopeful that discovering this new tool of super low calories will help me with that. If nothing else, having EXPERIENCED 600 calories a day might help me to do a 1,200 cal/day with greater ease. I always felt like I was seriously depriving myself when I did 1,200 - 1,500. But now that I know that half that actually isn’t THAT bad, maybe it will be easier to stay on a moderate calorie deficit over the dreaded weekends.
The important thing to me is that any lifestyle change I do does not diminish my energy, creativity, health or mood. One week is clearly not enough time to make that kind of assessment; but so far all those things have been excellent. All week I’ve been coming home, walking with Heather, then working for a couple (sometimes several) hours on my giant sculpture. I’m still developing creative ideas for Talifar, drawing more than ever in my sketchbook, and generally enjoying life. (Not as much as when I’m eating a dozen cookies, but you know…)
I think I’m going to ride this out as far as it will go and see what happens. I figure I’ll either hit another plateau, plunge into a gluttonous frenzy at some point, or maybe, just maybe, slide right back into a healthy moderate calorie deficit. Maybe I can cycle between moderate and extreme deficits! I’ll keep me updated.
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Update: I went through all of Saturday fasting, and into Sunday making it an over 50 hour fast. I mostly felt fine. To break my fast I took my son to Denny’s and had a meat lover’s omelette with hash browns and toast. I’m doing a Carb Night, so I also had some cake and nachos. Still coming in under 1,800 which is WAY better than most splurges. I think I’m still ‘on the rails’. I’m really excited that I seem to have found the key to breaking my plateau!
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Update: I went through all of Saturday fasting, and into Sunday making it an over 50 hour fast. I mostly felt fine. To break my fast I took my son to Denny’s and had a meat lover’s omelette with hash browns and toast. I’m doing a Carb Night, so I also had some cake and nachos. Still coming in under 1,800 which is WAY better than most splurges. I think I’m still ‘on the rails’. I’m really excited that I seem to have found the key to breaking my plateau!
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