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I already posted this up in the introductions section, but I thought I would paste it down here to see what you folks think: [b:15921bd22e]"I am 19 years old, and trying to lose a little bit of weight. I am 5'9" and 170 pounds, and I would like to get down to about 145-150, which is my ideal weight for my build according to my doctor. I was at that weight once, and hopefully I will be back to it soon. For the last 3 days I have been on a very low-calorie diet. I am taking in a maximum of 750 calories per day, and I have been very close to that for the past couple of days. I started out at 174 3 days ago, so I am losing a fair amount of weight, but I notice that it has slowed in the past couple of days. I figure that this is just because the fast weight that came off was protein and excess water, and the fat is harder to burn off. I am not doing any exercise because I figure that the very low calorie diet should work fine by itself. I think that my metabolism burns about 2000 calories by itself at my age, so I figure that at a net loss of 1300 calories a day(700-2000), and with 3500 calories in a pound of fat, that I will lose about 2 and a half pounds a week. This is a fine pace to me, in my opinion. On a typical day I have a bowl of All-Bran for breakfast(80 calories) with 1% lowfat milk(55 calories), for a total of 135 calories. I have this usually around 7 am. Then, for a late lunch, I have two veggie bologna sandwiches with mustard(0 calories for the mustard, 60 for the 4 slices of veggie bologna on the 2 sandwiches, and 280 for the 4 pieces of white bread). These sandwiches are a total of 340 calories, therefore. So I am at 475 calories so far for the day. I then have a Morninstar farms veggie burger without the bun for dinner, with mustard on it. This is 150 calories, for a total of 625 calories. For a snack before bed, I have a snack-sized bag of Pop Secret 94% fat free popcorn, with a total of 110 calories. So my total calories for the day are 735 calories, plus 2 or 3 glasses of Crystal Lite peach iced tea, 5 calories for each 8 oz glass. I also drink water throughout the day to keep myself full. I do not feel as hungry as I thought I would throughout the day. There are the occasional hunger pangs, but I think that I am handling them well. I do not know much about nutrition or anything like that, but from what I understand, since I am not taking in that many calories, my body will burn the excess fat as fuel, which is exactly what I want."[/b:15921bd22e]

Sounds like you're doing a pretty good job, I would try to incorporate some fresh fruit and veggies for some nutritional value. You don't want to starve your body of nutrients. And if you can take a vitamin. When you're at a very low calorie diet, vitamins are very important. Have you tried low-cal bread? You may be able to shed some calories off that way and then be able to eat some more in the veggie department then. Don't go too low on the total calories a day. I know of a friend that has been tricking her body - one week she eats around 1200 and the next she's around 900. Same thing with exercise the week she eats 1200 she works out 4 times and the week she eats 900 she works out less. She has lost 40 lbs. in 7 months. Give it a try. But please eat vitamin rich foods, your body needs it. V8 is a great way to sneak those vitamins in. I made myself really sick at one time on a very low cal diet by not eating the right foods.

Thanks for your response, Ellie. Answers: I have just started some exercise. I am doing 20 sit-ups a day and 20 pushups a day. I am also walking 3 days a week for 30 minutes, walking about 2 miles, and I lift weights a couple days a week. I do take a multivitamin, I just forgot to include it here. Thanks for your tips about the veggies. I'll try and include more. Any suggestions for fruits and veggies to include?

Just about any veggie is good, with the exception of iceberg lettuce (no nutritional value) Go for dark greens for a good salad - even spinch makes a really great salad with mandarin oranges on top really yummy. Just watch what dressing you put on top. A good way to watch the calories on the dressing is to put the dressing on the side and dip your fork in the dressing then put the salad on the fork. I steam all my veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, squash or I cut them up and put them in aluminum foil and spray with a little pam cooking spray and put lots of fresh garlic and other spices and throw it on the grill. In the summer my family eats lots of watermelon, cantelope, strawberries and pineapple. We even freeze alot of fruit and throw it in the blender with some yogurt and a little wheatgerm (for the added vitamins) and make smoothies! I have a recipe for a great low fat fruit dip I'll try to find and post in the recipe forum. Hope this helps some. You're doing a great job in the exercise department. I need to get better at doing my sit-ups everyday, I've been slacking off. But I do walk 2-3 times a day. I love it. Keep up the great work. :D If you have any other questions, just ask. I try to figure out ways to cook everything low fat. (my family hasn't caught on yet! I've been pretty sneaky at it!)

When I was on Weight Watchers (a long time ago, and I gained it all back) and eating the lowest end of my point range and still not losing the group leader told me to add fats into my diet. (3 daily) It work I lost weight more rapidly. If I remember correctly 1/2 tablespoon butter = 1 fat, 1 tablespoon olive oil = 1 fats.

Olive Oil is a good oil to use - it's good for you too, so is canola oil. I bought an oil spritzer from pampered chef that is kinda like Pam - you fill it with your olive oil and it sprays just like pam (otherwise pam has an olive oil spray now) But I don't think it has the health benifits as just plain Olive Oil. I do agree, you have to have some fats in your diet. If you cut them out completely I think you'll start to crave them. Just my opinion.

I'm sure everyone has been reading stuff like this all over the media,...... Fats and Cholesterol - The Good, The Bad, and The Healthy Diet "Eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet." Most of us have heard this simple recommendation so often over the past two decades that we can recite it in our sleep. Touted as a way to lose weight and prevent cancer and heart disease, it's no wonder much of the nation--and food producers--hopped on board. Unfortunately, this simple message now seems largely out of date. Detailed research--particularly that done at Harvard--shows that the total amount of fat in the diet, whether high or low, has no real link with disease. Rather, what really matters is the type of fat in the diet. There are bad fats that increase the risk for certain diseases and good fats that lower the risk. The key is to substitute good fats for bad fats. For the whole article see: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats.html One study I was reading about said that people that follow a long term low fat diet have a greater risk of stroke and stuffer more often from depression. Very interesting subject, a lot of conflicting information out there.

The safest approach is probably "lower fat". Too much animal fat tends to make me sluggish.

Two hard boiled eggs is 150 calories and 1 cup cheero's with 1/2 cup skim milk also 150 calories. I found that the eggs sustain me far longer then the cereal. If I have the cheero's for breakfast forget it, I get into binge eating for the rest of the day. It starts about 1 to 2 hours after eating the cereal and I can seem to stop myself. I try to stick to only protiens in the morning. I find I actually eat fewer calories thru out the day. Has anyone else experienced this?