Is It Anorexic?

[Guest Selene Lavelle]

Am I anorexic if I plan on going on a crash diet and taking hyrdoxy cut until I get down to the weight of about 150? I weigh 220, and I've tried EVERY diet:

South Beach

Weightwatchers

Atkins

Low Calorie

Low Fat

I've tried all those diets and exercise and NOTHING happens. I want to lose this weigh so bad because there are two things wrong with my body, being obese (my doctor told me), and well the one thing most of us are here for. I just... I don't think it's anorexic if I stop at a certain wait.

[Sally]

Well,

It really doesn't matter what you call it extreme diets do extreme damage to your body.

You need to lose weight slowly and methodically or you can damage your health and the weight always comes back and brings along a few friends.

I have not seen the book, but the Doctor that saved David Letterman's life a few years ago by detecting his heart problems has written a book calle "The Skinny" and to prove that the eating habbits that he describs in the book really work he was helping their building maintainance man George to lose weight - I haven't seen the show recently but he had dropped about 12 pounds the last time I saw it and that was pretty close to one month!

How fast you can lose safely is determined by how much overwieght you are.

Please be careful and much like we say about hormones and self medication - beware of supplements!

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest April63]

Anorexia is when you don't eat at all, or only very very little, because you see yourself as being fat even when you're not. I wouldn't say you're anorexic.

Losing weight is tricky, and if you really want to lose it, you need to be motivated. You need to combine eating healthy and a lot of exercise. How much exercise do you get? Running a mile everyday will certainly boost your results.

Stay safe and good luck!

April

[Guest Donna Jean]

Selene.....

How tall are you?

Honey...I have two important pieces of information for you on weight loss.....OK?

Number one...weight taken off fast almost never stays off...Weight needs to come off slowly to give you a better chance of keeping it off!

Number two...Diets are a gimmick at best...some work ...some have you doing all sorts of silly things...the Grapefruit diet...the three raspberry's and a taco diet....yadda, yadda, yadda...

The only SURE way is a lifestyle change! Change the way you eat for good, not just until you lose "X" amount of pounds...

Learn to love fruit, veggies, lean meat, and then it won't seem like a chore....you'll enjoy eating, but healthy, and the pounds will melt off and you will be healthier for it!

Now, that doesn't mean a life doomed to no potato chips, or cookies or other good things...it's just a rearrangement of priorities!

April is also right...combined with exercise and healthy eating you can lose those pounds for good!

Just trying to be of some help, Sweetheart!

****BIGG HUGG*****

138 lb. Donna Jean

[Sally]

138 lb. Donna Jean

Don't let that intemidate you she is a midget!

Actually she is just someone who eats well and does get a fair amount of exercise - it makes a huge difference.

You can eat more calories per day if you burn them off.

As a general rule it takes ten calories to maintain one pound - so you would have to cut your intake to 1500 calories a day if you maintain the same activity level.

If you cut your intake to 1800 caolries a day and walk for about twenty minutes each day - you can achieve the same result.

Balance exercise and diet for a healthy weight lose.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Selene Lavelle]

I'm 5 foot 5, I weigh 225-230.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I was in trouble - I weighed 226. I was going on HRT and wanted to get rid of my male weight before I went on estrogen. I went down to 194 in four months - BUT I am tall, and because of that I can lose weight fairly quickly. The key?

PURE will power - no matter what diet (used sugar-busters) you CANNOT cheat - not a single extra cracker - not a single holiday - not a single party. YOU CANNOT CHEAT!

And you MUST stay active. And you MUST stay hydrated - at least a quart of water a day.

And you must undersand your body does certain things in a certain order when you diet on an extended period (1) dumps water - first couple of weeks - which shows on the scale but not in your fat cells - also makes you feel like hell (2) thinks you are in trouble - sends signals to the brain to eat eat eat (3) after two weeks - gives up and goes to plan B - use up some fat - and unfortunately - some muscle tissue (4) later - gets accustomed to your new low intake and changes your mentabolism, slowwiwwwing down - nothing seems to move on the scale again (5) after a month - decides this is a good deal - losing all that mass - easier to get around and stuff - decides this thing is okay - your energy comes back (6) plateaus after about every 6 pounds lost - asks, are we still on a diet? finally gets back on the losing trend - stops again at the next 6 pounds, ??? - and so on

And then you reach your goal. You have to retain your mind then "hey, I am smaller - I need less food." DONT gain it back.

See if that works for you.

Lizzy

[Guest Selene Lavelle]

Thank you everyone I now realize how "smart" (note the sarcasm when i say smart) I was in thinking a crash diet would work.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Selene - you can do a decent weight loss program if you dedicate yourself to it. Please keep us posted as your support group, should you decide to try.

We are here for you!

Go girl go!

Lizzy

[Guest Selene Lavelle]

I'm slowly losing my weight and I'm doing pretty well at it

[Guest tapiarachael]

Just wondering, were you ovrweight before you started dieting? Because honestly many weight problems (from my experience) actually start or worsen (including being underweight or more overweight) once someone starts a diet (source: personal experiences and my therapist) Dk just a thought

[Guest Nire]

I heard that hydroxycut is super bad with like liver problems and whatnot I think symptoms include death so watch out the drugs can be dangerous and it seemed pretty sketchy it the first place if you ask me.

[Guest DeniseNM]

Selene I know how hard it is to loss weight and how the crash diets don't work (been there done that as the saying goes). Have had weight issues most of my life and have gotten help for them too. A good rule of thumb to loss weight in a healthy way is 1-2 pounds of truw weight loss a week, but you need to realize that weight can fluctuate up to 5-10 pounds in a day. You also loss weight by eating right and exercising. Now I know for myself (and many other people) that trying to go with just the numbers for weight is a bad thing (to easy to get wrapped up in the numbers) and a better way to do it is to go with body fat.

An easy way to determine body fat is how I learned to do it in the military. Use a tape measure and take the measurement of your neck right where it joins the shoulders (bottom of the neck where it starts to flare out) and then take a measurement your waist. The waist is measured at the belly-button not at the hips where you wear your pants. Then subtract the neck measurement from the waist measurement and you have your body fat. It is accurate at +/- 2-3%. Do that 3 times and take an average of the 3 numbers.

Another thing to remember is that you want your waist measurement to be no greater than half of your height (for me my height is 70 inches so I need to get my waist down to 35 inches or lower). I learned that from Dr. Oz.

Denise

[Guest Ruben]

The definition of 'anorexic' is clinically dependent on your BMI. It has to be... I don't know, well under 18.5.

So, technically, someone weighing (taking preposterous numbers now so as to make it clear this is general & non-specific)

900 lbs could not eat for two months and die of starvation without being anorexic.

Right.

Think that anorexia is the combination of behavior and state of mind. You do not want to go there - especially not the latter part of it.

Crash diet's never good though. No matter what you choose to term yourself for wanting to do it. There's no such thing as a quick-fix, all good things come in time.