Joycarer, could you link me to the guidelines? I looked at the NICE website, but was unable to find anything about calorie needs. What I found in a google search was a page from webMD, which, admittedly is geared toward Americans.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20060505/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-today This page recommends that an active 45 year old woman needs about 2000 calories per day, so 1500 for a dieter isn't far off. I'm just kind of curious to see what the recommendations are on your side of the pond.
Innocence, I know exactly what you mean. I can get on the scale one day and have gained a full five pounds from the night before without having eaten or drank any more; it's really frustrating. I dieted and exercised off 75 lbs. over the course of about 8 months, but managed to put 15 of it back over the course of two weeks. That isn't supposed to be medically possible outside of extreme circumstances, but there you go. I feel your pain.
You can find out how many calories is reccommended for your height and weight etc by googling for your 'basal metabolic rate' I am 5ft 1 (just) and my reccommended rate to lose weight is between 1000 and 1200kcals I think a day.
You only have to talk to your doctor about dieting if you are doing a very low calorie diet (VLCD) A VLCD is one that is, I think, below 600kcals a day. I *think* anything above that but below the reccomended 2000kcals a day to stay the same weight is classed as a low calorie diet.
If I ate the reccommended 2000kcals a day I would not stay the same weight, I would gain it. the reason being that I am not a average 5ft 6 woman lol.
I don't think you can always go by guidelines either. I mean my hubby is underweight and to be fair he only eats around 2000kcals a day AND has a very physical job. He's 6ft 2 but his weight doesn't decrease (or increase) even though he eats less then reccomended.
all very
I personally think I have a metabolism type all of my own lol, (or I maybe sharing it with Innoncence lol)
Another thing to think about is everyone metabolises things slightly differently depending on how enzymes and fatty acids interact etc. Since finding out about my sons metabolic condition I have had to understand a lot about different types of metabolism. There are lots of different pathways sometimes for the same thing and people can metabolise things differently.
For example in the Atkins type diet you can actually persuade your body to run on fats as a primary source of nutrition, meaning your body will use up fats before converting sugars and then using fat stores. This isn't the way your body would normally work.
the normal way of metabolising is your body uses up sugars that you have eaten and then fats that you have eaten and then lastly stored fat. Using up stored fats can (eg fasting for a while) also cause ketosis which can be good or can be harmful depending on how your make up is. If you don't eat carbs or sugars your body will use what food you have eaten and then access stored fat reserves, if you then eat carbs or sugars you 'switch off' the using stored fat pathway and your bosy will start using what you have just eaten and therefore not burn more fat.
another interesting subject is alcohol....Did you know if you only drink a little then you metabolise it slowly and it is likely to make you gain weight, however if you are a regular heavy drinker like a alcoholic your body actually starts using it as a primary source of fuel and will metabolise it very quickly and you will not gain as much weight on it...which is why a lot of alcoholics aver very slim.
sorry for the boring bit and am sorry if it's all a bit of a waffle!
