Michelle Moncur's Journal, 31 Mar 17

@Big Boy Optimus - You should be able to assist here.  

Unfortunately exercise has many health benefits but losing fat not always one of them. You would really need to do hard and fast (sweaty) running and or weight lifting to make even a slight dent in caloric intake. Also...the quality of calories that one consumes are not always the same...If you are hypothetically consuming 800 calories of predominantly carbohydrates (starch, sugar, cereals, fruit juices) and you are spiking your insulin (fat storing hormone) all the time....you certainly are going to struggle to lose body fat...Certain anxiety and depression medications, cortisone...hormones...menopause it can all play a part. I'm sure BBO will jump in here for some fasting options for you. Good luck! 

firstly, I do believe that it's too low of a calorie intake to actually lose weight. rather look into a low carb diet such as Atkins for example. works much better than a low calorie diet. on a low carb diet calories don't have a say :)  

Michaela there is alot of misconceptions in what you have commented with. Try eating 3000 calories a day with an RDI of 1800 calories and not having any exercise 4 times a week and you will definitely see a gain in weight eventually. The correct info regarding low carb diets is that when you consume more protein and fat and low carbs then you feel fuller for longer and that keeps you within your RDI calories to cause weight/fat loss. That said, eating low calories on some days will not have a negative effect on you. In fact there's loads of health benefits. I've advanced to having under 20 calories a day for 2 days in a row and I lose weight/fat and even gain muscle doing this. A low calorie day such as 500/600 calories is called a "fast" day to most of us who follow fasting lifestyles. Some can limit to that amount or lesser or even completely remove food from their day. Michelle the trick is not to start doing those low calorie days consecutively. Most of us follow a 4:3 fasting week whereby we eat 500/600 calories or less on Mon, Wed and Fri. Personally I keep my Tuesdays as a low carb day but also stay under my RDI. Thursdays used to be a flexible day and Weekends I eat anything I want. Read up on the 5:2 Fast diet on www.thefastdiet.co.uk and see if its something that you can do. I think u can because you already doing consecutive days. I've dropped my weight from 134kg to 98.3kg and many others have had success with it. Some people may find it to be too strange to do as it goes against everything they were told about weight loss but that is why everyone is different and must try things out to see if its something they can manage. If you combine the rules of Intermittent Fasting with 5:2(4:3) Fast Diet then you will have a really awesome combination. The rules with IF is just dont eat solid food until midday and stop at 8pm. You are allowed to drink water, green tea, coke zero(or other zero sugar cooldrinks), tea/coffee(minimal milk and use a sweetener like canderal or no sugar). Feel free to ask for help anytime you need it :) 

although being on a low calorie diet where you only eat carbs will not result in losing weight as the body had to store the excess all over your body. I'm just saying that in some cases people don't understand that you have to maintain your carbs too if you want to see results. I've tried every diet in the book and none of them worked until I realized that even a bit of carbs is poisonous for my body. a low/no carb approach has been the only thing that has work. I only speak from experience. as far as I know, low carb works for anyone. maybe the lady need a new approach :) was just giving a bit of advice @Big Boy Optimus 

Generally speaking it appears that people who adopt a low carb can get away with a little more calories but if weight loss is the primary goal...I have found from personal experience that the RDI needs to be adhered to. Low carb living is not a license to a "free feast" or "eat as much fat as you like" It IS possible to over do a good thing. People who adopt the fasting lifestyle have found a way to off set their bad days (unhealthy foods) with good days when the lower their insulin for long stretches of time and after the 16th hour can enter 'Wonderland" and burn some serious body fat for energy. For many of us we have developed an aversion to cakes...doughnuts etc as clean living and eating makes one literally "turn off" these kinds of foods that could leave us feeling VERY ill..(including wheat and processed foods). So many ways to excuse the not so nice pun "skin the cat". Ultimately whatever you do needs to reduce the inflammation causing the ugly fat. It sometimes takes a fair deal of trial and error to find your magic bullet or "sweet spot". Whatever you choose needs to be a lifestyle...for the long haul....I wish you the very precious gift of health and well being! 

I have read its not healthy for woman to eat less than 1200 calories per day and men 1800 calories.  

Ausymist that could be true for people with a low body fat percentage. Did the source of that information refer to what physical attributes a person must be for it to be not healthy to eat less than 1200 and 1800 calories? It's important to take note that everyone has different body types and fat percentages. We must also accept that due to commercialism, many studies were paid for by companies that will lose money if people started losing weight/fat if they followed a calorie deficit lifestyle which is free to do.  

Well, I did the research. And it makes sense, if you eat between 1200 & 1500 cal per day and you are doing a general cardio based workout, you are basically just burning what you have eaten... which is great if you have reached you goal or have a low body fat percentage. but to burn the extra fat already stored in your body you need to eat less and burn more. That's why the intermittent fasting works and it's easier than to fast permanently. on the non-fast days you still eat 1200 - 1500 cal per day as to not reverse the work you have done on the fast days. and it will help with the energy levels.  

Michelle with Intermittent Fasting you do it everyday but with 5:2 or 4:3 you do it 2 or 3 days but its a different set of rules which can be combined with IF. There's also one called The Wolf Diet which is eating just 1 meal a day and is a form of IF as well. The best combination for me was doing IF everyday but having 3 days a week where I'd not exceed 600 calories (4:3) and eventually I advanced to no food days. Experiment a bit and see how you manage. 

If you fast you should not eat at all..or at most 500 calorie per day for three days 

Shazzy that's correct and it should be non-consecutive days to make things easier.