Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 100
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Welcome to the forum, Frustrated!
Your cereal diet sounds pretty extreme to me. Even on the days when you eat two bowls, you probably aren't getting more than about 500 calories.
Most nutritionists say that we should never go below about 1200 calories. We need that minimum to get the vitamins and minerals we need plus enough calories to fuel our heart and lungs for the basic functions of staying alive. When you go below those basic caloric needs, the body uses it's own muscle for fuel, we get weak, our metabolism slows down, we burn less actual fat, and finally our natural survival instinct prompts us to binge.
It sounds like you need a plan that will help you reduce while still meeting your basic nutritional needs.
A good way to start might be to list everything you eat and add up the calories until you get to between 1200 and 1400. Then stop for the day. You can find the calories in most foods on the package labels or you can go to a calorie site on the internet for information. You could even go to the journal section of this site and start your own daily journal to list everything you eat.
If you don't like the idea of counting calories you might want to follow a point system or a menu plan. These plans are less accurate as to total calories but the total usually falls into a range that will allow weight loss. More on those plans if you're interested.
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