Comments on: Why you’re not losing weight on a low-calorie diet (and why eating MORE may be the answer).

By: Go Kaleo

Go Kaleo — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 04:37:08 +0000

No, I counted long enough to make new habits, learn to estimate portion sizes accurately, learned to put balanced meals together. Now I just rely on those habits. I only count when I’m actively trying to change my weight, which I haven’t done for quite some time.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 22:35:03 +0000

Yep, I counted calories to make sure I’m getting enough. I just got tired of it because it’s hard to calculate how many calories are in home made dishes. And I just don’t really like counting every bite I eat. Do you count every single thing you eat? It just seems tedious.

By: Go Kaleo

Go Kaleo — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 16:16:17 +0000

I have lots of readers and clients with ED history, so it’s not so much that it’s not geared to people with ED history, as it is that general recommendations are geared to the general population, and each individual must evealuate those recommendations in the context of their own needs and experience.

Have you ever counted calories not as a means to restrict, but as a means to ensure you’re getting *enough*? That makes all the difference for many people.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:24:08 +0000

No, I’m not. I guess since I’m recovered I didn’t feel like I needed to see a therapist? But I completely understand that your site is geared toward people who do not have ED history.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 13:58:11 +0000

Yeah she’s totally correct. I’ll have to look at how I word it in my blog post. From the study:

“In the next step, energy actually ingested was estimated as TEE+energy storage as measured by hydrodensitometry (8). Energy intake estimated by the doubly labeled water technique was then compared with self-reported energy intake over the 14-day study period.”

By: Go Kaleo

Go Kaleo — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 01:53:09 +0000

Yeah, people with ED/ED history would presumably be working with an ED professional as they work through this stuff. I make recommendations for the ‘general population’, and people with medical conditions would of course need to consider what I say in the context of their own treatment/individual needs. Are you working with a therapist?

Thank you!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:09:27 +0000

Question- what about people who have had legitimate eating disorders? I had bulimia for 2.5 years and I’m recovered but still carrying the extra weight from the disorder. I was naturally slim before developing bulimia (I was also in my early 20s then, I’m 25 now). I completely agree with your video, but counting calories can be triggering for someone whose had an ED. What do you think of intuitive eating? I’m just kind of confused because I don’t want to trigger my ED but I refuse to believe I can’t lose weight in a healthy way. Thoughts?

PS you are SO beautiful!

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 13:39:33 +0000

I wish someone like you (or you yourself!) had been out there, making these videos and writing these posts and generally sharing so much knowledge and such SENSE when I was in my teens. I hit puberty right around when social media started to flourish but Facebook wasn’t a thing for non-college students yet, and when Mary-Kate Olsen and Nicole Richie were suffering from anorexia, and before bloggers had the same reach and the same voice as they do now. I got my health & fitness information from magazines like Shape and LiveJournal ‘healthy eating’ groups that were really thinly-veiled pro-eating disorder groups. And I was SO CONFUSED! Probably between the ages of 11 and 20, I didn’t think it was possible to stay slim and healthy by *gasp* following my instinct – which led to years and years of frustrating restricting and binging.
The media and the internet were telling me I simply needed to cut out this food or that food and that a solid amount of calories for me to eat was around 1,400 a day, and – by the way – that it was reasonable and healthy to strive to look like celebrities only barely healthier than Mary-Kate Olsen.
There I was, cycling between restricting my calories to 1,400 and having massing, uncontrollable binges, entirely consumed with self-loathing and thoughts of food and anxiety. I was convinced I had an eating disorder and I wasn’t internet-savvy enough to find help for it online (to seek help from an actual doctor was far too shameful).
It took me so many years to gain control over my body again, and now I’m eating probably double what I used to on a regular day, and I’m slimmer than I used to be. Not to mention infinitely happier.
Not until I started reading through your archives did I come to realize that I didn’t in fact have an eating disorder … My body was simply ensuring my survival!
Basically, this is a rambly way of thanking you for continuing to put out real, scientific information out there. I’ve been sending your blog to everyone I know – especially the ones I know who continue to struggle, the ones who feel that the only way to be ‘healthy’ is to resort to all sorts of unreachable extremes.

By: Gia

Gia — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 19:13:06 +0000

Thank you for the information!

On a shallow note, your eye makeup is gorgeous! You may need to do a tutorial video! '?

By: Go Kaleo

Go Kaleo — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 18:26:06 +0000

Yes! Healthy habits totally trump weight!