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[rednails]

I'm now at the stage with AS where I could eat practically nothing all day. However I realise this isn't necessarily safe, and also that my body may go into "starvation mode" making it really hard for me to lose weight.

What I was wondering was :

1)What is the minium number of calories you can safely eat per day (I realise there may be different opinions on this)

2)If I have almost no appetite, but I am eating when I am not hungry just to make sure I get some nutrition, is this going to make me gain weight or harm the diet, even if the total calories I take in are quite low?  Would the appropriate thing here be to take less oil so my AS isn't as strong?

Many thanks 

[frenata]

I'm now at the stage with AS where I could eat practically nothing all day. However I realise this isn't necessarily safe, and also that my body may go into "starvation mode" making it really hard for me to lose weight.

It doesn't last. Not that strong, anyway. Enjoy it while you can, and don't worry about it, says I.

I know there's good scientific evidence for 'starvation mode' but I've never experienced it. Those times when I've had extreme appetite suppression (when I first started SLD, when I added oatmeal) the weight has just fallen off of me. There's increasing evidence that the longer you go between meals, the better for your health. Seth was eating a meal every other day for a while.

I think one non-obvious reason men do better on  SLD than women is, they aren't afraid of the extremes. If they aren't hungry all day long, they don't eat. Whereas we tend to think, "omigod...if I don't eat something, I'll dieeeeeee!"

[lynnie]

 You mean I WONT  die if I miss a meal. T :?hat's funny I could have sworn......

[Jenn]

rednails,
   Don't worry, like Frenata said, you won't feel like that forever...and if you do, well...you could cut down a little on the oil.  But the way I see it is, hey we have some extra stored calories right there in our butts...soooo...starvation is highly unlikely!

    On a more serious note:  Even if you have no appetite...keep drinking lots of water and stay hydrated that is really important.  You could fast for several days without any harm, but not without water.  Usually dieticians reccomend no less than 1200 calories per day.  I think not because of the calorie energy, but because any lower than that, you start to sacrifice nutrients for lack of food amount.  If you do find that you are eating very little, a multi-vitamin-mineral  supplement could help you through those times that you feel concerned.
As long as you are not light headed or dizzy, not being hungry is perfectly ok.
 
   When your appetite comes back a bit, it means that you are catching up to your lowered set point.  if you weigh higher than your set-point, you will not feel hungry, as your weight drops, and sometimes faster than your set-point, you will experience hunger and less appetite suppression. 

  That is how SLD works...it is kind of like waves of less appetite and more.  Go with the flow!

Welcome to the SLD bulletin board gang!

Jenn

[shinju_chan]

I try not to go too overboard when I feel AS that strongly.  The 1st day I did SLD my AS was so strong I think all I ate was 600 cal.; the next day I had to get up in front of 30 kindergardeners and fight the vomit demons while reciting for the millionth time "Good morning! My name is blah, blah, Nice to meet you!" (as if that wasn`t enough to make me vomit already). 

My general rule is, if I feel light-headed at all I eat something, or if my stomach hurts I eat something.  It`s really strange because those rules were enforce for me before when I was just eating less to lose weight, but before I was fighting major hunger so identifying light-headedness or stomach-aches from not eating (a sign to me that I`ve eaten too little for the day`s needs) was easy.  Now with SLD it`s just a mild, bizarre discomfort coupled with those symptoms.  That being said, I have had a few days when I got away with eating as little as 600 cal with little problem, but those days are rare.

[frenata]

I always take the light-headedness as a happy sign I'm losing weight. Though, at the moment, I think it's a happy but unpleasant sign I need to have my bloodpressure meds cut back (again).

[Del]

Drink lots of fluids.  Lots of fluids.  I try to eat at least once a day.  Usually a kind of brunch.  After that, if I'm hungry I'll eat.
Del

[girljedi]

Rednails, I think this is something you'll need to work out for yourself.  As you can see from the resposes to your posts, we all have varied ideas of what "minimum" is.  It would be helpful to know how many calories you were eating before SLD (or right at the start), to know how much less you're eating now.  Several of us rue the fact we didn't keep good records at the beginning of our SLD journey!

Good luck!