Blog Post #3: Week 1 on a Low Calorie Diet
Hey everyone!✌
I'm going to be sharing with you, some of the results from my first week on a LOW-CALORIE DIET!
So, as you probably know from my previous post, I changed my eating habits to a low-calorie diet this past Monday, January 18th. I decided to start this experiment with a low-calorie diet, as it is a bit easier to transition into at the beginning of an eating change.
This past week, I tracked many different factors in my daily life such as my mood, any symptoms I notice, my sleep habits, step count, activity level, food/calorie intake, weight fluctuations, and other factors that I thought were important to note. Take a look below at the spreadsheet that I created with all of the data that I collected last week!
As you can see above my mood fluctuated throughout the week, dipping down to 1 or 2 out of the scale of 10. This did not seem to be altered by calorie intake, as I was consistant in my calories between approx. 1250-1450 calories per day. I noticed that on Day 1 (Monday, Jan 18), I had a very low calorie intake of 1250 calories, and I woke up with a headache on Tuesday. I decided that 1200 calories was not enough food to nurish my body, so I tried to eat at least 1300 calories which helped get rid of the headache. During the week, my energy levels were fairly weak, but by the end of the week my energy levels were getting a bit higher. In an article I read, it states that: "findings may seem odd to anyone who's tried to fast or restrict their calories and then felt the early fatigue, weakness, lack of energy, nausea, and stomach pains associated with their efforts" (Bunch, 2016). This article explains that you may experience lower energy and feel tired, however there can be longterm benefits such as longer lives, higher levels of physical activity, lower chance of cancer, lower chance of brain deterioration, etc.
Over the week, my weight went down by 5 lbs, with some fluctuations within the week. I was very excited about this. I would like to keep an eye on this, as I would like to see if I drop weight in the second week, or if I dropped 5 lbs because it was the first week of a different diet.
Bunch (2016) discusses the benefits of Low Calorie diets, and states that low calorie diets can work, as long as you are following such a diet safely and not restricting yourself too much. However, a lot of people who decide to follow a Low Calorie diet limit themselves to 1000 calories in a day, which can be harmful for various reasons. Another article listed some negative effects of Low Calorie diets, saying that you may feel hungry (makes you hungrier), you may not be getting the nutrients required, your metabolism can slow down because you're not eating enough so it tries to match your intake, as well as other long term effects. (Halse, 2019).
After reading various articles about the pros and cons of Low Calorie Diets, I see that these eating habits can work, as long as you aren't restricting yourself too much and you focus on the big picture, rather than starving yourself to lose weight. Personally, I would like to find an eating habit that I enjoy and that I can follow for a long period of time, so I do not think that a very low calorie diet would be for me, however a calorie deficit of 500 calories or so is reasonable and attainable for me. Once I began eating an average of 1400 calories, I was not hungry and I did not feel that I was restricting myself. I will continue to track my progress this week and update you next week!
Sunday will be my final day (day 14) on the low calorie diet, in which I will then transition into intermittent fasting. This week I will continue to do research and figure out which way of fasting is best for me, but I believe I will start on the 16:8 program, where I only eat during an 8 hour window of the day. As I said, I will continue to prepare for the next nutrition plan and track my progress this week and update you next week!
Thanks for checking in, I'll talk to you soon! 😊
- Jenna
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