Hi Lulu

Well done on losing the weight. No wonder you were scared about being morbidly obese, you wanted to live a healthy life. But it sounds like you don’t have much more weight to lose.

Part of the reason your weight has plateaued is because you’re not eating enough. So whatever you do eat now your body is trying to retain. It is a tricky balance losing weight. Calories need to be reduced enough to lose weight, but not too much or your body goes into starvation mode which causes it to desperately try to preserve weight.

Like back in the olden days when people were hunter gatherers and if they ran out of food they had to rely on their weight to survive. So when food is sporadic, the body’s new goal is to keep weight on. Does that make sense to you?

The thing is that you are young and still growing, it is hard to continue to grow if you don’t eat enough food. There is also a minimum amount of calories that should be eaten in a day and going under that is just as unhealthy as morbid obesity. People are not just worried about an eating disorder, they are also worried about your health. Eating disorders can kill. Once you get to your goal weight if the behaviour doesn’t stop and you continue this pattern you will quite literally potentially die in a few years. Once fat stores are used, the next thing that your body does is start eating your muscle. Your heart is made of muscle, now you see why eating disorders can be so dangerous?

Your original plan of eating once a day was working, your current plan of eating once every other day is not working. Why do you want to continue a course of action that isn’t getting you closer to your goal weight?

Why are you critical of yourself at your current weight? It seems like despite feeling better about your current weight, your mind hasn’t quite absorbed that you are no longer your old weight.

You are afraid of going back to your old weight. I think that it is amazing that you have achieved this through willpower alone, some people cannot. Now you know that you have it in you to manage your weight. Let that sink in. You can do this! You don’t need to be afraid of that anymore.

Now, all you really need to do is figure out how to have a healthier relationship with food in a way that you can still manage your weight. This is ultimately the goal for health. You are a smart young woman, I know that you can figure this out!

Learn about more about healthy nutrition, exercise and weight loss, experiment and see what else works for you. You are young and there are many things that you haven’t tried yet. Keep an eye on your weight while you experiment and if you start gaining go back to your one meal a day, get to a weight that you are comfortable with then do another experiment with healthy eating. Try to find the perfect balance for maintaining good health. Explore and start to feel more confident about how you want to eat and manage your weight.

I like to eat, so my favourite method of weight loss when I was younger was simply to run for 45 minutes to an hour every day. It burns a lot of calories in a fairly short space of time. The more vigorous the exercise, the more calories burned in the least amount of time is the general rule.

Eating junk food tends to make me gain weight more than anything else. Portion sizing also helps. Many people simply eat too large a meal portion. Some people find getting a smaller bowl or plate helpful for gauging portion sizing.

What I liked to do when dieting was switch out chips (super high in calories) for salted popcorn (super low in calories). My bug bear was chocolate, brownies, cookies that kind of thing. The method I liked best was restricting the volume of how much I was eating of that. I treat myself every day but only to a small amount. I learned how many calories was in these things and I figured that I could eat about 200 calories of sweet stuff a day if I managed my diet well. I I’m not really a soda person so I just didn’t drink it at all to save calories. I started out by cutting up brownies and cookies and putting them in the freezer to dissuade me from eating them immediately.

Nowadays, I have a method which is just eating healthier versions of foods I crave. So if I want chocolate, my body wants sugar and fat. I eat nuts and dried fruit instead or drink a protein shake. I do still eat some sweets but not every day anymore.

I don’t know what your favourite foods and drinks are when you’re not fasting?

Love and best wishes! ❤️🙏