Please help me with my diet - not getting enough calories and struggling to eat any more!

Well, the thing is though that I DO believe that losing a pound or two will help with the sway. My pH dropped from 6 to 4.5 and I did nothing other than lose a couple pounds. Plus, it does shrink your muscle mass (lowering t) and lower fat (lowering estrogen) and also lower blood sugar.

There are a ton of gals out there who I have talked to who are thin with very "big" high-T personalities and have boys and I'm not totally convinced that a few minor changes in diet alone can sway enough for them. There was that one gal who really WAS 85 lbs and of course she shouldn't lose weight, but for most of us, we can spare one or two pounds and it will only help. I totally agree that someone who weighs 100 lbs at 5 feet 2 in, shouldn't lose much but then someone the same height who weighs 110 lbs...they're still thin, but may have something to spare, KWIM??? And if someone was 115 at the same height and muscular, they can look very thin (thinner than someone who weighs less but is not muscular) and if they held steady at 115, I just don't think that's the right thing for their sway. These people do exist and I suspect a lot of them have boys - I just want them to have the choice to lose weight if they want to, while making sure that they know that they have the choice NOT to lose weight if they don't want to.

I totally agree about more warnings and I making sure that thin people stick to the higher caloric intake and feel free to continue eating breakfast and even eat more calories if they feel they are losing too much. I am going to go out of my way from here on in to mention that and I also think I need an essay about it, plus one for the blue swayers who are having the opposite problem and gaining too much, because I only want them to gain 3-5 pounds and some of them are gaining too much. People do tend to go overboard on swaying, but at the same time I feel an obligation to report on what I really think is swaying, I hope that makes sense??? I have to find a way to make sure and balance the two.

Thank you so much for the input, it is very helpful.

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Originally Posted by swish

Also wanted to add that knowing there was a bit more flexibility with the sodium would help me as eating out/buying wraps out for lunch would be SO much easier if you could relax on sodium sometimes and they often offer more calories

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Ok, I will be more vocal about that although I think a lot of people tend to ignore me anyway..."Atomic just doesn't believe in the FGD so she doesn't worry about sodium." I worry sometimes that the more I yammer on about the minerals, I begin to come off like I am opposed to the FGD for my own personal reasons and on some crusade against it, and not because of the science behind it, if that makes any sense. :/

We listen, atomic! When I cheat on the diet, I usually make sure the cheat is with sodium instead of protein and calories.

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Originally Posted by swish

This is a really good post! I just wanted to say (I know I'm mixing threads but I wasn't on yesterday so I have a lot of catching up to do) atomic, I think the information is actually really clear, the only thing I think could go in (which may already has and I've missed it!) is WARNING if you are thin and have very little weight to lose you MUST stick to the higher calorie limit as you will definitely lose a lot of weight if you don't. I did read your posts thoroughly but having never dieted in my life as I'm naturally small I had no idea I would lose so much weight. It sounds really silly but I'd been basically the same weight the whole of my adult life, put on one stone with each of my pregnancies and returned to normal ipwithin 2 weeks so I just thought I wouldn't lose weight, I thought I'd actually struggle to lose any as there wasn't any to lose, I was very wrong!!!! This is definitely my error but there may be many women like me that have never dieted and do not realise there is still a lot of weight to go!!


Also, I completely agree with the girls, life comes first and you already give so much of your own time!!! We can have no guilt swaying and you can have no guilt support!!!!!:)

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That makes total sense that you may not have known you would lose so quickly. I've had the benefit (?) of having lost weight before and been a variety of different weights/body composition, so I understand how it can come off quickly at the beginning and also that people WILL plateau at some point, which I keep saying but I know it's hard for people to believe when the pounds are flying off. Thank you so much, that really does help me understand where I"m going wrong.

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Originally Posted by Mochagirl

We listen, atomic! When I cheat on the diet, I usually make sure the cheat is with sodium instead of protein and calories.

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OK thank you! Sometimes I think I seem a little crackpot-ty when I talk about the FGD, just because they have some science-ese behind it.

Atomic I understand what you're saying, but I think it's very difficult to do lose ONLY a few lbs if you only have a few lbs that you can lose before being underweight. Doing just the dietary changes will probably cause people to start losing weight before you include any of the restrictions on calories/protein/sodium/fat. If someone only has 2lbs to lose in total they will probably lose that within a couple of weeks of starting the LE diet. Assuming that we all do the diet for at least 6 weeks, and assuming that we all have average fertiltiy (ignoring the fact that pink swaying lowers fertility) it will take on average 6 months to get pregnant if DTD frequently and not doing a cut off. So before you begin it could take someone 7.5 months to get pregnant, and to tell someone to only lose 2lbs within those 7.5 months is going to be tricky because it is difficult to find the balance to stop losing weight and start maintaining it since this will vary between the individuals too. It's got to be a very fine line!

I do agree that muscle = T, and fat = E... but if this sways greatly you'd expect ladies with more MASS (muscle or fat) will have more boys and lower BMI ladies will have more girls. The Oxford study doesn't show this - it shows exactly the same BMI for the mums of the boys and the girls. Maybe losing the 2lbs will lower T and E levels slightly, but perhaps not enough to alter or boost a sway?


Perhaps you could include a phased approach for ladies who don't want/need to lose anything? i.e. first week drop all breakfasts, second week start to drop meat/pick only pink friendly fruit and veg, third week to lower fat intake, or whatever! this mgiht help a lady to figure out what will be the right balance for her body without losing weight too fast too soon?

I hope I don't come across as critical of your work or anything, I really think you're onto something good with the LE diet.

I understand and I totally appreciate the input. I will re-stress the flexiblity factor, which I've always believed in as a part of swaying, in the diet threads.

I still think that weight loss sways pink and I have seen enough people who were losing weight and conceived girls after a string of boys, to believe that this is the case. The Oxford study, as much as I love it, is like a snapshot. A person's BMI doesn't really tell THAT much, because I really suspect that it's a confluence of diet/body condition that is doing the swaying.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that the less you weigh, the less calories you burn to begin with. So people who are on the thin side, don't even NEED as many cals (of course this can vary with metabolism) as a larger person. TBH I am equally concerned about a tall/heavyset person who loses a lot of weight too quickly...jj did just this and she did end up getting sick.

And I know people don't buy this but most people plateau after having lost weight at some point. You can see this on "The Biggest Loser"...the first week they all lose like 10-15 pounds but then after that, it slows to 1-2 pounds a week. And these are very big people who prob. have very high metabolisms, are on strict diets, are exercising constantly, and are also highly motivated to lose weight.

Stating loud and clear, I don't want anyone to cut back too far, lose too much weight, etc, but I do still think that for swaying purposes, it's best to be at your lowest adult weight and to have lost a few pounds regardless of your size. No need to go overboard and become swayorexic, if you need to eat more, then DO.

lol swayorexic - what a fantastic term! :D

I hope it catches on, I've been using it for a few years now! I really do think swayorexia is a serious issue that we need to be very very careful about.