Is eating strictly 800 calories a day bad for you
tresterbriana
Posts: 6 Member
Im new to the dieting and afraid to keep gaining, I started the 800 calories a day thing and in total I have lost 10 I need healthy ideas to get up to 1200 calories if 800 is not safe long term I have 5 kids so cooking healthy is sometimes a challenge really really need ideas please
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Replies
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I can easily make a yummy 400 calorie peanut butter and banana smoothie.
How fast did you lose the 10 pounds?
Yes, 800 calories per day is too little, and thus bad for you. You need doctor's supervision to eat that low.
What's your current weight, goal weight, height, and age?7 -
eat more calorie dense foods. Avocado. Nuts. Cook with oil (and track it). And yes, 800 cals a day is not enough.
When did you start? How long did it take you to lose the 10 pounds?0 -
10 pounds in 7 days, I didnt think 800 calories were enough thank you for your ideas1
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Up your calories to at least the 1200 minimum, more if MFP advises a higher calorie goal.
With 5 children you need fuel your day!
You can eat anything as long as it fits into your calorie goal. Try having smaller portion of the calorie dense portion of the family meals and adding in more vegetables.
Work toward upping the nutritional value of meals.
Cheers, h.4 -
tresterbriana wrote: »Im new to the dieting and afraid to keep gaining, I started the 800 calories a day thing and in total I have lost 10 I need healthy ideas to get up to 1200 calories if 800 is not safe long term I have 5 kids so cooking healthy is sometimes a challenge really really need ideas please
1200 is MFP's default minimum for women, and that's before exercise. The reason is to help you meet nutritional minimums.
Calorie dense foods (small servings): Nuts, nut butter, full fat dairy, eggs, olive oil, full fat salad dressing, avocado.
Roast veggies in olive oil. Smear nut butter on a piece of fruit. Add chopped nuts to oatmeal. Add avocado to a salad.2 -
My weight goal is to lose the extra 60 pounds ive put on I am 5"42
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Make sure you add a multi-vitamin3
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Assuming you aren't a troll, 10 lbs in 7 days is just water weight and scale fluctuation. You should be eating more cals but you should give people more details ie: your starting weight, etc. MFP really does that for you when you input your numbers when signing up. 2lbs per week is the most you should be aiming for.7
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tresterbriana wrote: »10 pounds in 7 days, I didnt think 800 calories were enough thank you for your ideastresterbriana wrote: »My weight goal is to lose the extra 60 pounds ive put on I am 5"4
The first week likely includes water weight loss but moving forward aim for losing 1.5 pounds per week. When you put that goal and your stats in MFP, how many calories per day does it tell you to eat? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided1 -
Long term this is not healthy.1
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Please stop eating only 800 calories a day! I have seen so many women do this, lose weight for a short time, only to gain it back. Your body cannot function on only 800 calories a day. I started MFP in March of 2014. I lost close to 60 pounds my first year eating around 1500 calories a day, exercising and filling my body with lots of protein, veggies, fruits, and good carbs! I have maintained my weight for 2 years now. You have got to eat more calories if you want this to be long term!10
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It says 1200 daily, most of the food I eat is fiber or protein and I stick to 2 300 calorie meals and banana and grapes to make up the 200. Believe me I want to eat more just afaid ill gain instead of lose just need healthy ideas0
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800 is way too little. Is losing weight worth it if you're not healthy enough to take care of those kids? You'll still lose weight eating a proper amount of calories.1
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800 cals a day is great... if you are 3'6".
Realistic long term goals: Losing 0.5% to 1% of your body weight a week (So if you weigh 700lbs, then 7lbs a week might be ok, but if you weigh 250lbs then 2.5lbs should be your max, and on either of those you are losing so fast your skin can't make the adjustment) And the closer you get to your goal the slower your fat loss should be, so that you are figuring out how to eat to stay at your goal weight, reducing the chances of you saying "Made it, no more diet needed" and being back here in a year talking about how you gained it all back.
I suggest looking this over
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10802422 -
Thanks everyone will up calories intake really didnt think 800 was enough2
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800 calories diets are usually followed under doctor's supervision by morbidly obese patients who will die unless they lose weight immediately.
In the aftermath of such drastic diets, these patients show greatly reduced metabolic rates (metabolic adaptation) to such a low caloric intake. The legacy of drastic dieting is a need to eat at a reduced caloric level below what is expected.
Your body can only burn so much stored fat a day. If you are creating too great a caloric deficit and especially if you are doing so without eating enough protein and strength training, your body will go to other tissues to get the energy it needs, including muscle and bone.
Yes, I'm trying to scare you OP.
No one who is 60 pounds overweight will gain weight eating 1200 calories.
Please read the posts that are stickied at the top of the forums about logging accurately, learn how to track your food intake, and start eating more.9 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »800 calories diets are usually followed under doctor's supervision by morbidly obese patients who will die unless they lose weight immediately.
In the aftermath of such drastic diets, these patients show greatly reduced metabolic rates (metabolic adaptation) to such a low caloric intake. The legacy of drastic dieting is a need to eat at a reduced caloric level below what is expected.
Your body can only burn so much stored fat a day. If you are creating too great a caloric deficit and especially if you are doing so without eating enough protein and strength training, your body will start go to other tissues to get the energy it needs, including muscle and bone.
Yes, I'm trying to scare you OP.
No one who is 60 pounds overweight will gain weight eating 1200 calories.
Please read the posts that are stickied at the top of the forums about logging accurately, learn how to track your food intake, and start eating more.
I am going to start eating the 1200 I want to do this safely that is why I asked8 -
Definitely too little calories.
Not sustainable, and may even be dangerous.
Glad you will be upping your intake of calories. A very wise decision.1 -
tresterbriana wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »800 calories diets are usually followed under doctor's supervision by morbidly obese patients who will die unless they lose weight immediately.
In the aftermath of such drastic diets, these patients show greatly reduced metabolic rates (metabolic adaptation) to such a low caloric intake. The legacy of drastic dieting is a need to eat at a reduced caloric level below what is expected.
Your body can only burn so much stored fat a day. If you are creating too great a caloric deficit and especially if you are doing so without eating enough protein and strength training, your body will start go to other tissues to get the energy it needs, including muscle and bone.
Yes, I'm trying to scare you OP.
No one who is 60 pounds overweight will gain weight eating 1200 calories.
Please read the posts that are stickied at the top of the forums about logging accurately, learn how to track your food intake, and start eating more.
I am going to start eating the 1200 I want to do this safely that is why I asked
I am so happy to hear that. I honestly have no idea how you had the energy to keep up with 5 kids on so few calories!
The real idea here isn't just about losing weight, the idea is learning to ultimately manage weight. You want to be able to keep off the weight you lose, right?
Read the posts I mentioned so you learn. That way you'll have the information you need to start thinking about things in a healthier way so you can move forward and continue managing your weight as you lose it and then maintain that loss.3 -
tresterbriana wrote: »It says 1200 daily, most of the food I eat is fiber or protein and I stick to 2 300 calorie meals and banana and grapes to make up the 200. Believe me I want to eat more just afaid ill gain instead of lose just need healthy ideas
Just fiber, protein, bananas and grapes? None of the essential dietary fats? Are you hitting the minimum amount of fat your body needs? No starches? What about your micronutrients like dairy, iron, B vitamins, etc? Are you hitting your minimums on those?
800 calories is not going to be enough. You might find some ideas of what you can eat here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p11 -
tresterbriana wrote: »It says 1200 daily, most of the food I eat is fiber or protein and I stick to 2 300 calorie meals and banana and grapes to make up the 200. Believe me I want to eat more just afaid ill gain instead of lose just need healthy ideas
If the mfp app tells you 1200, then you will lose weight at that level, just it may or may not be as fast as you want, because if your calorie requirement is already low, it wont go lower than 1200. There's no magic number, you dont gain weight or lose at a certain number unless thats the one correct for YOU. It varies for everyone by their age, and height and current weight.
800 calorie diets are something for supermarket magazine fads, not reality. Its not healthy because any normal adult is going to burn more than that per day just being alive. Generally you should not be going less than 1000, although mfp will never recommend below 1200.
If you regularly eat way too little, then your body will have to start taking it from your body itself- and it wont be just fat stores, it will also come from muscle, including critical muscle.
Really you can just eat normal food, but less of it than what you ate when you gained weight. You make pretty much what you cooked before if you want, just use the recipe calculator to determine a portion size that gives you a reasonable calorie amount, you want 300-350 for your three meals, which gives you room for some snacks, including the fruit you mentioned. It can be helpful to swap out some foods for more complex carb versions to keep the fiber up. Try cooking with less oils/fats/milks to bring down the calories per serving.
Water weight changes on a regular basis, shifting around a couple pounds worth, dont worry so much about the minor daily changes, just the trends over a longer period. Stay under the maintenance amount for your stats and you will lose, it just doesnt happen overnight.
There's so many places on the internet you can look up sample healthy meals you could spend all day looking through them. There's no certain special foods required. Just eat what you like, reasonably balanced (you know not to tell your kids they can eat candy and chips all day, right? so you know that's not right for you either) and look up the calories in the database on mfp, and log it. It will tell you as you go how much more you should eat that day.1 -
tresterbriana wrote: »It says 1200 daily, most of the food I eat is fiber or protein and I stick to 2 300 calorie meals and banana and grapes to make up the 200. Believe me I want to eat more just afaid ill gain instead of lose just need healthy ideas
Maintenance for a 5' tall, sedentary, 20 year old woman who weighs 100 pounds is 1,526 calories.
Are you less than 5' tall?
Are you less than 100 pounds?
Are you elderly?
Are you bedridden?
If no, then you can eat 1200 calories and still lose weight.
Dietary fat is healthy. Dietary fat helps you absorb vitamins (and serves many more bodily functions). 800 calories is a recipe for lean muscle and hair loss. Don't do this to yourself, that's not healthy weight loss.5 -
I'm happy to hear you'll be increasing your intake! Not eating enough food puts you in danger of malnutrition which is something you probably want to avoid.1
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Why not eat some starchy things, bread, potatoes, pasta? These things are not unhealthy and will give you the extra energy you need to get up to your goal. Also fat, as others have mentioned. You can eat whatever you want as long as your track it accurately and stick to your goals.1
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Do you use a food scale, OP?2
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Glad that you are upping your calories. 800 is definitely not sustainable long term.
You've gotten some good advice here, but I agree with nuts, avocado, and coconut oil.
3 -
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1cerise_noir wrote: »avocado
cheese
full fat dairy
Greek yogurt
ice cream
peanut butter (or other nut butters)
dark chocolate
less lean cuts of meat (including beef, pork, sausage, etc.)
seeds (chia, flax, sunflower, etc.)
nuts
olive oil
coconut oil
butter
beans and lentils
protein shakes, bars, and smoothies
hummus
beef jerky
cornbread
tuna
full calorie condiments
full calorie sauces & dressings
sour cream
guacamole
whole grain pasta
rice
bacon
whole eggs
quinoa
fruit and fruit juices
pretzels
bananas
scones
muffins (bran, blueberry, banana nut, etc.)
potatoes (sweet, red, gold, purple, white, etc.)
dried fruit (raisins, apricots, plums, dates, etc.)
granola
coconut
salmon
edamame
olives
honey
molasses
3 -
How to eat 1200 calories instead of 800?
Add 400 calories to your current plan.
If you're not doing it already, eat enough fat that you can actually use all the vitamins you get with your meals. You could get close to the extra 400 easily with an ounce or two of nuts and adding a tablespoon of olive oil to one of your meals.3 -
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1cerise_noir wrote: »avocado
cheese
full fat dairy
Greek yogurt
ice cream
peanut butter (or other nut butters)
dark chocolate
less lean cuts of meat (including beef, pork, sausage, etc.)
seeds (chia, flax, sunflower, etc.)
nuts
olive oil
coconut oil
butter
beans and lentils
protein shakes, bars, and smoothies
hummus
beef jerky
cornbread
tuna
full calorie condiments
full calorie sauces & dressings
sour cream
guacamole
whole grain pasta
rice
bacon
whole eggs
quinoa
fruit and fruit juices
pretzels
bananas
scones
muffins (bran, blueberry, banana nut, etc.)
potatoes (sweet, red, gold, purple, white, etc.)
dried fruit (raisins, apricots, plums, dates, etc.)
granola
coconut
salmon
edamame
olives
honey
molasses
Gee, that's such a good list. I wish I'd thought of it.7 -
It's important that you use a digital kitchen scale to weigh your food. That's the only real way to know the amount of calories you consume.3
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