eating the minimum

hroderick

I'm 11 weeks into my second go at this and have lost 43 to date. I needed to lose 30 of 330 fast before a surgery so ate the minimum 1200 to do that. I'm recovering from that nicely now and encouraged by results, reset my goal from 250 to 180 (BMI normal for 6' male)

My lifestyle is now adjusted to eating a very healthy low carb clean 1200-1400 net calories and my current weight gives me about 300 exercise calories from walking 2-3 miles per day. I never feel hungry and am encouraged by the 3.5 pound per week I'm experiencing to continue this minimum level of eating for an extended period. MFP recommends 1670 to lose 2lb per week.

I know the rate of loss will drop as my rate decreases but hope for 100 lb in one year, hopefully more.

I know opinions here are like belly buttons, everybody's got one. I hope some replies with formal nutrition training or experience losing a lot fast without surgery can advise on nutrition problems that may arise and how to avoid them. I take a good multi-vitamin, D3 supplement, and glucosimine-chondritin. My logs are public and my recipes come from platejoy with a low carb preference setting.

Thanks to all y'all out there that share and care.

mulecanter

I'm no expert but you seem to be doing something right with that loss. We are the same height at 213 lbs (also same gray hair lol), I use 1500 cal per day and have been losing around 1.7 lbs/week. 3.5/week doesn't seem unreasonable for you in the 300's (for now). For sustainability's sake I'd suggest you do around 1600, I think you will still have fine progress. Also, for each 20 you lose I'd suggest you up your exercise a notch. Congrats on your progress!

TeaBea

1200 is a default minimum for WOMEN and 1500 for men.....these numbers are generally reserved for short people. These minimum calorie numbers help us reach nutritional minimums.

I wouldn't feel safe eating less than this because I am not a dietician, and haven't received any advice from a dietician. I suppose if I had this kind of advice, I could figure out how to eat perfectly every single day to reach these minimums.

Google very low calorie diets and hair loss. When we don't get adequate nutrition our bodies make hard choices.....one example: fuel the heart muscle, or fuel a full head of hair.

Also look up fast weight loss and gallstones.

Aggressive deficits generally result in a higher % of lean muscle loss. Healthy weight loss should help you lower your current body fat %.

Absorption of vitamins and minerals in pill form.......don't count on this too much. Take in food too. There are all kinds of interactions that prevent or help absorption. Some vitamin forms are better than others. A couple samples - some vitamins are not absorbed without dietary fat (A,D,E &K). Iron absorption is helped when taken along with vitamin C, and deterred when taken with Calcium. Iron has 2 forms (heme and nonheme)....heme is better absorbed.

Not feeling hunger helps you stay on a very strict diet......it says nothing about your nutrition.

TeaBea

joshbailey9950 wrote: »

I’m a lot shorter than you lol I’m 5’3 and I’m 33 yo it recomeded me to eat like 1500 but iv been eating around 900 calories a day. Thankfully I’m not any hungrier after I eat my meal. I’m also doing IF and only eat around 5 and then I’m done for the day. I haven’t weighed myself as I know i can get addicted to the scale lol but I can for sure see a difference.

Holy lean muscle loss!

This post is against MFP guidelines.....you might want to rethink this.

No Promotion of Unsafe Weight-Loss Techniques or Eating Disorders
a) Posts intended to promote potentially unsafe or controversial weight loss products or procedures, including non-medically prescribed supplements or MLM products will be removed without warning.
b) Profiles, groups, messages, posts, or wall comments that encourage anorexia, bulimia, or very low calorie diets of any kind will be removed, and may be grounds for account deletion. This includes positive references to ana/mia, purging, or self-starving. Our goal is to provide users with the tools to achieve their weight management goals at a steady, sustainable rate. Use of the site to promote, glamorize, or achieve dangerously low levels of eating is not permitted.
c) Photos intended to glamorize extreme thinness will be deleted.
d) Those seeking support in their recovery from eating disorders are welcome at MyFitnessPal. A growing list of support resources can be found in our Eating Disorder Resources page.

try2again

joshbailey9950 wrote: »

I’m a lot shorter than you lol I’m 5’3 and I’m 33 yo it recomeded me to eat like 1500 but iv been eating around 900 calories a day. Thankfully I’m not any hungrier after I eat my meal. I’m also doing IF and only eat around 5 and then I’m done for the day. I haven’t weighed myself as I know i can get addicted to the scale lol but I can for sure see a difference.

You know when you severely under eat like that that you're not just burning fat, right? It doesn't really matter whether you're hungry or not, or whether you feel *amazing* because you're losing all this weight, you are cannibalizing your body... including the good stuff like your heart.

PAV8888

Extensive periods of time at 50% caloric deficits have been shown to generate eating disorder ideation in individuals who had not previously shown such. This persisted well into a period of weight restoration...

Plus your hormone levels change in a detrimental manner.

Plus gallstones. And lean mass loss. And...

The less available fat you have to lose, the worse the consequences. A morbidly obese person might get away with this for a bit.

A slightly over-fat dude who wants to "tone"... not so much.

musicfan68

You are way undereating and you will have issues either your gallbladder will need to come out, or you will lose a lot of muscle - your heart is a muscle, BTW. The very minimum a male should be eating is 1500 calories.

PAV8888

Also if you're a girl with an auto-immune disorder and have been told to eat the 1500 Cal that are a minimum for a guy and you have the picture of a guy who does not look as if he would be classified as obese class ii as your Avatar and are posting in a thread started by a guy who is obese.... don't be surprised if people respond to you without realizing and taking into account your actual gender and conditions.

try2again

PAV8888 wrote: »

Also if you're a girl with an auto-immune disorder and have been told to eat the 1500 Cal that are a minimum for a guy and you have the picture of a guy who does not look as if he would be classified as obese class ii as your Avatar and are posting in a thread started by a guy who is obese.... don't be surprised if people respond to you without realizing and taking into account your actual gender and conditions.

*raised eyebrow*... That sounds like a fascinating story

cmriverside

PAV8888 wrote: »

Also if you're a girl with an auto-immune disorder and have been told to eat the 1500 Cal that are a minimum for a guy and you have the picture of a guy who does not look as if he would be classified as obese class ii as your Avatar and are posting in a thread started by a guy who is obese.... don't be surprised if people respond to you without realizing and taking into account your actual gender and conditions.

Wait, what? The young guy on 900 Cals? He says he's male on his profile.

You do know that men can marry men now, right? I mean, in some states, anyway.

PAV8888

I could be wrong, of course. Let me see if I can link the thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10654573/not-able-to-work-out-do-to-autoamune#latest

OK... and you know how you end up making an a*s*s of yourself if you assume?

It is entirely possible I made a *kitten* of myself as I latched on the 'going with husband on vacation' bit in that thread and combined it with an avatar where the person does NOT look 215lbs to me, and assumed the not so rare practice of female MFPeops putting their husband's picture in their profile to reduce "invitations"...

Since I was on the phone I couldn't see his actual profile at the time!

Too many assumptions on my part!

So, while I have to apologize to Josh for my confusion... 900 Cal remain too low, regarless of gender and inclusive of auto-imune disorder! To the contrary, a smaller than normal deficit and slower weight loss may be more desirable when exercise is not possible!

kimny72

hroderick wrote: »

I'm 11 weeks into my second go at this and have lost 43 to date. I needed to lose 30 of 330 fast before a surgery so ate the minimum 1200 to do that. I'm recovering from that nicely now and encouraged by results, reset my goal from 250 to 180 (BMI normal for 6' male)

My lifestyle is now adjusted to eating a very healthy low carb clean 1200-1400 net calories and my current weight gives me about 300 exercise calories from walking 2-3 miles per day. I never feel hungry and am encouraged by the 3.5 pound per week I'm experiencing to continue this minimum level of eating for an extended period. MFP recommends 1670 to lose 2lb per week.

I know the rate of loss will drop as my rate decreases but hope for 100 lb in one year, hopefully more.

I know opinions here are like belly buttons, everybody's got one. I hope some replies with formal nutrition training or experience losing a lot fast without surgery can advise on nutrition problems that may arise and how to avoid them. I take a good multi-vitamin, D3 supplement, and glucosimine-chondritin. My logs are public and my recipes come from platejoy with a low carb preference setting.

Thanks to all y'all out there that share and care.

First, if I'm mathing correctly, you are in the high 200's, so losing 2 lbs per week would be a perfectly acceptable rate of loss. Your body can only process a certain amount of fat at one time, and if you lose faster than that rate you will lose way more muscle than you need to. The rate I've heard as the extreme upper limit is 1% of your body weight per week. The danger is that by losing weight faster than that 1% per week, plus not doing strength training, you are going to blow through a lot of muscle mass in that 100 lbs and put yourself at a serious disadvantage going forward.

Not to mention the 1500 net minimum was arrived at by determining the minimum calories a shorter man would need to get adequate nutrition. It's hard to tell how accurate your logging is as you are using mostly recipes, but your rate of loss suggests it's probably not far off.

My only expertise is being an avid student of diet and nutrition in my spare time and hanging around here for 4 years or so, but I would strongly advice eating more, settling in to a 2 lb per week rate, and working in some strength training when you're able.

Congratulations on your first 40 lbs and deciding to make it happen. Take care and good luck!

hroderick

hroderick wrote: »

I'm 11 weeks into my second go at this and have lost 43 to date. I needed to lose 30 of 330 fast before a surgery so ate the minimum 1200 to do that. I'm recovering from that nicely now and encouraged by results, reset my goal from 250 to 180 (BMI normal for 6' male)

My lifestyle is now adjusted to eating a very healthy low carb clean 1200-1400 net calories and my current weight gives me about 300 exercise calories from walking 2-3 miles per day. I never feel hungry and am encouraged by the 3.5 pound per week I'm experiencing to continue this minimum level of eating for an extended period. MFP recommends 1670 to lose 2lb per week.

I know the rate of loss will drop as my rate decreases but hope for 100 lb in one year, hopefully more.

I know opinions here are like belly buttons, everybody's got one. I hope some replies with formal nutrition training or experience losing a lot fast without surgery can advise on nutrition problems that may arise and how to avoid them. I take a good multi-vitamin, D3 supplement, and glucosimine-chondritin. My logs are public and my recipes come from platejoy with a low carb preference setting.

Thanks to all y'all out there that share and care.

---

bump once for the next shift's ideas

best advice above was max 1% per week so weekly loss declines along with weight.

good warning above about gallstones -- I read up on webmd and it becomes a major problem at 800cal per day. Also olive oil helps

good warning above about hair loss. I learned its name, Telogen Effluvium.
Rapid weight loss – or, in fact any significant weight loss – can also lead to thinning hair due to the strain it can place on the body. It is known to cause the hair loss condition Telogen Effluvium which leads to diffuse shedding from all over the head and makes the hair appear noticeably more sparse. This is a temporary condition and once you address the underlying cause, such as nutritional issues – crash diets can often play a part, the hair should regrow on its own in up to 12 months.