Not eating back calories dangerous?

merekins

The NHS’s new 800 calorie diabetes diet has gotten a lot of attention and while reading about it, am a bit confused about my own calorie intake. I stay around 1200 a day, or rather, average that for the week...some days over, some days under, but I don’t account for exercise. Am reading that going below 1200, causes organ damage, specifically to the heart. Let’s say I burn 400 calories running and eat 1200 calories. Does that put me in a dangerous intake category?

mbaker566

yes-ish
not being a doctor and talking only in generalizations. 1200 is the typical minimum for a woman. so if you eat 1200 and exercise 400 you are only netting 800 calories.
so you are setting yourself up for binging, hair loss, mood swings, imbalances, malnutrition and it is typically considered not maintainable.
mfp is set to eat the calories back from exercise as it goes by the NEAT principles
TDEE is also another way to figure how many calories to eat as well.

jjpptt2

Over the short term, no. It's certainly not good for you and probably isn't setting you up for long term success/health, but I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it dangerous.

Over a longer term, yes. On that little food, it's nearly impossible to reasonably fuel your body (energy) OR nourish it (vitamins, nutrients, etc).


On a related note - do you have diabetes?
I'm not familiar with the 800 calorie diet, but if you don't have diabetes, I'd question how much relevance to you a diet for diabetes even is.

shunggie

The first time I lost weight it was before MFP. I ate 1200 calories of day and kept the fat grams under 20. I exercised regularly. I was working with my doctor, she had not concerns. That being said I weighed almost 280 pounds at 5 ft 1in and was in a desperate situation. I would never go that low now and not eat back some calories. I say talk to your doctor, unless you are morbidly obese it's probably not a great idea.

smolmaus

mbaker566 wrote: »

yes-ish
so you are setting yourself up for binging, hair loss, mood swings, imbalances, malnutrition

Obvs I am not a doctor either but I would say that the above and generally feeling like garbage would catch up to you before serious heart damage.

I used to do that, 1200kcal (on the button, logged religiously) then a run 3-4 days a week and it wasn't long before things got very dodgy and I was risking passing out on the treadmill from low blood sugar levels and general weakness. I don't do that anymore, it's silly and unnecessary. I was 5'2" and 115lb at the time too so it's not like it was even a huge deficit.

TavistockToad

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/42951247#Comment_42951247

This thread has the 800 calorie diet study linked

kimny72

merekins wrote: »

The NHS’s new 800 calorie diabetes diet has gotten a lot of attention and while reading about it, am a bit confused about my own calorie intake. I stay around 1200 a day, or rather, average that for the week...some days over, some days under, but I don’t account for exercise. Am reading that going below 1200, causes organ damage, specifically to the heart. Let’s say I burn 400 calories running and eat 1200 calories. Does that put me in a dangerous intake category?

The NHS diet is for people with a dangerous health condition. The diet is specifically formulated by a medical pro to be nutritionally complete, and the dieters are under the close supervision of their doctor. Even so, there are still dangers for them.

Unless you are in desperate medical need of aggressive weight loss, are 100% sure your diet is nutritionally complete and are checking in with your doctor as often as those on the NHS diet are, you should not be netting 800 calories, and yes if you do that for a measurable period of time it can be dangerous.

collectingblues

What you're doing is not smart, and it may be dangerous, depending on how far under that 1200 you go, what your activity is, and how often you do it.

The NHS plan is different because it is for a very specific subset of patients who are obese and with a serious health condition, who are additionally monitored by a physician and are getting nutritional support from a dietitian.

Are you obese, type 2 diabetic, getting support and guidance from a dietitian, and being monitored by a physician? If you're not, comparing yourself to the NHS plan is like comparing gumdrops to ponies.

estherdragonbat

At 1200, I would agree it's dangerous. If you weren't at that calorie limit and your exercise burns were minimal, it would be less of a deal.

(Personal story: I joined MFP at Obesity Level III/BMI 45. While I could have set MFP for me to lose 2lbs per week, I decided to go at a slower pace and shoot for 1lb. I also decided to start exercising by walking minimum 25 minutes daily. That gave me around 100, 150 extra calories. I didn't eat those back. Well, now I'm overweight and closing in on healthy BMI. I'm shooting for 1/2lb per week and I'm on 1360 calories. Plus that 25-minute daily walk is typically around 2 hours and I strength-train 5 days a week. Let's just say I eat them back now.)

Tacklewasher

One thing to consider in this conversation. How much are you currently losing a week, on average. If you are losing at a healthy rate (not more than 2 lbs per week and probably 1 lb), then it kinda says you aren't netting 800 cals and you can stick to what you have been doing. If you are losing too fast, then yes you should eat more.

Too often mis-tracking of both food and exercise kinda balances out and, really, it's the results that should matter.

merekins

No, am not diabetic nor am I interested in doing an 800 calorie diet. Was just reading about it as it’s interesting. I just don’t track exercise so never account for it. Am currently losing 2lbs a week over last couple months which I’ve been happy with. Expect that to slow down cery soon though.
My concern was that I might actually be considered extreme low cal by ignoring exercise burns. I don’t want to so thar. Have lost almost 60lbs and still have 40 more to go.

merekins

If I connected my fitbit with myfitnesspal, would that be accurate enough to eat back calories to 1200?

jjpptt2

merekins wrote: »

If I connected my fitbit with myfitnesspal, would that be accurate enough to eat back calories to 1200?

You say you're losing ~2lbs/week right now. Does that line up with what you should be losing based on your logging/eating?

kimny72

merekins wrote: »

No, am not diabetic nor am I interested in doing an 800 calorie diet. Was just reading about it as it’s interesting. I just don’t track exercise so never account for it. Am currently losing 2lbs a week over last couple months which I’ve been happy with. Expect that to slow down cery soon though.
My concern was that I might actually be considered extreme low cal by ignoring exercise burns. I don’t want to so thar. Have lost almost 60lbs and still have 40 more to go.

With 40 to go, 2 lbs per week is pretty fast. My humble suggestion would be to eat back at least some of your exercise calories and lose a little slower. If it were me, I'd be worried that I was losing more muscle than I needed to and that eating so low for so long would start to lower my TDEE.

merekins

Uh...I selected 2lbs but am looking at settings and it is also set to sedentary. I know we all want to lose everything but am fine with slowing down. Would you guys recommend upping activity level and/or eating back fitbit calories? I know I won’t log exercise so hoping one of those options will work.

Tacklewasher

merekins wrote: »

Uh...I selected 2lbs but am looking at settings and it is also set to sedentary. I know we all want to lose everything but am fine with slowing down. Would you guys upping activity level and/or eating back fitbit calories? I know I won’t log exercise so hoping one of those options will work.

Bumping the activity level is the easiest then. I think it adds 200 cals from sedentary to lightly active.

jjpptt2

merekins wrote: »

Uh...I selected 2lbs but am looking at settings and it is also set to sedentary. I know we all want to lose everything but am fine with slowing down. Would you guys recommend upping activity level and/or eating back fitbit calories? I know I won’t log exercise so hoping one of those options will work.

Fundamentally they should do basically the same thing, so it's largely personal preference. If you prefer a more consistent calorie goal day to day, increase your activity level. If you want your calorie level to more directly reflect your activity level day-to-day, then sync your fitbit.

merekins

Thank you so much!!! ❤️