1500 cal a day plus fasting..

SarahPeluso92

Anyone know how safe it would be to consume less then 1500 calories most days and then do 1 maybe 2 72 hour fasts every month?

harper16

What's the point of starving yourself for 3 days?

Enter your info into mfp and let that help calculate your calories. Log any exercise separate and eat back those calories.

poopenella

SarahPeluso92-I don't have the answer, but I highly recommend you check out Thomas DeLauer on YouTube. He'll probably have the answer plus give you tons of science backed info about fasting. I'm just getting started, so his channel has consumed most of my Coronacation!

nutmegoreo

Thomas DeLauer looks like he's doing really well promoting his agenda (AKA, filling his wallet with people's money).

OP, is there a reason why you want to do these extended fasts? Seems like unnecessary suffering to me. How much less that 1500 calories are you looking at eating each day? At the end of the day the next year is going to pass. You have to ask yourself what you want the end result to be. People make weight loss much harder than it needs to be through unnecessary rules and restrictions, making it that much harder to stick with. Be gentle with yourself. Set up a reasonable approach so that you can stick with it long term. I have crash and burned on rapid plans a few times, and realized I have much more success by being less aggressive over a longer period of time.

yukfoo

The greatest diet myth is that misery burns calories.

Whydahdad71

I would not recommend that approach. The calories might work (depending on your lifestyle) but the fasts don't make sense to me.

amummystale

Given that part of it includes starving yourself for a period of time I'm gonna say probably not very

ruffneckred

This is the first I have seen an MFP discussion on extended fasting, apparently it is taboo. I can understand that as without applying some common sense it could be hazardous. I have done some extended fasting, any suggestions on discussions ongoing, either here or off site would be appreciated. Thanks

Lietchi

SarahPeluso92 wrote: »

Anyone know how safe it would be to consume less then 1500 calories most days and then do 1 maybe 2 72 hour fasts every month?

Aside from not really seeing the benefit of 72 hours fasts, I will add that we cannot tell you if those fasts combined with "less than 1500 calories" are safe or not, since we don't have enough info.
- how much less than 1500? 1499 calories, 1400, 1200, or even less...?
- what is your current weight, height and age ? And your goal weight?
- how active are you in daily life (job, hobbies, housework,...)? How much do you exercise on top of that?
- how active do you intend to be during those fasts?

Even not taking into consideration those fasts, "less than 1500kcal" can be a sensible calorie goal or very unsafe, depending on your answers to the questions above.
When fasting, the average number of calories consumed on non-fasting days should be higher, to arrive at a sensible calorie average overall (but what is sensible will depend on your specific situation).

CupcakeCrusoe

I feel pretty comfortable saying "not safe."

Why do you want to do this, OP?

Also, signal boosting this very accurate thing:

yukfoo wrote: »

The greatest diet myth is that misery burns calories.

The way you go about weight loss is practice for how you're going to live your life after this. Are you going to, every month for the rest of your life, fast for 3-6 days a month? If so WHY?

PAV8888

So: 24 * 1500 + 0 + 0 = 1200 / day or less?

Why don't you just ask if it would be ok to eat less than 1200 a day and then we could get it over with? Oh, forgot, there is magical aspect to fasting.... such as perhaps blunting your hunger signals and giving you a bit of a high (i believe we call that clarity of thought) but doing nothing to blunt your hormonal reactions on resumptions of eating!

Ha! I know what happened!

You were looking for a way to successfully lose weight and maintain your loss, right?

So you were thinking about 24 * 1500 days plus 6 days of (almost) re-feeds at about 2000 Cal a day? For an average of 1600 a day for 30 days, some sanity, and perhaps a chance of success?

Ha! I'm sure I've figured things out now!

You were watching U-TUBE and your fingers slipped when you typed "re-feeds", thus you ended up on a "fast" road to no-where!

PAV8888

Dear OP: it looks like you're in the fortunate situation where you have an appreciable amount of energy reserves available for you to lose.

Which means that I have EXCELLENT news for you! For real.

To make meaningful changes to your life and improve your health you don't need to aim for maximum weight loss rates!

You really don't have to make things as hard as you can and aim for quick results.

BUT -- you DO need to dig in deep and review and revamp your current relationship to food and activity. And start making changes. Small changes that accumulate and cascade.

If you have 90+ lbs to go, this means that you're looking at a couple of years of weight loss and MINIMUM of two years of defending your weight loss and embedding whatever it is that you've done to lose the weight into your ongoing maintenance. Throw in another year for good measure and just in case, and your little project is a five year project.

If you can't see yourself doing what you're thinking of doing today.... in 5 years from today... then it is probably NOT the best way to go about doing things.

I am not saying you won't have to adjust. I am not saying that everything or even anything you do today will still be the same in five years. But you have to at the very least BELIEVE that what your doing has a fair chance of happening long term.

Do you really see yourself eating nothing 72 days a year in 2025? Do you think that you will learn much about your long term "flow" of eating and activity if you lose most of your weight eating 1200 Calories? Is 1200 Calories realistic in your daily life... five years from now?

What is your realistic activity level? What is MFP's suggestion for 1.5 lbs a week? For 1lb a week?

melissatwill

I understand the desire to go hardcore and get the weight off faster; but what are you willing to sacrifice for that to happen? Without knowing your stats, I can’t comment on your calorie intake & what would be best for you, 1200 calories is the minimum amount you should consume. So eating at the low end may not be the best for you.

As far as the fasting goes; lots of people do well on fasts, but I am not one of those people. I’m moody, low energy, & generally pretty miserable.

Have you thought of intermittent fasting? Lots of people have found great success with that & I believe it’s more sustainable long term.

Whatever you choose; just don’t be miserable doing it. It’s honestly not worth it if you struggle daily with hunger or low energy. If you are motivated and want it enough- you’ll get there without sacrificing your happiness along the way. Good luck😊

Mesnowprincess

Hi so i do intermittent fasting so I eat every day. REwind Keto (Jen) on you tube explains both versions off fasting. You can lose a great amount of weight and keep it off with intermintant fasting, so though she is trying every other day fasting now I know you don't have to. Jen lost 100 pounds with Keto (i am doing) with the eight hour window of eating. Watch some of her videos and see it can be done eating every day. Good luck

BiggyFuzz

I’m doing something similar but with 1800 calories

Diatonic12

@SarahPeluso92 Would you let me weigh in on this.

'consume less then 1500 calories most days and then do 1 maybe 2 72 hour fasts every month'
You didn't really say how much less than 1500 cal/day, Sarah.

All that aside, this is overcompensating for however you've been eating. It is the Shock and Awe Approach to food.
Overcompensation will only dig you into a much deeper hole with food.

Wild swings UP and down with food and calories to overcompensate for some quick weight loss won't fix old eating habits. You want to adopt some new cognitive behavior skills with food that will take you waaaay into the future.
You want long term stability with your weight but doing any of these things won't get you there.

Whatever we do to lose the weight in the most rapid way possible seldom lasts. If it were true there would be no such thing as rebound weight gain with friends. Regardless of the quick weight loss method used, at the 2 year mark less than 15% are still standing. At the 5 year mark, the percentages are even smaller.

If any of these brutally strict eating protocols actually worked we would conduct them only one time and be fixed for the rest of our lives. It doesn't work that way.

With every passing year the ground grows colder. We may become even more discouraged and throw the towel in.
Create a plan that you can live with for the rest of your life because there's no such thing as the Finish Line.