Weight Loss

elyagav

Hey yall, I’m trying to lose weight. Lately I’ve been having 600-900 calories a day, yet my weight remains the same and I’m not losing anything. What do you think could be the reason for this?

KrissFlavored

Hopefully the answer is that you've not actually been eating 600 to 900 a day and that you're eating more then that because eating that few calories is unhealthy and dangerous.

harper16

The minimum you should be eating is 1200 calories for a female, and 1500 calories for a male.

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

Use a food scale to help calculate more accurate calorie counts.

elyagav

Yes I understand but I am not active at all so I am trying to eat less calories if that makes sense

KrissFlavored

Doesnt matter how active you are. If you have a pulse, you need a certain minimum number of calories. Which as stated above is 1200 or 1500 based on gender.

Just cause you're sitting around doesnt mean your body doesnt need calories to pump your heart and help your other organs to function.

I'm sure you appreciate your body working properly right?

What happens if you keep doing this and your body decides to use your liver or kidneys for calories you arent giving it? Kidney or liver failure is not fun, there are plenty of people on dialysis who can attest to that

nighthawk584

I have 900 calories for breakfast.... Don't starve yourself, eat at least the MIN 1200 for Female, 1500 for MALE plus any purposeful exercise calories.

PAV8888

Are you absolutely accurately counting your calories by weight using a scale and entries you've confirmed with a secondary source and logging everything before you put it in your mouth?

If not, do that.

And if yes,
eat AT LEAST 1500 Cal as male or 1200 Cal as female plus a good 50% of any additional exercise calories as a minimum. Because it really won't matter much what your weight does if you "off yourself" through failing to eat a basic minimum of nutrients and especially failing to consume sufficient protein and essential fats.

Now if you're doing the above and your weight trend has not moved over a 4-6 week period then it's time to go see a doctor as to what may be causing extensive water retention in your body.

And yes, you CAN undereat enough to become easily tired and lethargic or even enough to cause some organ damage... probably not a great thing to do to yourself!

But if you're not logging every single day from start to finish with everything that crosses through your mouth, doing so accurately, and only considering your weight trend over a sufficient length of time (which is never just a few days), then you're not starting your troubleshooting by picking at the low hanging fruit.

Hoofbeats COULD always come from zebras, or even giraffes; but they're much more likely to come from horses...

(Statistically it is quite likely that some zebras and giraffes will make it to the mfp forums. Still less likely than horses)

PedmomJill

@KrissFlavored apparently I can’t since the seven links I posted were deleted.

harper16

PedmomJill wrote: »

@KrissFlavored apparently I can’t since the seven links I posted were deleted.

Someone from mfp might have deleted them.

PedmomJill

harper16 wrote: »

PedmomJill wrote: »

@KrissFlavored apparently I can’t since the seven links I posted were deleted.

Someone from mfp might have deleted them.

I figured, thanks. I didn’t know it wasn’t allowed. I see links posted all over the place. 🤷🏼‍♀️ She had asked me to post links supporting my original comment, which for some unknown reason is also gone. Urging low cal is against the rules but I was doing the opposite.

harper16

PedmomJill wrote: »

harper16 wrote: »

PedmomJill wrote: »

@KrissFlavored apparently I can’t since the seven links I posted were deleted.

Someone from mfp might have deleted them.

I figured, thanks. I didn’t know it wasn’t allowed. I see links posted all over the place. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I didn't see the links, but maybe someone from mfp can clarify why they were deleted.

KrissFlavored

I'm interested too in why they were deleted. =/
I just got out of the shower and missed it all.

KrissFlavored

Oh I also noticed they deleted my comment also..

PedmomJill

KrissFlavored wrote: »

I'm interested too in why they were deleted. =/
I just got out of the shower and missed it all.

I just searched “what happens if I only 700 calories a day” or something similar. 😊

KrissFlavored

Okay, after googling that sentence, the first thing that came up was a site talking about how if you eat low calorie like that, it reduces your lean muscle over time... this we know.

Then they speak about how your over all calorie burn is reduced because of the loss of muscle.

However they dont say that the body is storing fat because of the amount of calories, what they do say is for people who try this, they do so until they cant anymore, and give up and go back to eating regularly, if the prolonged diet has reduced their lean muscle, then the average amount of calories for them to lose, results in weight gain or maintenance because the calories their lean muscle was burning is gone.

They also go on to say that they do not recommend.

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The second site I visited talks about eating a diet like that also being dangerous and that eating in such a way can cause health problems, fatigue and other issues, causing the person to be unable to live a healthy life due to lack of energy.

However it does not say that too few calories hold on to the bodies weight, and I am actually surprised because this website is really known for not giving correct information.

The site then promotes healthy eating habits and a healthy rate of loss.

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The next site is absolutely awful lol.. and actually speaks of low and lower calorie diets, their suggested calorie goals are very off. Lol but they do speak of fatigue, and gallstones happening on them, they also say to not do them for long term because of the health risks, without supervision of a doctor, however they also do not mention the body holding fat because of them. That's because low calorie deficits below the recommendation can cause an unhealthy rate of loss.

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Okay, last site and this is the last one I'm checking.. this particular website, is claiming what you say, however, I dont think they noticed what they are saying and have flawed their own explanation

This website talks about a standard client, shes sedentary and average height and 185 pounds, during the day she eats this low calorie diet but then go on to say that she night binges and also eats way more calories on the weekend, and while they go on to say that these binges arent resulting in thousands and thousands of calories, shes staying 185 pounds and not losing weight as a result.

So.. logically any person would realize that this woman is eating her maintenance calories with her night time binges and weekend eating habits.. because shes neither losing or gaining. That's what happens when you hit maintenance, it's the goal of every weight loss person here.

Sadly this website claims it's the result of her metabolism slowing down to her day time eating habits and that's why her friends eat more and lose and she stays the same "eating less"...

But how is she eating less with night time binges and weekend eating that isnt restricted? Shes not.

So her body isnt holding on to fat because shes not eating enough, its holding on to fat because of the calories shes consuming nights and weekends.


After those websites, its 2 websites that dont address the topic at all and a pinterest page so I'm not gonna click those.

I will say this tho... that the websites that did come up on the first page of google are simply considered blog style pages.. they are not actual medical studies from a website like pubmed. Most blog style pages usually offer their own opinion on something and will often claim a study showed this or that but wont actually link to the study itself, or if they do, most people find that the study is either biased and the results are geared towards the company who requested the study, or that they didnt represent all the findings and just picked their own interpretation of it and posted their opinion there, knowing most people wont bother to actually check.

The nice thing about pubmed or another study appearing in the search results is you can see the whole study and discuss.

However, nothing from a study appeared in my results backing the theory of the body holding fat for preservation, but people have in the past, shown studies that prove that the body will lose weight if in a calorie deficit, regardless of how big it is.

Should people do this? Absolutely not, we know the health risks. We want people eating healthy calorie amounts to achieve their goals.. and while the claim of the body holding fat would be a great deterrent, its unfortunately not true.

PedmomJill

Thanks for sharing all of that @KrissFlavored. I still say that there are studies for almost every topic that can “prove” each side of disagreeing theories. And originally I stated what had happened to me and I stand by that. I think almost all of us agree that restricting calories so extremely is a bad idea. 😊

KrissFlavored

Agreed

Alex

Hey folks - I removed posts from this thread that were going off topic into a debate on starvation mode, which is not the point here. We can all agree that 600-900 calories a day is not a sufficient for anyone.