750 calories a day?

Melissa22G

I think I'd listen to the advice given of the people who have lost weight on here successfully without starving before taking shots, suppressants, and eating 750 calories a day.

As someone who has been there and done that- save the money you'd be spending to see them [weight loss doc] to be put towards a new wardrobe from losing weight minus the jitters.



**edited to specify "them"

theslimapple

750 calories a day is the best way to program your body to hold on to and store every little bit of food you'll put in your mouth. At first you lose weight, but then your body figures out it's not getting the nutrients it needs to function, so it'll start putting what you consume into fat storage for what it perceives to be a period of famine. Thank our genes for that. That's how people survived famines for millenias. Unfortunately ( or fortunately) we have constant ready access to food so this translates into a slow down of metabolism in the long run. In the end, when you start eating more food you'll gain back everything you lost.


Run away from those quacks as fast as you can.

stacyhaddenham

Weight loss and weight management are big business, but only if they get results. I don't know about where you live but where I am "pain management" is code for Chiropractic Care. I would at the very least look closer at the clinic and make sure that they really are Medical Dr.'s. Keep in mind that anyone can crash diet and lose an extreme amount of weight in a few days but keeping it off requires creating a sustainable lifestyle that includes a healthy diet and exercise.

FlaxMilk

I read all I needed to when I read that you feel deprived of energy. You aren't dangerously overweight. You just had a baby. Your focus right now needs to be on enjoying your life with your new child. You can't do that if you are more deprived of energy than you need to be. That's the baby's job, to take all that away from you.

If you are tempted to restrict to an unhealthy degree, just think of how that will hurt these irreplaceable days with your new child. You don't want your memories tainted by fatigue and hunger and affected mood. You don't want your bonding affected by these things. Set MFP to a reasonable rate of loss (no more than 1 lb a week) and follow that plan. If you breastfeed, you must account for that and talk to your child's doctor before picking a calorie goal.

Nourishment for you both comes first. You will lose the weight.

leadiax3

That sounds crazy! Do u have a medical condition you havent shared? Severe restriction of calories just isnt healthy for an average person.

Athijade

These clinics are usually in it to make money. So they want their "patients" to see fast results. They don't care about the long term. They want their money. Period.

sshowers83

Going under 1200 calories will put your body into starvation mode as far as I know. That is going to make it harder to carry on with a regular diet. Did you ask the practitioner(s) about that?

SoDamnHungry

That seems very unhealthy. Eat more and stop going to them unless you have a specific unmentioned medical condition you need their help with.

BrainyBurro

I recently went to a medical weight loss center and was floored when they gave me my weight loss plan. They want me to consume just 750 calories a day for 30 days, after which they will up my caloric intake to 900-1000 calories until I reach my goal weight. This is a center staffed with physicians and nurse practitioners - besides weight loss, they specialize in pain management. I feel like I should trust their medical expertise, but I've always been told consuming under 1200 calories a day is dangerous... It's working - in 4 days, I've lost 9lbs (Besides just consuming 750 calories, I had a Lipo B-12 shot and am taking an appetite suppressant). But I feel kind of yuck. Thoughts??

i don't think it's really a medical center and i don't think those people are really physicians.

Roxanne_Hennessy

Are you hungry though? That's the one thing that always confuses me. I usually eat about 1000-1200 calories a day (I'm usually 100 cals under but I usually leave that as a bumper in case I miss calculated something), but there are some days where I am just not hungry and I only eat about 800. Am I suppose to force myself to eat to reach my calorie goal?

sarahbrown1015

Just an fyi... I'm a hairdresser and I have a a few clients who have done extreme diets like that and their hair always gets super thin and brittle. 750 calories is such a low number I doubt you will be able to get the nutrients that you need.

Chevy_Quest

bump

joshdann

there is a staggering amount of misinformation and bro science in this thread. There is some sanity here, too... but finding it amongst the crap is tough. I think the funniest one was saying that the doctors were on "an agenda" because their advice din't match the bro science. lol.

Do what any normal person does - go seek a second opinion. Not from the MFP boards, from a qualified medical professional. And a third, if you still aren't comfortable. This is your health we're talking about here.

ngressman

Did they say anything about hair loss? After 2 weeks of this your hair will start thinning or falling out. I think you may lose weight temporarily but in the long run you will probably end up gaining it back.

HeidiCooksSupper

There are recently hospital- and medical-center based VLCD (very low calorie diet) programs popping up all over the country. There is some evidence this works but for a VLCD not to kill you requires very frequent monitoring of your blood and blood pressure measurements and strict adherence to taking prescription supplements. The science behind it relates to the idea that one can do the post-bariatric surgery type of diet without the surgery if one has the medical follow-up one would have with the surgery.

Meanwhile, a half-assed VLCD can kill you. One with a valid scientific design, lots of monitoring and prescription supplements may not kill you. Neither seems likely to teach you how to maintain health and a healthy weight.

And always my question. Why would you want to spend a great amount of money to be miserable?

plateaued

I am watching someone go through medical school. Year 5 and no nutrition course yet. An M.D. is the wrong professional for weight loss.

ATT949

I recently went to a medical weight loss center and was floored when they gave me my weight loss plan. They want me to consume just 750 calories a day for 30 days, after which they will up my caloric intake to 900-1000 calories until I reach my goal weight. This is a center staffed with physicians and nurse practitioners - besides weight loss, they specialize in pain management. I feel like I should trust their medical expertise, but I've always been told consuming under 1200 calories a day is dangerous... It's working - in 4 days, I've lost 9lbs (Besides just consuming 750 calories, I had a Lipo B-12 shot and am taking an appetite suppressant). But I feel kind of yuck. Thoughts??

That's a medically supervised "very low calorie diet" and VLCD's have been recognized as a medically acceptable means of losing weight for decades.

Funny, though, is that when I read your description of your treatment and results, it is similar to the plan that Lindora has designed and used to help hundreds of thousands of people lose weight since the company was founded in 1971. This stat is telling - patients who follow the program will, on average, lose 10% of their body weight over the course of a 10 week program. I was very surprised when I heard that because that's a huge amount of weight to lose.

I didn't use a Lindora program when I lost weight but I ate about 800 to 1k cals/day (net) and had a superb weight loss experience. (VLCD's are up to 800, LCD's are 800 to 1k)

It is wrong to categorically state that it is "dangerous" to consume <1200 calories per day. The simple fact is that some folks have a TDEE of 1200 calories per day. And some adults will gain weight if they were to eat that many calories. That doesn't mean that the 1200 calorie guideline is "wrong" - far from it. The 1200 calorie level is, IIRC, a recommendation by the World Health Organization that an adult female should consume at least 1200 calories per day and there's no question that people can lose a lot of weight following that guideline.

phw426

Bet you do feel yucky,,,how are you keeping up with your kiddos........

1shauna1

Is it Dr. Bernstein? Sounds like it. I have done it and did lose weight....but also gained it back plus (obviously, I am here!). It does work, and I believe if you get to the maintenance phase you can gradually up your calories. It wasn't sustainable for me, but I know it has worked for some people.

JaneLane33

In reference to the posts on page 2.
You are postpartum and only eating 750 calories?
Are you breastfeeding? If you are, is the appetite suppressant safe during breastfeeding? You need more calories if you are breastfeeding and some medications can be passed onto the baby via breast milk.

ATT949

there is a staggering amount of misinformation and bro science in this thread. There is some sanity here, too... but finding it amongst the crap is tough. I think the funniest one was saying that the doctors were on "an agenda" because their advice din't match the bro science. lol.

Do what any normal person does - go seek a second opinion. Not from the MFP boards, from a qualified medical professional. And a third, if you still aren't comfortable. This is your health we're talking about here.

I agree with you completely. There's so much information available for free at the click of a mouse and yet…

VLCD's and LCD's have been around for decades. They're not for everyone and, as the OP has experienced, they're "administered" by medical personnel.

Lindora, a company here in SoCal, has been doing an LCD diet since 1971 and their results are truly eye opening (the before and after pictures that I saw in my fiancée's clinic were the one of the final "nudges" that I needed to start losing weight). They don't accept a fair number of folks because some people are too unhealthy to use that diet (that's a heartbreaker 'cause some of those folks are actually dying from being overweight). That is offset by the success stories - an 84 year old grandmother who was on portable oxygen when she started. 20 weeks later she had lost 84 pounds.

Some folks are skeptical about the approach, understandably, so your advice to that folks seek a second opinion is 100% solid.

Lunchabox

Glad someone else understands this not a whole lot of people get that.

CarKiller2013

I've done the medical weight loss clinic thing. I have a TON of weight to lose and wanted to see results fast. They gave me Phentermine and put me on a 1200 cal/day diet. It worked like a charm! I lost 50 lbs FAST! But I also felt like crap. All. The. Time. I had all the "normal" side effects, and when I couldn't take them anymore, I quit. And gained all the weight back....plus some.

Would I do it again? No. I'd rather lose weight slowly and be happy instead of being a thin, shakey, sweaty, moody mess of a woman.

imhungry2012

Of course you will lose weight eating barely anything but I cant imagine you are getting the nutrients that you need. Also, can you imagine only eating that much for the rest of your life?? Eventually you won't be able to eat more than that without gaining weight...I dont know about you but I love to eat so anything I can do to maximize my calorie needs I'm going to do (ie. exercise)

joshdann

"gained all the weight back" is just another way of saying that you gained a bunch of weight. It's not the same weight you lost when on the diet... you're just wording it in such a way to place blame on the diet instead of yourself.

I'm not trying to single you out or say anything bad about you. Many, many of us have done the exact same thing (myself included). Realizing that it's /my/ fault, not the diet's, or the gym's or the (whatever)'s fault is what I think will keep me on track this time. Falling back into old, unhealthy habits is what makes people "gain back" weight, plain and simple.

There is a reason that people who are successful with maintaining their weight loss call it a "lifestyle change". If I lose 120 lbs, great! But if I then start eating entire Large Domino's Meat Lovers Pizzas again, I'm going to gain weight. Instead, I have decided to take some personal responsibility. There is no easy way out, it takes a desire to be fit and healthy, and stay that way. I'm in, are you? Let's do this thing.

Bercath

Your body needs a certain amount of calories to maintain its basic function without you actually doing any kind of movement so when you are taking in so few its no wonder you are feeling lousy, I'm surprised you had the energy to type your post.
750 is not maintainable weight loss programme so get off it before it makes you seriously ill just eat healthy, exercise and rest well and you should be feeling better soon oh and don't forget to laugh several times a day, it keeps you young

SkinnyBubbaGaar

"gained all the weight back" is just another way of saying that you gained a bunch of weight. It's not the same weight you lost when on the diet... you're just wording it in such a way to place blame on the diet instead of yourself.

I'm not trying to single you out or say anything bad about you. Many, many of us have done the exact same thing (myself included). Realizing that it's /my/ fault, not the diet's, or the gym's or the (whatever)'s fault is what I think will keep me on track this time. Falling back into old, unhealthy habits is what makes people "gain back" weight, plain and simple.

There is a reason that people who are successful with maintaining their weight loss call it a "lifestyle change". If I lose 120 lbs, great! But if I then start eating entire Large Domino's Meat Lovers Pizzas again, I'm going to gain weight. Instead, I have decided to take some personal responsibility. There is no easy way out, it takes a desire to be fit and healthy, and stay that way. I'm in, are you? Let's do this thing.

Tends to be a bit of a "chicken and the egg" scenario though.

Of course, the only real way to get this done is with personal responsibility and lifestyle change.

That said, the grey area where most of these types of medically supervised diets do need to share some of the culpability is that they do not teach folks how to eat properly once you have hit your goal weight and then transition into real life. Unless you plan to stay on that plan for eternity than 9 times out of 10 that lost weight ends up returning.

Does that mean that those of us of us who have been there and done that are not equally responsible for this re-gain? Certainly not.

I am glad, however, to have finally smartened up to realize that there is no black magic or special diet that will get this done for me. Just the simple math of a reasonable caloric deficit coupled with more movement and dedication to being patient and consistent with this lifestyle change over time.

That's what I'm doing this time in and, no surprise, it's working.

joshdann

I think we're mostly on the same page. I would counter that the lack of teaching is only part of the problem. If the person in question gained 50 lbs, did the first 5 or 10 not tip him off that something is amiss with his eating plan?