We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Help with Calorie deficiency

ptrohrbach
ptrohrbach Posts: 1 Member
edited February 25 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm trying to figure out if what I'm doing is good for weightloss. According to my weight goal on MFP it says I should be taking in 2500 calories a day. Today I am around 1100 intake and a net of 300. Should I up my intake or just roll with it? I feel good and my hunger is satisfied.
Tagged:

Answers

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,533 Member
    edited February 25
    If today is your first day you're doing awesome.

    If today was the 100th day in a row where you did this... then you will crash and burn :wink:

    The more fat reserves that you have the higher the deficits you can tolerate, especially for a short period of time.

    0.25% to 1% of body weight lost per week is a wide gamut. Longer term most people find it easier to hang around the lower end of the range while still progressing towards their goals.

    The Minnesota semi starvation experiment had people posting approximately 50% Caloric deficits for six months. There were side effects enough that I would view it as a non-starter as a plan that I would wish to emulate*. The deficit you describe is more than 50%! :wink:

    Any longer term deficit that comes in to as high as 25% of your TDEE is already pretty aggressive.

    The goal is a groove that helps you lose reasonable amounts of weight reasonably fast. Not a race to the bottom trying to survive on nothing but water ;-)

    How much protein did you take in today? how much fiber did you have? did you eat your 5 servings of vegetables and fruits? Take care and best of luck!

    *the Minnesota cohort were normal weight at the beginning of the experiment which does make things worse.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 4,220 Member
    edited February 25
    Don't worry about today. Eat more tomorrow.
    The body keeps going with insufficient intake, much like your car runs fine on the last 1/4 tank of gas. But try to keep it going and in a few days-- uh oh.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,370 Member
    What you're doing is GREAT for weight loss.

    If you can keep it up long enough to lose a meaningful amount of weight, that is.

    And only if all you care about is fat loss, not about things like keeping your immune system in good shape, minimizing loss of hard-to-rebuild muscle mass, whether your hair thins and falls out, the potential for gallbladder disease, possible lowered bone strength that's extra hard to rebuild, a probable long term decrease in your calorie needs that would mean you're more likely to regain weight than if you'd been more moderate, fatigue that lowers calorie needs even while you're losing . . . and more.

    Those guys in the Minnesota starvation experiment PAV mentioned, they also developed irritability, anxiety and depression, some of which persisted into the post-experiment phase, IMU. They experienced decreased mental acuity, too.

    Decreased strength, low energy level, irritability, brain fog . . . probably not going to help anyone's effectiveness on the job. And some of that, especially the mood-related stuff, can even affect relationships with family and friends, not in a good way.

    You could get lucky. Maybe none of those things would happen. But some of them are quite likely, with a continuing deficit that aggressive. That is very extreme.

    But yeah, the more aggressive the calorie deficit, the faster the weight loss - great, great weight loss. Bad everything else.

Categories