please explain the problem with low calories...

TavistockToad

If I told you I could reduce your weight, but to make it happen I would drill microscopic holes in your bones, so they would be a little more fragile, would you do it?

If I told you I could reduce your weight, but in exchange your metabolic process would slow down, so you would take longer to recover from illness and burn fewer calories each day, would you do it?

If i told you I could cut your weight, but in doing so you would probably experience long term damage to organs that may or may not amount to anything, would you risk it?

If I told you I could lower your weight, but you would have to give up some cognitive ability instead, would you do it?

Probably not. At least, I hope not. All of these things and more is what happens if you don't eat enough food. It won't happen in one week. It may not even happen in a month. But keep it up, and it will happen.

I love this...

vorgas

I'd also like to add that hunger isn't a reliable indicator of whether you are eating enough. Anorexics often don't experience hunger and they can literally be starving. Hormones can affect hunger signals and eating too low can affect hormones. Some people who are overweight report constant hunger and they do not need more food.

Very true. One of the side effects of not getting enough food is your body begins to control the ghrelin/leptin process so you aren't distracted by hunger. From an evolutionary standpoint this effect allows you to focus more on securing food. If you were distracted by hunger when the sabertooth was about to attack, it probably wouldn't work out so well.

harleygroomer

I don't pay much attention to the number. I eat now WHEN I am hungry and I rarely come near the 1000 mark much LESS the 1200 or above. I am still losing, my trainer and Dr aren't upset, soooooooooooooooooo..It is a number

TeaBea

Even if muscle loss doesn't scare you ..... there's this.

When you are on a very low calorie diet you have much more of a tendency to plateau. So you start out losing fairly quickly, but then you plateau ..... then lose a pound..... then plateau again .....frustrating as hell.

ladynocturne

When you net less than your BMR, your brain is unable to use fat stores from your body. It must convert lean muscle mass into energy so it can run, and your brain uses more calories than you think.

I cannot tell you how many people I've personally tried to help prevent from going towards this path, they always regret it later and usually have to spend upwards of an entire year repairing the damage done to their bodies (the stuff they can see anyway). It's frustrating and horrible because it means they have to gain weight, thus making their rush to an extreme diet to get to their goal weight, completely useless.

I say NET your BMR because it's not okay to eat 1500 calories and then go spend an hour at the gym burning off 500. That's the same as not working out and eating 1000 calories. No one can stop you from doing whatever you want. But I will tell you that we will be here when you need support from ruining your metabolism.

1PatientBear

I don't pay much attention to the number. I eat now WHEN I am hungry and I rarely come near the 1000 mark much LESS the 1200 or above. I am still losing, my trainer and Dr aren't upset, soooooooooooooooooo..It is a number

Ok. Do us all a favor. Save this post of yours and as you get closer to maintenance and realize that all the information in this thread is accurate and useful, reread your post. Then, come back and tell us your reaction.

TeaBea

I don't pay much attention to the number. I eat now WHEN I am hungry and I rarely come near the 1000 mark much LESS the 1200 or above. I am still losing, my trainer and Dr aren't upset, soooooooooooooooooo..It is a number

What's hunger got to do with proper nutrition? You rarely meet 1000......you know this but don't pay attention to the number (?). I'm guessing your diet is low fat and high fiber ..... not a recipe for maintaining muscle mass.

vorgas

When you net less than your BMR, your brain is unable to use fat stores from your body. It must convert lean muscle mass into energy so it can run, and your brain uses more calories than you think.

Actually, your brain doesn't use fat at all. It's strictly a glycogen consumer. And since it can't store glycogen on its own it taps into the approx 30g of glycogen stored in your liver to provide fuel.

At least, that's what I found out a year ago when I did a search for "What does the brain use for energy."

her4g63

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Achaila

Well..I'll just give my input even thought I'm sure it won't be held up as much as everyone elses;

I have an eating disorder. I have to go to the doctor twice a week to watch my blood pressure, that runs around 70/50 because if it gets lower than that, something could go wrong with my heart and I could die. My pulse is also extremely low. My oxygen saturation is low. My body temperature runs around 96 (where a normal body temp is 98.6). I have to regularly get blood test to check and make sure that there is no damage to my kidneys or liver and a slew of other things (There is an order for blood work sitting right beside me right now, the orders on it are TSH, CBC, CMP (chem 14), ESR (Sed Rate), A1C) because what I have done to my body. How did I get said eating disorder? Eating less than 1000 calories a day. Dropping weight quickly. Deciding since I was dropping weight so quickly I would drop down more and more and more. Now my teeth are falling out, my hair is coming out in handfuls, and there is something wrong with my kidneys.

But good luck with your "healthy" low calorie diet.

1PatientBear

Well..I'll just give my input even thought I'm sure it won't be held up as much as everyone elses;

I have an eating disorder. I have to go to the doctor twice a week to watch my blood pressure, that runs around 70/50 because if it gets lower than that, something could go wrong with my heart and I could die. My pulse is also extremely low. My oxygen saturation is low. My body temperature runs around 96 (where a normal body temp is 98.6). I have to regularly get blood test to check and make sure that there is no damage to my kidneys or liver and a slew of other things (There is an order for blood work sitting right beside me right now, the orders on it are TSH, CBC, CMP (chem 14), ESR (Sed Rate), A1C) because what I have done to my body. How did I get said eating disorder? Eating less than 1000 calories a day. Dropping weight quickly. Deciding since I was dropping weight so quickly I would drop down more and more and more. Now my teeth are falling out, my hair is coming out in handfuls, and there is something wrong with my kidneys.

But good luck with your "healthy" low calorie diet.

Thank you for sharing that. You need to post that as its own topic as a warning for all the people here on their "healthy" low calorie diets. Best of luck to you!!

mallen404

I am 5 foot 7.. and weight around 158

my BMR is 1500.. so 1000 is not enough food to support daily function. The reason you probably don't feel hungry is because you have been doing it for so long.

I eat at least 1500 or more when I exercise. Sometimes up to 2000-2200.

diannethegeek

Well..I'll just give my input even thought I'm sure it won't be held up as much as everyone elses;

I have an eating disorder. I have to go to the doctor twice a week to watch my blood pressure, that runs around 70/50 because if it gets lower than that, something could go wrong with my heart and I could die. My pulse is also extremely low. My oxygen saturation is low. My body temperature runs around 96 (where a normal body temp is 98.6). I have to regularly get blood test to check and make sure that there is no damage to my kidneys or liver and a slew of other things (There is an order for blood work sitting right beside me right now, the orders on it are TSH, CBC, CMP (chem 14), ESR (Sed Rate), A1C) because what I have done to my body. How did I get said eating disorder? Eating less than 1000 calories a day. Dropping weight quickly. Deciding since I was dropping weight so quickly I would drop down more and more and more. Now my teeth are falling out, my hair is coming out in handfuls, and there is something wrong with my kidneys.

But good luck with your "healthy" low calorie diet.

I am so sorry that you have to go through all of that and I wish you the best of luck moving forward. Thank you for sharing your experiences, though. Hopefully they'll have some impact on those looking to eat so little.

ChrisM8971

There is so much information in this thread and am posting as much to keep tabs on it as for anything else. I would ask one thing though:

Most BMR calculators set the calories between 1800 and 1900 but MFP sets my goal at less than 1700. I am set at sedentary because I am in a car all week or if not I am driving a computer for work.

I eat back my exercise calories because the exercise that I am doing is out of the ordinary for my past life. So why am I set so far below BMR and should I be concerned about loss of muscle mass?

Achaila

Also, trust and believe me when I say this; your body will get used to running on little to nothing. Just because you don't feel hungry does not mean that you're not doing damage to your body. If I want to, I can go days without food and feel fine. Have tons of energy, sleep well, and be in no pain. Because of that its a slippery slope. When I was at my lowest weight (73 pounds and I am 5'8") I was never hungry. Food had no appeal to me. I could sit there and be surrounded by delicious things that smelled and looked amazing to everyone else, and my attitude was basically "eh."

abickford82

Under 1000 -- you're setting yourself up for an eating disorder. In 2011 when I found MFP, I ate 1200-700 calories a day. Dropped 25lbs. in 6 weeks. Awesome, huh? Not really. I gained 32lbs. back, and it's taken me 9 months just to take 20lbs. of it off, and realizing I had a serious problem. You can't possibly get all your macros, nutrients, and vitamins on such low calories. Plus, don't you want to be active? Go on a long hike, run some miles, or lift heavy? I know I do, and that a healthy, active lifestyle is better to me than just being skinny.

ChrisM8971

Well..I'll just give my input even thought I'm sure it won't be held up as much as everyone elses;

I have an eating disorder. I have to go to the doctor twice a week to watch my blood pressure, that runs around 70/50 because if it gets lower than that, something could go wrong with my heart and I could die. My pulse is also extremely low. My oxygen saturation is low. My body temperature runs around 96 (where a normal body temp is 98.6). I have to regularly get blood test to check and make sure that there is no damage to my kidneys or liver and a slew of other things (There is an order for blood work sitting right beside me right now, the orders on it are TSH, CBC, CMP (chem 14), ESR (Sed Rate), A1C) because what I have done to my body. How did I get said eating disorder? Eating less than 1000 calories a day. Dropping weight quickly. Deciding since I was dropping weight so quickly I would drop down more and more and more. Now my teeth are falling out, my hair is coming out in handfuls, and there is something wrong with my kidneys.

But good luck with your "healthy" low calorie diet.

This has also got to be one of the bravest posts I have seen. Thank you for sharing and I do hope everything goes well for you for the future

deksgrl

I don't pay much attention to the number. I eat now WHEN I am hungry and I rarely come near the 1000 mark much LESS the 1200 or above. I am still losing, my trainer and Dr aren't upset, soooooooooooooooooo..It is a number

You are 55 years old and so would have a lower metabolism than the OP, AND you have 80 pounds to lose still. You can't compare yourself to the OP.

jjinteso

OP: Please read this post. This happened to me several weeks ago!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1096845-eating-back-exercise-calories

Tropical_Turtle

I don't pay much attention to the number. I eat now WHEN I am hungry and I rarely come near the 1000 mark much LESS the 1200 or above. I am still losing, my trainer and Dr aren't upset, soooooooooooooooooo..It is a number

However, are both your doctor and trainer extensively educated in NUTRITION??? Odds are DOUBT it.