650 Calories and Insanity

gelar93

Hi everyone,

I recently started doing Insanity and have been eating around 650 calories for a while. Now I was wondering is that a good idea? I mean I pick my meals wisely so I don't starve myself; however, since I'm going for the muscles as well, do you guys think I need to add more calories to my diet?

shedboy

do you mean eating an extra 650 or 650 for the whole day??

gelar93

650 calories a day in total

daw0518

...I hope this is a joke.

KarenJanine

You are starving yourself. Your body will be burning your muscles for fuel. Remember that your heart is also a muscle.

Please reassess your food intake immediately and seek help of a dietitian if you feel unable to eat more.

ninerbuff

You're starving yourself. Children under 80lbs eat more than 650 calories a day.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Graelwyn75

Lol. Seriously. Are you nuts ?

shedboy

that seems an awfully little amount to eat in general even before doing any exercise but i dont know your personal circumstances so im sure you know what youre doing. id up the amount of calories you eat though, to double atleast. i was personally burning an average of 650 calories a day doing insanity so id defo eat more. did you use the calorie calculator thats in the nutrition guide with insanity, thatl give you a rough idea of how much to intake.

Arranna1212

How do you expect your body to do anything only eating that many calories? You'll lose weight sure.. But you'll end up being light headed and get sick from it. You can't drive across the country when your gas gauge is on E.

snowmaniac

Insanity comes with a nutrition guide that walks you through the necessary calorie intake calculations. If you seriously are doing the program, do it right and follow the guide.

snowmaniac

By the way, if you want to add muscle, regardless of program, you need to eat at a caloric surplus. Eating at a deficit will not cut it.

SuperTiredMom

To go a little bit more in depth than "you've got to be kidding me", you are depriving your body of the important nutrients and fuel it needs to function properly. In basic English, you are literally starving yourself, which is never a good idea. If you continue along this route, you will do massive damage to your body.

snazzyjazzy21

this makes me really sad

SuperTiredMom

I also just checked out your profile, please don't use another person's body as your "inspiration", especially a Victoria's Secret model, most models are sickly skinny because the manufacturer's want the clothing to look as close to being on the hanger on the rack while on the model as possible. Aim for HEALTH and STRENGTH not just the number on the scale.

daw0518

This makes me really sad

It makes me really sad, but also a little angry.

MFP gave you a number based on your goal when you signed up & you chose to ignore it. No need to ask - MFP pretty much already said you should be eating more than 650 calories a day.

gelar93

Not sure why some people felt the need to respond so negatively, but anyway, who are you to tell me not to ask MFP???
I was just wondering if I'd be getting the muscle-results I want with this much intake and am looking for people who can POSITIVELY help me with it.
Please take your negativity, sadness, and anger somewhere else. Thank you.

snazzyjazzy21

Not sure why some people felt the need to respond so negatively, but anyway, who are you to tell me not to ask MFP???
I was just wondering if I'd be getting the muscle-results I want with this much intake and am looking for people who can POSITIVELY help me with it.
Please take your negativity, sadness, and anger somewhere else. Thank you.

You can't build muscle on 650 calories. Period. At all. Ever. No one can help you with that. You need to double your calorie intake to even be regarded as eating at the low end of a calorie deficit. And even then, you would struggle to build muscle because you're eating at a deficit.

determinedbutlazy

You will not get any muscle on 650 calories a day. Insanity has a nutrition plan, please follow it.

You are eating less than a child.

Supertact

Not sure why some people felt the need to respond so negatively, but anyway, who are you to tell me not to ask MFP???
I was just wondering if I'd be getting the muscle-results I want with this much intake and am looking for people who can POSITIVELY help me with it.
Please take your negativity, sadness, and anger somewhere else. Thank you.

Wow.. lol.

The responses were quite helpful actually.

You're starving yourself and you will gain 0 muscle starving yourself.

Get some help you are anorexic.

shedboy

i agree with the OP, there really isnt any need for every one to chip in with their over the top reactions and anger directed towards her.

she only asked for a little bit of advice, its not exactly helpful everyone trying to shoot her down.

if you want to help give her some USEFUL advice and keep the attitude out of it

gelar93

Not sure why some people felt the need to respond so negatively, but anyway, who are you to tell me not to ask MFP???
I was just wondering if I'd be getting the muscle-results I want with this much intake and am looking for people who can POSITIVELY help me with it.
Please take your negativity, sadness, and anger somewhere else. Thank you.

Wow.. lol.

The responses were quite helpful actually.

You're starving yourself and you will gain 0 muscle starving yourself.

Get some help you are anorexic.

I am 5'4, 20 years old, 140 lbs. and have been on the 650 diet for a week. I do need to shed some weight for an important event that is coming up. DOES THAT MAKE ME ANOREXIC?
How about you don't judge people without knowing them? Gosh judgmental people. Thanks for being the most negative people on any forum I've ever been to. On my very first topic. Congratulation.

arguablysamson

Hi everyone,

I recently started doing Insanity and have been eating around 650 calories for a while. Now I was wondering is that a good idea? I mean I pick my meals wisely so I don't starve myself; however, since I'm going for the muscles as well, do you guys think I need to add more calories to my diet?

My dear, that is an extremist and totally nutty way to eat. I've done it, and yes, it gets results, but you will sabotage yourself in the long-run since A. it will be hard to maintain the motivation to stay doing it, and B. it will cause your body to burn muscle as well as fat. You'll also feel cold, sick, lethargic, and get depressed and dizzy. Not a good idea.

Shoot for 1,100 calories if you must, but even that is pushing it. Depending on how much you want to lose, there are various approaches. Go to my forum and learn a better way to drastically cut down if you must...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1241325-how-to-do-one-meal-a-day-the-basics

But don't overdo things. It may feel logical now, but it works against you when all is said and done.

nking404

HEY!! I just recently completed insanity and its a very intense program and your definately going to need a higher calorie intake than 650 a day. Like everyone else said you are starving yourself, you need to fuel your body in order to make it through these vigorous workouts. Good luck on your journey

TavistockToad

Not sure why some people felt the need to respond so negatively, but anyway, who are you to tell me not to ask MFP???
I was just wondering if I'd be getting the muscle-results I want with this much intake and am looking for people who can POSITIVELY help me with it.
Please take your negativity, sadness, and anger somewhere else. Thank you.

I am positive you won't get the results you want doing insanity on 650 calories. But what will happen is you will have bad skin, bad nails and your hair will fall out... and you'll make yourself really ill and probably stop your period which could then stop you having kids later in life...

Courtney4805

This makes me really sad

It makes me really sad, but also a little angry.

MFP gave you a number based on your goal when you signed up & you chose to ignore it. No need to ask - MFP pretty much already said you should be eating more than 650 calories a day.

THIS

daw0518

At 5'4'' & 140lbs, you're already at a healthy weight.

My only advice is to enter your goals into MFP and eat the amount it tells you + eat back some/most of your exercise calories. You should be eating an absolute minimum of 1200 calories, but with insanity it would probably be more like 1700+. If you use the site the way it is designed, YOU WILL GET RESULTS. In a healthy way. It takes time, obviously, but it's worth it if you don't want to be completely miserable.

joehempel

If you are doing Insanity I would follow THEIR nutrition plan rather than MFP's.

I just finished it up with fairly decent results, and let me tell you, you'll burn more than what you're eating in a day. If your goal in the next few weeks is to lose all the muscle in your body, then by all means, eat 650 calories. You will absolutely NOT build any muscle eating 650 calories. You won't even get toned or lean....you will shrink away your muscle and be every bit of "skinny fat".

But at 5'4 and 140 pounds, I'd be eating more like 1800 calories a day....maybe even more depending on your job and lifestyle.

shortt123

Thank you supertiredmom for your comment about Victoria secret models not being the greatest source of inspiration, their pics are so photoshopped

abideedum

So if OP was doing 5:2 (i know she isn't but just go with me here) what would be the answer then? Insanity on the days your not fasting?? Obviously it would go against the insanity food plan but what would peoples reactions be then?

snowmaniac

Based on your height, weight, and age, your approximate TDEE just to stay right where you are would be around 1650 - 1700 calories per day if you are not even exercising. If you plan on doing an intense program like insanity, you will probably need to eat closer to 2400 - 2600 calories per day if you are just looking to maintain. Do you want to lose more weight or add muscle? You can't do both at the same time. If you follow the Insanity Nutrition Guide, which is the right way to do the program, they will probably peg you around 2700 - 3000 calories per day if you want to add lean body mass believe it or not. If you aren't going to do the program the right way, I would highly recommend you not do it at all.

BTW, here is a link to the Insanity Nutrition guide if you got the discs second hand and do not have the support information.
http://www.teamunify.com/cast/__doc__/Insanity Nutrition Guide.pdf
Do the calculations yourself and see.

shortt123

I think everybody is different, and everyone's caloric load is going to be different, especially when you factor activity level into the equation. What works for you may not work for someone else. What do you eat to make up 650 calories?

Now that I'm back on the healthy wagon, lol, I may return to a healthy protein diet, it's only 1000 calories, which is still very low. Actually when I followed it before, and felt great I should add, I know I had more than 1000 calories at the end of the day.

Eat when your hungry. Don't eat when you are not, unless of course it's at the time of day when you should eat.

Do you have energy, & feel good on 650 calories a day?