Am I going into starvation mode?

issieandbissie

I entered my weight, height and after I did that my daily amount of calories that I am supposed to eat daily is 1434. Today I only had 429 calories and I worked out and burned 234 calories today. I ate until I was full and had healthy ammounts of food and didn't feel like I ate too little, but am I going to go into starvation mode?

KareninCanada

Yes. And at that kind of calorie intake, likely into gallbladder surgery as well.

Treat your body well, fuel it properly with healthy food. Your progress will be slower, but it will be safer, and more likely to last.

kschhr

There's no way you can eat 400 calories total all day and feel satisfied.

issieandbissie

So how many calories would you say I should eat minimum?

ComeAroundSundown

No.
Read these:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html
http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/

KareninCanada

If you're following MFP, then you eat the calories it tells you to, ie 1434 plus the amount you burn from your workout.

Or calculate your daily calorie needs (your goal weight in pounds x 14), and eat that without adding back exercise calories.

Either one will work pretty well for a safe and steady weight loss of 1-2 lb per week. I do the latter, based on information from my trainer.

SuddenlyPickles

So how many calories would you say I should eat minimum?

1,434 if that's what you got from entering your height/weight correctly (1,200 being the absolute minimum). And that's NET, too. MFP builds in a calorie deficiency -- if you exercise on top of that, you need to eat more.

KareninCanada

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

From this link.... "Looking at the numerous studies I've read, the earliest evidence for lowered metabolic rate in response to fasting occurred after 60 hours (-8% in resting metabolic rate). Other studies show metabolic rate is not impacted until 72-96 hours have passed (George Cahill has contributed a lot on this topic)."

So yes, eating 400 calories a day and burning 200 over the long term would, according to that link, slow the metabolic rate.

http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/

This link is about losing muscle while doing extreme workouts on diet of 1200 calories/day, not about slowing metabolism by eating 400 calories/day... I don't really think that's the concern here. :huh: