Are negative net calories bad

WinoGelato

aufstieg90 wrote: »

Okay. This one is a sensitive one... Especially when you're all set to shred, and you feel like you wanna be in the best shape of your life... And you have that 'I'm on a roll' feeling.

I spoke to a friend of mine who just qualified as a doctor and we thrashed this out. Here is what happened.

I argued that if I wanna shred, real quick, get my results the fastest possible way, net cals are the way to go. When you notice a plateu or the results slowing down... Naturally you wanna kick it up a gear, if you feel like you have the discipline you target the cal intake. If you feel like you have the drive you target the cals through exercises.

He said, your body isnt that simple. There are medical risks attached to what you want to do: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Metabolic_diseases.aspx

After seeing all the potential risks that could happen to me or anyone else attempting the net cal diet... I thought to myself, whats worth doing? Riding out the plateu and holding the cal intake at 1,500 - 300 of exercise? Or taking those fast results? (long term or short term)

I'll leave that to you.

Did you search this post out to bump from 2012?

What if I don't want to "shred"?

I'm not sure what a "net cal diet" is that you are referring to.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around what the OP from 2012 was even referring to and it isn't likely that 4 years later we are going to get an answer.... but I'm also not understanding what you (or your doctor friend) are suggesting. Can you be more specific? What is your TDEE? What calorie intake are you recommending? What is your exercise calorie burn? What rate of loss are you calling "fast results"?

pmm3437

Recommended minimum intake is 1200/day for females, 1500/day for males, unless under medical supervision.

Thats NET cals, for an average size person of the appropriate sex.

Francl27

I don't think a lot of people actually eat negative calories... Most overweight people have a TDEE of 2000+ and frankly I highly doubt that most of them actually burn even 1000 from exercise in a day... IMO people who believe that they are eating negative calories WAY underestimate their food and overestimate their burn.

kbuchaniec

Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.

To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.

Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.

So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.

To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.

RGv2

kbuchaniec wrote: »

Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.

To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.

Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.

So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.

To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.

How are you measuring your lean mass? At the restricted numbers you're eating at, there is no way under the sun that you aren't losing LBM as well. You don't know if it's good or bad, I'll be the one to start...if you're netting 500 cals a day (or less) it's bad. Do you have a doctor supervising this? Seriously?

snickerscharlie

kbuchaniec wrote: »

Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.

To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.

Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.

So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.

To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.

You regularly net -500 cals a day? Dude, this is neither healthy nor sustainable. You'll collapse before you can cash in on the $65K. Please stop damaging your body this way.

Budjola

what i always try to do is to eat my maintenance or a bit over it every day, as long as i do that i know that those 1k kcal that i burn in the gym doing cardio wont harm me.