Eating Too Few Calories

RoseKate

Hi, I'm just wondering if it's actually really all that bad eating only 600-800, sometimes 1000 calories a day? I'm not hungry, and it seems counter-intuitive eating more than I feel I need. I'm only 5'4, and I exercise about an hour each day. Thanks guys

gpstrucker

What is your BMR? I am betting it's higher than 1,000 calories/day. The BMR is the amount of calories your body burns just to keep itself alive. Once you know this, a little common sense will answer the question.

yarwell

At 600-800 you have to try hard to get all the minerals and vitamins you need, so to some extent it depends what you're eating.

You also have to have enough spare fat on you to provide the difference in calories for living.

So the answer is "it depends".

joejccva71

You can eat that low on the very short term if you want to shed some fat and a lot of water quickly (2 weeks or so), but then you eventually plateau. So then you would need to ramp up your calories to a good 20% deficit under your maintenance (TDEE) to continue to lose weight.

Also if you do decide to eat that low (over short term), then you need to make sure you are getting adequate protein intake as well as doing some sort of weight resistance training at roughly 3-4 days a week to ensure good body composition.

RoseKate

My BMR is over 1000, but not by much, and I think I'm eating pretty healthy. Thanks for the responses

AlphamaleBAMF

It can give you a lot of health problems and mess up your metabolism if you do it for extended periods of time. The more you do it the more you increase the risk of injury to your muscles or internal organs.

I think that it would just be counter productive.

emnk5308

My BMR is over 1000, but not by much, and I think I'm eating pretty healthy. Thanks for the responses

Be careful.. know you can't eat like that forever and as soon as you start to eat more your going to put weight back on. I eat 1100 and take multivitamins.

RoseKate

You can eat that low on the very short term if you want to shed some fat and a lot of water quickly (2 weeks or so), but then you eventually plateau. So then you would need to ramp up your calories to a good 20% deficit under your maintenance (TDEE) to continue to lose weight.

Also if you do decide to eat that low (over short term), then you need to make sure you are getting adequate protein intake as well as doing some sort of weight resistance training at roughly 3-4 days a week to ensure good body composition.

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go!

tmauck4472

I've been eating like that for about 3 weeks now...got one more week of it, then I'm upping things. So far I'm losing like 5 lbs a week, but I don't want to eat like this forever so I know I'm going to up it. I expect to stop losing for a period of time so my body can adjust to the change, but I also plan on burning calories off. I'll see what happens when it happens. Be sure to take vitamin's though so your not losing those.

cmurray234

The body is a fascinating and incredibly complex machine. If you are asking whether or not you can live on 600-800 calories a day, the answer is yes. People survive famine on a lot less than 800 calories a day, because above all else, the body is designed to survive and it will become painfully efficient in how it uses calories.

The problem is that most people aren't able to maintain eating that few calories indefinitely. If you hone your body to become a highly efficient machine and then you suddenly cram it with WAY too much fuel, the result is weight gain. FAST weight gain.

What many people on MFP are trying to do is make their bodies as inefficient as possible. In fact, most of the "eat more to weigh less" suggestions are really tips for tricking your body into requiring more calories than is strictly necessary.

The problem, as yarwell pointed out, is that at 600 or even 800 calories a day, you'd have to be VERY crafty to get the proper nutrients.