400 Net Calories for the Day: Scary Behavior

Cristofori44

I see far too many people pushing the reasonable bounds of weight loss--they are eating like 700 or 1,000 calories and then burning off 500 through exercise, and they come out some days with 400 or 800 net. I've seen as low as 200 or 300 net.

In my view, this is simply dangerous. I don't think a lot of folks understand that "net calories" already have the acceptable range of weight loss figured in, and that you need to eat back to get yourself close to your net. Now I know this is somewhat of an art--if you're full, no need to eat, maybe you overestimated exercise and underestimated food calories--but really: 400 net?

Unfortunately, because they are losing a lot of weight, they keep up with this ultra-low calorie regime. In the short term all is great--they lose weight. In the long term, they lose muscle mass, thus decreasing their overall metabolic rate; perhaps bone strength as well; and I wonder what kind of health problems they will develop later on because they deprived their body of the necessary energy and nutrients for so long. Bad teeth, brittle hair, organ complications; general weakness; lack of strength and energy to carry out basic tasks---the list could go on.

Worried about a lot of scary short-term thinking.

Nerdy_Rose

I was on 1200 calories per day for most of my major weight loss, but I ate every single calorie, AND every single over-estimated exercise calorie. I would have fainted had I not, I think. I don't know how people do that shiz.

Prudiddy

Question, What if the person is like me, and we do our work out at the end of the day, I'm talking 7-8pm, the food cut off for me is no later than 7pm. What to do?

Nerdy_Rose

Question, What if the person is like me, and we do our work out at the end of the day, I'm talking 7-8pm, the food cut off for me is no later than 7pm. What to do?

Eat more before your workout to fuel it, so you work harder. Preferably protein.

Also, there's no reason you *can't* have a protein shake after your workout. I consistently ate dinner at 10 or 11 p.m. while I was losing weight (night classes for grad school) and it didn't impacted me negatively.

Goal_Line

It possible people with 200-300 net just aren't logging everything. One I had a good feel for the cal value of different foods, when I had a cal surplus due to exercise, I didn't log everything.

HornsUT32

I will be honest, I tried that for about 2 weeks. By the end of it, I had gained 2.6 pounds, after consistantly losing 2 pounds a week before that. I thought I could push it a bit harder and maybe lose 3 or 4 pounds a week, and instead it backfired. I am now back to a healthy diet..and plan on staying there.

NamibianRose

I saw someone who consistently netted 200 calories and less, and one day actually netted a NEGATIVE number.

What can you do though? Some people are set on doing it this way. All we can do is provide support, advice, and information. The rest is up to them.

mcarter99

The MFP plan is very conservative. I wouldn't worry too much about other peoples' diets. Most of us at 1200 are at shallow deficits of 500 or so, so I don't believe there's anything wrong with using exercise to up your deficit to 1000-ish, when you feel like.

How do you guys even know what other people are doing? Monitoring friends or something? I waste a lot of time here but I can't imagine perusing diaries counting up 'net' calories and vegetable 'servings' and all the other things I see threads here about.

Prudiddy

The MFP plan is very conservative. I wouldn't worry too much about other peoples' diets. Most of us at 1200 are at shallow deficits of 500 or so, so I don't believe there's anything wrong with using exercise to up your deficit to 1000-ish, when you feel like.

How do you guys even know what other people are doing? Monitoring friends or something? I waste a lot of time here but I can't imagine perusing diaries counting up 'net' calories and vegetable 'servings' and all the other things I see threads here about.

Wow, I was thinking it, but you said it!

Sasha2211

Two words: Peanut. Butter.

Two of my favorite words! lol

AmyFett

i don't understand it either! i'm set at 1300, and try and net 1300 no matter what! Some days i don't because i have hardly any appetite, but it's also not like i'm running marathons anyway. At my lowest i think it's been 1000

imaginaryplaces

The MFP plan is very conservative. I wouldn't worry too much about other peoples' diets. Most of us at 1200 are at shallow deficits of 500 or so, so I don't believe there's anything wrong with using exercise to up your deficit to 1000-ish, when you feel like.

How do you guys even know what other people are doing? Monitoring friends or something? I waste a lot of time here but I can't imagine perusing diaries counting up 'net' calories and vegetable 'servings' and all the other things I see threads here about.

Well said.

jealous_loser

Depending on the day, I might net below 1000, but that is using MFP exercise numbers for calories. I try to take it with a grain of salt. If I am feeling fine, I don't worry about it.

That being said, I am eating at a good rate (1600 goal) so I am not worried about it. THen if I do "go over" (I try not to eat back calories) then I don't feel bad.

paintlisapurple

Well there is absolutely nooooooo wayyyy I could net my goal on exercise days... I can't eat thaaaaat much...Today for instance my net was 359...my goal is 1290...I have trouble getting there most days. Before I started this program, I didn't even realize how little I was eating. Now I snack on purpose! I've never been thin, but never super big either. I think its a shock to my body to be eating this much in a day. (I know it is to my stomach) If I get hungry, I'll eat more...but if not, I won't stuff myself either.

knk1553

Question, What if the person is like me, and we do our work out at the end of the day, I'm talking 7-8pm, the food cut off for me is no later than 7pm. What to do?

I work out at the end of my day as well (well after work, but pretty close to the end of my day) and while I'm busy at work I don't think about eating, and usually if I have to work through lunch I don't really eat much, not my fault, I eat when I'm hungry, I don't eat when I'm not. So my calorie goal 1400, and say by the time I go to the gym at 5:30 I'm at around 1000 of my 1400 calories, I go and burn between 600-800 calories, depending on what I'm doing and how long I decide to stay, I all the sudden have 1000-1200 calories to eat between 8-10pm, and after a protein shake, shoving down dinner is really hard because the protein did its job, and filled me up. I don't say I net 400 on a regular basis, but I've had those days, I'm a stress non-eater and a stress work-out person, which means when I'm stressed, I don't eat and spend extra time at the gym, not on purpose, just what ends up happening.

If you're concerned about those people, talk to them, if they don't want to change their habits or listen and you don't like it, defriend them, its pretty easy.

MoreThanMommie

I'm guilty of this. Well not this extreme. This week I've been trying to watch my sodium. But after working out (300 - 400) and eating 1300 - 1400 calories, I've hit my limit of sodium before I eat back to net over 1200. I'm trying to fix it. But I need to find more low sodium food choices...

But I agree, people should not be doing this on purpose.

ShreddedTweet

Really....this... again... Yes, we know it happens, yes we know it's wrong, is there anything you can do about it? Nope. Concentrate on yourself.

Naely

It really depends on the individual person. My goal is 1250 and most days I dont eat that many calories. Adding my exercise, my usual net is like 500-800 cals. Sometimes lower on the good exercise days.
It's not like I actively try to keep my numbers there, it's actually the opposite. Some days I have to pretty much force myself to have a snack to get over 1000. I've heard a bazillion times I need to eat more but realized that I need to just listen to what my body tells me.
When I get hungry, I eat. When I eat, I eat until I'm not hungry anymore. I never go to bed hungry, energy levels are better than ever, losing weight...what's the problem here?

Cristofori44

I was on 1200 calories per day for most of my major weight loss, but I ate every single calorie, AND every single over-estimated exercise calorie. I would have fainted had I not, I think. I don't know how people do that shiz.

Yeah I just wonder about the long-term complications for people: low blood sugar, their body feeding off itself and reducing lean muscle mass, or else their teeth, hair and organs. I don't think people realize the net number is already built in with a weight loss.

sarabluebell

IM on 1200 a day, and I do eat that but I choose not to eat back my exercise calories...I know that will upset some but Im almost always right around 1200

Nerdy_Rose

I was on 1200 calories per day for most of my major weight loss, but I ate every single calorie, AND every single over-estimated exercise calorie. I would have fainted had I not, I think. I don't know how people do that shiz.

Yeah I just wonder about the long-term complications for people: low blood sugar, their body feeding off itself and reducing lean muscle mass, or else their teeth, hair and organs. I don't think people realize the net number is already built in with a weight loss.

A girl who was on a VLCD for extended periods of time posted her side effects on a thread once -- hair loss, bad breath, etc. I only did 1200/day for like 4 months. If you keep it up for long periods of time hair loss and other weird stuff does kick in.