Conflicting information...

MercuryBlue

http://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness-specialist/how-much-how-fast.aspx

I just read this article in which Jillian Michaels is talking about losing weight fast. She mentions not eating below 1,200 calories (though we know that this isn't a 'magic number', it's just an average) because it will put you in starvation mode. She also mentions that cardio is weight-loss 'extra credit' and that, basically, you can do a bunch of cardio to lose the weight.

At MFP, we're told to eat our exercise calories so that we never go below a certain consistant calorie 'level' every day.

The MFP approach makes the most sense to me. Because theoretically, I could burn 1200 calories in a day just doing cardio. And if that's all I consumed that day, it means my body is effectively functioning on 0 calories (calories eaten minus calories burned doing cardio). That doesn't seem healthy to me... (in her example, the person would be functioning on 500 calories per day)

And yet, here we have this famous celebrity trainer who many of us watch on TBL and train to with 30 Day Shred- who many of us trust- basically telling us that's okay.

MercuryBlue

<double post, sorry>

Phoenix_Rising

I don't watch TBL. It hurts me to know those people are putting their health at risk. The one episode I watched last year, they actually let the guy stop working out (or reduced his workouts to nothing) after the doctors told the trainers they HAD to. I was worried I was going to hear news reports later that he died during the filming!!!

But that isn't what you asked

Maybe the problem is she is advising on how to lose weight fast, whereas MFP is focused on helping you lose weight slowly, in a healthy manner, in a way that helps you to keep the weight off permanently. That's my take on it anyhow.

jessicajoy87

Jillian Michaels and BL weightloss techniques are for extreme weightloss. There are better ways to lose weight than to kill yourself. LOL. I think I've only seen a couple episodes of BL. I couldn't really get into it.

MisdemeanorM

I think the key phrase in your post "losing weight fast" explains it all right there!

Also - you mention running on a "0 balance" - but I think that is the goal - eating just what your body burns - but if their body uses 1600 cal/day normally + an additional 1000 cal/day exercise that is 2600 cal / day burnt and they are eating only 1500 - that's a negative of 1000 per day which can be pretty extreme vs a negative of 500 per day which I think is considered a healthy deficit (since your body makes up the deficit by burning fat calories). I have to think that your body could function completely healthy on a 1000 / day deficit as long as it is an exercise-produced deficit, but overall a smaller deficit and more eating should help kick up the metabolism better and help with long term weight maintenance not just short term loss. I don't think it is necessarily unhealthy to not eat the exercise calories, I just think it is not the best long term solution if you are trying to build and reshape your metabolism.

MercuryBlue

Jillian Michaels and BL weightloss techniques are for extreme weightloss. There are better ways to lose weight than to kill yourself. LOL. I think I've only seen a couple episodes of BL. I couldn't really get into it.

Yeah.... it really bothered me to read that. I've always really like Jillian Michaels but I felt like that was icky information to give to someone she'd never met.

And I can't help but think that approach wouldn't work for long. Wouldn't running on 500 calories per day eventually put the body into starvation mode?

xeniasimms

People let us not forget that most of us are not 350 - 500 pound men and women. TBL is extreme because the people on the show are EXTREMELY obese. They are like 1/2 a cheeseburger away from croaking. TBL is super tough on them because most of them are on the verge of death. Don't try to compare yourself to that!

MercuryBlue

People let us not forget that most of us are not 350 - 500 pound men and women. TBL is extreme because the people on the show are EXTREMELY obese. They are like 1/2 a cheeseburger away from croaking. TBL is super tough on them because most of them are on the verge of death. Don't try to compare yourself to that!

Totally true! Couldn't agree more.

I think the reason this advice isn't sitting well with me is that it doesn't come with a disclaimer. She's basically saying, "Eat 1500 calories, burn 1000 of those per day." So, live on 500 calories? She doesn't say, 'Actually, it's not healthy to lose more than 2 pounds per week unless you're obese'. She doesn't know the person's starting weight or anything. That sort of blanket advice, I think, could be harmful to a person.

Kind of why I wanted to post the link- to show what kind of information is out there.

MercuryBlue

I think the key phrase in your post "losing weight fast" explains it all right there!

Also - you mention running on a "0 balance" - but I think that is the goal - eating just what your body burns - but if their body uses 1600 cal/day normally + an additional 1000 cal/day exercise that is 2600 cal / day burnt and they are eating only 1500 - that's a negative of 1000 per day which can be pretty extreme vs a negative of 500 per day which I think is considered a healthy deficit (since your body makes up the deficit by burning fat calories). I have to think that your body could function completely healthy on a 1000 / day deficit as long as it is an exercise-produced deficit, but overall a smaller deficit and more eating should help kick up the metabolism better and help with long term weight maintenance not just short term loss. I don't think it is necessarily unhealthy to not eat the exercise calories, I just think it is not the best long term solution if you are trying to build and reshape your metabolism.

I totally get what you're saying... what I meant to say was that if you ate 1200 calories for a day, and burned 1200 doing cardio... that's not even accounting for the amount of calories you burn living and doing your day to day activities. That's what I meant about running on a zero balance. When you're burning EVERYTHING you eat through exercise, and not leaving any calories left over to account for what you burn just living.

The 500 calories per day I mentioned was what the person has left per day to live on. Daily calorie intake=1500 - Calories burned through exercise= 1000. That means there's 500 calories left to fuel the body for the day (and that's not counting all the calories burned just living)

She's talking about BMR, right? Isn't that the amount of calories burned if you laid in bed all day? What about lifestyle calories? That's what's throwing me off.

MisdemeanorM

I think when calculating your BRM you account for your lifestyle. I work at a desk now so my BMR is lower than when I was waitressing full time.

So - say you waitress or walk your kids to school every day and do housework during the day - you would consider your lifestyle as moderately active and your personal BMR would account for that. If you do all that but calculate yourself a stagnant BMR, then you would have to add in all of those activities as exercise and add them to your deficit calorie count.

JoyousMaximus

I totally get what you're saying... what I meant to say was that if you ate 1200 calories for a day, and burned 1200 doing cardio... that's not even accounting for the amount of calories you burn living and doing your day to day activities. That's what I meant about running on a zero balance. When you're burning EVERYTHING you eat through exercise, and not leaving any calories left over to account for what you burn just living.

The 500 calories per day I mentioned was what the person has left per day to live on. Daily calorie intake=1500 - Calories burned through exercise= 1000. That means there's 500 calories left to fuel the body for the day (and that's not counting all the calories burned just living)

She's talking about BMR, right? Isn't that the amount of calories burned if you laid in bed all day? What about lifestyle calories? That's what's throwing me off.

That sounds a lot like exercise induced anorexia and it's considered to be extremely harmful just like "normal' anorexia

MercuryBlue

I totally get what you're saying... what I meant to say was that if you ate 1200 calories for a day, and burned 1200 doing cardio... that's not even accounting for the amount of calories you burn living and doing your day to day activities. That's what I meant about running on a zero balance. When you're burning EVERYTHING you eat through exercise, and not leaving any calories left over to account for what you burn just living.

The 500 calories per day I mentioned was what the person has left per day to live on. Daily calorie intake=1500 - Calories burned through exercise= 1000. That means there's 500 calories left to fuel the body for the day (and that's not counting all the calories burned just living)

She's talking about BMR, right? Isn't that the amount of calories burned if you laid in bed all day? What about lifestyle calories? That's what's throwing me off.

That sounds a lot like exercise induced anorexia and it's considered to be extremely harmful just like "normal' anorexia

That's exactly what I thought.

o.O

mjtwomail - As I understand it, BMR is what you'd burn laying in bed all day. TDEE is your 'lifestyle' calories plus your BMR. So when you're trying to calculate your daily deficit, you do it based on your TDEE and NOT your BMR.

Like, my BMR is 1556, and my TDEE is 2140. So to create a 1000 calorie per day deficit, I'd have to eat 1140 calories per day (but obviously I don't go that low- I eat 1200).

But please, someone correct me if I am wrong. I AM pretty new to this after all.

MisdemeanorM

Mercury - you are right - and BMR does not even count the calories used to digest food or other "non vital" body processes (as in vital for your body to do 24/7 like breathing). You take this and add another 20 - 90% based on your activity level to get your daily needed intake. This goes to show another argument for eating your exercise calories - if you are moderately active you eat 1.5x your BMR - and this accounts for 3-5 days of workouts or activities a week average. But if you do this, then you would not count your exercise as additional calories because it is already accounted for. BUT if you calculate your needed calories as being sedentary you can add in every little exercise like walking kids to school or working out. If you go on your BMR then you would have to count EVERYTHING like showering, going to the mailbox etc!