Reducing My Calories to 1000

Humbugsftw

Personally I would never do this. On my exercising days (I go to the gym three-four days a week), I eat at least 1800-2000 calories, and on my non-exercising days I eat between 1200-1400. Unless you are calorie cycling (1000 one day, 1500 the next etc), I don't think anyone would recommend it.

RobinvdM

After doing some research on many different verified sources, 1200 seems to be the agreed bare minimum to diet safely. Other wise your body just goes into starvation mode. This means that your metabolism will slow and your body will keep hold of any fat and not risk burning it off, because as far as your body is concerned, food is scarce and you need to conserve your fat. Instead, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue and organs. Your energy levels will drop. Doesn't sound too good does it? 1200 - 1500 calories per day is healthy for a woman. Get the balance right and the weight will go.

It doesn't make sense to me why the body would break down muscle tissue and organs before using its excess fat supplies. Anyone care to shed some light on this? :flowerforyou:

Your body won't break down your organs and body tissue before going through its fat stores - they are called STORES for a reason, your body will put those up on the front calorie burning lines the second it needs to. It'll just consume it at a slower speed and ya you will feel icky while doing so cause your body isn't happy that it's depleting its stores since none of it has 100% of the nutrients the body needs.

The "starvation mode" mentioned above is a myth as per how it is explained here. Your body would have to undergo some serious stress and extreme genuine starvation before you had to worry about losing actual body tissue/organs. Scare tactics like this don't encourage people to get on board the weight loss wagon.

LorinaLynn

It doesn't make sense to me why the body would break down muscle tissue and organs before using its excess fat supplies. Anyone care to shed some light on this? :flowerforyou:

Anytime you lose weight, you lose a portion of muscle with the fat. Your goal while losing is to do your best to maintain as much muscle as possible. Your exercise and eating habits determine how much is fat and how much is muscle. Adequate protein, an appropriate calorie deficit and regular exercise including strength training will help you retain muscle. Poor nutrition, a deficit that's too large for the amount of weight you want to lose, and lack of exercise will contribute to muscle wasting.

Just like anytime you gain weight, you gain a portion of muscle with fat, and when bodybuilders bulk, they do their best to gain more muscle than fat.

Chlo92x

I don't see that this is unhealthy, I have my calories set to 1000 daily and I eat enough to suit my body, Its only 200 difference which isn't a lot if you ask me, I try and keep my calories to 1000 or atleast get my net calories to 1000 if I have a higher calorie day. Everyones body is different and if you feel that it suits you try it, I don't feel deprived or hungry or unhealthy, I'm doin low carb as well so its hard to get high calories as a lot of low carb food is low calorie, so I eat a lot of food throughout the day and iv lost 9lb in 4 weeks. Feel free to add me and take a look at my diary x

Matt_Wild

Why 1000 isn't great? You may lose weight but your diet is horrendously lacking in calcium and other bone strengthening vitamin and minerals. You may feel fine now, but its not always about the now, its about the future. Brittle bones in older women is a real problem. In the UK, it is 44.8 women against 20 men per 1000 that need hip replacement. When older, do you really want to add to this number? Think smart, eat smart and train smart for now and the future.

AmyRhubarb

I want to lose the weight a bit faster and I'm already exercising 7 days a week.
Wondering if it would be unhealthy to cut my calories to 1000 daily

Two red flags for me: exercising 7 days a week and eating 1000 calories per day. :noway:

Over training and under eating problems: http://www.shapefit.com/overtraining-exercising-too-much.html

Likely not the best formula, certainly not sustainable over a long period of time, and not likely to give you the results you desire (unless you're going for a smaller, but still soft and squishy version of what you started with ). Often leads to burn out and quitting, as well, as you push yourself too hard, don't give your body the fuel it needs, and don't get the results you want.

I'm losing fat while set at 1800 cals a day, workouts 5 or 6 days a week, usually less than an hour per day. Why work so hard and eat so little to try to lose weight, when you can eat well and work out efficiently and get awesome results? :bigsmile:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709987-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics

LoraF83

I want to lose the weight a bit faster and I'm already exercising 7 days a week.
Wondering if it would be unhealthy to cut my calories to 1000 daily

Two red flags for me: exercising 7 days a week and eating 1000 calories per day. :noway:

Over training and under eating problems: http://www.shapefit.com/overtraining-exercising-too-much.html

Likely not the best formula, certainly not sustainable over a long period of time, and not likely to give you the results you desire (unless you're going for a smaller, but still soft and squishy version of what you started with ). Often leads to burn out and quitting, as well, as you push yourself too hard, don't give your body the fuel it needs, and don't get the results you want.

I'm losing fat while set at 1800 cals a day, workouts 5 or 6 days a week, usually less than an hour per day. Why work so hard and eat so little to try to lose weight, when you can eat well and work out efficiently and get awesome results? :bigsmile:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709987-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics

Quoting because everyone needs to read these links!!

n2thenight24

In before a certain person uses copy and paste to spew her wall of nonsense.

Hahahahaha...I know who you mean!! :laugh:

I made it too!!!!! Have you ever even completely read through that wall of nonsense? Cuz I sure haven't, even though I've seen it about 100 times.

firstsip

In before a certain person uses copy and paste to spew her wall of nonsense.

Hahahahaha...I know who you mean!! :laugh:

I made it too!!!!! Have you ever even completely read through that wall of nonsense? Cuz I sure haven't, even though I've seen it about 100 times.

I have and I report it every time for violating things specifically stated in the forums rules :P

firstsip

After doing some research on many different verified sources, 1200 seems to be the agreed bare minimum to diet safely. Other wise your body just goes into starvation mode. This means that your metabolism will slow and your body will keep hold of any fat and not risk burning it off, because as far as your body is concerned, food is scarce and you need to conserve your fat. Instead, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue and organs. Your energy levels will drop. Doesn't sound too good does it? 1200 - 1500 calories per day is healthy for a woman. Get the balance right and the weight will go.

It doesn't make sense to me why the body would break down muscle tissue and organs before using its excess fat supplies. Anyone care to shed some light on this? :flowerforyou:

People have answered you, but to break it down even more: fat requires virtually no excess calories to maintain, hence it being "stores," and hence why it sticks around much longer than many people want it to. Muscle requires calories to constantly repair (when you're "building" muscle by lifting weights, strength training, etc.). When you go on a severe deficit, your body needs to break down what it needs to keep you alive... and since it's much harder (and takes more work) to maintain muscle (because you need calories, carbs, protein, etc. to maintain that), it goes for muscle first.

firstsip

I don't see that this is unhealthy, I have my calories set to 1000 daily and I eat enough to suit my body, Its only 200 difference which isn't a lot if you ask me, I try and keep my calories to 1000 or atleast get my net calories to 1000 if I have a higher calorie day. Everyones body is different and if you feel that it suits you try it, I don't feel deprived or hungry or unhealthy, I'm doin low carb as well so its hard to get high calories as a lot of low carb food is low calorie, so I eat a lot of food throughout the day and iv lost 9lb in 4 weeks. Feel free to add me and take a look at my diary x

Oh sorry, I didn't realize that because you "don't see it" as unhealthy, that means it must not be. I guess the decades worth of scientific study and research consistently showing that eating at such low deficits for a long period of time results in more damage than good (save for heavily, heavily obese people... which you and the OP clearly aren't)... is not accurate, because "you don't see it as unhealthy."

You've lost 9lb... of water and muscle. I can guarantee it. Even with your low carb, your "quick" weight loss when you're not trying to lose much weight period is clearly not "fat." You will get to your goal weight, still feel unhappy, and continue on this misguided notion that, "Well, the less I eat, the better." You need to focus on body recomposition, not an arbitrary number on the scale.

How about you actually read what many of the fine people in here have posted? And skip over the post that says, "I was great at maintaining my weight at low calories!" from someone that is NOW trying to lose nearly 100 lb.

These posts.

Ge0rgiana

OH! i forgot, SQUAT!!!!!!! and EAT!

^^^ This is a very wise woman with KILLER thighs. You should listen to her.

ninabaz

Are you trying to starve yourself or set your self up for failure?

hiker359

After doing some research on many different verified sources, 1200 seems to be the agreed bare minimum to diet safely. Other wise your body just goes into starvation mode. This means that your metabolism will slow and your body will keep hold of any fat and not risk burning it off, because as far as your body is concerned, food is scarce and you need to conserve your fat. Instead, your body will begin to break down muscle tissue and organs. Your energy levels will drop. Doesn't sound too good does it? 1200 - 1500 calories per day is healthy for a woman. Get the balance right and the weight will go.

It doesn't make sense to me why the body would break down muscle tissue and organs before using its excess fat supplies. Anyone care to shed some light on this? :flowerforyou:

Because when the body perceives an extreme caloric deficit, it needs to slow the metabolism down in order to adapt. How does the body slow down how much energy it needs? It starts breaking down muscle, the body's metabolic furnace. This is why you can lose weight on a LCD but still look fat. Rather than breaking down the fat stores, the body breaks down muscle. And because you've lost muscle, you've also lost the ability to metabolize as many calories, this is why you are more likely to gain back any lost weight and then some once you have gone off your 'diet.'

This is why losing high amounts of weight quickly is very risky. Rather, you should only aim to lose 1-2 pounds / week. Losing weight any quicker puts your lean body mass at risk, as well as your ability to metabolize the calories you are eating, which leads to the dreaded plateau.

Rather than going purely by the number on the scale, you should be tracking your stores of body fat. There are a great number of ways to do this from body fat calipers, to hand-held devices, to scales, to estimating based purely on certain measurements. Here is a site that makes it really easy to get an estimated body fat percentage:

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

A safe amount of fat to lose is approximately 0.5% / week. Depending on how much fat you have to lose, this is how you can best determine where on the scale of 0-2 pounds / week you should be.

Use this calculator: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ to determine your BMR and *NEVER* go below that number unless you want to jeopardize your lean body mass.

sydimar

I want to thank everyone who took the time to give me valuable advice.
I did a 500 calorie for 30 days and i think that is what has influenced my eating habits and desire to keep it low.
I will however try to remain above 1200 and keep exercising.

Thanks again guys