Losing 0.5 to 1 pound per day...Health Risks?

Sarauk2sf

At any rate, at the suggestion of most of the community, I will increase my daily intake (to about 2,000). Does that sound more reasonable?

Absolutely - keep at that for 3-4 weeks - track your loss and see how it is going, you can adjust from there on.

Good luck!!

Seems like you have..but in case you second guess yourself, listen to this guy.

As a lot of people appear to have missed it - the OP is upping his calories.

CoraGregoryCPA

LOL, depends on what doctor. Some doctor's say 500 calories and shots are okay too as long as you keep paying them.

So, why are you asking questions if you already seemingly know what you need to do? No one is trying to bash you, but seriously it's silly to ask questions and then criticize the answers from people who have experience.

Nobody indicated that they have done what I did (and plan to do). That's what I was asking for....

People aren't doing this because it is dangerous, unhealthy and leads to more harm than good. People are advising as to why it's not a good idea to do. You don't need to of done something to realize how bad of an idea it is.

I have done this before, and I was good and able to maintain for over a year. Then I just got lazy and gained it all back. To gain 70+ pounds in 3 years, you have to really not be trying to lose weight. I was not. Lol.

I was just wondering if someone has done this and had a heart attack or something.

If you are set on doing this, consult your doctor. I'm sure they will tell you 1200 calories is not enough calories for most adults, let alone a grown man, but at any rate, you'll hear from a professional rather than the MFP community.

Pinkylee77

My husband is a doctor Hmmm

LOL, depends on what doctor. Some doctor's say 500 calories and shots are okay too as long as you keep paying them.

So, why are you asking questions if you already seemingly know what you need to do? No one is trying to bash you, but seriously it's silly to ask questions and then criticize the answers from people who have experience.

Nobody indicated that they have done what I did (and plan to do). That's what I was asking for....

People aren't doing this because it is dangerous, unhealthy and leads to more harm than good. People are advising as to why it's not a good idea to do. You don't need to of done something to realize how bad of an idea it is.

I have done this before, and I was good and able to maintain for over a year. Then I just got lazy and gained it all back. To gain 70+ pounds in 3 years, you have to really not be trying to lose weight. I was not. Lol.

I was just wondering if someone has done this and had a heart attack or something.

If you are set on doing this, consult your doctor. I'm sure they will tell you 1200 calories is not enough calories for most adults, let alone a grown man, but at any rate, you'll hear from a professional rather than the MFP community.

LawrenceToms

I started on 21 June 2013 at 196 pounds, and a body fat percentage at 31%
Given that a healthy body fat % for me is nearer to 12% I needed to lose 19% of my weight in fat
Thats 37 pounds
However, I have a goal to build up about 14lbs of lean muscle too so my final target weight is 173 - lean and strong
I don't mind being a bit heavier, but I want to be usefully strong not just a mirror muscle pretty boy ;-)
I have a personal trainer who has me mixing up a 3 day split routine to hold muscle mass as much as possible with 45 minute treadmill intervals (walking 1 minute, running 3, steep to flat gradient for each - 45 mins about 470 cals)
I am also doing a Tabata Set on the rowing machine every day (he is a sadist, but its proven to be effective and only 4 minutes!)
My total calorie intake for the day is set by MyFitnessPal to 1440 and I think its restricting me 750 cals per day from my stable intake to leave a 1.5lb deficit per week . . .
I have set my macros to
Carbs: 35%
Protein: 40%
Fat: 25%

the idea being that on 1440 cals I still get 144grams of protein, enough to maintain a lean muscle mass of 144lbs which is what I get if I remove the 30% fat from 196lbs - I don't eat more protein if I earn/burn calories from training, I eat carbs and fat then.

I am also eating lots of chilies - lots :-D

And 2-3 protein shakes a day

Oh - I don't eat red meat or land animals, so its eggs and fish, and tofu and soya beans and lentils all the way for me.

So, 17 days in, my graph is reliably showing a steady drop in weight - 9lbs so far.

Thats just over 1/2 lb a day, and my strength is good - better than it was at 196lbs - my partner is already finding the emerging muscle mass appealing ;-)

So, explain that any way you want, on the lose 1.5lbs a week restriction I am certainly a bit stronger and losing 3.5lb a week.

I've got 12 months to be fit for this bad boy so the sooner the weight loss phase is done and I can bang my calories back up and train like a maniac the better :-) http://www.thefandancerace.com

I reckon I'm a 1/3 of the way there on the weight loss, so just over a month and I am eating like I mean it again, at likely the 1440+750+750= 2,940cal mark and looking at protein being 182g of that or 731 cals to help target the muscle growth.

Its nice to see such steady progress - feeling stronger, fitter and happier every day ;-)

Alice_104

It's okay by 0.6 lbs a day but further can be dangerous, I'm currently losing around 0.3- 0.5 lbs lately with the formula but I've read that a few Roca lab's customer lost 1 lbs a day too so I'm not sure.

MichMunchkin

Does anyone have any links to a scientific paper that shows PERMANENT metabolic damage from rapid weight loss? A few of you have suggested this, but I have never heard of such a thing. That sounds absurd.

Pardon my being blunt, but it seems to me like you're....not really interested in hearing the opinion of anyone who has anything critical to say about your plan. You can be as "academic" as you like about this, but you asked for anecdotal evidence from people who have done something like this. You're getting opinions from people, but now you want scientific evidence? Come on now. You know you're not going to get that.

If you know so much about anatomy and physiology, you shouldn't need anecdotal evidence from strangers on the internet. But if you're *asking* for said anecdotal evidence, don't go all "SCIENTIFIC PROOF!!!!!" when you don't like the responses you get.

As I said, I don't want this to come off as being snotty or what have you. But I'm so tired of seeing people on message boards/forums ask for advice and opinions and then get huffy when what they hear isn't what they *want* to hear.

MichMunchkin

Does anyone have any links to a scientific paper that shows PERMANENT metabolic damage from rapid weight loss? A few of you have suggested this, but I have never heard of such a thing. That sounds absurd.

Here you go. Took about 10 seconds of googling:

"Metabolic Slowing with Massive Weight Loss despite Preservation of Fat-Free Mass"
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/early/2012/04/24/jc.2012-1444.abstract?papetoc

This does not suggest permanent metabolic damage.

So....basically.....you're asking for opinions....getting opinions that obviously don't fit what you *want* to hear....asking for scientific papers....getting links to papers...and then pooh-poohing them.

Dude, seriously. You don't want advice, you want validation, and it should be more than clear to you at this point that you are not going to get it here. You want to go lose 5 pounds or whatever in a week? Fill your boots. I just wouldn't advise coming back here once you gain it all back......again.

NRSPAM

SMH, didn't you learn your lesson after the first time? Ask yourself this question, why do you think you were unable to maintain your weight loss the first time, and continue losing??? From my past experiences, it was because I was tired of feeling hungry all the time, tired of depriving myself of the foods I loved, and then went on a binge, and quit looking at the scale. This is what happens when people try to rush things. There's no need to rush it. Things aren't going to happen overnight.

NRSPAM

Lift all the weights, eat all the foodzzzz! And yes, I stole that! :happy:

Akimajuktuq

Does anyone have any links to a scientific paper that shows PERMANENT metabolic damage from rapid weight loss? A few of you have suggested this, but I have never heard of such a thing. That sounds absurd.

It's absurd that you expect to lose so much weight so fast even though it was a fail in the past, while not caring what it does to your health and claiming that you are going to build muscle while starving yourself.

I damaged my metabolism from starving myself. I know a bunch of other people just like me-admittedly more women than men. You've never heard of people suffering health problems and even dying from under-eating. Really?

What's the damn hurry? A race to get skinny just to see how fast you can put it all back on when your body finally rebels against getting starved? Sounds reasonable.

SherryTeach

Well, you answered your own question in a way. How did it work out for you last time? You gained all the weight back. What do you think is going to happen this time?

Why not take a sensible approach and more importantly - use that approach on a PERMANENT basis so you're not gaining and losing weight constantly. If you "felt great" on 1200 calories then why did you regain all the weight? Because you didn't feel great on 1200, you needed (and wanted) to eat a lot more. And you did, resulting in the destruction of your previous losses.

Moderate deficit, lots of time. Give yourself a year at least. Even better - two.

QFT

I think I regained it because I stopped exercising and was eating pizza for dinner every day because the food in my cafeteria was disgusting. (I'm being honest here.) I stopped exercising because there was 'not enough time' with all of my studying (I had a full credit load ever semester - chem/bio double major). I also really started playing video games. That distracted me when I wasn't focused on school.

I could have kept it off, but essentially I was lazy and failed to do that. I have a pretty stable life now, so maintaining my goal weight should not be as much of a problem (I mean, I did it for about a year or so before).





At any rate, at the suggestion of most of the community, I will increase my daily intake (to about 2,000). Does that sound more reasonable?

It wonderful when we have those periods of having a stable life. But there will be many, many more periods of uncertainly and stress: getting a new job, moving, beginning, maintaining, possibly ending relationships, illness, etc, etc. If you think college stress was hard, just you wait. A good lifestyle plan should be able to accommodate life events without causing a weight gain of 70 pounds.

FredDoyle

It kills me that people answer a months old post, don't read the whole thread and continue to chastise the OP who already stated that he was convinced to change his plan months ago, if indeed, it wasn't a troll post.

candiceh3

It kills me that people answer a months old post, don't read the whole thread and continue to chastise the OP who already stated that he was convinced to change his plan months ago, if indeed, it wasn't a troll post.

/thread

malimisko

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm

This guy went from 207kg and lost 125 kg of fat in one year
125kg * 2.2 = 275 lb
275 lb/ 365 = 3/4 lb of fat per day

Article does mention that starvation can lead to heart failure - but it doesn't have statistics.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I started on 21 June 2013 at 196 pounds, and a body fat percentage at 31%
Given that a healthy body fat % for me is nearer to 12% I needed to lose 19% of my weight in fat
Thats 37 pounds
However, I have a goal to build up about 14lbs of lean muscle too so my final target weight is 173 - lean and strong
I don't mind being a bit heavier, but I want to be usefully strong not just a mirror muscle pretty boy ;-)
I have a personal trainer who has me mixing up a 3 day split routine to hold muscle mass as much as possible with 45 minute treadmill intervals (walking 1 minute, running 3, steep to flat gradient for each - 45 mins about 470 cals)
I am also doing a Tabata Set on the rowing machine every day (he is a sadist, but its proven to be effective and only 4 minutes!)
My total calorie intake for the day is set by MyFitnessPal to 1440 and I think its restricting me 750 cals per day from my stable intake to leave a 1.5lb deficit per week . . .
I have set my macros to
Carbs: 35%
Protein: 40%
Fat: 25%

the idea being that on 1440 cals I still get 144grams of protein, enough to maintain a lean muscle mass of 144lbs which is what I get if I remove the 30% fat from 196lbs - I don't eat more protein if I earn/burn calories from training, I eat carbs and fat then.

I am also eating lots of chilies - lots :-D

And 2-3 protein shakes a day

Oh - I don't eat red meat or land animals, so its eggs and fish, and tofu and soya beans and lentils all the way for me.

So, 17 days in, my graph is reliably showing a steady drop in weight - 9lbs so far.

Thats just over 1/2 lb a day, and my strength is good - better than it was at 196lbs - my partner is already finding the emerging muscle mass appealing ;-)

So, explain that any way you want, on the lose 1.5lbs a week restriction I am certainly a bit stronger and losing 3.5lb a week.

I've got 12 months to be fit for this bad boy so the sooner the weight loss phase is done and I can bang my calories back up and train like a maniac the better :-) http://www.thefandancerace.com

I reckon I'm a 1/3 of the way there on the weight loss, so just over a month and I am eating like I mean it again, at likely the 1440+750+750= 2,940cal mark and looking at protein being 182g of that or 731 cals to help target the muscle growth.

Its nice to see such steady progress - feeling stronger, fitter and happier every day ;-)

This thread is from February. And truly, it doesn't seem like your post is in response to the OP at all. If you'd like input on your plan then go back out to the main forum and hit the green button that says "New Topic." What's going to happen now is that a lot of people are going to come in and respond only to the OP without reading far enough to see your post.

malimisko

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/34/4/453.full.pdf

This paper also talks about sudden death from very low calorie diet for obese people. Death was from ventricular arrhythmia.


I have noticed myself that when I fast for longer time and try to exercise hard - I can feel my heart skipping.

It would be great to see progress of 1lb of fat per day. But it seems that it comes with a heavy price. I completely understand the desire to do it quickly - once you change your mindset and start caring how you look - you are ready for change and you want it fast.


Since you started this thread in Feb - how are you doing now ?

Ximana

well , that sounds healthy as long as you stay away
from aspertame and sugar.

doing low carb is also detrimental.

natural sugars in fruit are essential

yesterdy i did the master cleanse

with water, lemon and maple syrup

and that can help too


good luck

stay hydrated

Purple_Orchid_87

didnt read the whole 6 pages of this but id be asking yself why I gained back the weight I previously lost - someone once said to me, the quicker you lose it, the quicker you gain it back

Personally, I lose a lot early on because im 300+lbs and guess i lose a lot of water, but id ratehr lose it slow and keep it off than lose it slow and gain it all back by reverting to my old habits

my FITNESSpal, not mySKINNYpal

erickirb

Malnutrition.

If you have a deficit of 1750 how many calories will you be in-taking. Remember you require a certain number of vitamins and minerals, as well as fats, and protein. If your deficit is too large there is a good chance you wont be able to fit in all your required micro and macro nutrients.

Phoenix_Warrior

It kills me that people answer a months old post, don't read the whole thread and continue to chastise the OP who already stated that he was convinced to change his plan months ago, if indeed, it wasn't a troll post.

/thread

^This