How long can you sustain "zero" net calories?

DLKeeble
DLKeeble Posts: 200 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How long can a body sustain that? What is it doing to their bodies? Does it make a difference if one has more to loose? I have about 25 more to go and it seems my body slows down if I dip below 1200 net?

Replies

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Your body slows down due to adaptive thermogenesis and hormonal changes. There is a sweet spot where you minimize the impact of hormones and adaptive thermogenesis. It would be around your BMR or your TDEE - 20%.

    To answer your original question, I don't realy know how long you can sustain but to do this for more that 72 hours could begin to cause serious health problems. You will also lose substantial muscle mass if this is done for any period of time. There is far more down side than the upside of losing a few pounds.
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    I don't know...and speaking for myself, would never experiment with it to find out. It just isn't a healthy thing to do, and for me would just lead to frustration and probably a binge.
  • DERBS21
    DERBS21 Posts: 33 Member
    For women you should never go below 1,200 calories. What happens is your body thinks it's starving and goes into Starvation Mode. It will automatically slow your metabolism down to preserve your energy. Once your metabolism slows you stop losing weight...it backfires on you ....not to mention it's very dangerous to your body and organs. Will cause some serious health problems if you continue to keep your calories too low. You want to be healthy. You want to only lose one to two pounds a week. Slower is better for your overall health and for keeping the weight off.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Your body slows down due to adaptive thermogenesis and hormonal changes. There is a sweet spot where you minimize the impact of hormones and adaptive thermogenesis. It would be around your BMR or your TDEE - 20%.

    To answer your original question, I don't realy know how long you can sustain but to do this for more that 72 hours could begin to cause serious health problems. You will also lose substantial muscle mass if this is done for any period of time. There is far more down side than the upside of losing a few pounds.

    This should be stressed!!! You will lose up to 50% of your weight from muscle. Muscle is what gives you a tight lean body. If you do 20% below tdee and do heavy weight training your body will cut fat.
  • CandiceScott69
    CandiceScott69 Posts: 81 Member
    Would y'all please help me on this...I still have not figured out the Net calorie thing. Is it better to have more or less net calories at the end of the day? I have been ending up somewhere around 400-500. Should I pay more attention to "net" or the + or - ?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Would y'all please help me on this...I still have not figured out the Net calorie thing. Is it better to have more or less net calories at the end of the day? I have been ending up somewhere around 400-500. Should I pay more attention to "net" or the + or - ?

    You should net closer to your bmr.
  • luvmybaby333
    luvmybaby333 Posts: 241
    Probably for a while, because soon enough your body will reduce the amount of calories it burns for every activity and function, so you will no longer be "netting 0" anyway-- it will just look that way on paper. Bodies are pretty smart like that.
  • CandiceScott69
    CandiceScott69 Posts: 81 Member
    What is BMR?
  • FireBrand80
    FireBrand80 Posts: 378 Member
    Depends how fat you are
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    What is BMR?

    Basal metabolic rate. Amount of calories your body burns if you slept 24 hours. Go to www.fat2fit.com and look at the bmr calculator.
  • CandiceScott69
    CandiceScott69 Posts: 81 Member
    Okay it says my BMR is 28 (overweight, but I knew that) so should I try to keep my net around 28? By the way, thanks for the help:smile:
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Okay it says my BMR is 28 (overweight, but I knew that) so should I try to keep my net around 28? By the way, thanks for the help:smile:

    You did bmi, not bmr.. check it again. You should be around 1400 ish calories
  • birdieaz
    birdieaz Posts: 448 Member
    Okay it says my BMR is 28 (overweight, but I knew that) so should I try to keep my net around 28? By the way, thanks for the help:smile:

    You did bmi, not bmr.. check it again. You should be around 1400 ish calories

    This

    BMR is not your BMI. This is the F2F calculator http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
  • CandiceScott69
    CandiceScott69 Posts: 81 Member
    okay, got it. It says 1499, with moderately active at 2134. So next question, how do I get my net up to that? I try to eat within my allowed calories according to MFP and exercise 5-6 days a week. Should I eat more/less, exercise more/less? I have lost right at 40 pounds before joining here, do I continue to do what I have been doing even if I don't know how it fits in with MFP guidlines?
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    I used to have a friend on here who did that... she would burn upwards of 3000-4000 calories (every single day!!) She was kind of large so she would burn calories faster than a person would at a healthy weight, and she would work out like 5x a day. And then she would only eat around 1400 calories. I was always like "........w....t..f...." seriously don't see how she could think that was healthy at all.
  • ritasice21
    ritasice21 Posts: 200 Member
    @ candice, between 1500 & 1600 total for the day would be great for you. That includes exercise, so do not eat them back unless you do extra that is not your normal workout for a day. If you do this net will never be too low.
  • SkinnyChemicals
    SkinnyChemicals Posts: 86
    How long can a body sustain that? What is it doing to their bodies? Does it make a difference if one has more to loose? I have about 25 more to go and it seems my body slows down if I dip below 1200 net?

    Someone did a 40 day water fast on youtube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVKeNQU211c

    There's also been a Starvation Experiment:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment
  • CandiceScott69
    CandiceScott69 Posts: 81 Member
    Thanks for all of the help. I really do appreciate it. I will try not to have to ask so many questions in the future.
  • ritasice21
    ritasice21 Posts: 200 Member
    questions are good, they are how we learn.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Until you die, I imagine. As to how long that would be, I have no idea. :wink:
  • agp2003
    agp2003 Posts: 1
    I've been eating around 1200 calories a day and making sure I burn all of the calories I in take 5 days a week to give me a zero or negative net calorie count. I have to date lost 82 pounds. I have done this over the course of three and a half months. I've experienced muscle gains when I lift and increase my protein intake. I haven't had any negative side effects. In fact I have more energy than I did as a teenager and I'm approaching thirty.
  • Warchortle
    Warchortle Posts: 2,197 Member
    Most people don't get fat eating 40,000 calories a day.. I don't know why people think it's okay to eat like 5 calories when they want lose weight,
  • SrJoben
    SrJoben Posts: 484 Member
    I would like to point out that the MFP definition of 'Net Calories' is very specific jargon for talking about the difference between workouts and normal daily activity. Here it means balancing atypical exertion with additional food to maintain a set deficit. It doesn't actually apply if we use words normally.

    If you are eating at maintenance level you are at net zero calories. Because you burn as much as you take in. You eat, you sleep, you work, you play, you exercise, you breath, digest, your heart pumps blood. And at the end of the day you have no extra calories to make you fat.

    If you had a business and your net profit was zero, that means your costs for the year equaled your income. You made no extra money to put in your bank.

    Think of it this way. If you are eating Maintenance -500, and but then at the end of the day you logged for every conceivable thing: your BMR, sitting, standing, moving, sleeping. Then theoretically you would find that MFP would show your calories for the day as -500. Because that's how weight loss works. You don't lose weight unless you're in an energy deficit. Going into debt means taking in less than you lose; It means netting less than 0.

    So how long can you sustain net zero calories? All of your adult life.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    I've been eating around 1200 calories a day and making sure I burn all of the calories I in take 5 days a week to give me a zero or negative net calorie count. I have to date lost 82 pounds. I have done this over the course of three and a half months. I've experienced muscle gains when I lift and increase my protein intake. I haven't had any negative side effects. In fact I have more energy than I did as a teenager and I'm approaching thirty.

    I can guarantee you 100% that you did not gain any new muscle on 1200 calories especially as a man. I can also guarantee you that you lost a lot of muscle but probably gained strength. Most people confuse making their muscles more efficient with actually gaining new lean body mass. And heck, I am a 5'11, 31 yr old, 190 lbs man that eats 2400-2600 calories a day with a progressive weight training program and I haven't gained any new lean body mass. But I have lost fat and maintained my lean body mass according to my body fat calculations.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    God, I don't even want to think about what zero net calories would do to a person! Do they have a slow painful death wish?! Yikes, just the thought gives me the heebie jeebies.

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