Confused - 1000 calories too little?

For today? You'll live.

Over an extended period of time? You'll be alive, but it probably wouldn't be worth living. Weak, tired, headaches etc...

You're an 18 year old male? How tall and heavy are you? It's quite possible that 1200 will be too low for you.

so 1200 then? (and ignore the profile pic - its old)

No, not 1200 either.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013?hl=road+map+2013

I'm not sure if I've heard of a situation where 1000 was NOT too little.
Up it.

if i were a boy, i would never eat less than 1500 calories, no matter what! you need energy! i am a 25 year old female 5'4" 120 pounds and i feel like 1200 calories is ridiculously low for me. also eating too few calories can make your body efficient at using them and that is not what you want, it will damage your metabolism in the long term if your goal is to eat too few calories for a long period of time. don't be afraid to eat, but eat the right things. focus on adding fruits and vegetables to your diet and you should have no problem! good luck

Thanks guys for the help - whether it be sarcastic or not.

Basically, I don't really eat that much. I can easily survive with only eating a little bit. I'm still at school, and I walk for about 45 mins each day to get to and from school. I play either rugby or soccer every lunchtime for about 40 minutes, and usually go home, hop on the Exercycle and go at it for a solid 30 mins. It's only been like this for 3 weeks or so. I noticed that I lost weight over the holidays, and I was sick of being fat lol. I'm 174 cm right now, with a weight of 63.5kg. I used to be in the seventies a few months ago. Funny thing is that I wasn't trying too hard to lose weight over that time period.

My bmi is 21.2, but I'm still a bit chubs. MFP reccomended 1380 calories a day. I'll stick with that. It may be hard eating that much lol. I guess I'll put some more sugar on my porridge

Thanks for all your help guys, and sorry for the long message

MFP advises 1380 PLUS your exercise calories, not just 1380.

You would be better looking at a TDEE calculator as linked above to work out your daily maintenance, and then deduct a reasonable defict from that.

My BMR is 1,637. No idea what that means anyway. Doesn't tell me anything

To extimate your maintenance you would apply a BMR calculator

•Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
•Lightly Active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
•Moderately Active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
•Very Active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
•Extremely Active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, etc.)


So, based on your exercising you are lookin at between 2500 and 3000 as maintenence calories, which means you could lose weight at 2000 calories a day.

It is better to still eat well and lose, rather than try to survive on the bare minimum.

Thanks guys for the help - whether it be sarcastic or not.

Basically, I don't really eat that much. I can easily survive with only eating a little bit. I'm still at school, and I walk for about 45 mins each day to get to and from school. I play either rugby or soccer every lunchtime for about 40 minutes, and usually go home, hop on the Exercycle and go at it for a solid 30 mins. It's only been like this for 3 weeks or so. I noticed that I lost weight over the holidays, and I was sick of being fat lol. I'm 174 cm right now, with a weight of 63.5kg. I used to be in the seventies a few months ago. Funny thing is that I wasn't trying too hard to lose weight over that time period.

My bmi is 21.2, but I'm still a bit chubs. MFP reccomended 1380 calories a day. I'll stick with that. It may be hard eating that much lol. I guess I'll put some more sugar on my porridge

Thanks for all your help guys, and sorry for the long message

So, is "survival" all you're aiming for?

So, I'm guessing you told MFP you were sedentary (which you're not) and said that you want to lose 2 lbs a week right? 2 lbs a week is a reasonable rate of loss for someone who is obese. For someone who is well within the healthy weight range, 0.5 lbs a week is much more realistic/healthy.

Being "a bit chubs" is not likely to go away by restricting your food intake so drastically. You'll lose weight, but you probably still won't be happy. You'll lose muscle along with fat, maybe look a bit skinnier, but still flabby. You'd probably be happier with your results if you eat more, and do some strength training. You won't get huge (unless that's your plan). In fact, to put on serious muscle, you'd need to eat a lot, lot more. Strength training will help you look less chubby and more solid though, however lean you are.

Find out what your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is - this is the amount of calories you burn in a day. There are lots of online calculators to help you with this. I'm guessing it's at least 2,500. You're a young man, and you're exercising a lot. If you keep eating so little over a long period of time, you're going to do your body damage. If you can't be bothered with the calculations, then go back and tell MFP you want to lose 0.5 lbs a week, tell it you're (at least) lightly active, and eat back your exercise calories.

Eating more than 1000/12000 isn't really that hard once you get used to it. If you're not hungry (not a good sign by the way) then aim for more calorie-dense foods. Thing that are higher in fat are ideal: cheese, eggs, nuts, seeds, chocolate, olive oil, avocados, full fat dairy. Drink milk, smoothies, protein shakes etc. As you eat more, you'll get used to it, and you'll have more of an appetite.

At 18 (if you are really 18), your body is still growing, your brain is still developing, and apart from anything else, eating so little can have a bad effect on your hormones. This is not a good path to go down.