Tell me this is wrong!!! PLEASE!

Maggie1960
Maggie1960 Posts: 322
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
One of my colleagues sent me a link to a UK based calorie counting website (nowhere near as good as MFP, no message boards for starters, and the database of food is tiny with no scope to add anything that isn't a brand name.).
Anyway in a quiet moment I typed in my current weight and target weight, and got the information I should be consuming 850 calories a day in order to lose the weight:noway: This sounds positively dangerous - surely no-one should aim to eat such a tiny amount of calories longterm?

Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    That is horribly dead WRONG WRONG WRONG and even more WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That is dangerous to your health. It will cause your energy levels to be sucked out of you. It will cause you to go into starvation mode and not lose any body fat. Any "weight" you lose doing that will be mainly water and lean body mass. Lose lean body mass and your metabolism drops to dangerous levels and makes it harder for you to lose body fat when you start doing it correctly.

    Do not use that site!!!
  • HeatherMN
    HeatherMN Posts: 3,821 Member
    Wow, that definitely goes against everything I've read. Sometimes it concerns me that MFP suggests 1200 calories to many, as my gyno said women should never drop below 1500 calories for all womanly systems to function properly!
  • Maggie1960
    Maggie1960 Posts: 322
    That is horribly dead WRONG WRONG WRONG and even more WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That is dangerous to your health. It will cause your energy levels to be sucked out of you. It will cause you to go into starvation mode and not lose any body fat. Any "weight" you lose doing that will be mainly water and lean body mass. Lose lean body mass and your metabolism drops to dangerous levels and makes it harder for you to lose body fat when you start doing it correctly.

    Do not use that site!!!
    I have NO intention of using it, I only ventured onto it out of curiosity. I have emailed my colleague the link to MFP and strongly suggested she use this site to help in her weigh loss journey - it concerns me how many misguided people with weight issues use a site that promotes such dangerously low calorie levels. If I ate 850 calories a day, i would only stick it for a day or two before I became ravenously hungry and ate everything in sight (and then some more) It's almost a very low calorie regime with NO nutritional advice whatsoever.
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
    I suppose technically if you weighed 70 lbs the math might tell you to consume 850 cals a day to lose, but you should never drop below 1200. If you are already close to your goal weight it might be factoring in a deficit that is not healthy. Whatever the reason, the site is in error, you should never consume less than 1200 cals/day as an adult woman.
  • RedneckWmn
    RedneckWmn Posts: 3,202 Member
    Wow, that definitely goes against everything I've read. Sometimes it concerns me that MFP suggests 1200 calories to many, as my gyno said women should never drop below 1500 calories for all womanly systems to function properly!

    I'm starting to agree with the 1500...it seems when I dropped to 1200 my weight losss slowed down and and then stopped completely and when I started upping them again the scale SEEMS to be moving again...its taken several weeks but it looks like I'm finally starting to make progress.
  • jennylynn84
    jennylynn84 Posts: 659
    What the heck?! How many pounds a week did you enter you wanted to lose? And activity level? Did it even ask for those things?

    You should not eat below 1200 calories net (that's for women). This is recommended by a whole alphabet of health organizations, like the American College of Sports Medicine. And that is why MFP won't automatically calculate you a calorie goal anywhere below that.

    I would definitely throw out what that site told you.

    I'd go on a hunger-induced murderous rage on 800 cals! lol.
  • katthomas
    katthomas Posts: 22 Member
    Just a thought - did you enter your weight in pounds and the site was figuring in kilograms (kg)? That could make a really big difference.
  • skinnyack
    skinnyack Posts: 683
    I think this website and my roomate are in cahoots- he told me today that he tries not to go over 850 calories- with exercising- and he's 6'2. I yelled at him this morning telling him he's crazy and he needs to immediately eat 5 Large hamburgers. And that he needs to switch to MFP!

    And the award for most likely to be anorexic goes to...my misinformed roomie!
  • jennylynn84
    jennylynn84 Posts: 659
    I think this website and my roomate are in cahoots- he told me today that he tries not to go over 850 calories- with exercising- and he's 6'2. I yelled at him this morning telling him he's crazy and he needs to immediately eat 5 Large hamburgers. And that he needs to switch to MFP!

    And the award for most likely to be anorexic goes to...my misinformed roomie!

    Holy cow!

    The ACSM (that I mentioned earlier) recommends for men a much higher minimum than women get - I think it's around 1800. No WAY he should be eating that little! Plus exercising! He's probably netting less than 500 cals a day!
  • Unknown
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  • teaqueen
    teaqueen Posts: 5
    Unless you are morbidly obese & under strict doctor supervision you should never eat less than 1,000 daily. Your body goes into "starvation mode" . You need a minimum of 1,000 calories to meet your nutritional needs.
  • Herewego
    Herewego Posts: 49
    You need this is wrong!!!! :angry: I hate those site saying: don't eat and you will lose weight.... well yes you will the first week then your body will go in starvation mode, you will stay the same or gain and then discouraged you will decide that it is not worse starving and you will eat and regain more than what you lost in that initial loss.
    I am on 1200 cal a day and I already think it is too low but I am doing it for a couple of weeks (to compensate an awful August) and then will reverse to 1600 cal.
    I don't critise the people who are doing these low cal diet, or pill/injection + hardly anything to eat but if you are healthy a body work on mathematics: burn more than you consume and you will lose, not need to starve.

    Good luck and you know the right choice so you will be successful.

    HWG :happy:
  • jdorais
    jdorais Posts: 27 Member
    It's wrong I tell you, wrong! Probably because it's in the UK and they use the metric system. You may need to convert from ponds to kilograms. I think all you have to do is divide your pounds by 2.2 to get the kilos.
  • KimSchnizleinWECHANGED
    KimSchnizleinWECHANGED Posts: 189
    One of my colleagues sent me a link to a UK based calorie counting website (nowhere near as good as MFP, no message boards for starters, and the database of food is tiny with no scope to add anything that isn't a brand name.).
    Anyway in a quiet moment I typed in my current weight and target weight, and got the information I should be consuming 850 calories a day in order to lose the weight:noway: This sounds positively dangerous - surely no-one should aim to eat such a tiny amount of calories longterm?

    Don't you dare listen to that site!! WRONG .... WRONG ... WRONG!!! It makes NO difference what country you live in you need to consume, at least, 1200 cals/day to keep your body from throwing you into starvation mode, and shutting down your metabolism ..... = no weight loss!! If you're trying to figure things out based on kg rather than lbs ... That's fine. You can find info online for that just by typing what you want to do in the search bar. Don't drop your cals based on the info that site gave you!
  • Maggie1960
    Maggie1960 Posts: 322
    I put my weight in in stones and pounds, and selected my activity level as sedentary because I'm an office worker. I selected lose weight at 2lbs per week and got told it would take me 132 days on 850 calories a day:grumble: :grumble:
    I'll post the link to the site later, I'm at work right now! Try it and see what you all get as your calorie intake:bigsmile:
  • katschy
    katschy Posts: 67
    I'd go on a hunger-induced murderous rage on 800 cals! lol.

    I think most of us would!! :huh:
  • Maggie1960
    Maggie1960 Posts: 322


    That's just completely nuts! I can't believe there is a website out there promoting this unhealthy behavior! I'm curious, what's the site?

    Here's the site for anyone interested (in a purely curious way, not because they intend to use it!)

    http://www.foodfocus.co.uk/

    You have to enter your weight in stones and pounds - there are 14lbs in a stone.
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
    I entered my data and it was ok, maybe you entered something wrong? I just did the "quick personal assessment" on the home page. It asked height/weight/activity level/goal weight
  • Maggie1960
    Maggie1960 Posts: 322
    I've copied and pasted what I got :frown:

    Start weight
    13st 3lb / 83.9kg
    Current weight
    13st 3lb / 83.9kg
    Goal weight
    10st 7lb / 66.7kg
    Target loss/wk
    2lb (0.9kg)
    Target date
    01 February 11

    Target cals/day
    850
    Cals burnt/day
    1850

    Current BMI
    28.4
    BMI at goal
    22.5

    Am I reading it wrong? I am totally confused now.
  • miss_ugly
    miss_ugly Posts: 6
    As the last person said - i did my data and it was fine - are you sure you did it right - my mate did it and it was ok
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
    I've copied and pasted what I got :frown:

    Start weight
    13st 3lb / 83.9kg
    Current weight
    13st 3lb / 83.9kg
    Goal weight
    10st 7lb / 66.7kg
    Target loss/wk
    2lb (0.9kg)
    Target date
    01 February 11

    Target cals/day
    850
    Cals burnt/day
    1850

    Current BMI
    28.4
    BMI at goal
    22.5

    Am I reading it wrong? I am totally confused now.

    The calories burnt = 1850.

    By eating 850 calories per day, that equals to a calories deficit of 1000 calories per day. Multiply 1000 by 7 (days), that equals 7000 calories per week.

    3500 calories deficit will result in a 1lb weight loss, therefore 7000 calories deficit will result in 2lb weight loss.

    2lb weight loss is what you input and indicated what you wished to lose each week. Hence why it has come up with that 850 figure.
  • Maggie1960
    Maggie1960 Posts: 322
    As the last person said - i did my data and it was fine - are you sure you did it right - my mate did it and it was ok

    I think I must have just been being a bit thick - I keyed in my details again, exactly the same as before, and got completely different results:embarassed: :embarassed: Now it says I can eat 1406 calories a day.

    I'm glad it was me being being stupid and NOT the website promoting very low calorie diets for all and sundry. Still gutted it says it will take me until February 2011 to reach my goal though:frown: But slow and steady does it I guess.

    Sorry folks. *backs out of the thread slowly* Maybe I should apologise to Food Focus now?:bigsmile:
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
    ah, don't fret. You don't need that site anyway. AND slow and steady is the way to go, of course!
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
    As the last person said - i did my data and it was fine - are you sure you did it right - my mate did it and it was ok

    I think I must have just been being a bit thick - I keyed in my details again, exactly the same as before, and got completely different results:embarassed: :embarassed: Now it says I can eat 1406 calories a day.

    I'm glad it was me being being stupid and NOT the website promoting very low calorie diets for all and sundry. Still gutted it says it will take me until February 2011 to reach my goal though:frown: But slow and steady does it I guess.

    Sorry folks. *backs out of the thread slowly* Maybe I should apologise to Food Focus now?:bigsmile:

    :laugh: don't worry about it, just glad it all got sorted out :flowerforyou:
  • Beebee78
    Beebee78 Posts: 703
    Lol I was going to say I would end up chewing my own arm off on that low a number! xxx
  • ninja250
    ninja250 Posts: 26
    hahah yeah that is definitely 100% wrong!!
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