What will creating too large of a deficit do short-term?

It depends on a variety of factors. If his body can't make up the deficit from his fat stores, he can expect to see a sudden and drastic loss of LBM. If it can, the next question is whether he's hitting his protein macro and doing resistance training, as these are activities that have been shown to help spare LBM when eating a caloric deficit. The last concern I would have is how much food is he eating to net 90 calories a day and is he getting enough nutrients. There's a big difference between eating 90 calories and eating 2000 calories while burning 1910 calories.

I'll add that if he's getting enough protein, has plenty of fat stores in reserve and is getting sufficient nutrients, the consequences of such a diet are quite minimal. It's possible that he's not doing any damage to himself (but it's also possible he is). In essence, it depends.

yea hes going to f-ck himself up.. also having a weight loss competition is ridiculous anyone who knows anything about nutrition would frown upon a competition like that.. this isn't the biggest loser where you can lose like 10lbs a week, not everyone is 450lbs and has strict diet and training protocol

The extreme weight loss tv shows accomplish their quick losses by going waaaay negative on 'net'. On the ABC one, they eat 1200-1500/day and do 4 hours of workouts, mostly cardio. Run the numbers on that, for someone 250 lbs. overweight.

From what I've read, they aim for a 3500 caloric deficit per day on those shows. They eat a fair bit of food but with 4+ hours of cardio each day, they come out well in the negative. And, if you're carrying around a lot of body fat, you can generally get by with doing that without major repercussions. I think they set a horrible example for how people should treat weight loss though and they definitely give people unreasonable expectations.

Thank you for these comments. I have been watching Biggest Loser and I Used to be Fat lately and all it does is make me feel horrible about myself and then I attempt to set lofty goals. I can only imagine what it does to someone who is more susceptible to keep trying to mirror these shows (someone younger, perhaps).

Hungry. It will make him hungry.

The thought of netting 90 calories makes me want to eat something. Preferably a steak.

Hungry. It will make him hungry.

The thought of netting 90 calories makes me want to eat something. Preferably a steak.

Hmmm... makes me think of ways to sabotage him. He's 1 chicken breast away from binging.

Is it wrong that I'm hoping for him to fail? Or at least fail worst than me? I will be super encouraging when its over.

And this would be the problem with weight loss contests...

Thanks, yea so I guess it depends. I guess we will see how it goes. Being in a competition with people who very well may do some type of crash dieting to win, I see where it is tempting to eat less and less.

It's not just the crash dieting......diuretics and laxitives too. Don't forget to wear a sauna suit the morning of weigh in.....oh yeah....some real healthy stuff going on.

Thanks, yea so I guess it depends. I guess we will see how it goes. Being in a competition with people who very well may do some type of crash dieting to win, I see where it is tempting to eat less and less.

It's not just the crash dieting......diuretics and laxitives too. Don't forget to wear a sauna suit the morning of weigh in.....oh yeah....some real healthy stuff going on.

I wear my sauna suit to work everyday.

That's too bad....you wanted your starting weight to be elevated.

yea... we are doing body percentage, so it does level the playing field a bit. Winner gets 800$, So I said heck yes.

Well the good news is, he will probably lose a fair bit of muscle if he isn't morbidly obese, so his body fat % will either go up or maintain.