Calorie deficit not the answer?

FYI - I know plenty of people that eat 1 meal per day and are successful.

I currently eat once every three days and I'm eating about 6,000 calories on my eating day. Now I'm not eating like a normal person because I'm a competitive eater and that 6,000 calories is all coming from raw beef, but yes you can eat infrequently and be successful.

Yeah, only eating one meal a day and going the rest of the day on diet coke is pretty bad for you. No one really thinks about their organs until they start to give out....which is unfortunate since you need them to function properly in order to stay alive.

Also starving all day and then eating one meal, it is very likely you are eating more than 1500 in one sitting. After not eating all day you will be ravenously hungry and when you start eat it'll be hard to stop eating.

Start eating breakfast and lunch. Eat a smaller dinner. Your metabolism will be faster & you'll feel better.

How exactly are you starving all day? Are you assuming that if you eat 2500 calories per 1 sitting the entire 2500 calories immediately digest and you don't get any nutrient uptake from that meal as the hours go by?



FYI - I know plenty of people that eat 1 meal per day and are successful.

FYI - I know plenty of people that eat 1 meal per day and are successful.

I currently eat once every three days and I'm eating about 6,000 calories on my eating day. Now I'm not eating like a normal person because I'm a competitive eater and that 6,000 calories is all coming from raw beef, but yes you can eat infrequently and be successful.

I almost believed you until I saw "raw beef".

Actually it's very true. I eat about 400 lbs of raw beef a year. Check out some of my videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGxsSPkc3Z0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7IqXik2aVQ

Here are the details on my current experiment: http://healthsatori.org/blog/2014/04/10/the-predator-program/

Although I don't count calories (I know many of you are going to say that I'm eating more than i think), i'm quite confident that I never exceed my daily maintenance number. I say this because I do not eat anything throughout the entire day and only drink diet coke. At dinner I eat varied meals with family from healthy to pizza and may have a beer or glass of wine. To the point, I believe my body has learned to compensate by slowing my metabolism, such that I don't gain or lose, despite being under calorie recommendations. I'm 6'1" and 230lbs and estimate eating 1500 calls per day... lifestyle is sitting behind a desk in home office.

Advice anyone? I would like to drop 30lbs before building muscle. Could it really be as simple as eating more often and cleaner calories in the 2500 per day range along with walking or jogging 3 days per week???

Dump the diet soda. Just dump it.

Why? I'm having a diet soda now am I going to gain back all 111 lbs?

I lost all my weight and leaned heavily on diet soda to feel full. To the extent I drank about a 12 pack a day. The acid in the soda is bad for you. The coloring in the soda is bad for you. The carbonation is bad for you. The artificial sugar is bad for you...

Especially the artificial sugar which they have linked to insulin resistance and other not good things.

If you drink a few diet soda's a day...there is nothing wrong with that IMO. If you are drinking a 12 pack of diet MT dew a day ...it was time to quit.

I may eventually start drinking diet soda when I go out...but been about 2.5 months without caffeine or diet soda...first 4-5 days sucked though.

I've eaten that way for most of my life, but the past year and half it's been my normal, energy levels just fine just did a 53 mile bike ride, I was cranky before and still cranky if you ask my husband. Blood sugar and stomach just fine. I've lost a little weight, improved my health significantly. Eating once a day might not have worked for you, but no it's not unhealthy to eat once per day.

Please provide studies backing up your claim.

ETA: Just read your profile, comparing eating one meal of 2500 calories a day to someone starving themselves due to an eating disorder are not even closely the same thing

Did I ever claim that my way of eating was better than anyone else, no I said for ME it is sustainable, because it fits with my lifestyle. And staying within a deficit takes planning but do I worry about what I eat.. only that I'm eating what I like, what meets my nutritional needs and that I have room for dessert as it's important to me.

Did I ever claim that my way of eating was better than anyone else, no I said for ME it is sustainable, because it fits with my lifestyle. And staying within a deficit takes planning but do I worry about what I eat.. only that I'm eating what I like, what meets my nutritional needs and that I have room for dessert as it's important to me.

I never said either way of eating was superior, only that yours deviated from the norm. That being said, I honestly do not think it's sustainable over your lifetime and it might better serve you to learn more ordinary manners of eating so that you can do so and maintain health when you are forced to change (elderly people have many eating issues due to a reduction in senses and normal body functions--not saying that you'll be elderly soon, though, since I don't know you or your age. ). It is possible to eat dessert and still eat three meals/day.

That being said, there are some similarities between what you're doing and the control demanded by an ED. I'm not saying the mental issues are the same. I'm just noting the similarities in eating styles.

You're right. You are eating more than you think you are. You aren't a special snowflake with a unique metabolism. And you are not maintaining 230 pounds on 1500 calories. You just aren't. Probably almost twice that.

There's a lot of derailing in this thread, but you are spot on with this advice.


If you do not count your calories how can you know you're eating 1500 a day? That seems silly. Count for a few days - I bet you'll be surprised.

It's going to take a calorie deficit to lose weight. You're maintaining right now because you're eating right around your daily usage (some days a bit over, some under, but it works out in the long run to average out ... that's what maintaining is).

So my advice, if you want to lose 30 pounds, is to start with tracking everything you currently are eating. Do this for a good 2 weeks, so you get a decent idea. (You may find that you lose a few pounds doing this, because the very activity of tracking can cause some people to eat less as they become more aware). Take an average (add it all up and divide by the number of days) then focus on dropping 300-500 calories a day off that number. That should help you lose around 1 pound a week, give or take. As you get closer to your goal, drop it to 250-300; the closer you are to ideal weight, the slower you should be losing.

Yes, I'm talking about calorie counting and achieving a calorie deficit. Because, really, that's what it comes down to. Calorie deficit IS the answer ... a consistent, over time calorie deficit is how you lose weight. Meal timing is irrelevant (what you're doing is generally referred to as IF, there are many people who chose this lifestyle and use it to lose, maintain, gain, etc). The type of foods you eat don't matter, for loss - although you want to focus mostly on nutrient-dense foods for overall health. Exercise is good for your health, and can increase your daily deficit, but is not necessary simply for weight loss. It's just the deficit. But it's not that hard to do.


EDIT: I just re-read OP, and realized that he wants to gain muscle after losing 30 pounds. I would suggest, in that case, to not delay in adding in the exercise. Really, start lifting NOW. Look up Starting Strength or Strong Lifts 5x5. Do a bit of research on proper form, or get a few sessions with a trainer, if you haven't lifted before. Because it's actually going to far easier to maintain the muscle you have now (while eating at a 250-500 calorie deficit) and then build from there when you decide to bulk, than to lose more of the muscle as you lose the weight by what I suggested above and then try to rebuild it. Other than that, I stick with EVERYTHING else I said.

This may be totally self serving () But I'm reposting what I said before because it seems that it got lost in the intermittent fasting/ED debate. Though several others have said basically the same thing as I did.

It's going to take a calorie deficit to lose weight. You're maintaining right now because you're eating right around your daily usage (some days a bit over, some under, but it works out in the long run to average out ... that's what maintaining is).

So my advice, if you want to lose 30 pounds, is to start with tracking everything you currently are eating. Do this for a good 2 weeks, so you get a decent idea. (You may find that you lose a few pounds doing this, because the very activity of tracking can cause some people to eat less as they become more aware). Take an average (add it all up and divide by the number of days) then focus on dropping 300-500 calories a day off that number. That should help you lose around 1 pound a week, give or take. As you get closer to your goal, drop it to 250-300; the closer you are to ideal weight, the slower you should be losing.

Yes, I'm talking about calorie counting and achieving a calorie deficit. Because, really, that's what it comes down to. Calorie deficit IS the answer ... a consistent, over time calorie deficit is how you lose weight. Meal timing is irrelevant (what you're doing is generally referred to as IF, there are many people who chose this lifestyle and use it to lose, maintain, gain, etc). The type of foods you eat don't matter, for loss - although you want to focus mostly on nutrient-dense foods for overall health. Exercise is good for your health, and can increase your daily deficit, but is not necessary simply for weight loss. It's just the deficit. But it's not that hard to do.


EDIT: I just re-read OP, and realized that he wants to gain muscle after losing 30 pounds. I would suggest, in that case, to not delay in adding in the exercise. Really, start lifting NOW. Look up Starting Strength or Strong Lifts 5x5. Do a bit of research on proper form, or get a few sessions with a trainer, if you haven't lifted before. Because it's actually going to far easier to maintain the muscle you have now (while eating at a 250-500 calorie deficit) and then build from there when you decide to bulk, than to lose more of the muscle as you lose the weight by what I suggested above and then try to rebuild it. Other than that, I stick with EVERYTHING else I said.