Can I lose on 1500 calories ....

Minouche1922 · August 2014

even if at least 1000 of these calories are nit "clean" food? I have 50 lbs to lose.

Thank you.

Sued0nim · August 2014

Depends what your height, weight, activity level, TDEE is ..but probably ...I do

RGv2 · August 2014

If that is below your TDEE (which it sounds like it is) yes. It doesn't matter how clean your food is, whatever that means, to lose weight. It matters that you take in less calories than you burn in a day.

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

Losingthedamnweight · August 2014

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

I'm sorry, but all I got from that was that you're telling me to go out and eat twinkies?

BombshellPhoenix · August 2014

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

I'm sorry, but all I got from that was that you're telling me to go out and eat twinkies?

I have some in my cabinet right now. But you'd have to wrastle me for them.

Chain_Ring · August 2014

nope

Liftng4Lis · August 2014

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

I'm sorry, but all I got from that was that you're telling me to go out and eat twinkies?

I have some in my cabinet right now. But you'd have to wrastle me for them.

OOH are they going to be deep fried???

BombshellPhoenix · August 2014

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

I'm sorry, but all I got from that was that you're telling me to go out and eat twinkies?

I have some in my cabinet right now. But you'd have to wrastle me for them.

OOH are they going to be deep fried???

Tis the season!

I've never actually had a deep fried one....but they sound SO good!

renee6515 · August 2014

Yes, but if its way below her TDEE couldnt it stall her? As in put her body in starvation and slow the loss? Im asking for my own benefit as well. Really need to know your TDEE I guess to answer for her better.

BusyRaeNOTBusty · August 2014

Probably.

I can lose weight at 2000 calories a day of most non-clean foods.

BombshellPhoenix · August 2014

Yes, but if its way below her TDEE couldnt it stall her? As in put her body in starvation and slow the loss? Im asking for my own benefit as well. Really need to know your TDEE I guess to answer for her better.

Nope. Calorie deficit is still a deficit. Starvation mode as it's commonly tossed around is a myth. There's a thing called metabolic adaptation but a deficit will always result in weight loss.

I do think that if a few weeks go by and she's losing too quickly, she should add more calories to keep it at a sustainable pace because losing too quickly can result in muscle loss, etc but until we know stats, it's hard to say.

I, myself, lost 53 lbs eating around 1900 calories, 1650 net.

heybales · August 2014

even if at least 1000 of these calories are nit "clean" food? I have 50 lbs to lose.

Thank you.

If you burn daily with normal activity and exercise 2500 calories, you'll lose about 1 lb a week, no matter the food.

As long as both sides of that equation are accurate.

@Renee - To question above, depending on amount of deficit and length of time, yes "starvation mode" as in body making metabolic adaptions could happen.

But I'm betting you are thinking of a lot of myths that go along with it, like happens skipping one meals, causes body to store fat and burn muscle, ect.
The reality of that is you can prevent it if you started the diet/exercise right.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/reduced-metabolism-tdee-beyond-expected-from-weight-loss-616251

shannonrocks2 · August 2014

what is TDEE?

diannethegeek · August 2014

what is TDEE?

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It's the number of calories your body uses in a day, including everything from keeping your organs alive to going to work and workouts. It's also the number of calories you could eat to maintain your current weight. Any amount below this should allow you to lose weight.

There are a lot of online calculators to get an estimate of yours, but keep in mind that it will be just an estimate. http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Fat2Fit_imready · August 2014

even if at least 1000 of these calories are nit "clean" food? I have 50 lbs to lose.

Thank you.

I'm 5'3, 26 years old and eat about 1510 calories a day and have lost 12.1 lbs since 07/15/14. I have just under 32 lbs to go and feeling great! I do not eat clean what so ever, but i drink lots of water, exercise at least 3-4 times a week and stay under my calories during the week, and usually go over on the weekends! BUT this works for me

SomeNights246 · August 2014

Yes, but if its way below her TDEE couldnt it stall her? As in put her body in starvation and slow the loss? Im asking for my own benefit as well. Really need to know your TDEE I guess to answer for her better.

Not really.

And even if, hypothetically, starvation mode really worked that way... 1,500 is not low enough to stall the loss. For the loss to be stalled, she would have to eat at an extreme deficit (say 800) for an extended period of time and lose a substantial amount of weight.

1,500 is a perfectly reasonable about to lose weight on. Hypothetically, you could 'starve' on it. But only if you ate at the deficit for a really, really long time even after losing a lot of weight. Say, if you reached 120 lbs and still kept eating at 1,500. You'd still continue to lose weight, so if you ate at said deficit too long, that could be bad. Depending on gender, activity level, and height.

But most of us here (including you and the OP I'm sure) will not be doing that, so it can be safely said that none of us will starve on 1,500 calories. That is a very reasonable amount for weight loss. Far more sustainable than 1,200.

And yeah, weight loss will stall as your body adjusts. But that would happen on any deficit, really.

laura3773 · August 2014

I'm not saying you should eat 1500 calories of twinkies is good for your health, but if you at 1500 calories of twinkies and that is below TDEE you'll lose weight.

I'm sorry, but all I got from that was that you're telling me to go out and eat twinkies?

I have some in my cabinet right now. But you'd have to wrastle me for them.

OOH are they going to be deep fried???

Tis the season!

I've never actually had a deep fried one....but they sound SO good!

Holy crap, deep fried is the only way to eat them. You haven't lived.....

renee6515 · August 2014

@Heybales and somenights: thanks for clarifying. I KNOW I'm not going to literally starve ( love food too much to ever let that happen lol) but I haven't been moving on scales so wasn't sure what to do b/c I'm pretty sure it's my calories. I have def cheated but compared to what I was eating I feel like I should still be losing. Weekdays I'm really good, weekends not as much. Bought food scales so need to use them for better accuracy! Dreading that bought gotta do it....again thanks!
And good luck OP, we can do this! Just got to stick with it thru the trial and error!!

megsmom2 · August 2014

sure, if that is a deficit level for you. Probably, it is. And don't worry about eating "clean"....that's a meaningless nebulous woo-woo buzzword these days. Eat sensibly. You know how to make healthy choices....do it, most of the time. That's all there is to it.