Is 1400 too little for my organs?

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Flabbby
Flabbby Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
I'm eating 1200-1410 net calories a day to lose 0.5kg/1.1lb a week. (I'm not overweigh with the BMI of 23.9, but I have A LOT of fat and zero lung capacity etc.) I'm 18, so I assume it's natural my metabolism is running like usain bolt. First one and a half weeks I've gone down a 2.5kg/5.5lb.

I'm happy about that and all, but recently I've become worried something might be off.. I mean, shouldn't I eat like 1500cal just so my organs survive? And if I don't, the energy will be taken off from muscles instead of body fat, right?

Should I raise my calorie goal? Is there anyone here with experience on long(ish) term 1400 cal diet?

Thanks for the help anyone cool enough to reply <3

Replies

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Woah, what?

    5.5 lbs in 10-11 days is fast. A good weight loss rate is 1% of your total body weight per week. For the sake of your muscles, that's the fastest you should want to lose weight. Your organs will be just fine. The reason your body has stored body fat is to make up the gap of an energy deficit like the one you're running right now. The larger the energy gap however, the more likely you are to be losing more muscle than you want to. This is due to the fact that maintaining and especially building muscle requires energy and if you're in an energy deficit, then your body's priority is surviving, not maintaining muscle. You should absolutely raise your calorie goal so that you're losing no more than 1% of your body weight per week. Also, you need to look into strength training while you lose weight. A program like Stronglifts would be good if you don't have experience with lifting.
  • forkofpower
    forkofpower Posts: 171 Member
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    I...think you're talking about BMR, right? Your BMR is how much your body uses if you were lying in bed all day and not moving. This number varies for everyone. You can look up your estimated BMR and TDEE using a calculator like this one: http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    How many calories is too much or too little depends on your individual TDEE.

    eta: Most people lose a dramatic amount of weight during their initial stage of dieting, because their body is losing water weight.
  • Flabbby
    Flabbby Posts: 5
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    @aj_g 1% of 73 is 0.01x73=0.73kg so I should be well off with 0.5? :) Thanks for the strength training tip, totally going to delve into that!

    @forkofpower

    Yeah I suppose I am talking about BMR! :) I don't really know these things, just some stuff I've picked up in high school health education..

    According to that calculator my BMR is 1570 and TDEE 2160. Does this mean anything less than 1570 is harmful or?
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    1400 isn't going to hurt your organs, and you're ok eating under your BMR since you have body fat to spare that you're aiming to get rid of. If you keep losing more than you plan on in future weeks, you might want to eat more, though.
  • _BearNecessities_
    _BearNecessities_ Posts: 432 Member
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    Whew. When I first saw the thread title, I thought you were auctioning off kidneys or lungs or something like that. Never been so glad to be wrong.








    :flowerforyou:
  • Flabbby
    Flabbby Posts: 5
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    Whew. When I first saw the thread title, I thought you were auctioning off kidneys or lungs or something like that. Never been so glad to be wrong.


    :flowerforyou:

    Well uhm I'm not exactly selling but just in case: 1400 is too little if you're.. ehehm.. in need :laugh: :laugh:

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