< 1000 calories a day....is it really healthy??

Please help me understand how someone says they struggle to eat 1000 or 1200 calories and end up needing to lose weight? I have wondered everytime I see someone write that.

I've wondered the same. :P

I genuinely thought I was under-eating on calories everyday prior to starting MFP. I used to walk around saying "I don't know how I'm fat! I only eat like 700 calories per day! It must be because I only eat once a day and my metabolism is kaput!" ...well, when I really recorded the cals, it was closer to 2500-3000. I was shocked.

So I think a lot of it is self-delusion and ignorance.

It's impossible to eat so few calories, long-term, and NOT lose weight. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment and the 1981 Irish republican hunger strikes are just two modern, real-world examples that prove this point.

That said, some peoples' bodies really are broken, metabolism-wise. But the chances of being one of those people are right about zilch. ;p

I KNOW that everyone wants to lose weight. But, why choose to do it the unhealthy way? Losing weight takes time. You just can't starve your body for weeks, lose weight, & expect the results to be healthy.

I know that some of you who eat under 1000 calories a day, have had eating disorders and are trying to recover from that. To those, I congratulate. Everytime I see a calorie increase in your diaries, I feel so proud of you. I know @ times, it is a challenge for you to eat, but you do it. You may not eat 1200 calories a day, you may not eat 800, but compared to what you were eating, you are doing awesome.

But, to those of you who are eating under 1000 calories because you think it will help you to lose weight faster, you are doing more harm to your body than good. You need @ least 1200 calories a day, more if you are active. Some exercise & burn 700 or more calories a day. And yet, choose to eat so little. If you fall in that catagory, do you honestly think it is healthy? And if so, how is it healthy? Maybe I'm missing out on something.

Please don't think that I'm trying to criticize anyone because I'm not. I am here to support in anyway that I can. I'm just trying to understand the whole concept of eating less than 1000 calories a day.

Not everyone here wants to lose weight. I don't, and I eat around 1000 calories a day, sometimes a little more, sometimes less, but always well under 1200. I would say I eat about 50% - 60% of my daily calorie expenditure. This is because I'm practicing calorie restriction for health reasons, and am part of a study researching its effect on certain markers to do with glucose and insulin.

You're not here to criticize? So don't. People are tracking their food for all kinds of reasons. For me the concept is simple: better health. Of course, within those 1000 Calories, I darn well make sure I'm getting optimal nutrition.

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/health/crondiet.html

For some reason, I always end up eating less than 1200 calories, but I'm definitely not hungry.
I'll snack on fruits whenever I am hungry, but I'm always still lower than my target...

Please help me understand how someone says they struggle to eat 1000 or 1200 calories and end up needing to lose weight? I have wondered everytime I see someone write that.

Many days I struggle to eat 1000 - 1200 calories. No, it wasn't hard to eat that when I was eating primarily junk food and take out which is why I ended up needing to lose weight(well that and not exercising). But eating healthy foods it can be a struggle to get in that number of calories. Most of the people I have talked to here don't eat that few calories because they are trying to starve themselves (I know there are some who are), they eat that few calories because they are eating a lot of fruits and veggies and healthy foods that have very few calories.

I eat pretty healthy and I can get to 1200 by lunchtime. LOL

While I was reading all these posts, I kept thinking of those who lost weight by 'starving' themselves only to gain it all back when they started to eat again.

It was mentioned in the posts about people who do it unhealthily losing muscle. I think this should be elaborated on a little. Fat is what you want to lose. On extremely calorie deficit diets, muscle is lost. Muscle helps you to continue to lose or stay the same once you reach goal weight. If you lose muscle, however you do it, it's not good. Some eat too few calories. Some just don't exercise. Many don't eat enough protein. I've probably done it all in the past. I'm hoping to do better this time, and I think this site will help.

Please help me understand how someone says they struggle to eat 1000 or 1200 calories and end up needing to lose weight? I have wondered everytime I see someone write that.

It's called denial.

Actually I am one of those people. You want to know why I now find it difficult to match my calories (1200) when I exercise, and sometimes without that? Because I have only just learnt what being hungry is actually like and started listening to my body. My body at this weight and height only gets hungry when it is getting a net of maybe 900 or less calories a day. Before I started dieting a month ago I literally never got hungry and ate over 2000 a day, always being full up after a meal and not letting myself have as much as a stomach rumble. Had I thought to listen to what my body wanted and needed I would not have been eating that much.
I love food and I don't deny myself eating something when I am genuinely hungry now. You shouldn't be so judgmental about people who have had a bad past relationship with food and are just starting to find it confusing that once they get a handle on listening to their own bodies they are only feeling the need to eat a small amount. Now my body has adjusted to eating in order to stop hunger and not just for the hell of it, I think it is much better at telling me when to quit eating. It makes me feel physically sick and ill to eat a whole Indian takeaway in one go now which seems insane given what I used to put away, but obviously my body is happy that it is being well-fed most of the time and seems to object to going back to old ways.

I was told that a person can't live for too long under 1200 calories by a dietician

I don't see myself exactly fading away on under 1200. If you are "normal" weight or below then I guess different rules apply but surely it depends on how much fat you've got stored up to burn, also how long you plan to be on the diet and whether, basically, it is delivering steady and slow weight loss. For me so far, averaging weekly at under 1200 has led to a 1-2lb loss per week. It seems to me like if I was eating more (maybe 1500) I would be substantially slowing my weight loss down.
Or maybe I missed something?