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

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Replies

  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
    I eat pretty healthy and I can get to 1200 by lunchtime. LOL
  • mandiex0
    mandiex0 Posts: 174
    I have been eating 900, 1000 cals a day sometimes i reach my 1200 goal. but i have been doing that since october and ive lost 51 pounds. my weight loss is slowing down however now, and i think it is bc my body is trying to get use to the loss of the 51 pounds. i still have another 45 to go, so we'll see.
  • amarie35
    amarie35 Posts: 333 Member
    Why do you care? Seriously... I do not understand all the banter back and forth about what others are or are not doing. Focus on yourself... I do, and it is working out pretty well. I hope your journey is going great for you as well... but I would never go back and forth "not criticizing" others for their own choices... I have my own life to worry about.


    The fact is that I have many friends who eat like this & I DO CARE. I care about them and their health. I focus on myself but being a nurse, a friend, & the caring person that I am, I can't help but care about the health of others.

    I have always wondered why some eat like this but until now, have never asked why. Reading the posts that some have written, I understand more clearly. For instance, I never heard of the 'eat 10 times the amount you want to weigh' concept. I want to weigh 130, which means that I should eat around 1300 calories. So, I guess according to that concept, I've been eating way too much. I've never really thought about height either. But it makes perfect sense; some may be really short & need a lot lower calorie intake.

    Thanks to all who have responded. You helped me to see things in a different perspective. Good luck to each & every one of you.

    GOD bless! :flowerforyou:
  • BflSaberfan
    BflSaberfan Posts: 1,272
    10 x your goal weight does seem about right. Considering I'm only 5'2 a 1300 calorie diet isn't much of a deficit.
  • SusieB01
    SusieB01 Posts: 89
    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.
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
    10 x your goal weight does seem about right. Considering I'm only 5'2 a 1300 calorie diet isn't much of a deficit.

    I use MFP to track what I put in and out but I don't go by their calories recommendations actually I used them for a couple months and gained. Before I found MFP I used the 10x calculation and lost 80 lbs, after gaining with MFP's numbers I went back to the 10x calculation and I'm back to losing. I think it works quite well :smile:
  • littlemili
    littlemili Posts: 625 Member
    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.
  • SonG7140
    SonG7140 Posts: 11 Member
    I was told that a person can't live for too long under 1200 calories by a dietician
  • littlemili
    littlemili Posts: 625 Member
    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?
  • BflSaberfan
    BflSaberfan Posts: 1,272
    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.

    Any time you gain weight, you gain muscle. ANy time you lose weight, you will inevitably lose muscle as well. My lean body mass went down 5 pounds along with my 50 weight loss, so 45 of that was fat, 5 was muscle/tissue etc. There is no way around this.
  • becalee26
    becalee26 Posts: 185 Member
    My net cals is usually around 1000. I have a hard time when I excercise to eat the 600 cals back. I can easily eat it back with junk but would rather not. Veggies and fruit are not high in cals and I worry about the sugar in all the fuit if I eat a lot of it. I guess I need some ideas on what others eat to gain back their excercise cals. I don't feel like I am starving myself, I actually feel quite full most nights. Eating 1500 cals a day seems okay to me even if my net cals is at 1000?
  • brapuk
    brapuk Posts: 11 Member
    I eat between 800 and 1150 a day is that bad? Like alot of other people say, i only eat when im hungry now. instead of when im bored, sad, or heck even happy. 25 lbs of weight gain was from quiting smoking 7 months ago. My eating habits have never been great. I was raised in a family where we had a little veggies with our meat. Not a little meat with our veggies. But now i feel up on veggies and drink AT LEAST 8 8oz glasses of water. I carry my water bottle everywhere now. When my Dr. ask me what my intake was i told her between 800-1150 she said i was doing great. So does this mean my Doctor is wrong? Am i suppose to get a 2nd opinion?
  • frustration
    frustration Posts: 1
    Hey everyone, I'm new to this site. I've been reading all the comments and now i have a few questions/ concerns.
    I aim to eat 1000 - 1200 calories per day and WITHOUT any exercise I burn 1,702 calories.
    Im a 5'4 female and weigh 195 lbs. I'm trying to get down to my pre baby weight of about 120 lbs.
    Is it bad that I'm having a hard time even reaching 1000 calories per day?

    i usually eat 6 - 8 times a day and have lots of vegetables and 1 apple a day
    i drink 1-4 bottles of water daily but usually i drink tea without any sugar or milk.

    I have a really hard time getting to eat more calories because i do actually become full. Even when I do feel to eat something I only want something sweet so I drink tea/water.

    My question is: How bad is that for my body?
  • pmad37
    pmad37 Posts: 105 Member
    When I went to the doc on 1/11, I weighed 197, when I went back three weeks ago, I am down to 183. Doc asked how I am doing it and told him I had seen a nutritionist and was staying at 1300 calories/day. he said that I could drop down to 1000 and lose quicker, that's what he tells people that he prescribes diet pills to. My reply is that those people have narcotics telling them they are not hungry, I'll stick with my 1300
  • lodro
    lodro Posts: 982 Member
    I eat between 800 and 1150 a day is that bad? Like alot of other people say, i only eat when im hungry now. instead of when im bored, sad, or heck even happy. 25 lbs of weight gain was from quiting smoking 7 months ago. My eating habits have never been great. I was raised in a family where we had a little veggies with our meat. Not a little meat with our veggies. But now i feel up on veggies and drink AT LEAST 8 8oz glasses of water. I carry my water bottle everywhere now. When my Dr. ask me what my intake was i told her between 800-1150 she said i was doing great. So does this mean my Doctor is wrong? Am i suppose to get a 2nd opinion?

    It depends on how well you are watching your nutrients (macro and micro) apart from the calories, that I think people underestimate generally, the absolute number for carbs, protein, fat and for micronutrients like minerals are very low, so you have to make every calorie count. I restrict my calories drastically (like you, below the 1000 calorie mark), but I do so for a clinical study and I do it under medical supervision, because the margins are so small.
  • lodro
    lodro Posts: 982 Member
    10 x your goal weight does seem about right. Considering I'm only 5'2 a 1300 calorie diet isn't much of a deficit.

    For me that would be 650 calories a day then. That's insane. But yes, if you're not tall and you want to lose weight, often 1200 calories (plus underestimated calories, which might make it nearer to 1500) is not a lot.
  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
    10 x your goal weight does seem about right. Considering I'm only 5'2 a 1300 calorie diet isn't much of a deficit.

    For me that would be 650 calories a day then. That's insane. But yes, if you're not tall and you want to lose weight, often 1200 calories (plus underestimated calories, which might make it nearer to 1500) is not a lot.

    650 calories a day? I think they were saying you should eat 10x the weight you want to be... if that is 650 then you only want to weigh 65lbs? I have heard that from quite a few people, eat 10x your goal weight, if you want to weigh 150 then eat 1500 calories a day 130=1300 calories a day and so on.
  • annarface
    annarface Posts: 77 Member
    Maybe that person thought you meant kg and wants to be 65kg?

    If you're meant to eat 10x your goal weight, then I'm supposed to eat 1000 calories a day... And my goal weight is my current weight, so I'm over-eating?
  • Atlantique
    Atlantique Posts: 2,484 Member
    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 can happen.

    If you used to get a lot of your calories from liqiuids, if you used to skip meals, if you were formerly a grazer, if you eat mainly calorie-dense foods instead of simple carbs, if you don't work out much, etc.
  • Sezmo83
    Sezmo83 Posts: 331 Member
    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 dunno about everyone else but I find I'm eating a much larger quantity of food now that I'm eating properly instead of having chocolate, crisps and cake for meals because I can't be bothered making a meal just for one person. 2 bars of chocolate and 2 bags of crisps may be more calories than say chicken, potatoes and veg but it's also a much smaller quantity of food. Then there's the drinks, I'm drinking water now but before I was drinking coke and other sweet and/or fizzy drinks.

    The medication I was on was partly to blame for my weight gain as I was gaining anything up to 6lbs a week eating properly but the last 6-8 months I was on it I gave up and ate what I wanted when I wanted which obviously didn't help.
  • lodro
    lodro Posts: 982 Member
    10 x your goal weight does seem about right. Considering I'm only 5'2 a 1300 calorie diet isn't much of a deficit.

    For me that would be 650 calories a day then. That's insane. But yes, if you're not tall and you want to lose weight, often 1200 calories (plus underestimated calories, which might make it nearer to 1500) is not a lot.

    650 calories a day? I think they were saying you should eat 10x the weight you want to be... if that is 650 then you only want to weigh 65lbs? I have heard that from quite a few people, eat 10x your goal weight, if you want to weigh 150 then eat 1500 calories a day 130=1300 calories a day and so on.
    Oops, I'm european. So we measure in kilograms, not pounds. Hence the confusion: 65 kilograms. Hmmm My bad.
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