Less calories does NOT equal more weight loss

Less calories does equal more weight loss by the means of thermodynamics, however if she is truly consuming that little she will also lose muscle along with fat. And if done for an extended period, could negatively impact her metabolism, which includes things like her heart, her skin and nails would suffer. She'd be weak and risk injury.

Assuming she is telling you this and is, in fact, eating so little, I'd encourage her to take weight loss at a sustainable pace for her health and enlighten her of it, as the scale isn't the end all.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/dangers-500-calorie-diets-2098.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/518807-negative-side-effects-of-eating-less-than-1-200-calories-a-day/

"I would never recommend doing a very low-calorie diet alone," says Hernried. Patients at his clinic have bloodwork done biweekly and get regular electrocardiograms.
"Absolutely these diets must be done under the care of a doctor," says CNNHealth.com's diet and fitness expert, Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician nutrition specialist. "These things are not without risk."
Heitman says he is thankful for the medical supervision he received while on the diet. "My hair did thin out and there were other side effects," he says. "There were leg cramps ... and now they're monitoring me for gallstones."
Diets of less than 800 calories can lead to numerous complications, according to Jampolis, including heart arrhythmias, which could lead to death. Extreme dieters are also at risk of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, low blood pressure and high uric acid, which could lead to gout or kidney stones, she says. Also, losing weight quickly could lead to gallstones and thinning hair because dieters are getting the minimum amount of nutrition, which can affect hair and bone density.

It does...but it doesn't mean it's healthy. she will just burn up a lot of muscle and cause all kinds of other issues...probably lose her period...start losing her hair...nails will go brittle, etc. It'll be all kinds of fun. Then after that when she figures out how badly she *kitten* herself up she can spend all kinds of money getting counseling and therapy for her eating disorder.

Maybe explain the dangers to her rather than trying to convince her that she won't lose weight.

it does lead to more weight loss but it also leads to NUMEROUS health problems and death and she might need help for an eating disorder. If you're really concerned I would consider talking to her family.

Eat more move more is my mantra. I tried the prolonged eating less strategy it worked for a while then I stalled and couldn't go any lower without losing significant muscle mass. I had to up my calories by a big amount and made my workouts more intense. That seemed to be the sweet spot.

Plus eating that low of calories causes a level of fixation that is similar to eating disorders. Which can lead to a full blown eating disorder.

Well, not to split hairs, but technically fewer calories DOES mean more weight loss. However, that does not mean that what your friend is doing is healthy.

Restricting too much, for most people, ends up with binging, because a person can only being hungry for so long. If the person continues trying to restrict that much, they will frequently end up in an overrestricting/ binging cycle that will not help them at all.

This is what you need to say to your friend. "Food is nutrition, you do realize that right?"

ChrisM8971 wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

Well it does equal more weight loss. Unfortunately it's going to mean some weight loss she doesn't want (lean tissue). Also calories that low won't provide them with the ESSENTIALS they need to have a healthier living.
But you can't force anyone to think right. You can encourage and inspire and the rest is up to them.
Sometimes people have to do things the wrong way to learn the right way.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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This but unfortunately it is so difficult to convince someone to change their thinking. The body can only metabolise so much fatty tissue and large deficits lead to a higher loss of lbm and the result they achieve is unfortunately not what they were looking for.

Suggest they research VLCD's further, especially the potential side affects and be there for support when they need it

Even though it does, I actually did manage to convince a friend that a more muscle sparing diet (higher in calories slower in loss) would have her looking better than losing fast, since she is losing weight to look good in a bikini, and skinny fat is not exactly what people have in mind when they have such a goal. People like this tend to respond well to body fat vs weight comparison photos like this one: