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AvriAnn
AvriAnn Posts: 18 Member
edited December 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm just wondering if anyone has done this or if its actually safe/healthy. I started a week ago and I'm down 6lbs, but I've added up my calories and I'm only taking in about 800 calories a day. I understand that I'm over weight (200lbs, 25 yrs old, female, 10k steps a day, not working out, 5'2 short) but is this healthy? I'm supposed to remain in this "phase of eating" until I'm about 10lbs from goal, so I'll be eating 800 cals a day for... A long time....

Anyone else? Any insight?

Replies

  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    900 calories a day is generally referred to as a starvation diet. Less than that is not only unhealthy, but setting yourself up for failure as the body (1) needs more than that to survive and (2) will almost invariably lead to binging because 800 calories is not satisfying. That's, like, two packages of Ramen a day. Extremely low calorie deficits won't lead to long lasting weight loss and can harm your body (and it's ability to process food, thus weight loss) in a ridiculously short amount of time. 1,200 calories is generally not recommend on this site, but it is the barest that is generally accepted here - and for good reason. Eating too little is not good on any front.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    800 calories a day for how long? Is it healthy, I'd say no. You don't need to eat that little in order to lose weight. Do I have any insight on this "diet"? No, except to say I wouldn't do it.
  • AvriAnn
    AvriAnn Posts: 18 Member
    It's like Sanford protein shakes for breakfast, shake for snack, shake for lunch plus 2 cups veggies, shake for snack, and then 3oz protein and 2 cups veggies and 3/4oz cheese for supper, and then another shake before bed...
  • AvriAnn
    AvriAnn Posts: 18 Member
    And for how long, its until I'm 10lb from goal weight. They said most will lose about 10-15lbs a month doing it, so from that math, I'd eat like this for like 7ish months.
  • Diana_GettingFit
    Diana_GettingFit Posts: 458 Member
    This sounds unhealthy and dangerous. And if you manage to stick with it and lose the weight, what then? You need something that's sustainable long term. That's why the CICO system works so well. I've lost 30 lbs so far since I joined MFP and I'm close to goal weight. This is something I know I can continue to work with in the coming years. You don't need expensive gimmicky diets. You just need to eat less calories than you're burning.
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    Dave_GettingFit wrote: »
    And if you manage to stick with it and lose the weight, what then? You need something that's sustainable long term.

    This is the key thing. Okay, you made it 7 months eating 800 calories. That means anything - and I do mean ANYTHING - you put into your body past that 800 calories is going to pile on the pounds, which means you'll have to do another 800 calorie run, which means when you get to your goal weight and eat more (because 800 is not sustainable for life) and gain it back -

    it's a nasty cycle. The best way to avoid that roller coaster is to just not get on it in the first place. And the shakes aren't really the problem, it's the fact that they add up to so few calories. Seriously - you're eating the equivalent of two packages of Ramen a day.

    Can you do that for your whole life? Do you WANT to do that for your whole life?
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Do no recommend. Aside from being an unhealthily low amount of calories, it just sounds really unpleasant.
    One of the benefits of CICO is that it will allow you, over time, to develop the eating habits that will enable you to sustain your weight loss once you've reached your goal, something it doesn't sound like you'll get from what you're doing now.l
  • AvriAnn
    AvriAnn Posts: 18 Member
    jennifer_417 wrote: »
    Do no recommend. Aside from being an unhealthily low amount of calories, it just sounds really unpleasant.
    One of the benefits of CICO is that it will allow you, over time, to develop the eating habits that will enable you to sustain your weight loss once you've reached your goal, something it doesn't sound like you'll get from what you're doing now.l

    What is CICO? Sorry:/

    And I guess why I am asking is because it does seem very unhealthy and really really hard. Last night I went out and it was only a pizza place so all I could pick was pizza and I seriously ate a slice skinnier then 2 inches because I'm just terrified of real food. Which makes no sense.

    But, once you get to 10lbs from goal, then I guess they do teach you to count calories and have healthy food worked back into your life. I'm on a Facebook group for it and there are people posting DAILY that are 25,50,100+ lbs thinner and its just so hard to decide what is right..
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    edited December 2015
    CICO=calories in vs calories out
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    You can teach yourself *rightnow* how to count calories and have healthy foods. Why wait over half a year to do it? Why put that off? You'll be even more tired, hungry, and panicky if you wait till the last minute to educate yourself.

    And some of those people probably are smaller....for now. What most people don't tell you is that they gained the weight right back.
  • AvriAnn
    AvriAnn Posts: 18 Member
    quirkytizzy wrote: »
    You can teach yourself *rightnow* how to count calories and have healthy foods. Why wait over half a year to do it? Why put that off? You'll be even more tired, hungry, and panicky if you wait till the last minute to educate yourself.

    And some of those people probably are smaller....for now. What most people don't tell you is that they gained the weight right back.


    So how exactly do I know how many to eat? I have a fitbit if that helps at all.... I punched in my goal and 2lb a week loss and its telling me 1200 calories. Does that sound right?
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    edited December 2015
    1,200 calories, if you are really worried about calorie count, is a decent place to start with - at least waaaay healthier than 800. I like to use Scooby's calculator. It calculates calorie needs and goals and can even give you a rough estimate of how many calories you'll need in roughly how many meals you eat.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    There's a lot of ways people decide to cut calories. I like to use the "eat whatever the hell you want, just eat less of it" philosophy. For example, because of an *kitten* ex, we ate McDonald's 47 times in five months...and I still lost 30 pounds. (Eat the sandwich, skip the fries, get some unsweetened tea to drink, for instance.) A lot of other people find that they need to pay more attention to their nutrition basics, like protein or carbs. There's all kinds of ways to do this that don't involve huge calorie deficits.

    Take a few minutes and check out every.single.thread here on MFP about the various ways people choose to allocate their calorie loss. There's a lot of them.

    The goal is to give yourself some wiggle room. You deserve to eat. You deserve to lose weight. Both of those can be done at the same time.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    AvriAnn wrote: »
    I'm just wondering if anyone has done this or if its actually safe/healthy. I started a week ago and I'm down 6lbs, but I've added up my calories and I'm only taking in about 800 calories a day. I understand that I'm over weight (200lbs, 25 yrs old, female, 10k steps a day, not working out, 5'2 short) but is this healthy? I'm supposed to remain in this "phase of eating" until I'm about 10lbs from goal, so I'll be eating 800 cals a day for... A long time....

    Anyone else? Any insight?
    That's notbhealthy. You can eat a lot more as still lose weight due to your size. I suggest setting up your goals in MFP and sticking to the calorie amount provided to you.

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