How many calories is too little and why?

davidmillar14 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

davidmillar14 wrote: »

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Have you stopped almost all your carb intake? You mentioned mostly eating meat and fat. If you are doing a lower carb diet this can have effect on your appetite. Are you possibly just ignoring your body's signals to eat?

Maybe including some information about your diet, how long you have doing this etc would be helpful.

In any regard, you need to get your intake to a minimum of 1500 calories as you are heading for numerous side effects from not eating eating enough, muscle loss etc and possible longer term health issues.

Yeah, i am not really shooting for low carb but that's what it's working out as, I'm averaging about 50g carbs daily as I've cut out bread, pasta, fries, chocolate, juice drinks. Carbs come from fruit and condiments just.

I've been doing this for about 30 days now. I'm not particularly active due to having torn knee ligaments and unsuccessful corrective operations, that's why i believe helped me pile 9n the weight. I gained about 50+ pounds in about 4 years by eating what i wanted, i think my weakness is sugary things like cakes and chocolate.

I've not really ignored my bodies hunger signals i wouldn't say but I've not really had that hunger like before when i was just burning sugar. Saying that, i would find it easier not to eat if i wanted to do that.

I hope you're eating plenty of vegetables, too?!? A minimum of 5 daily servings of varied, colorful veggies would be good (10 would be better). You need micronutrients & fiber, tool (A vitamin pill is Not. The. Same.)

I meant to include vegetables. But truth be told i don't eat that much. I usually have 1 salad per day. But the thing is that's more than i used to have before the diet. Why are supplement pills not the same, vitamin wise?

Two things, mainly:

1. Some vitamins in supplement forms have been shown to be injurious to some subpopulations even when larger amounts are beneficial in the food-sourced forms. One easy example is Vitamin A. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/ .

2. I'm old (62). Over the course of my adult life, science has discovered a number of essential or beneficial nutrients (vitamins, other phytochemicals like antioxidants). Once those are identified, they're included in supplements. They were in heathy foods all along. I'd be profoundly surprised if we've now discovered all of them.

Third, speaking now only for myself, because it's hearsay/anecdotal, I've so far known three people who did research relevant to this question (I live near a major research university, and worked there - you meet lots of fun science folks). All of them suggested preferring a healthy, well rounded diet and avoiding self-prescribed OTC supplements, the latter having more unknowns and risks than benefits in general, with the possible exception of a non-mega-dose multivitamin as insurance.

In summary, food is evolution tested. We're designed to eat it. Science can help us optimize food choices within the wide array of available history-proven options, but so far IMO has not come close to replacing it. I particularly don't understand why someone would cut out processed foods, then turn around and rely on supplements for basic nutrition . . . they're kind of the ultimate processed foods.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

davidmillar14 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

davidmillar14 wrote: »

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Have you stopped almost all your carb intake? You mentioned mostly eating meat and fat. If you are doing a lower carb diet this can have effect on your appetite. Are you possibly just ignoring your body's signals to eat?

Maybe including some information about your diet, how long you have doing this etc would be helpful.

In any regard, you need to get your intake to a minimum of 1500 calories as you are heading for numerous side effects from not eating eating enough, muscle loss etc and possible longer term health issues.

Yeah, i am not really shooting for low carb but that's what it's working out as, I'm averaging about 50g carbs daily as I've cut out bread, pasta, fries, chocolate, juice drinks. Carbs come from fruit and condiments just.

I've been doing this for about 30 days now. I'm not particularly active due to having torn knee ligaments and unsuccessful corrective operations, that's why i believe helped me pile 9n the weight. I gained about 50+ pounds in about 4 years by eating what i wanted, i think my weakness is sugary things like cakes and chocolate.

I've not really ignored my bodies hunger signals i wouldn't say but I've not really had that hunger like before when i was just burning sugar. Saying that, i would find it easier not to eat if i wanted to do that.

I hope you're eating plenty of vegetables, too?!? A minimum of 5 daily servings of varied, colorful veggies would be good (10 would be better). You need micronutrients & fiber, tool (A vitamin pill is Not. The. Same.)

I meant to include vegetables. But truth be told i don't eat that much. I usually have 1 salad per day. But the thing is that's more than i used to have before the diet. Why are supplement pills not the same, vitamin wise?

Two things, mainly:

1. Some vitamins in supplement forms have been shown to be injurious to some subpopulations even when larger amounts are beneficial in the food-sourced forms. One easy example is Vitamin A. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/ .

2. I'm old (62). Over the course of my adult life, science has discovered a number of essential or beneficial nutrients (vitamins, other phytochemicals like antioxidants). Once those are identified, they're included in supplements. They were in heathy foods all along. I'd be profoundly surprised if we've now discovered all of them.

Third, speaking now only for myself, because it's hearsay/anecdotal, I've so far known three people who did research relevant to this question (I live near a major research university, and worked there - you meet lots of fun science folks). All of them suggested preferring a healthy, well rounded diet and avoiding self-prescribed OTC supplements, the latter having more unknowns and risks than benefits in general, with the possible exception of a non-mega-dose multivitamin as insurance.

In summary, food is evolution tested. We're designed to eat it. Science can help us optimize food choices within the wide array of available history-proven options, but so far IMO has not come close to replacing it. I particularly don't understand why someone would cut out processed foods, then turn around and rely on supplements for basic nutrition . . . they're kind of the ultimate processed foods.

These are all good reasons to choose food over supplements when possible. Just want to add one more reason: some supplements don't have the ingredients they claim to have, and others have contaminants and potential allergens they don't mention.

for example,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/03/gnc-target-wal-mart-walgreens-accused-of-selling-fake-herbals/

and

:"The United States Pharmacopeial Convention runs a voluntary testing program for supplements, testing vitamins and supplements to ensure they actually contain what they claim to in the amounts listed. Plus they test to make sure the products are contaminant-free and made with clean, safe manufacturing practices. They maintain a list of all the supplements that are certified on their website, and it contains shockingly few brands. It’s basically just NatureMade and Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand. You can also look for their USP certified label on the supplement itself."

https://www.popsci.com/dangerous-supplement-exposures#page-3