"Starvation." (All opinions wanted!)

Pshhh...Pants to both..PANTS!!!! :grumble:

Can I be blunt if I tell you that I am not trying to be mean or rude? OK...I think that ANYONE eating 500 net calories a day is a fool. You cannot survive in any healthy manner on that amount of fuel. You are starting your body. I know this because I am 54 years old and have been on almost EVERY type of diet out there and have spent hours and hours with nutritionists and dieticians learning about how to eat and, until now, not being good at doing what I learned.

If you want to lose weight, and think you should eat only 500 calories, get a doctor's opinion. I mean it. Your life is important. If you have a 1200 calorie goal and exercise 700 calories off, you should be eating back the 700 calories because 1200 is the MINIMUM you should be eating in order to lose the right kind of weight. Otherwise, you may very well get to your goal, but as soon as you resume eating a "normal" diet, you will gain it back and probably be less healthy in the long run.

I am honestly trying to support you, just being concerned about your health.

Everyone's starvation Calories are different but typically 500 is the starvation line, you could do this for a week or two but really no longer then that without permanent damage to your metabolism.

Everyone's starvation Calories are different but typically 500 is the starvation line, you could do this for a week or two but really no longer then that without permanent damage to your metabolism.

Ummmm..yeah..so since WHEN has 500 calories been the starvation line????

ABSOLUTELY, its just like losing blood your body gets deprived of certain vitamins that are essential to maintain a healthy lifestyle/body etc. I shall be dissapointed with you if you go the 500 cal per day route. Add me as a friend I'll give you support to lose the weight in a healthy manner.

Well, it is pick your poison. With 1200 at least your body is getting more nourishment but eventually you will get weak and pass out from fatigue and possibly injure yourself. Then there is 500 and you just are fatigued and can't move ... hair starts to fall out and you waste away. Hmmmmmm. So the question is do you want to be conscious or unconscious while your body shuts down?

Eating 1200 and burning 700, obviously.
http://matchstickmolly.com/post/4080716502/why-starving-seems-to-work

I don't advocate how I work but it gets results. I have lost 1-4lbs per week, every week, for 5 months, despite being a normal weight and it has come from fat not muscle. I am posting to disprove starvation mode in my body not to tell anyone to eat like this. Also I never deny myself food when hungry and I don't care about net calories, I just try really hard to eat 1000 and exercise as much as I feel like doing.

I eat usually 900-1200 per day. I burn 200-500. I don't eat anything back.


Disclaimer: I have EDNOS so it's not a mentally stable eating pattern.

Hush... Thus is purely and simply a PERSONAL observation/experience. Until the last 2 weeks, I've been regularly eating my Mfp calorie quota for the day, about 1,300 cals a day. I also exercised pretty much about 500-1000 calories worth of exercise with my diet, and occasional year a couple hundred or so of my exercise cals on top of my minimum 1300 food calories. Yes, I dropped weight and also had a fierce appetite but stuck at the numbers I quoted, losing approx 1 to 2 lbs a week, not the 2 lbs Mfp projected, which didn't and still dosn't bother me one little bit simply because I'm eating and exercising regularly as I too have a fairly sedentary job where I drive a lot and walk very little....



HOWEVER.....

All that has changed the last 2 weeks as I have had a recurrence of the most intense and chronic pain I've ever had... Simply insufferable . My doctor put me on a condition of pain killers, anti-depressants that are muscle relxants at low doses and advised me to I'm dearly STOP doing any exercise whatsoever, not even gentle walking. However, the drugs have completely supressed my appetite and even if I'm hungry the mere thought of food made me feel nauseous and sick, so all id eat in a day is maybe a bowl of cereal and a small piece of fruit. As a result, I have dropped 5 lbs in weight in LESS than one week, and whilst the scale worshippers amongst us would be throwing parties and doing cartwheels, I actually felt the complete opposite, and my body is now in a constant state of extreme fatigue and pain and I'm actually FORCING my self to eat as much as possible, completely ignoring mfp's guidelines and calorie counts.

Guess what I am trying to say is that eating nothing or stupidly small amounts of food whether you exercise or not is every bit as dangerous, if not more so thanthe diet people who eat 5000 calories a day without exercising have. Food is fuel . Our body is a Ferrari . If you want to take your Ferrari on a long road trip and only fill it up with a few drops of nasty generic branded gas, you will not only not get anywhere near your destination, but also do incredible damage to your Ferrari ... Whose parts, much like our own body parts need to be maintained and are almost impossible to repair.


Food us important, and so is exercise. The science if making the right combination if the 2 isn't difficult.... But it's insanity to starve wilfully .



Sorry about the rant, but I'd give ANYTHING to regain my appetite back and to exercise again because I know my body is going to hell in a handbasket right now.

Love always ,

Dee

i think it strange that you are asking. you know the answers, surely.
I don't think anyone would manage to eat 500 calories a day in either method mentioned, you'd crack and probably completely pig out . Or get run down and sick. Unless you did have some kind of eating disorder.

Its a testament to will power to be able to stick to only 500 calories, if it isn;t done for long periods of time, I doubt there is an harm. The human body is quite adaptable. I don't think there is anything wrong with it

I'll respond by providing my personal experience: I was diagnosed with a "hybrid" eating disorder when I was 19 (Anorexia/Bulimia/Purging disorder). After I stopped purging, I thought I was "cured" and ate about the same thing every day for approximately 5 years and maintained my weight within 3 or so pounds. Then last year, BAM! I gained 10 lbs out of nowhere. I began tracking my calories on MFP to see where my baseline was...and it was about 600 calories/day with about 450 calories burned. My metabolism was effed and I am still struggling to get that weight off. My advice, it's not a huge problem to dip below normal once in awhile, but take it from my experience, it's NO good in the long run.

You can go google for yourself the clinical research on very low calorie diets (less than 800c a day). For obese people, they have a lot of merit in addition to rapid weight loss (which, as mentioned above, is a psychological boost that a lot of people need to get themselves in the right state of mind for an extended period of weight loss).

No one dies, no one's metabolism is permanently damaged, etc, etc, etc.

edit to add: and obviously dieting at any level is not the same as learning how to eat/what to eat/the importance of exercise/creating an overall healthy lifestyle