What would happened to a 230 pound guy...

....if he had an average 3,000 daily calorie deficit for 2 months ?

Replies

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,352 Member
    To clarify, do you mean you want to eat 3,000 daily, which includes a deficit of some kind, or are you really meaning deducting 3,000 a day from some threshold, for a 3,000 a day deficit?
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I think a reasonable deficit is no more than 25% of TDEE.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    edited February 2020
    Assuming you mean that every day this man consumed 3000 fewer calories than his TDEE, in theory at the end of two months he would weigh 110 pounds. In reality, there would eventually (and probably sooner than you think) come a point where he would find it impossible to achieve a 3000 calorie daily deficit, because his sedentary TDEE would be so low that he would have to eat nothing and still burn 500 to 1000 calories or a day, and he just wouldn't be able to do that for very long. Of course, the whole experiment could fall apart even sooner when electrolyte issues or burning of lean mass led to heart or other organ failure.

    I think you mean ~180 lbs (3000 x 60 / 3500 = 51.something)? Which is presumably the weight OP wants to get to.
  • VictorSmashes
    VictorSmashes Posts: 173 Member
    Well, he'd starve. But my guess is that a man who ate in that deficit he might develop nutrient-deficiencies, anorexia nervosa, other cognitive impairment, and could develop many other disorders/diseases.
  • Sand_TIger
    Sand_TIger Posts: 1,097 Member
    I recently saw something on YouTube about how you can lose a pound a day if you have a 3,500 calorie deficit... PER DAY... the person was advocating eating somewhat but exercising quite a bit, had absolutely no credentials, a dangerously low amount of knowledge about physiology, and I cringe to think how many people might have paid attention to the video.

    Obviously, I don't advocate it, or think that impersonating a victim of famine is a good idea.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    davidrip1 wrote: »
    ....if he had an average 3,000 daily calorie deficit for 2 months ?

    Without knowing age and height and activity level, I put my stats in but changed the weight to 235 Lbs and set activity to lightly active in a TDEE calculator. The calculator indicates a TDEE of around 2700 calories. So you would literally have to consume absolutely nothing and then still exercise off 300 calories per day to achieve a 3,000 calorie deficit.
  • rodnichols69
    rodnichols69 Posts: 83 Member
    I can tell you from experience. You would burn both fat and lean mass.

    I worked out to net negative 3k calories per day. (2 hours in the am and 2 hours in the pm) In 3 weeks I lost 15 lbs, but about 1/3 of it was lean mass.

    Build a serious plan around 2 - 2.5 lbs. a week and stick to it. There just aren't any short cuts. June will be here before you know it.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Assuming you mean that every day this man consumed 3000 fewer calories than his TDEE, in theory at the end of two months he would weigh 110 pounds. In reality, there would eventually (and probably sooner than you think) come a point where he would find it impossible to achieve a 3000 calorie daily deficit, because his sedentary TDEE would be so low that he would have to eat nothing and still burn 500 to 1000 calories or a day, and he just wouldn't be able to do that for very long. Of course, the whole experiment could fall apart even sooner when electrolyte issues or burning of lean mass led to heart or other organ failure.

    I think you mean ~180 lbs (3000 x 60 / 3500 = 51.something)? Which is presumably the weight OP wants to get to.

    Sorry-- for some reason I thought I could "back-of-the-envelope" it without an envelope, while multitasking prep for my second shift of the day. Thanks for fixing the arithmetic. But I stand by the rest of it. I don't think that 3000 calorie a day deficit could be maintained even down to 180, and I think the risks of serious damage are still there.