Why not 1000 calories?

davidrip1 wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

@joyanna2016 You asked why it's bad. People have replied to you, telling you why it is bad. Don't ignore those posts.

You know, it's not that everything you eat goes to movement and fat stores. Most food you eat is actually needed to keep your organs functioning. It takes over 1000 calories per day to have a beating heart, liver and kidneys that filter your blood to remove things that are unhealthy for you, intestines that remove waste. And not to forget the brain, which is not only there for thinking but which monitors and steers all these processes. You can't just tell your heart to beat a bit less, to tell your brains to take a break, your other organs to just work a bit less hard just because you want to lose weight quicker than is healthy.

Doesn't your body use stored fat to fuel these functions?

There is a metabolic limit to the use of stored fat in a time frame, like say a day or a week. It is dangerous and potentially harmful to under eat to the point of not supporting a healthy body and it can't just come from fat stores alone.

Are you in a research study or under a nutritional Dr's care (regular Dr's only get a class on nutrition, so being under their care if they didn't learn more isn't that useful) being tested out the whazoo to confirm no side effects to eating too low?

Everyone has a line below which calorie level will be too stressful on the body in general and you won't have only the nice effect of losing fat weight.

While that line is individual, studies have shown where it's likely to be - to avoid it and not go under it.

As to you feeling fine the days you've done it - ever talked to someone that discovered they were deficient in some vitamin or mineral - they usually have felt fine up until something occurred that made them finally got tested and discovered they were low on something - but they didn't instantly become deficient, it was slow process that eventually showed itself by physical problems. Sadly some of those problems takes a long time to recover from, some never.

So also calorie deficient - certain amount needed for fat loss, over a reasonable amount and you will have side effects that may take awhile to show up - and by the time they do some damage or very difficult undesired changes have already occurred.
And it can be very difficult to get out of it.

This is one of those things in life that trying to discover that line on your own has some very bad negatives later if you discover you've actually been under it for awhile. Unless being tested in a research or case study to start seeing it go the wrong way very quickly.

I think for most people the real danger to the body is staying overweight or obese. The danger to the mind is failing to succeed because you engaged in a crash diet mentality.

I have been on my share of crash diets. They have always ended the same way. Not with hair falling out or getting to goal being skinny fat, but with a binge-like overfeed. I cannot recall a single time I saw it coming either. I have a self-defense switch that kicks in when I am starving myself.

Many of my crash diets started with a honeymoon phase too. I felt great. I was euphoric. I believe that is another self-defense mechanism. If you think of it terms of needing your body to go out and hunt or gather food you need to feel great. If you felt bad it would hurt your chances to eat again. Once that kicks in though the clock is ticking. How long you have until you start to feel the actual way you should I am sure varies from person to person. Some people may not have one at all.

Crash diets lead to me or worse. I spent 30 years spinning my wheels. My health worsened. My joints are prematurely worn from carrying too much weight for too long. I have reversed most of my health situations but not all some are permanent but basically mitigated for now. My joints are what they are. I am working hard to preserve them for as long as I can.

I have said in these forums a few times that if you want to lose weight fast go slower. It took me 2 years to lose over 200 pounds. It took me 28 years to fail to lose any weight. 2 years is SPEEDY by comparison.

joyanna2016 wrote: »

I am a psyched dieter! I'm currently well over 200 lbs and doing 1200 cal/day. I could do 1000 though. I dont because I hear it's too low but why? If I feel good, am eating healthfully, and taking supplements what's the problem? I know it couldnt go on forever because at some point I probably will feel denied and have to increase my calories in, but why not take advantage of my excitement for a few months? Educate me please.

Maybe look through some of the threads with people losing their hair, losing their menstrual cycle, etc. When your body isn't getting enough energy for basic functions, it will slow down or cease "non-essential" functions to compensate and conserve energy and drive down your BMR.

I'm 5'5", and started using MFP at age 59. It recommended 1200 calories daily for me to lose weight at what was then, for me, a reasonable weight loss rate. I'm healthy, and quite athletically active, so don't visualize a feeble elderly woman here.

I wasn't hungry, and felt great.

. . . until, suddenly, I didn't. I got weak and fatigued. I lost weight too fast **, and even though I corrected as soon as I realized there was a problem, it took several weeks to recover normal strength and energy. I'm fortunate that (1) there were not worse consequences (I did have a bit of hair-thinning that I can ill afford, a few months later, that was possibly related), and (2) that I'm retired and widowed so I don't have co-workers or family members who depend on me to be fully energetic and productive, for their well-being.

You don't want this to happen, trust me.

Will it happen for sure if you eat at 1000 calories? No way of knowing. But you certainly would be materially increasing your risks.

** In my case, because MFP dramatically underestimated my calorie needs (even with correct profile settings), not because I was trying to lose weight too fast. I was losing around 2 pounds a week, which was too much at my then-overweight/obese bodyweight.

And here's another reason not to: Coronavirus. You put your body under an enormous stress as others have already pointed out. If you do catch Corona, or any other winterflu then your body will be a lot weaker than if you were eating a healthy amount of calories. Don't be that woman.

chelleedub wrote: »

Btw @joyanna2016, did you notice all the ppl telling you it’s unhealthy without knowing your age, height, or comorbidities? That’s exactly the kind of garbage I’m talking about. My profile is public. Feel free to add me as a friend if you’d like.

She mentioned weighing over 200 pounds.

If I set up a TDEE calculator with the assumption that she's age 85, 4'9" tall, always sitting/lying or otherwise living in a confined space (i.e., less active than sedentary), and 200 pounds exactly, it tells me her TDEE would be around 1500 calories daily, i.e., she'd lose a pound a week on 1000. So, sure, since she can probably safely lose faster than that, it might not be too big a risk.

But changing any of those assumptions to something more realistic (say, age 40, 225 pounds, 5'3" which is low side of average, sedentary), the TDEE is up to 2000 or more, so 2 pounds a week loss at 1000 calories, which is about the maximum rate most would recommend for someone in the 200-pound range. Sure, commorbidities might suggest a need for faster loss, but it would also suggest that very close supervision by a nutrition-focused medical doctor would be a really good idea, because commorbidities typical increase risks as well as increasing urgency of loss.

If I assume that an average-sized woman might want to be getting 75g protein daily (on the low side of adequate for an average-sized woman pursuing weight loss, IMO) and 50g fats, that's 750 calories daily just for those macros before even starting to talk about veggies/fruits for micros and fiber.

So, yes, the cautionary advice could be "garbage", but I don't think those suggesting caution are on very thin ice here. Just my opinion, obviously.

chelleedub wrote: »

It’s not necessarily too low. 1,000 is the absolute minimum. My online calculator says I should eat between 1,000 and 1,300. I aim for 1,200, but some days I’ve tried stuffing myself to the point of pain bc I let online advice confuse me. Listen to your body above all and consult a doctor if necessary. Online strangers can be helpful, but, for the most part, aren’t experts, and they don’t know YOU.

You do realize that most people are on MFP attempting to lose weight because they did listen to their body in some way - and it said eat!

Unless one is knowledgeable about the confounding ways the body language works and what it means - most are listening to a foreign language that is meaningless.

Also - you must have missed several of the OP's other posts - if you are merely going off the first one - you are missing a lot of info and giving advice for a situation you don't know.

chelleedub wrote: »

Btw @joyanna2016, did you notice all the ppl telling you it’s unhealthy without knowing your age, height, or comorbidities? That’s exactly the kind of garbage I’m talking about. My profile is public. Feel free to add me as a friend if you’d like.

Did you notice that all the people telling her it's unhealthy and unsustainable are people who have been successful themselves and are quite familiar with the pitfalls of weight loss? 1000 at 200 lbs would be low no matter what age and height the person is, unless there are special circumstances, which would have been mentioned instead of "I eat 1200 and feel like eating 1000".