Why not 1000 calories?

yirara · March 2020

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 · March 2020

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.

chelleedub · March 2020

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.

kq1981 · March 2020

It took me 18 months just to loose 57lb (25kg) I could never have done a 1000 calories a day. That’s just me personally. I went slowly to ensure I could maintain a habit of eating smaller portions past hitting my goal weight to maintain for the rest of my life. I did 1200 and was cranky, hungry and lacked energy, that’s just me though. Obviously everyone is different. Whatever you do, take care of yrself and honestly, reading forums and the success of 1000’s of people inspired me Not just one single person with google star ratings. I don’t mean to be rude at all but as a health professional, people in industry’s designed to help people with their health that think they know more than other mere mortals rubs me up the wrong way. It’s over confident and that’s when mistakes happen. I know a lot of health professionals with their diplomas who just don’t have the real world experience, who are great on paper, scholarly and are lovely but can’t put it into practise. Obviously we are strangers, but you asked for advice from us who have been here for yrs btw, and you’ve been given some great answers. Take care, u do know yr body, and u CAN loose weight at a higher calorie allowance, as long as it’s still a deficit and you have patience. Good luck and don’t get discouraged, people are passionate especially when told they’ve been doing it wrong after years of being successful on MFP

AnnPT77 · March 2020

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.

PAV8888 · March 2020

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 is over 200lbs. This establishes a minimal sedentary TDEE. 1000 Cal is well below that and would be aiming for more then 1000 Cal a day deficit.

This by itself is too much for the vast majority of people to successfully sustain and implement long term and increases the risk of unwanted side effects.

When people ask, I prefer to offer them ideas that I believe are more likely to lead them to long term success as opposed to ideas that I believe likely to lead them to long term failure.

It is up to the OP to mention comorbidities or other emergency reasons that might change what makes most sense for her health.

The only garbage advice (a term which I take you're using to highlight non applicable advice) would be advice given without taking into consideration what is already known about the original poster.

heybales · March 2020

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.

Lillymoo01 · March 2020

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.

I say without a doubt that 1200 is too low, regardless of her stats. Spoken from someone who is 48 and below 5 foot. There is no way I would have been able to find it sustainable eating less than 1200 calories a day plus 3/4's of my exercise calories. I still lost at that amount so there would be very few females adults that couldn't.

amusedmonkey · March 2020

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".

leahkathleen13 · March 2020

It may work for a little while but then your Body will backfire on your plans by giving you unresistable cravings that nobody could ever control. It results in binges that sabotage your progress and really work against losing weight and it’s really upsetting. U have to skim a bit of calories off to trick your appetite into not freaking out for food while being in a deficit. Appetite is really key.

joyanna2016 · March 2020

NovusDies wrote: »

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.

This left an impression on me. Powerful testimony. Thank you. I think its funny that it makes me think of Doc in Cars when he's talking to Lightning McQeen about racing cars in dirt and he says to go right you've got to turn left. It's counterintuitive. Just like dieting slowly. I need patience.

joyanna2016 · March 2020

amyepdx wrote: »

joyanna2016 wrote: »

Geez! Forget I ever asked.

You didn’t get any useful advice from all the thoughtful replies and strategies that people took the time to offer to you?

I did. I didnt mean that. I just meant all the unexpected controversy and hateful posts it caused... some of them have been deleted somehow. But yes, thanks to all for the insights.

joyanna2016 · March 2020

Well, ive heeded everyone's advice and decided to eat a minimum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit more instead of before when I was eating a maximum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit less. This may seem minor to someone else but it's major to me. It's very hard changing my mentality about at the end of the day if I see my total calories is say... 1100 ...to think that's not good instead if that's good. Slow and steady wins the race. Thank you all for your posts.

emmamcgarity · March 2020

joyanna2016 wrote: »

Well, ive heeded everyone's advice and decided to eat a minimum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit more instead of before when I was eating a maximum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit less. This may seem minor to someone else but it's major to me. It's very hard changing my mentality about at the end of the day if I see my total calories is say... 1100 ...to think that's not good instead if that's good. Slow and steady wins the race. Thank you all for your posts.

I think you’ve made a wise choice. If you are also exercising, be sure to track your activity calories. MFP is set up for you to include those calories in your target. I sometimes eat more than my target for social events and keep an eye on my weekly calorie intake. Finding balance will help you stick to it over time.

slbbw · March 2020

joyanna2016 wrote: »

Well, ive heeded everyone's advice and decided to eat a minimum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit more instead of before when I was eating a maximum of 1200 calories and usually a little bit less. This may seem minor to someone else but it's major to me. It's very hard changing my mentality about at the end of the day if I see my total calories is say... 1100 ...to think that's not good instead if that's good. Slow and steady wins the race. Thank you all for your posts.

Also important is to realize what your deficit is. If this is to hit a 1.5 or 2lb per week loss then going over by 100 calories means that you are still losing weight, just not as fast.

Why not 1000 calories?

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