Ultra-low calorie diet

hojo123176 · April 2020

In December I mentioned to my Dr. that I was starting a low calorie diet of 1200 calories. I’m a very picky eater, so when you remove all of the things from my diet that are terrible for you it doesn’t leave much besides chicken. I had a hard time getting in those 1200 calories and asked him if I could go lower since I wasn’t yet exercising. I was VERY overweight and my joints & back hurt too badly to exercise right away. He said I could do around 800 for “some time”. Here we are, after having started the diet Jan. 6th officially and I’ve lost 55.5lbs. I’ve started exercising slowly. I’m terrified that I will gain some weight back if I increase calories. I eat healthy food and snacks like clockwork every day and have no desire to starve myself or for my hair to fall out. Just not sure how many to add back in to be safe for exercise. Should I just go by the exercise calories MYFitnessPal tells me I’ve earned or should I use a different formula?

harper16 · April 2020

Since you are under the care of a doctor, for such a low calorie intake I'd suggest asking your doctor for advice. Since eating such low calories you should be monitored .

lgfrie · April 2020

MFP does not permit discussion of ULCD. It's very likely this thread will get locked or deleted, and fast.

Go to the MFP Goals tab. Enter your stats, and your weight loss goal. It will not permit you to set a goal of more than 2 lbs/week, and it will not permit you to eat less than 1,200 calories/day. There's a lot of science to back up those limits, in terms of protecting your health. Whatever number MFP gives you, eat that amount of calories, never less, more is OK but not too often, and you'll lose that # of pounds per week. That is the only healthy way to do it.

Get off this ULCD thing asap. Really, be done with it as of today. It's risky and unhealthy and unnecessary.

Ask yourself one simple question: have you ever met a single person who did ULCD and kept the weight off? Ever? One single person? Probably not. It's a bad formula. Dump it and move on. You will not gain back weight eating at an appropriate calorie deficit, you'll just lose weight more slowly than you did over the last 3 months.

janejellyroll · April 2020

Is your doctor aware that your diet is mostly chicken in addition to being very low calorie? This may be an instance where a referral to an RD may be helpful, just to make sure you're meeting your nutritional needs given these two circumstances. For your specific question, your doctor will probably be the best guide as to how long it is safe for you to be at this calorie level.

AnnPT77 · April 2020

I agree with Igfrie and Jane, generally.

One last comment:

If you do increase your calories, you should expect your scale weight to jump up a bit at first. It is not actual fat regain, so don't let it freak you out.

When you eat a bit more, even though it's still a number of calories that will let you lose fat weight, that food has physical weight, so your average digestive system contents will be a little more than when you were eating ultra-low calories. The weight of that food shows up on the scale - almost in the same way as it would if you held it in your hand and stood on the scale

, but you're holding it in your digestive tract. That isn't fat regain, so there's no reason to let it stress you out.

Also, when you eat a little bit more, you inevitably tend to eat a little bit more carbohydrates, and/or get a little bit more salt. That's fine, for nutrition and health, but each of those make your body hold on to a little extra water weight as part of the digestive process. This is just part of how a healthy body behaves. And this, too, is not fat regain, so please don't let it stress you out.

It's possible that these effects will be less visible if you increase calories gradually, but it's hard to tell. You should expect that little scale jump-up (could be up to a few pounds!), but it won't keep growing and growing. It will stabilize, and soon the fat loss happening behind the scenes will start showing on the scale again, once it outpaces that meaningless digestive-contents/water-weight scale effect.

Best wishes!

PAV8888 · April 2020

You really need to internalize some concepts, especially as you're starting to become more active which can easily lead to you burning even more Calories than you used to.

I have no idea how much you are actually eating. But it is conventional to consider the deficit required to lose about 1lb of weight as being 3500 Calories.

A back of the napkin calculation says you've averaged about 3.7lbs a week. This corresponds to a deficit of a good 1850 Cal a day.

You've lost weight, and rapidly, so your maintenance level is probably no longer the full 1850 Cal more than what you've been eating (absent a change in activity). But it would be a good bet to be at least 1500 more even without an increase in activity!

There is a LOT of room between 800 and 2300. Everything Ann and everyone else said is valid.

Consider a registered dietitian. It really does sound as if you might benefit from a discussion with one.

schneezle · April 2020

I’m a newbie here but I agree with what the others have said. Can you buy a good cook book to get some ideas? You need to plan ahead and buy the ingredients you need to make healthy meals at home - good luck with your weight loss journey!

Strudders67 · April 2020

Firstly, did your doctor quantify what was meant by "some time"? If not, is your doctor aware that, four months later, you're still under-eating by a significant amount? As everyone else has said, it's time to increase your calories.

Enter your details in MFP, select a reasonable weight loss rate and follow what MFP tells you to eat. And eat back at least some of your exercise calories. Also, make sure you update your weight (perhaps weekly so you can see progress) and, every so often, get MFP to recalculate how many calories you should be eating. Somewhere on this forum there's a chart about not losing more than 1% of your body weight per week.

Re your question about whether to trust MFP's exercise calories, that depends on your exercise.

In my experience, assuming you have logged your height, age and current weight, MFP is pretty accurate for calculating calories burned by walking, as long as you're realistic about what speed you are walking at and for how many minutes. Saying you're walking at 4mph when you're only pootling along at 2.5mph will give an incorrect number of calories, particularly over a longer period of time. Saying you did an hour when, of that hour, you stopped for 15 minutes to look in the shop windows or queued for 5 minutes to buy a coffee and another 5 minutes to watch something happening on the river or whatever, will also give an incorrect calorie count.

Finally, what did you remove from your diet that was 'terrible'? Assuming you mean cakes, biscuits etc, I find it hard to believe you only ate cakes and chicken previously. You will get on much better and be far happier if you're eating foods that you enjoy. The key thing is to make sure you're eating the right number of calories. Within that, once you're into the habit, you can then try to get close to the macros that MFP suggests.

tuckerrj · July 2020

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I agree with Igfrie and Jane, generally.

One last comment:

If you do increase your calories, you should expect your scale weight to jump up a bit at first. It is not actual fat regain, so don't let it freak you out.

When you eat a bit more, even though it's still a number of calories that will let you lose fat weight, that food has physical weight, so your average digestive system contents will be a little more than when you were eating ultra-low calories. The weight of that food shows up on the scale - almost in the same way as it would if you held it in your hand and stood on the scale , but you're holding it in your digestive tract. That isn't fat regain, so there's no reason to let it stress you out.

Also, when you eat a little bit more, you inevitably tend to eat a little bit more carbohydrates, and/or get a little bit more salt. That's fine, for nutrition and health, but each of those make your body hold on to a little extra water weight as part of the digestive process. This is just part of how a healthy body behaves. And this, too, is not fat regain, so please don't let it stress you out.

It's possible that these effects will be less visible if you increase calories gradually, but it's hard to tell. You should expect that little scale jump-up (could be up to a few pounds!), but it won't keep growing and growing. It will stabilize, and soon the fat loss happening behind the scenes will start showing on the scale again, once it outpaces that meaningless digestive-contents/water-weight scale effect.

Best wishes!

Wise counsel. You should find a fruit, vegetable, whole grain (or two) that you can tolerate and make sure you're not eating just chicken. Most RD's will have you on at least a multiple vitamin when your caloric intake is 1200 calories or less. It's difficult to get the Minimum Daily Requirements without it.

Dogmom1978 · July 2020

OP you speak of worrying about gaining weight back. The only way to avoid that, is to switch to a LIFELONG method of weight loss (and then maintenance). You can’t do that on an ULCD. It isn’t feasible. You will also lose massive amounts of muscle, won’t get the proper nutrients, lose energy, possibly lose your hair etc.

1200 a day minimum. Start yesterday. Your ULCD has already lasted multiple months too long and shame on ANY doctor who would suggest such a thing. You were certainly eating over 1200 a day before, so you just had to reduce to 1200 to safely lose weight.

Hanibanani2020 · July 2020

So I never really bring this up but years ago I did this. I was a bit overweight but not obese but I was young and dealing with some heavy stuff so it was a way to control something I guess. I ate the same thing every day for six months equating to 400kcal. I never had a day off. Never cheated. I weighed myself ten times during the day like clockwork and ate like clockwork. It was regimented. I also walked at least 15km a day. Everything started off fine. I lost weight quickly and I felt in control. Then two months in my hair started coming out and my period stopped completely. By month three I had barely any muscle in my arms or legs even when tensed up but I ignored it because the scales were going down so I felt in control. Then I started getting heart palpitations while walking and frequently had to rest as I felt faint but I told no one. I was so hungry I was watching mukbang videos and chewing with them trying to trick my brain into thinking I was eating. The catalyst happened when I was riding my horse and started feeling dizzy and fell at a high speed. I got up and I don’t remember arriving at the hospital but apparently I got there somehow. I was hospitalised for a few days and told no one why I really fell. It took me ages to come back and I told no one until I finally saw a therapist. Many years later I’m still regaining my stamina and muscle that I lost. I’m lucky I have no long term health issues, although my hair is still thin compared to the thick hair it used to be.
So as tempting as it is I do not recommend this unless your doctor and his team are with you every step of the way which they are clearly not since you are seeking advice you should be asking your doctor here instead of there. My advice is to eat at maintenance until you get a referral to a dietician and start the journey under proper professional support.

springlering62 · July 2020

@Hanibanani2020 i would give you twenty,no, a hundred “hugs” if I could.

Ultra-low calorie diet

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