Losing weight at 1800 cals per day?

Bump I want to see what opinions people have on this....I am very interested also...There is a group that you can join of eating 2000 calories...

That sounds like a good idea, just be sure to keep up your activity. Also, if you hit a plateau, you could slightly decrease your caloric intake--just up veggies, protein and complex grains so you can still feel satisfied!

This post is gold! Minus the grains part.

Everybody is different and it can't hurt to try for a few weeks and see what happens, right?
For me personally I always did well on the "wendy plan".... instead of eating the same cals every day, a few days of the week are below, some are right at, and one is WAY high (but works out to same number as if you ate the same on every single day). Tends to keep the body guessing, and the high cal day qualms your body's fear of starvation and allows it to let go of fat.
Right now I'm losing with what I'm doing but if that stalls a while I'm totally going back to the wendy plan.

ME! ME! ME! I have lost 51 lbs by eating the guidelines from fat to fit radio tools! I am 5'6 and average around 1800 - 2200 calories daily! Slow, sustainable weight loss!

Mine is only 1,370. I have mini-goals, one right now is to lost 2 pounds. I'm literally scratching my head right now. I only need to lose 2 pounds, why so high? I mean when I was trying to lose 18 all at once, it was 1,200. Mine is higher than a man's calorie daily goal (for one of my friends). I have active lifestyle, or whatever they call it. The highest one. Very active, I think it's called....this is odd, isn't it?

Im loosing at 2600... 5'10 183lbs. Thats about a pound a week for me.

Thanks for the feedback folks! I'll give it a try for 1 week or so and see....

Great, give it a try - but I think you'll need to try those cals for longer than a week to see results. Don't give up if you put on a little bit in the first week - try it for at least a month.

Bump

I agree to give it a few weeks - you may gain a little bit at first, or stall out, but give it a month and it should come off and then some as your body adjusts. Really, what's a couple of pounds up in the grand scheme of things?

Everybody is different and it can't hurt to try for a few weeks and see what happens, right?
For me personally I always did well on the "wendy plan".... instead of eating the same cals every day, a few days of the week are below, some are right at, and one is WAY high (but works out to same number as if you ate the same on every single day). Tends to keep the body guessing, and the high cal day qualms your body's fear of starvation and allows it to let go of fat.
Right now I'm losing with what I'm doing but if that stalls a while I'm totally going back to the wendy plan.

There is no such thing as "keeping the body guessing". It doesn't work like that. Zig-zagging, carb cycling and the like have NO impact on the metabolism. Most people doing such things shouldn't be doing them in the first place.

High calorie day don't "qualms your body's fear of starvation".

Irregardless of the impact on metabolism, I enjoy zig-zagging because then I can save calories to eat at social events and not go over my weekly target. You said "most people doing such things shouldn't be doing them in the first place." Is there a reason why you say that? Not trying to argue. Just curious and willing to learn.

When you get lower levels of body fat, 9% below for men ( comparable female %) your overall calories are low. The cycling of CHO(carbs) and FATS allow the person to have more energy on training and less energy on rest days.

Most people on here don't require that. Especially if your above 9%. On top of that, having your macros consistent improves your mood and hormone levels.

There is no such thing as "keeping the body guessing". It doesn't work like that. Zig-zagging, carb cycling and the like have NO impact on the metabolism. Most people doing such things shouldn't be doing them in the first place.

High calorie day don't "qualms your body's fear of starvation".

Sure it does, if done correctly.

The problem is - you must enter dieting with a full burning metabolism and then do these things.

If you've been already underfeeding your BMR as you have mentioned several times, the metabolism just slows.

Start doing zig-zag and spike days doesn't fool your body to start increasing the BMR usually. Body just looks at each increased calories as a gift and stores it as fat, with metabolism staying low.

But if you come into dieting with those things, it basically keeps you from undercutting your BMR on a constant basis.

So what would have taken 2-6 weeks to start lowering BMR, is allowed to stay high.

Of course, the smarter method as you have mentioned is just don't net below your BMR in the first place. Or correct that part now. Same effect, while learning NOT to pig out 1 day a week.

Im loosing at 2600... 5'10 183lbs. Thats about a pound a week for me.

Wow! Impressive!

It's the exercise that's creating the deficit for me at this point. ~90 minutes of cardio a day allows me to eat a ton and maintain a 500+ calorie deficit.

Exercise, who knew it was so cool?! Knowing is half the battle. Go Joe!

-M

When you get lower levels of body fat, 9% below for men ( comparable female %) your overall calories are low. The cycling of CHO(carbs) and FATS allow the person to have more energy on training and less energy on rest days.

Most people on here don't require that. Especially if your above 9%. On top of that, having your macros consistent improves your mood and hormone levels.

Interesting. I no longer need an anti-depressant and this is the first winter in years where I haven't been impacted by SAD (seasonal affective syndrome) which used to get me horribly down even when I was on anti-depressants. And I've been zig-zagging since October. And, yes, I'm still well above the normal and healthy fat range, much less under 9%.

Of course, the exercise and better nutritional eating could account for most of that. However, trying to eat a static number of calories each day was very stressful to me and zig-zagging removes that stress. Also, going to social events, restaurants, etc., was also stressful for me until zig-zagging allowed me splurge during those times and take the pressure off. So, mood-wise, I know I'm better off zig-zagging. Of course, I don't know how it's impacting my hormones but I'll take those being a little erratic considering how successful and happy this has made me as I never feel deprived or even like I'm trying to lose weight. It's a good thing, imho.

I also question whether the variances in my calories are big enough to impact hormones that much. After all, my body isn't on a 24-hour time clock with hormones just effected by what I ate today. It's all part of a continuous process. And my low days aren't that terribly low. Today I ate just over 1600 calories but still have about 300 left due to a relatively high calorie burn. I'm full so I'm banking them for the weekend. It's not like I'm netting way under 1200 calories on my low days or anything like that. I'm guessing that might make a bit of a difference.