Your opinion?

Oops25
Oops25 Posts: 68 Member
edited December 18 in Health and Weight Loss
A 25 year old female co-worker of mine lost 65 pounds over a period of months by following an 800-calories/ day diet and exercising for about 20-45 minutes 5 times a week (only cardio)..

It is really tempting to follow ~ 800-900 calories/ day method, especially since I know it worked ! (her pants size droped from 16 to 6) !! But i'm wondering if it is healthy/ good to do that, when the BMR is about 1300 calories/day?

She looks pretty healthy and does not seem like she lost the glow on her face or anything disastrous like that..but before I pursue something like that, I would like to get your opinion on it..
«1

Replies

  • s1lence
    s1lence Posts: 493
    Everyone's different in the way that their body handles such defects. Check with your doctor to see what would be best for your body and then go from there.

    You are going to get lots of different views on the low calorie diets like that and many will say that it's unhealthy and not wise because of starvation mode and other such concerns. Please do research into it and check with a doctor before you decide.

    Good luck.
  • maggie16sweetxoxo
    maggie16sweetxoxo Posts: 314 Member
    uummmm well do you know about how tall she was? Because its prob. okay if shes like really short but i dont think you should because your body goes into a 'starvation mode' (though you dont know it has) and it slowly starts eating away at your muscle because you body thinks its starving, so yes you can lose weight, and muscle is the first to go not fat. Hope it helped :)
  • ChristinaOlliver
    ChristinaOlliver Posts: 57 Member
    How long ago did she finish it? One of the big issues there would be what happens when she goes back to eating normally? Surely she would pile on the pounds again. At the end of the day it's your body and your choice, but as someone else said, you should probably consult a doctor first.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    WARNING: Not everyone was born with the same body and what works for one person could completely derail another's progress.
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    I'm usually the one to say that (if you're a small framed female like I am), there's nothing wrong with eating below the 1,200 calorie limit that everyone for some reason worships like it's some magic number, but 800 for MONTHS seems quite extreme. Like the longest I'd ever go that little would probably be a week, then I'd up it to something like 1000 at least.

    But if it worked for her and she's keeping it off eating a higher amount of calories now then I think it's fine. I'm assuming since she was eating such a low amount of calories, those calories were from carefully selected, highly nutritious foods like lean meats and lots of vegetables (4oz of grilled chicken is a mere 100 calories and three cups of romaine lettuce is a measly 30 calories - so I can easily see how that's possible). I see no health risk in that case because she's likely getting in more nutrients than someone eating 2000 a day of junk and whatever they'd like.

    Something I'd like to point out is that when someone says they're eating quite a low amount, lots of people like to jump in with all of the "dangerous health risks". As if the risks aren't completely minuscule compared to the risks of those who overeat on fattening, virtually poisonous foods on a regular basis (ie the vast majority of america).

    And to anyone who wants to bring up "starvation mode" - it's a myth created by the weight loss industry which doesn't exist and is very annoying to constantly hear about.
  • myak623
    myak623 Posts: 615 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.
  • Oops25
    Oops25 Posts: 68 Member
    That's a very valid point.. I am interested in seeing what happens when she gets back to her normal diet..
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.
    If she's getting an adequate amount of protein in her diet (it would be pretty easy for me to get my recommended 40g a day on an 800 calorie diet if I were on one) there's no reason for her body to break down a noticeably high amount of muscle UNLESS she is already in a state of very low body fat (which in that case, the body has no choice but to start breaking down muscle for fuel). Otherwise the majority of energy her body needed was extracted from fat stores, hence, the dramatic weight loss & reduction in pant size.
    That's a very valid point.. I am interested in seeing what happens when she gets back to her normal diet..
    if she immediately doubles her calories then she'll surely gain it back. it's all about gradually increasing until she's at a good maintenance amount.
  • LesliePierceRN
    LesliePierceRN Posts: 860 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.

    This is true.. she has essentially bare-boned her metabolism, guaranteeing that if she begins to consume more, she'll pack on storage (fat) like crazy since she has pared down her lean body weight to achieve what she's done. I have actually had the same results.. I lost 50 pounds by running, but I always kept my calories (net) above 1500, and I always eat back my exercise calories. The result? Glorious muscle, that I have continued to build, while remaining the same size I was at my lowest weight (4/6) but gaining 10 pounds, which translates into over 2000 calories a day in food! This means I can eat about 2 1/2 times as much as she does, remaining the same size, and am very strong and healthy. Win!
  • myak623
    myak623 Posts: 615 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.
    If she's getting an adequate amount of protein in her diet (it would be pretty easy for me to get my recommended 40g a day on an 800 calorie diet if I were on one) there's no reason for her body to break down a noticeably high amount of muscle UNLESS she is already in a state of very low body fat (which in that case, the body has no choice but to start breaking down muscle for fuel). Otherwise the majority of energy her body needed was extracted from fat stores, hence, the dramatic weight loss & reduction in pant size.

    I understand your point on not knowing where she started.

    Flip side, you seem to be an advocate for low cal eaters. That's your stance and that's fine. We will have to agree to disagree on that one.

    ETA: We live in a microwave society and people get the false expectation that losing weight should be a fast process. So, they go to extremes to do it. The methods aren't sustainable and they end up gaining some or all of the weight back. If it took 10 years to put the weight on, why would one think it should only take 6 months to get it off and maintain at that weight?
  • Oops25
    Oops25 Posts: 68 Member
    Yes, I think that is what is important..that you make choices which are low-cal but highly nutritious..as long as you get your nutrition and fuel, you should be fine. I already make very healthy choices and am around 1000 cals/ day when I do so..I do not consider it to be too tough to have a 1000 cal diet..
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    how long has she maintained these results? Getting there is one thing, maintaining is ANOTHER!!

    I couldn't function at that level, I certainly wouldn't want to try.

    Luckily I've learned here that I don't have to try. I lost very well at about 1500 calories, and am maintaining pretty decently at 1750-ish.
  • Mommyof3texans
    Mommyof3texans Posts: 347
    A 25 year old female co-worker of mine lost 65 pounds over a period of months by following an 800-calories/ day diet and exercising for about 20-45 minutes 5 times a week (only cardio)..

    It is really tempting to follow ~ 800-900 calories/ day method, especially since I know it worked ! (her pants size droped from 16 to 6) !! But i'm wondering if it is healthy/ good to do that, when the BMR is about 1300 calories/day?

    She looks pretty healthy and does not seem like she lost the glow on her face or anything disastrous like that..but before I pursue something like that, I would like to get your opinion on it..

    You know, the real test is if she keeps it off long term and what her diet is like maintaining. An 800 calorie diet just isn't sustainable and being able to move into a healthy maintenance mode is likely to be tougher going from such a restriction.
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.
    If she's getting an adequate amount of protein in her diet (it would be pretty easy for me to get my recommended 40g a day on an 800 calorie diet if I were on one) there's no reason for her body to break down a noticeably high amount of muscle UNLESS she is already in a state of very low body fat (which in that case, the body has no choice but to start breaking down muscle for fuel). Otherwise the majority of energy her body needed was extracted from fat stores, hence, the dramatic weight loss & reduction in pant size.

    I understand your point on not knowing where she started.

    Flip side, you seem to be an advocate for low cal eaters. That's your stance and that's fine. We will have to agree to disagree on that one.
    I'm not really any "advocate" for anything. I believe in doing what you're comfortable with to lose weight, in order to attain the type of body YOU (as in every individual individual who wants to lose weight) want. Not everyone wants to be a muscular 3000 calorie/day protein shake-guzzler, and not everyone wants to be a slim, low-calorie eating, light-exerciser. It all depends on everyone's personal goals. What bothers me is when someone declares one person's method of weight loss as the "wrong" way, as if we're all aiming for the exact same bodies or lifestyles.
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    A 25 year old female co-worker of mine lost 65 pounds over a period of months by following an 800-calories/ day diet and exercising for about 20-45 minutes 5 times a week (only cardio)..

    It is really tempting to follow ~ 800-900 calories/ day method, especially since I know it worked ! (her pants size droped from 16 to 6) !! But i'm wondering if it is healthy/ good to do that, when the BMR is about 1300 calories/day?

    She looks pretty healthy and does not seem like she lost the glow on her face or anything disastrous like that..but before I pursue something like that, I would like to get your opinion on it..

    You know, the real test is if she keeps it off long term and what her diet is like maintaining. An 800 calorie diet just isn't sustainable and being able to move into a healthy maintenance mode is likely to be tougher going from such a restriction.
    I definitely don't doubt it'll be tougher than if she was losing the weight eating more. But I think since she's apparently been doing it for months it shouldn't take much effort for her to add in an extra meal a day for a few weeks or something. The self control she had to build to eat that little for so long is probably more than enough for her to control her eating now. Or at least I'd hope so for her sake.

    If someone had been following some 800 calorie fad diet for a week to fit into a dress on the other hand, there's no doubt in my mind that person would find it near impossible to do any type of gradual calorie adjustment. they'd likely dive right into a vat of chocolate once that diet was through.
  • myak623
    myak623 Posts: 615 Member
    She may have lost the weight, but not all of that was fat loss. Since she may not be giving herself enough fuel and only doing cardio, she lost lean body mass as well.

    Will you lose weight doing this? Yep, you bet. Is it recommended? Nope, since you are sacrificing much more.
    If she's getting an adequate amount of protein in her diet (it would be pretty easy for me to get my recommended 40g a day on an 800 calorie diet if I were on one) there's no reason for her body to break down a noticeably high amount of muscle UNLESS she is already in a state of very low body fat (which in that case, the body has no choice but to start breaking down muscle for fuel). Otherwise the majority of energy her body needed was extracted from fat stores, hence, the dramatic weight loss & reduction in pant size.

    I understand your point on not knowing where she started.

    Flip side, you seem to be an advocate for low cal eaters. That's your stance and that's fine. We will have to agree to disagree on that one.
    I'm not really any "advocate" for anything. I believe in doing what you're comfortable with to lose weight, in order to attain the type of body YOU (as in every individual individual who wants to lose weight) want. Not everyone wants to be a muscular 3000 calorie/day protein shake-guzzler, and not everyone wants to be a slim, low-calorie eating, light-exerciser. It all depends on everyone's personal goals. What bothers me is when someone declares one person's method of weight loss as the "wrong" way, as if we're all aiming for the exact same bodies or lifestyles.

    Part of what you are saying is true. However, unless someone has a medical condition, then most of us are pretty much the same. We will need to eat at a caloric deficit to lose weight. Proper calorie intake will be needed to fuel our bodies and if that intake is too low for an extended period of time, then the body will adapt. Not a "starvation mode" type event, but can slow down.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    That's a very valid point.. I am interested in seeing what happens when she gets back to her normal diet..

    Here's what I'd do (you asked for opinions, this is nothing more than that - I have no qualifications so it's an opinion).

    I'd start at this point by following the recommendations of this site. You'll eventually need to learn and/or enforce the fundamentals of healthy eating, because someday you'll be at your ideal weight and you don't want to undo all your great work, right?

    Use this time to observe your test subject. If she does back to her "normal diet", she'll go back to her "normal weight". If she adjusts her diet for her new size and desire to maintain her thinner self, she will. See how her accelerated diet worked from her, and learn from her successes and mistakes.

    There's no race here unless you are inventing one for yourself. Start with a simple, sustainable weight loss. Get to know what it feels like. Learn to listen to your body.

    THEN, and only then, if you decide to pursue a very-low-calorie diet, you'll be going into it with a better idea of what your body might try to tell you during the process, and a better idea of how to adjust to a healthy long-term lifestyle afterward. And if you can't handle the low-calorie method, you don't have to "give up", you have a proven method to fall back to.

    And check with your doctor before going a higher-risk route. Low-calorie or low-"anything" (low-carb, for example) diets are hard on specific parts of the body in specific ways. Make sure your body can handle the stress. Most healthy bodies can, but it's worth checking.
  • SeatownTilt
    SeatownTilt Posts: 11
    How long ago did she finish it? One of the big issues there would be what happens when she goes back to eating normally? Surely she would pile on the pounds again. At the end of the day it's your body and your choice, but as someone else said, you should probably consult a doctor first.

    Exactly, Fit is a Lifestyle, not a fad diet! No way I could survive by cutting my calories like that, and definitely not sustainable for me, but if it works for her then more power to her I guess!
  • jak2315
    jak2315 Posts: 47 Member
    You should eat at least 1200 calories a day. If you eat less, your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism is screwed up. You won't lose weight when your metabolism isn't working correctly.
  • jsapninz
    jsapninz Posts: 909 Member
    Rule of thumb: if it comes off quick, it goes back on quicker
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    nope
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    Everyone's different in the way that their body handles such defects. Check with your doctor to see what would be best for your body and then go from there.

    You are going to get lots of different views on the low calorie diets like that and many will say that it's unhealthy and not wise because of starvation mode and other such concerns. Please do research into it and check with a doctor before you decide.

    Good luck.

    This. Talk to your doctor and maybe get a referral to a nutritionist as well.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
    Well, I don't know. If I was your co-worker, you could look at me and see that I look pretty healthy, I don't seem to have lost any glow in my face, I'm at goal, and I eat about 2000 calories a day. I'm going keep eating about 2000 calories a day and IT WILL MAINTAIN MY WEIGHT.

    How much do you think your coworker can eat to maintain her weight?

    (Hint: It's not 2000 calories a day).

    Still wanna be her?
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    You should eat at least 1200 calories a day. If you eat less, your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism is screwed up. You won't lose weight when your metabolism isn't working correctly.
    Thumbs down to this entire post.
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
    Rule of thumb: if it comes off quick, it goes back on quicker
    rule of thumb - there are MANY people who have defied your rule of thumb.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    My opinion is that it is a bad idea.

    If you lose weight really quickly and end up losing muscle mass, and then regain weight when you start eating more normally, there's a really good chance the weight you regain will be fat, and not the muscle that you lost during the VLCD. Eventually you end up the same size you started, or maybe slightly bigger or smaller, but with a higher body fat %. Because muscle burns calories and you now have less muscle, your BMR is also lower than when you started.

    There are exceptions to the above story and ways to prevent the muscle loss (involving strength training which is not in your friend's plan), but the above story is the classic story of why people do a lot of damage to their bodies through rounds of quick weight loss dieting. I've been there and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
  • McKayMachina
    McKayMachina Posts: 2,670 Member
    If you can lose a substantial amount of weight on a 1200+ calorie/day diet, why limit yourself to only 900? That's a snack as far as I'm concerned. Sounds awful. And unnecessary. Crash diet = bounce back = fatter you. Just do it right, dude.
  • jsapninz
    jsapninz Posts: 909 Member
    Rule of thumb: if it comes off quick, it goes back on quicker
    rule of thumb - there are MANY people who have defied your rule of thumb.

    MANY studies have shown that crash diet programs are highly correlated with putting the lbs back on afterwards. It is VERY common. So yeah, maybe there are A FEW out there that actually kept it off, but I doubt it. If you don't learn to function in the real world by eating/exercising properly, you ARE going to put weight back on when you are done with your diet.
  • cbenzerga
    cbenzerga Posts: 65 Member
    It's a lifestyle change. Most of us would not enjoy eating under 1000 calories a day for the rest of our lives. I wouldn't be able to maintain that. I think you can make some changes to kick start, but for the most part the changes you make in your daily diet should be one you can stick to for a lifetime in order to keep the weight off. GOOD LUCK.
  • tamsinwhitfield
    tamsinwhitfield Posts: 135 Member
    You should eat at least 1200 calories a day. If you eat less, your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism is screwed up. You won't lose weight when your metabolism isn't working correctly.

    This is beyond scientifically inaccurate. I'm not denying that "starvation mode" absolutely does not exist in any way, shape or form, but I see this phrase tossed around haphazardly in about 95% of threads. At the end of the day, your body requires energy in order to perform functions. Every single reaction that occurs in your body requires energy in order to fuel it. If you are running at a deficit, even if your metabolism is slower than the norm, you have to lose weight from somewhere (it may not be the most desirable weight loss - i.e. you might well be breaking down lean tissue in addition to fat), but you will lose weight. And 1200 is not some kind of mythical, magical number that functions as an absolute limit.

    EDIT: I should clarify, I'm not down with a long-term 800 calorie a day diet, but nor do I believe that 1,200 is the absolute be-all-and-end-all. I usually hit between 1k and 1.2k per day when dieting, and on someone of a small frame with a sedentary job (bar additional exercise), this has always been fine for me. I should probably also state that I've never had trouble maintaining either (when not dieting, I usually eat around 1,800 a day).
This discussion has been closed.

Categories