600 Calories per day!!!

I rarely comment on these threads because I suffered with anorexia for a number of years in my late teens and I have no great love for re-living those years that wreaked my mind and my body. It took me 15 years to get over the damage I did to myself after eating tiny portions of foods for years.

Here is my experience of reducing my calories to below 1000 a day.

At the time I aimed for less than 900 cals per day as someone told me I would lose loads of weight if I kept my cals under this number. However, it escalated into me getting more paranoid and controlling about my eating and some days I ate an orange and a piece of toast and thought I was wonderful for it (more fool me) As well as eating half a cup of dry cornflakes and calling it a meal, I also exercised 3 or 4 times a day.

In the short term (1-6) months eating under 800 or 900 cals a day:
Makes you irritable, grumpy and a pain to live with
Your breath will smell
Your face skin will dry out and/or you'll get spots
You will feel nauseous with hunger
You stomach will make noise all the time
You will lose hell of a lot of weight (up to 7lbs a week)

6 -12 months
Your period will stop
Your appetite will be gone.
You will have trained yourself to go without food.
Your energy will be non-existant
Your circle of friends will have whittered away as you fall out or cut out all of them in turn because of your eating
Your family will be in a panic about your appearance
Your weight loss will slow down to about 1lb a week (or less)
Your hair will thin

12-18 months
You are really ill now
You panic about your weight loss and drop down to 300-500 cals because some other anorexic on an internet forum said this worked for her
The other Anas on the forums are your only "friends" now
All your muscle has gone
The skin all over your body and your face will be in a shocking condition
You are cold all the time, a horrible soul sucking coldness that seems to come from within
Organ damage has started
Your hair will stop growing and may start to fall out

18 months +
As well as everything else above
The symptoms of mental illness appear (paranoia being the most common)
Irreversible organ damage may have started
Lumps of your hair will fall out leaving you with bald patches

After recovery:
Your body clings on to every calories like a dying man to a shipwreak and you put on weight. You think dropping back to your previous habits will lose it - it doesn't. What do you do then?

Those are the consequences of surviving on anorexic/tiny portions of food. Those are the ones I saw myself and others in real-life support groups go through.

I am not saying your friend is anorexic (nothing like it) but what will he do when 600 cals per day no longer loses him the weight he he was used to losing from day to day? Will he cut his calories further? Is this really the path he wants to go down? If it were my friend, I would beg them now to stop before it is too late and he embarks on a lifestyle that negatively shapes the rest of his life.

You already say that he has trouble sleeping and looks ill. This sounds to me like his mind and body are not happy are being given this meager volume of food. Get off the internet, people here cannot see you or your friend. Get your friend to a medical professional. If he will not listen to you, he may listen to them.

Right now, I am now losing 2lbs a week eating around about 2000 cals a day. I am happy, healthy and energetic.

Encourage your friend to get smart before it is too late for him.

Roughly how much does this guy weigh, and how much does he have to lose?

I know 600 calories is way too little, but since he's a large (apparently overweight?) man, it doesn't sound like he's got an eating disorder. I don't imagine he's doing any permanent damage with this diet, either.

I bet this will resolve itself pretty soon. I don't think anyone without a serious eating disorder can stay on that sort of diet for long. When he stops losing weight and all those repressed desires for food catch up with him, you can give him a humble I-told-you-so. That will be your opportunity to convince him of a sensible diet plan.

^^^ this.
All you can do is try to help your friend out, if he isn't ready to listen then soon enough he will find out the hard way why you were trying to help.
He will lose weight initially, but will also lose muscle which means the body burns less calories, and eventually his loss will stop even when eatig the same amount and he won't know why, he might be more interested in healthier ways to lose then.

As Sarah said, calculating a deficit from tdee while staying above bmr is a safe and healthy way to lose that is sustainable long term.
Exercise is also important, it has so many benefits other than weight loss, and the right kind of exercise can build muscle, therefore increasing calorie burn and making weight loss easier.

A readable text on long term low carbohydrate living that covers ketogenic adapted issues is :-

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable [Paperback]
Stephen D. Phinney (Author), Jeff S. Volek (Author)

Available from Amazon on Kindle or Paper.

There's much written about ketogenic diets for treating epilepsy too, for example www.hopkinschildrens.org/high-fat-ketogenic-diet-to-control-seizures-is-safe-over-long-term.aspx

I would just let him do what he wants. It's his body, he wants to lose weight his way. If someone told me I was losing weight the wrong way whilst it was still working for me I probably wouldn't listen either. If he plateaus, then maybe try explaining it to him again.

Tell him his **** is going to shrink and then he will not have a brain at all! Dumb a@@!

Tell him his **** is going to shrink and then he will not have a brain at all! Dumb a@@!

Just...no. No. This is how a society of idiots is created - e.g. if you go out without a coat on you will catch a cold. Biologically impossible. People just sprouting s**t and other people believing it. Just let him do what he wants - his choice.

I rarely comment on these threads because I suffered with anorexia for a number of years in my late teens and I have no great love for re-living those years that wreaked my mind and my body. It took me 15 years to get over the damage I did to myself after eating tiny portions of foods for years.

Here is my experience of reducing my calories to below 1000 a day.

At the time I aimed for less than 900 cals per day as someone told me I would lose loads of weight if I kept my cals under this number. However, it escalated into me getting more paranoid and controlling about my eating and some days I ate an orange and a piece of toast and thought I was wonderful for it (more fool me) As well as eating half a cup of dry cornflakes and calling it a meal, I also exercised 3 or 4 times a day.

In the short term (1-6) months eating under 800 or 900 cals a day:
Makes you irritable, grumpy and a pain to live with
Your breath will smell
Your face skin will dry out and/or you'll get spots
You will feel nauseous with hunger
You stomach will make noise all the time
You will lose hell of a lot of weight (up to 7lbs a week)

6 -12 months
Your period will stop
Your appetite will be gone.
You will have trained yourself to go without food.
Your energy will be non-existant
Your circle of friends will have whittered away as you fall out or cut out all of them in turn because of your eating
Your family will be in a panic about your appearance
Your weight loss will slow down to about 1lb a week (or less)
Your hair will thin

12-18 months
You are really ill now
You panic about your weight loss and drop down to 300-500 cals because some other anorexic on an internet forum said this worked for her
The other Anas on the forums are your only "friends" now
All your muscle has gone
The skin all over your body and your face will be in a shocking condition
You are cold all the time, a horrible soul sucking coldness that seems to come from within
Organ damage has started
Your hair will stop growing and may start to fall out

18 months +
As well as everything else above
The symptoms of mental illness appear (paranoia being the most common)
Irreversible organ damage may have started
Lumps of your hair will fall out leaving you with bald patches

After recovery:
Your body clings on to every calories like a dying man to a shipwreak and you put on weight. You think dropping back to your previous habits will lose it - it doesn't. What do you do then?

Those are the consequences of surviving on anorexic/tiny portions of food. Those are the ones I saw myself and others in real-life support groups go through.

I am not saying your friend is anorexic (nothing like it) but what will he do when 600 cals per day no longer loses him the weight he he was used to losing from day to day? Will he cut his calories further? Is this really the path he wants to go down? If it were my friend, I would beg them now to stop before it is too late and he embarks on a lifestyle that negatively shapes the rest of his life.

You already say that he has trouble sleeping and looks ill. This sounds to me like his mind and body are not happy are being given this meager volume of food. Get off the internet, people here cannot see you or your friend. Get your friend to a medical professional. If he will not listen to you, he may listen to them.

Right now, I am now losing 2lbs a week eating around about 2000 cals a day. I am happy, healthy and energetic.

Encourage your friend to get smart before it is too late for him.

Amazing post, I think a LOT of people on MFP could benefit from reading this, you should repost seperately!!

This will not make you lose weight. I eat less than 1000 calories a day for several years...and am gaining weight. And I am not sedentary...I grow most of those calories and raise animals. I am actually gaining weight. Leave people like us alone. You might be starving...I am getting fat, while feeling like I am starving. I eat one small meal a day up on my feet for hours, walking, digging, landscaping and am getting more and more fat doing so. Maybe some of us are different.

Nice necrothread.

I had to defiriend someone who was doing that recently. There were many days he was negative net cals.I tried telling him how bad it was for him but he liked the way it made him feel. I told him that I suspected ED and he should be careful. Defriended. I am here uultimately for my own health but want to also motivate and help others. I just cant watch people deliberately abuse their bodies, that could mess up my progress.