Is it ok to diet on 1000 calories per day?

I've been eating 1300 for the past couple of months and now I'm barely losing. I want to speed up the process. I will eat the same healthy foods just will just cut out the extras and reduce snacking. Every 2 weeks or so I'll eat whatever I want for one meal then carry on.

Basically is 1000 calories enough for my body to be healthy if I eat nutritiously dense foods?

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Reply 1

Scoobiedoobiedo

Auschwitz mode: Activate.

Reply 2

DarkWhite

1000 is quite low, even for a sedentary lifestyle.

Could you factor in more exercise instead?

It also depends on the balance of the diet - you need certain nutrients like fats, proteins, carbs, to maintain effective digestion.

Reply 3

Spontogical

Yeh that's too low. How much do you currently weigh? Don't you think being healthy and strong is a much more effective goal than purely losing weight? Burn fat, and build muscle :smile:

Reply 4

Harris Zainul

Its possible, but I wouldn't recommend it. Why? Your body's first function is to keep you alive. When you consume too little calories, your body automatically slows down your metabolism rate because it think you're not getting enough food. This is turn will then slow down the rate of you losing weight although you're in a caloric deficit.

Another point to consider is that how sustainable will your 1000 calorie diet be.

My humble opinion would be that you throw in some high intensity interval training, coupled with a 500-calorie deficit a day. If you do this, you'll lose a pound a week.

Reply 5

WGR

Original post by After7

How on earth are you not losing weight on 1300 calories? There's only 3 explanations for this; you are being impatient and are overestimating the speed of weight loss, you are eating more than you think you are or you have eaten so little that you've put your body into starvation mode. Also, it does not matter what you eat. All that matters is how many calories you take in. You could lose weight eating 4 McDonalds meals a day seeing as their hamburger and small chips meal is only around 450 calories in total.

Reply 6

WGR

And also what someone else said, eating as little as you are is stupid because unless you plan on keeping that
up for the rest of your life you're going to put the weight back on pretty quickly.

Reply 7

Dragonfly07

I used to be on about that amount of calories without the intention of losing weight, it just happened.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I felt very weak and dizzy and I could barely do anything that required any movement.

Reply 8

tinktinktinkerbell

I've done it but I do think it's too low, I was constantly tired, sick and dizzy

Reply 9

After7

Original post by Spontogical

Yeh that's too low. How much do you currently weigh? Don't you think being healthy and strong is a much more effective goal than purely losing weight? Burn fat, and build muscle :smile:

63kg at 6'0 but I have a lot of fat concentrated on my stomach and legs. Since I'm probably like close to 20% bodyfat i want to reduce it first before focusing on building muscle.

Original post by WGR

I track my calories on myfitnesspal. If i did underestimate how much I've been eating it would only be by 100-200 calories or so. I train boxing 3x a week which a mix of HIIT and steady state exercise like skipping. My metabolism may have slowed down which is why lowering calories seems the only way to go to combat this.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 10

tooosh

Original post by After7

63kg at 6'0 but I have a lot of fat concentrated on my stomach and legs. Since I'm probably like close to 20% bodyfat i want to reduce it first before focusing on building muscle.

I track my calories on myfitnesspal. If i did underestimate how much I've been eating it would only be by 100-200 calories or so. I train boxing 3x a week which a mix of HIIT and steady state exercise like skipping. My metabolism may have slowed down which is why lowering calories seems the only way to go to combat this.

63kg at 6'0 and 20% bf??! You're not losing weight because you have no metabolism whether it's because of your calories or muscle mass. It's time to start lifting and bulking.

Reply 11

SPB

Yup IMO this is a great calorie range for slow starvation.

Enjoy life my man.

Reply 12

Scoobiedoobiedo

Original post by SPB

Yup IMO this is a great calorie range for slow starvation.

Enjoy life my man.

Not for long.

Reply 13

Spontogical

Original post by After7

63kg at 6'0 but I have a lot of fat concentrated on my stomach and legs. Since I'm probably like close to 20% bodyfat i want to reduce it first before focusing on building muscle.

The LAST thing someone like you should be doing is trying to lose weight. I currently weigh 66kg at 5'9 and I'm skinny as fuark. When you focus on building muscle - the fat % will also drop!

Start eating properly 3,000 calories minimum and start doing muscle-building exercises. You will drop the 'fat'.

Reply 14

Jdizzle15

Original post by After7

Dude don't care what you say, im 5'2 and weigh nearly the same as you. Get off the computer and eat, eat, eat. Then lift, lift, lift. Sleep, sleep, sleep and repeat until you're like 75kg. Then focus losing fat.

Reply 15

WGR

Original post by After7

Sorry bro everyone likes to to throw out the "muh metabolism is slow" excuse. You can't beat the 1st law of thermodynamics. Look more closely at your diet.

Reply 16

After7

Original post by WGR

Sorry bro everyone likes to to throw out the "muh metabolism is slow" excuse. You can't beat the 1st law of thermodynamics. Look more closely at your diet.

True, I'm going to eliminate all condiments and anything with processed sugar and start jogging more.

I generally find that If I'm not feeling hungry from time to time during the day I'm not losing weight. I've been waking up during the night due to hunger now since I lowered but I'm sure that will go away once my body adjusts to the new calorie level.

Reply 17

Spontogical

Original post by After7

You don't want to lose weight, stop saying that.

You want to lose fat.. but first you need to ADD weight and build some muscle, as you're severely underweight and probably unhealthy/not as strong as you should be.

Reply 18

.JJ

Original post by After7

63kg at 6'0 but I have a lot of fat concentrated on my stomach and legs. Since I'm probably like close to 20% bodyfat i want to reduce it first before focusing on building muscle.

You're trying to lose weight?!
I know it's not entirely reliable, but you have a bmi of 17.9 which is what I used to be; and let me tell you it feels so much better now that I'm not freakishly underweight...