I'm new to this whole calorie counting thing. Is it bad to have less than 1000 calories a day? I cant seem to get above 1000 which is fine for me, but I want to make sure its healthy. At first it was less than 500 calories a day but Ive been trying to higher it. It wasn't that I was trying to have it that low, it just happened. I'm not starving or anything either, I just eat low calorie things. I used to think 200 calories per meal was high but then I saw the 400 calorie breakfast so it made me wonder if I'm not getting enough. Any and all info would be helpful!

It is VERY unhealthy to go below 1200 calories. Please do not do this

Your body will eventually go into starvation mode and you will not lose weight. Also, your body will lack the needed nutrients.

No, no =( that is very unhealthy for you! I had to detox for 9 days, and I was eating 800-900 calories, that was the only time I would ever eat that low, and it's only because the foods I was allowed to eat were so low in calories, even en masse. A healthy diet should be 1200+ calories. Even if you find it difficult to eat that much, you need to make yourself do it. Space out your meals, it's okay to have a meal with a "higher" calorie count as long as you are eating things that are good for you, and that you stick to your goal. Shoot for a goal somewhere between 1300-1500 calories per day.

Thank you both! Im glad I asked. At first I was eating as low calories as possible and after writing it down I realized that I was only getting about 330 (not including steamed broccoli and chicken) calories a day. At first I thought this was good but then began to wonder. If I'd have more than 200 calories at a time I felt like I had cheated. Then I read on here a few things and wondered if it was actually hurting rather than helping. Before starting this process I was never a big eater and didnt even eat that unhealthy but still gained weight so I should have known. Recently my weight loss has slown down and now I think I know why, not enough calories! Thank you again

No problem! ^_^ You can still have higher end caloric intakes as long as you are eating right! Your weightloss will depend a lot on your exercise habits and whether or not you can create a defecit that way. Eating 1500 calories can still be burned off at a steady pace as long as you get regular exercise. I wish you the best on your weight loss journey!

There are cool calorie calculators online to find how many calories you should be eating in order to lose weight for your height and weight. Google "calorie calculator" and try and find one. There are also websites online you can use to track your calories that make it a lot easier. Good luck and welcome.

What do you mean "not including steamed broccoli and chicken"? Because while chicken is very healthy, it does add up, in terms of calories.

In general, you don't want to get to a place where "food=bad, eating=failure" in your head. That's disordered eating.

The right number of calories really varies by individual: for a post-menopausal, 4'10", sedentary woman who was already in the "normal" BMI range, 1000 calories a day might be maintenance calories. For a 6'4", 250 lbs, teenage boy who plays a sport 2 hours a day, 3000 calories a day might well lead to sustained weight loss.

In general, it's best, I think, to eat the most you can and still lose weight. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and you want your diet to require as little motivation and will power as possible: you want it to be easy on normal days, so that when life gets hard--when your mom gets sick, when you get the boss from ****, when your cat dies--you can stay on plan. Because--and I cannot emphasize this enough--it is the consistency of sticking to the plan, not the strictness of the plan, that determines success.

^^^^ What Shmead said... top post!

LilDucky losing weight doesn't have to be a game of chance or a miserable experience. Calorie counting is an awesome way to lose weight but very few people would recommend going so low.
I don't think I can add anything that hasn't already been said, so good luck.

I meant when I wrote everything down it was 330 but I also had one chicken breast, and probably a 1/2 cup -1 cup of broccoli that was not added into that. So maybe 600 total for that day? Today I started eating higher calories. I had about a 350 calorie breakfast and although it feels like Im taking a step backward, I now know Im not! Thank you all!

This X's a thousand.

I'm glad to see you are upping the calories. There's a huge difference between 350 and 1200. I'm not in the camp that believes 1200 is the ultimate cut off but I AM in the camp that believes we should eat as many quality calories as we can while still losing weight.

I personally maintain at 1200 and lose at 1000. We're all different, despite what those calorie calculators want us to believe.

I most love Shmead's advice to keep it sustainable!! This is rule #1 of weight loss.

From very personal experience, yes it is unhealthy.

This is my story. I'm trying to average out at 1600-1700 a week these days. I was on 1200-1400 for more than a year. Then I started intense resistance training to supplement my usual cardio only workout a few months ago. I stuck to the same calorie intake and often felt faint and dizzy. But I didn't up my calories. Terrible mistake. Ended up losing my period for several months, became terribly ill for more than a month and had to be put on an IV nutrition drip. My body just didn't have the resources to fight the illness.

I guess I was just terrified of gaining back the weight I had lost. Funny thing is, I didn't lose anything since starting to lift. But I lost loads of inches and was really, really thin. I look a lot thinner than the 130 or so I weigh - I guess because of the muscle I've built up. I am still thin but since upping my cals 3 weeks ago I feel loads better, got my period back yesterday (yay!) and am actually dropping a few pounds along the way. So I should eat even more because I do actually want to maintain now.

So my advice after paying the price for eating too little? Be careful. Listen to your body and give it what it needs. If you're as active as I am don't be scared to up your cals. I was and I paid for it.

If you ever want to consider going below the recommended weight loss calories for your age, starting weight, gender and lifestyle you must be under medical supervision. It is possible, indeed practical, for some people to have short or sometimes even sustained periods on a very low calorie diet (vLCD), but this MUST be under close medical supervision. Sometimes it's done for someone who is so morbidly obese that if they don't lose a bunch of weight quickly they will die anyway, so the health risks of a vLCD are massively outweighed by the risks of not doing the vLCD. Medical supervision includes blood tests and other checks to ensure that you are still getting enough basic nutrition, and it's nearly always done with meal replacements because they are designed to have 1/3 of the daily requirements in each drink, as it's next to impossible to hit the required nutrient intake with real foods without going over the calories.

Others who are on vLCD include people with medical conditions that restrict their movement. I have an allowance of about 950 cals a day because I am on medical bed-rest and I am not just sedentary, I'm totally lifeless! But I see more doctors than you can shake a stick at, so they are looking after me.

For most other groups of people it's a very bad idea indeed, for all the reasons given above. Been there, done that, worn the anorexic T-shirt, and it doesn't take a whole lot of time before you end up so malnourished that your hair falls out and you cannot get off the couch at all and you accidentally set fire to your skirt because you can't maintain your body heat and you get too close to a heater. It's waiting around the corner.

I strongly suggest reading a whole bunch of nutrition information before replanning you diet to make sure you add the calories in the correct places and in the right balance. Good job you asked!

umm...brocc and chicken have calories too! Substantial calories...was the chicken breast 2oz or 7 ozs? which adds up to anywhere from 110 calories to 250 (depending also on if you weighed it cooked or uncooked) Broccoli has 25 cals per 85 grams.... (3 oz) and 85 grams of broccoli is not that much broccoli. what else are you not counting? Im beginning to think you are prob eating a lot more calories than you think, which is prob a very good thing.

But what are your stats? are you tall/short? Fat/thin? old young? Do you exercise?
Like Eliana, i cant lose on much more than 1000/day, so i shoot for 950, ending up usually aound 1000 to 1100.....
Ive said this before in another thread, but when people preach about not going below 1200, or 1400 what they are really MEANING is to not go below your BMR. A small, conditioned female with a history of dieting may very well have a BMR of 900 to 1000 cals a day. As might a sedentary post menopausal woman.

How did you ever get to be a fat chick if you can't eat more than 1000 calories a day? I'm confused.

BRAVO! I agree!