[Bravelilchicken]

Has anyone else caught in the Biggest Loser site on the overview of their diet page, it says to figure how many calories you need to maintain your weight is your weight x 7 calories! This is copied and pasted from the site -
"How Many Calories Do You Need?
We have a simple formula for you, put together by the Biggest Loser doctors and nutritionists. Grab your calculator; here's the arithmetic:
Your present weight X 7 = Your daily caloric needs for weight loss"

That means for me to maintain my weight I can have 1190 cals a day. If I get down to my goal of 130 I can only have 910 calories. No wonder I have to starve myself to lose weight. This is kind of upsetting but it makes sense in a way. I have to eat less than 1000 calories a day to lose even with exercise.

[mokenju]

Yep. I agree with Bonniebelle. An hipocaloric diet below 1200 calories without medical supervision is unhealthy and can put your body in "starvation" mode easily. You can lose weight quickly at first but then your metabolism is so slow that eating the same you start to gain weight. This is the reason because restrictive diets make people gain weight and not the opposite . Allways is better increase exercise in order to obtain a higher calories deficit than eat less .

[linki]

You do NOT need to eat less than 1000 cals a day to lose weight or maintain it(well, unless you have a metabolic/thyroid problem). Those types of low calorie diets are not sustainable in the long run. Makes me wonder what these people are thinking! A 130lbs woman probably needs 1500-1700 cals to maintain- more if she exercises regularly.

Stay healthy and don't believe everything you read on the net! (um.. except what I just wrote- you can believe that )

[QuilterInVA]

That's to lose weight and eating less and 100-1200 calories a day is asking for trouble. This show is not realistic so don't think their website is gospel either.

[Bravelilchicken]

AHA! It dawned on me what you all said. It doesnt say to maintain weight, it says to lose. Somehow my brains wasnt wrapping around that right. Thanks guys, ummmm I mean girls.

[featherz]

I weigh 125# and do 1800-2K/day to maintain (and I'm pushing 40). I lose at around 1500. If I had to eat 900 calories a day I wouldn't be able to get out of bed!

[SmartButt]

I didn't look at the site to see if this was taken somewhat out of context, but there is a much more complex math behind caloric needs, known as your Basic Metabolic Rate.

What isn't mentioned clearly in the above quote is that you can easily go under 1200 calories. How? Well, you eat 1200 calories and then you burn off 300 more by exercising to get you down to that 900 a day.

The very first episode of Biggest Loser, Kim was showing how she was recommending 1200-1300 calories a day for her team. She did not say at any time they should go under 1200. The previous female trainer Jillian has an entire book about being fit, and she insists it is dangerous to go under 1200 calories a day as well. So, I think the quote above is misleading; the website should fix that to avoid confusion.

Edited: just looked at the site and one of the first things I found was this:
"If you make a habit of skipping meals or eating only a small amount of calories each day, your body thinks that you are experiencing a famine and your metabolism will slow down to conserve energy. This is exactly what happens with a very low calorie diet."

So, I don't think BL is trying to promote starvation, it's a misunderstanding.