I read about a girl who tried to lose the last few pounds to reach her goal weight by eating less than 1000 calories a day. Im pretty new at this, but how is she going to maintain her weight when she eats that little? The problem is not acchieving her goal weight, but if she starts eating a bit more when she does, wont she gain again? And if not, eating less than a thousand calories a day for a long period of time cant be healthy?
Any thoughts?

You have the right idea. 1000 calories a day is too little, she won't be able to continue this. What is she going to do when she reaches goal ? If her maintainence level is 1500 calories she is going to see the weight coming back on. Crash diets never work out in the long run.

I'm not a doctor or dietician, but have read a fair amount about health and nutrition over the years. Everything I've ever read has told me that an adult human should never drop their caloric intake to below 1200 per day. This throws your body into "starvation mode" - you are just not getting enough calories to sustain your body. Instead of shedding more weight, your body starts to conserve and "hold onto" every calorie you consume. It is not only ineffective for weight loss, it is dangerous and extremely unhealthy.

Not to mention, gosh I would be so hungry!

I think a more reasonable and healthy approach to calorie-counting weight loss includes tracking what you're eating for a week or two. Once you figure out your calorie level, subtract 500 and stick to that (for most normally eating people this wouldn't put them below 1200). See if you lose weight, tweak calorie levels from there. This is a very simple description of this approach, but I think it's pretty moderate and more sustainable in the long-term. Then you can worry about the types and health of food you're eating, exercise, and so on.

The problem is when one gets to a lower weight there is less "room for error" or less of a deficit created. A 220 pound person has much more wiggle room when creating a deficit to lose weight than a 120 pound person. The weight will come off slower, but it will still come off.

Eating less than a 1000 calories is not sustainable. I wouldn't be surprised if the person snaps and binges or develops some issues due to eating at such a low-calorie count.

I had a day or two where I went under 1000, but it was due to unforeseen circumstances. I really don't think I would have been able to sustain myself on that amount!

<<if she starts eating a bit more when she does, wont she gain again?>>

No, she'll gain if she eats more than her body requires for fuel. If she increases her intake to, say, 1,500 calories per day, she probably won't gain over the long term. The problem with large calorie deficits is that they create a state of psychological imbalance, so people are more likely to relax all vigilance after the famine is over.

Freelance

<<your body starts to conserve and "hold onto" every calorie you consume.>>

According to the Weight Watchers research team, this is only true to a point, and my experience bears this out. If you eat a lot less than your body requires, you WILL lose weight over time, but the pace may be slower than expected.

Here's the link: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/a...1&art_id=35501

Or you can Google "Weight Watchers" + "Starvation Myth"

I dont think I'd get very far by just eating a thousand calories a day. But what I do worry about is maintenance when Im done losing weight. Whats very confusing is that theres so many different researches done. And its seems like theres a lot of different stories going around.

It was very scary for me to see how little there is out there on maintenance. It's also rare to find a group like this where there are active maintainers. It's one of the reasons I plan on staying a part of this forum for a long, long time as it can be difficult to find people who understand...

Unless they've dropped and maintained weight, it can be difficult to relate to others when it comes to certain things. Already I find my friends just don't understand when I need to look up nutritional info or if I don't want to go to a particular restaurant. They also don't understand my "obsession" with the gym. Luckily they don't scoff at me, but they just don't "get it." My fiance is much more understanding than anyone in my life right now and I know I'm lucky for that--especially considering he has never had a weight problem!

When it comes to maintenance though, I think it's very much like weight loss. You must find what works for you in order to be successful. I'm sure every maintainer does something different that someone else couldn't do. There are "rules," but how often do we break these "rules" when losing weight? A rule for someone may be detrimental for someone else. I broke many, many weight loss "rules" but I still successfully lost weight because I found what works for me.

I think one of the best things that all of the maintainers here have in common is that they're here on 3FC. They have the support of each other to keep them on track.

I think all of us who want to lose weight have gone through a "I want to lose weight so badly, I want it off this second, I will just not eat!" diet where you crash down to some super low calorie range. I know I have done it, many times. It's not sustainable.

You think it's working because for a short period of time, extremely low calorie diets produce...I dunno how to describe it, a nearly hyperactive clear headed euphoria (at least in my experience). Which makes perfect sense - if you were really practically starving would you want your body to shut down or would you want your body to be supremely focused and able to get some damned food?

For me, this lasts about...2 weeks. Then, I always crashed and binged.

Personally, there's no way I could sustain that. Shoot, I can't even get close to eating 1200 calories/day without feeling like I'm starving.

It's definitely true that the closer you get to goal the slower the pounds come off but I really believe this is something you have to accept and not go to drastic measures to bring it off. Sure, we'd all love to be at goal sooner but the time it takes to get there is a learning process. My journey as been long (over 1.5 years now and it could be another year for all I know until I reach goal) but it's given me time to change my habits and instill new ones. During that time I've become used to eating the way I do and I imagine it'll make maintenance significantly easier (I sure hope so! ).

Certainly, some people can do well with quick weight loss but I would guess it would make figuring out maintenance more difficult because then you'd make a larger switch from low calories to maintenance calories. I've always kept my calorie deficit relatively low, which means maintenance for me will be pretty much what I'm already doing.

The 1200 calorie threshold is a tricky one. I think if your of average height or taller that it's a pretty good rule to go by (actually if you're physically active, young and tall I'd guess you need to even go a lot higher than that). However, if you're 5'0" tall, small framed, and pretty much inactive (for whatever reason), possible going under that would be acceptable. However, how sustainable that is... I have no clue.

Thats the reason why I started to look for a active forum so that I can talk to people. Because I dont have any friends that can relate and that I can talk to about this sorta thing.
I definitely find this forum very helpful and suportive, so I'll probably stick around for a while.

Hmmmm.... If I remember correctly, doesn't "bright angel" maintain on about 1000 calories or so daily? I haven't seen her post as of late on this site, but she was here as a maintainer not all that long ago. I think she has her own website some where's out there in cyber....

Yes, I remember her indicating that her maintenance calories are something like 1000-1100.

Her website is: http://diethobby.com/blog.php

I lost weight on 1000-1200 a day, but honestly, I don't know how I did it. It was ok in the beginning when the weight was melting off fast, but at the end I was always starving and irritated. However, I am able to maintain at 2000 cals/day, so there have been no long-term consequences for my metabolism. That said, I did end up with binging issues that made me regain 10 pounds. I've been trying to lose them forever. Nowadays I never go below 1500 on average when I'm trying to lose. 1000 is a very bad idea, IMO.