Low calorie intake. Is it always bad?

[HurdyGurdy19]

Sorry - this turned out quite long (and probably a bit needy)

I am in my "happy time of year", i.e. salad season.

I love salads, and had one for lunch and one for dinner yesterday. I never eat breakfast, other than occasionally a banana or some porridge, but not before 11am.

I am on a weight loss mission, with a lot to lose, and have set myself a daily calorie limit of 1,500.

In each salad yesterday, I had salad leaves, baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, red onion, celery and some coleslaw. With lunch I had some chicken, and with dinner I had half a can of tuna in spring water. I don't usually have dressings on salads.

I also had a strawberry Solero in the evening, but all in, my calorie intake was 674. I had 9.9 servings of the 5 a day, so eating healthily.

I would happily have the same sort of food intake all the time, but I keep seeing articles (well, headlines, as I don't tend to read them) about the dangers of low calorie eating.

I feel I'm getting plenty of vitamins etc from the salads, and protein from the chicken/eggs/tuna/feta etc that I add to the salad. Is there a reason I should take in more calories?

1500 calories would have me gaining weight OP

I’m short so low calorie or me would be 800/900 per day. Low calorie never did me any harm - I’ve long hair, nails, regular period etc.

Yes, your internal organs need more calories in order to function. Your body needs a higher quantity of nutrients to prevent your bones, teeth etc deteriorating.

Even if you're short you should eat at least 1200 for those reasons. To lose weight you should exercise more too increase your calorie expenditure.

This is MN so a terrible place to seek any kind of guidance on calories/diet. But it’s really very low and probably below what your body needs to run normally, putting a lot of stress on your body.

Thank you. I put all my information (height, weight, lifestyle etc) into the NutraCheck app and it advised 1,800 a day. Maybe I should reduce the limit?

You wouldn't be able to run a car for 200 miles on £20 of petrol and your body is the same. Yes you'll burn more fat if you have a bigger deficit but you'll also burn muscle and lose hair, lose skin elasticity, bone density and risk gallstones. There's a reason people are advised to eat enough calories for their body's needs, and it's foolish to ignore that.

I am finding it hard to see how you got chicken, tuna and an ice cream in along with the salad for under 700 calories - you must be eating minuscule amounts of protein. You can eat that way, that's perfectly fine, but you must eat enough to fuel your body's basic functions!

1800 a day to maintain your weight?
You definitely shouldn't eat under 1200.

I have started walking more. I am very unfit, so starting off gently with 3 x 30 minute walks a day. I also have a pedal machine under my desk and do that in 5 minute bursts throughout the day, and a weighted hula hoop that I'm starting to master 😄

No, not to maintain. To lose.

I think I need to use a different app, if this is way off beat.

I have about 6 stone to lose 😩

Another problem with eating so few calories is that it's unsustainable, makes you obsess about food, have cravings, cave and fall off the wagon.

It sounds like you don't have to cut so drastically and you've got a way to go so you want to make sustainable changes.

Actually, thinking about it, I only had about 100g of chicken, so of course, that's not very much, although the plate was quite full looking by that point.

Thank you, I will increase the amount.

You need to eat 1.5G of protein for each kg of your weight iirc to maintain muscle mass

I found it helpful to save myself some calories for times when I KNOW I'm tempted to snack. (I'm always wanting something around 3-4pm). If you notice any times like that, if you have spare cals you could build that in. Or build in more protein to prevent feeling snacky in the first place.

Isn’t about half that ?

what you need to keep muscle mass is to exercise the muscles - eat only protein and you will still lose muscles mass if you are idle

of course that is harder

What is your height ? what did you eat yesterday? It doesn’t sound enough for most people long term but the odd day isn’t a problem

Unless it's regular occurrence, it's simply "not hungry day". We don't need exact same amount each day. So if you are eating fine, but have few days of just nor being hungry, it will do no harm.
I (and I would say anyone with normal food relationship) have that. Some days I could eat a horse, some days I could eat a leaf.

Target weight in lbs x 12 is a good target for daily calories (x10 if you’re not active). You can easily increase the calories in your salads by adding more protein, avocado, nuts etc.

While You are getting lots of good nutrients from all the fruit and veg you are really lacking in fat, complex carbs and protein, some vitamins are fat soluble so you’ll be reducing your bodies ability to actually use what you’re ingesting. By eating so few calories you are also likely to start experiencing fatigue, hair loss, poor skin, nail and teeth damage. It won’t be immediate but over the course of weeks at a low intake the symptoms will start to appear. You could add seeds, nuts, avocado or olive oil to your salads, use oilier fish like mackerel, add in some beans or lentils to boost protein. Or just a protein shake that you sip on as a snack between meals, load it with ice and blitz it to make a Frappuccino in the hot weather.

Diets often demonise food groups, but it’s important to remember that we need a wide and varied range of all foods to create a balanced healthy diet that’s sustainable and adequately fuels our bodies.

People can way over estimate calories needed , 600 a day is the minimum and only under a doctors advice. However occasionally it’s obviously fine, people eat nothing when they have a stomach bug for example. Other than that unless you are not overweight minimum 800 cals is fine. It is not necessary to eat 1200 cals unless you want to. 1500 cals unless you are very tall , obese or very active would mean it takes you a very long time to loose weight and may not truly be a deficit.

I thought it was 1 gramme of protein for each lb?

1800 is probably spot on to lose weight if you're 6 stone overweight. So eat 1800 calories. Why would you possibly think that 700 is enough for health?

No it's 1.3 - 1.8g per kg of weight.

You should be eating more than you are as it's not sustainable. Keep what you're eating but add some carbs for energy otherwise you'll just run out of steam.

Add some nuts/seeds to the salad for more protein and some yoghurt and berries for breakfast.

No, 1g protein per kg of weight is the minimum you need to minimise muscle loss during calorie deficit- 1.5g is the optimum to maintain muscle. It's hard to do in calorie deficit though.

Please don't give this stupid eating disordered advice. She's already said she's 6 stone overweight. You're advising her to literally starve herself. Stop it.

someone who wants to drop a couple of pounds just before holiday so they look better in their bikini might get away with that. That’s not you (or me). That there 6stone did not appear overnight so it’s gonna disappear overnight. And when it does disappear, you want it gone forever.
whatever sort of eater you are, you need to increase your daily calorie intake. I’m a grazer so I prep and have ready several small meals a day so that the minute I get the munchies there is something ready to munch on. Otherwise I would go hunting and that is not a good thing in this house.
lots of protein (so your chicken and tuna habits are good), lots of salad and veg (cooked and raw), sensible cooking methods, watch the amounts of dressings, yes you need some carbs (I’m a sandwich addict so I use Danish bread which contains more air so slightly fewer calories and carbs) and some fibre to keep things ticking over nicely (I crush some bran flakes into a dressed salad sometimes, it adds some crunch).
and throw the odd Solero in without a second thought.
you could look at your calorie intake over a week - let’s say 7700 or 8400 if you choose 1200 a day. That way you can tinker about, have an easy day (low calories, low activities) then a more generous day. And plan. Plan your meals, your snacks, your drinks.
all these tactics will keep you interested and motivated, healthy and more likely to maintain once you have achieved.