600-800 cals? Will this work?

[Ljmh2022]

I've been given different pieces of advise from several people and now my head is all over the place. So just wanting some clarity.

I'm 5ft 6 and 12 St 7. Want to get back to around 10st 7.
I thought losing weight was eat less, move more. Basically have more cals burnt than the cals that go in.

I've started a diet a week ago and calorie counting. Soup for dinner, calorie controlled meal plan meal for tea (ready meal style) so I can scan the cals exactly. No snacks and drinking water. Sometimes breakfast of weetabix and 200 ml of milk.
Averaging 600-800 cals a day.
I've read 800 cals a day is one diet style out there.

Last week had a weekly cal deficit of 10,000 cals. Which in my head is a good start. But am I eating enough? I don't feel hungry and I've just cut out snacks, chocolate, eating out, drinking which is where most of my cals probably came from before. And the fact that previously portion sizes were probably 3x bigger than they should have been.

I have been on a few 30-50 min walks this week because of the nice weather but normally about 8,000 steps a day. Not active at work and don't go to the gym.

600-800 kcal is probably not enough. Your body may enter starvation mode and preserve fat stores rather than burning them. Eating a diet too low in calories can cause other issues too.

It's best to eat a calorie allowance at your TDEE levels and add in exercise, or drop the calories slightly.

It might work but won't really be sustainable and might give you other problems with having such a low calorie intake.

800 kcal is considered a very low calorie diet. It should only be done under medical supervision and usually only for people who are very overweight/obese, which you aren't. It isn't sustainable, you'll feel like shit, and it will almost certainly result in binge eating. Punch your stats into my fitness Pal to lose a pound a week and see what it says.

And starvation mode isn't a thing.

Nonsense.

That’s absolutely mad. Why would you put your body through that!?

there is the 5:2 diet where the person would have ONE ‘fast’ day of eating that low which is still mad imo.

Im all for eating less and losing weight, if its done properly and your body is getting the nutrients it needs

please eat a well balanced diet with proper portion control.

If you carry on this way, any weight you lose you will almost gain back immediately

Will you lose weight on 800 calories… yes. Is it sustainable… probably not. Better to look at a more sustainable healthier amount.

If your confused see your GP. But I think 600-800 is not sustainable. How much weight have you lost? How do you feel?
The standard is1-2lb a week weight loss is good and easier to stick to.
I eat about 1500-1600/day to lose a couple pounds a week, but I have a lot to lose.

I think starvation mode isn't really a thing, if it were then starving people wouldn't be so thin.

The most likely outcome of such a restrictive diet is that you will see good losses but you won't be able to maintain it, you'll break at some point and binge or you'll reach goal weight, start eating more normally and put back on the weight.

You need to find a way to change your overall approach to food long term so that you can lose to get to a healthy weight, then maintain that weight.

Starvation mode is not a thing

But what is likely to happen is that you lose a lot of water, get tired, get bored, start craving lots of food and then it stops

It can be a method to reduce the risk of diabetes or lower blood sugars as part as an overal method of a medical intervention but not necessarily as a longer term weight loss programme for someone with your BMI

Also its impossible to meet your vitamin and mineral RDIs on a diet that low without supplements so make sure you look at that.

By the way it makes me laugh when people say that 800 cal diets should be 'done under medical supervision', what supervision do you think that is then? GP ringing up everyday to see how you are and whether you've keeled over with hunger yet?

Even for people who have had WLS and are on very low cals (me), I had nurse check ins from time to time during recovery but no one is 'supervising me' now.

It’s unsustainable and it’s not healthy (unless medically advised and supervised as already mentioned). You’d be better off taking a longer term view. Shift your eating habits towards protein and nutrient rich foods 80% of the time. Eating for health rather than pleasure (not saying they are mutually exclusive at all, far from it). Lift weights to build muscle and then you’ll burn more calories anyway. I combine with intermittent fasting (I only eat 11am - 7pm) and I’ve lost a few stone in the last couple of years which I know I won’t put back on. 11st down to 9st at 5ft 5. These crash diets are miserable and useless mid to long term. No way to live.

and yeah - ‘starvation mode’ is wildly misunderstood in our diet culture.

I’m on a VLCD (New You Plan) and have lost 3.5 stone in as many months. It’s worked really well for me. Four low calorie meals (soups, shakes, bars, meals) a day.
Once you’re in ketosis you don’t feel hungry, so from that perspective it’s easy to stick to. You can’t drink alcohol as it would make you really ill, so that’s out of the equation too.
My skin is absolutely glowing and I’m full of energy - feel like a completely different person.
It can sometimes get a bit boring, yes, but I do ‘cheat’ occasionally by having a high protein/no complex carb meal of proper food and recording it in My Fitness Pal.

Every day? This is not a sustainable or healthy way to loose weight. I do the 5:2 diet, it's always worked well for me. It's 2 days of 600 cals and 5 days or normal 'healthy' eating. I don't do consecutive days. I also don't eat after 6pm. My 'fast' days consist of two small meals most eggs, fish, salads, veggies of some kind. I don't count drinks because I'm a tea fiend. The other 5 days I eat normally, reasonably healthy but I don't deprive myself of anything. I've just scoffed two doughnuts and a very large steak with chips for example. This works for me. It may not work for you.

I also swim twice a week and walk half a mile to work and back daily. I've lost 2 stone in 18 months doing this. Slow and steady wins the race don't forget.

Thanks for your opinions, I will take these on board. A few people have mentioned starvation mode but I had read it was a myth and not scientifically accurate.

I'll have a look at the new you plan that looks interesting. Only just started this last week so not checked if I have lost anything yet.

800 is definitely not enough with exercise I can eat 2000 and still be in a sensible deficit.
get some proper advice from a PT or Team RH online for £6.99 they will sort out all your calories etc based on height, weight, exercise etc and you will have a decent amount. Look at their reviews and people eating amounts just like me and still losing weight
you will most likely gain more and more because you will have enough and binge

Adaptative thermogenesis is absolutely a thing. Simplifying it into "starvation mode" is an issue because there's a lot of misunderstandings as to what it is and what it is not.

Will a very low calorie diet work? Yes. Will it work long term? Depends on how you manage the adaptive thermogenesis that comes with it - the main point is doing any one thing for long enough causes the body to adapt to the conditions, so you need to switch things up every so often in terms of diet/exercise to keep progressing.

No where near enough calories. Check your TDEE and if you want to lose faster make sure you’ve got a deficit of 1000 cals per day between what you burn and what you eat. At your height you’re eating way too little and will be difficult to sustain, and isn’t necessary to eat so low to lose

You will lose weight, but it will be water, muscle and tissue, and not a lot of fat. You don’t want to lose muscle mass. Keep calories sensible around 1500 and start lifting weights. Your body weight might stay the same initially, but you will notice your shape change and inches will come off your frame. Those inches will be fat. You need to burn off the fat and grow your muscle.

Starvation mode is a myth, and an offensive one at that. The idea that you will not lose weight because you are starving is illogical bunkum.
When people actually starve, they get very thin. And then they die. They don't stay fat.

You need to eat over 1000 calories and you will still lose weight.

As an update, I did this for 4 weeks with 1 treat day a week where I didn't go crazy but just ate a bit more normally. This was because we already had events/restaurants booked and planned but it worked well and I lost 1st.
Now having a week completely off plan and guilt free due to a big birthday week but then will start again next week on low cals for another month and see how it goes. Then December will eat normally as I love all the Christmas food!!

The yo yo between very low calories and higher calories that you are choosing to do won’t do your body or metabolism a favour in the long run.

Thank you. When will people stop with this nonsense?

Those calories are way too low OP.