I am on a diet and I am eating healthy and restricting my calories to 850...is this ok?

Question

Someone today said I am consuming too few calories. Since I am on a diet, I figured I had to cut back and on a typical day I ate like 1200 anyway. I am 5'4, weigh 134lbs and want to lose 15lbs by the end of December. I am eating really healthy balanced organic meals, mostly fruit, vegetables and lean meat. I exercise one hour of cardio a day, 5 times a week and do strengh training one hour a day 3 times a week. For those of you who know about this stuff, does this sound like a good plan to attain my goal?

Answer 1

Too few calories actually slow your metabolism. Try a website like www.myfooddiary.com to calculate the # of calories you need to lose weight while exercising on a regular basis. BTW, I think that 120lbs is a little to small for someone your height, don't lose too much weight. Good luck, stay healthy.

Answer 2

Sounds like a good plan to me, but be sure on your calories. Even the leanest beef is 250 calories for a 4 oz serving (no fat used in cooking) and most fruits run 100 calories.

If your weight isn't falling off fast enough, cut back on fruit (carbs).

You will not stop losing from eating too few calories. The very purpose of gastric bypass is to limit calories to 500 per day and patients lose extremely fast.

Good job, good plan!

Answer 3

the calories sound low to me but I'm a six footer .you may be closer to it then you think . I would put the vegetables first then fruit and avoid the meat chicken fish dairy and oils as much as possible I go a couple weeks and then incorporate a thirty percent protein from non vegetarian means ... add a gallon of water plus other fluids per day and you have an excellent high fiber low fat low carb diet oh and by the way add some whole grains . avoid simple carbs like white rice or pasta I put them in the meats to be mostly avoided category and I lost thirty lbs a month till i dropped 80 lbs with 20 lbs to go .....
salads are a life saver with low fat vinaigrette
peace out

Answer 4

Nicole;

Kudos on such healthy food choices. Yes, you are not consuming enough calories. Here's what's going to happen. Yes, you are going to drop weight. However, your metabolism is going to slow way way down because it will think it is starving. When you resume eating normal amounts of calories again, you are going to gain alot more weight back because your body will want to store much more fat this time. Also, consuming so few calories, you will begin to lose muscle mass. Losing muscle mass will slow your metabolism down even more. Not to mention, your hair, nails, and skin will start to look terrible. You don't want this, trust me. Stick with losing 2-3 pounds per week and you will be fine! Otherwise, you can't say nobody did not warn you!

Answer 5

Exercise is the key! Listen to your body! are you feeling good or bad. Take a GNC multi vitamin. Stay hydrated, if you feel dizzy drink Gatoraid and up your calories. At 850 you will most likely hold on to the fat because below 850 you go into survival mode, you should not go below 1200.

Answer 6

Too low calories hon. I owe my weight loss to Herbalife. It's great. Once you lose the weight, you can maintain easily. I have lost over 80 pounds and still losing. I sped the process up a bit by doing excercise 3-4 times a week. Good luck to you!

www.herbalife.com

Answer 7

15 pounds in 7 weeks might be reasonable, but you really need to get 1200 balanced calories. You'll make yourself retarded if you don't. You may actually be over-exercising and with that low amount of calories, you'll trick your body into "famine" response and it will hang onto every pound.

Answer 8

You should reduce your calories slowly or you might actually gain weight. Eating to little can slow your metabolism.

Answer 9

NO, this is not okay. Your body will start shuttin systems down and your metabolism will drop.