Too little calories?

[Zigga-Zagga]

So I've started a quite powerfull dieting which I'll be doing for a few months. I've counted to take around 1200kcals a day divided like so:

Breakfast - 150kcal
Lunch - 300kcal
Snack - 150kcal (Proteine)
Diner - 500kcal (well, not diner, eaten around 4 pm)
Evening snack - 100kcal (green veggies)

I'm off with sweets and cola and such, I'm drinking loads of water (also with minerals) drop off pasta and potatoes and take in veggies and so on. Basic stuff.

The thing is that I'm doing all sorts of cardio at the same time, some have to do with just everyday life (biking to school and so on) and some is actual training (hitting the bag, nothing really 100% hard). The question is that if I go alot under 1200 kcal, how harmfull it'll get and at what point. Some days I don't do dick cardio-wise, and I've never felt totally exhausted and hungry, so it's not like it's bothering my all-around feelings.

 

[Grady]

1200kcals: seems way to low for average young adult male or even female.
You'll stand a chance of losing a lot of muscle with that too.

How old are you? Weight and height?

 

[Heavyweight]

I've always thought diets were bad ideas. I really just support making permanent, healthy lifestyle changes and eating right.

 

[tical13]

It will be fine if you can handle feeling weak, getting random headaches and not having enough energy for great workouts.. All that being said I cut body fat using a similair method.. If you are carrying body fat that you want to get rid.. Keep your caloric intake low.. Lift as heavy as you can, so that your body doesnt cannabolize your muscle for energy.. Do cardio and take a good fat burner product and drinks lots of water.. In a few months you should see plenty of fat loss and lean muscle..

 

[Woob]

Average calorie needs for a male are 2,500. you might be counting wrong. i get over 500 calories in just one protein shake

 

[Zigga-Zagga]

I'm five-ten and weight somewhere around 185 but have clearly gotten fat over the year. I I were to guesstimate I'd say I'm somewhere at 20% BF.

My natural metabolism is slow as hell, so 1200 means around 1000kcal loss a day (2lbs a week).

 

[Grady]

I'm five-ten and weight somewhere around 185 but have clearly gotten fat over the year. I I were to guesstimate I'd say I'm somewhere at 20% BF.

My natural metabolism is slow as hell, so 1200 means around 1000kcal loss a day (2lbs a week).

If I were you, I would start the diet & exercise program at 2000Kcal/day, and adjust from there.
When you hit a sticking point, adjust caloric intake and exercise intensity.

When you shock your body by drastically cutting calories, it compensates by kicking off a starvation mode:
- canabolizing muscle tissue for energy (even with exercise)
- lowering metabolism (make you feel very, very tired)
- consuming fat for energy

If you modestly reduce calories, while eating a healthy mix of carbs, fat, and protein, your body is less likely to go fully into starvation mode. It will lose less muscle and still burn fat, and you will have the energy to maintain your exercise program. More muscle = free calorie burning tissue (even at rest).

Slow and steady works, because the "diet" and exercise program you will use is going to be very similar to the one you will use to maintain after you hit your goals.

People that use low cal diets that shock the system tend to get trapped into that yo-yo diet thing, and often end up gaining back higher % of fat than they started with when they quit due to the discomfort of starving themselves.

 

[tical13]

- canabolizing muscle tissue for energy (even with exercise)

Do you know this to be fact? Is there no differenece in the amount of physical excercise that is done.. Say if you only work out once a week, sure your body will canabolize that muscle, yet if one was to have 3 2 hour workouts daily, would the body still canabolize the muscle that is currently being "built" by excersice?

Do you have any studies that depict this?

Not trying to be a dick, but I have been searching for scientific research on this issue for many years now.

 

[Snar]

Generally when i do low cal diets (when i am cutting i go down to 800-850 a day for like 2 weeks and have lost as much as 5 pounds a week) i usually use a ketogenic approach. This keeps my protien up, and supplies my body with calories from fat stores so it never has to go catabolic. Also once ketosis kicks in, the lack of energy, headaches and what not go away. It is not sustainable ( my regular diet is a 40-30-30), but when you have a competition coming up and need to cut 10 pounds, it works. And when i say ten pounds, i account for the 5 or 6 came from the dieretic effect ketosis has on glycogen stores, so in essence i will lose 15, gain 5 back while carbing up and have a net loss of 10.

 

[JaKob]

Generally when i do low cal diets (when i am cutting i go down to 800-850 a day for like 2 weeks and have lost as much as 5 pounds a week) i usually use a ketogenic approach. This keeps my protien up, and supplies my body with calories from fat stores so it never has to go catabolic. Also once ketosis kicks in, the lack of energy, headaches and what not go away. It is not sustainable ( my regular diet is a 40-30-30), but when you have a competition coming up and need to cut 10 pounds, it works. And when i say ten pounds, i account for the 5 or 6 came from the dieretic effect ketosis has on glycogen stores, so in essence i will lose 15, gain 5 back while carbing up and have a net loss of 10.

How long does it take for ketosis to kick in?

 

[Grady]

Do you know this to be fact? Is there no differenece in the amount of physical excercise that is done.. Say if you only work out once a week, sure your body will canabolize that muscle, yet if one was to have 3 2 hour workouts daily, would the body still canabolize the muscle that is currently being "built" by excersice?

Do you have any studies that depict this?

Not trying to be a dick, but I have been searching for scientific research on this issue for many years now.

I don't have any studies offhand. I'm going by what I have read...will post some links if I get a chance.

My take on what I read was that the basic rule is exercise helps prevent muscle loss on calorie restrictive diets, but cannot totally prevent it.

 

[Snar]

How long does it take for ketosis to kick in?

It depends on a couple things like your activity level, your carb intake and how much glycogen you already have stored.

If i do nothing, eat 30-50 grms of carbs a day, and have been carbing out for a month it will take 2 or 3 days to hit moderate ketosis though i might start tracing at the beggining of the second.

If i do some hard bjj sessions, limit my carb intake to 30grms or less and have only been carb loading for a couple days, i usually hit it in one.

 

[imperium]

in the last three months i've lost 45-50 lbs using a combination of ketosis dieting and steady exercise. from 6'4 275 to 225-229 or so.

1200 calories a day under 50 carbs a day sometimes as low as 20.

i train muay thai three nights a week, with two strength training sessions and two 2 mile runs on off days.

i can tell you for sure that i have gained muscle mass even while dealing with the worst ketosis breath in the world.

might i have gained more with a more balanced diet? maybe, but for sure i have gained it this way.

i'm adding back oatmeal and whole wheat breads working my way back to something you can do a little more long term. i expect to gain more muscle and have better work outs with the complex carbs coming.

hopefully i continue to drop body fat too.