How exactly does one eat 1500 calories a day?
How exactly does one eat 1500 calories a day?
I'm trying to lose weight and was told that hwo I eat about 800-1000 calories a day is too low and lowers my metobolism which will prevent weight loss. I've looked up some meal plans and can't really afford stuff like chicken breast, steak, or salmon every week. So that is why I'm wondering how I can eat 1500 calories a day. Are there some alternatives that I can do?
Also I'd like to ask, say I exercise and burn say 500 calories would I have to eat those calories back or no? I ask cuz I've been told yes and told no.
800-1000 calories a day is too low and lowers my metobolism which will prevent weight loss.
If you do it for real for a while, nothing can prevent weight loss.
I've looked up some meal plans and can't really afford stuff like chicken breast, steak, or salmon every week.
Eat real vegetables and fruits. Fresh, where ever possible. You wouldn't believe how cheap you can feed yourself if you do your cooking yourself.
Avoid all processed food. Avoid all sugar.
Man, I gotta be real with you. You aren't going to be able to crowd source this. There's just too much outdated information, well meaning but flawed advice, and outright bullshit online. Finding the up to date, good answers among the junk would only be possible if you already knew it.
The only reliable way to get good answers about bariatrics is going to specialists. Seriously, you can't even totally rely on a general practitioner to be caught up, though you might get lucky with an internist. You can make do with nutritionists if they're either fairly newly graduated, or you know they keep up on their subject.
Hell, there's some specialists that lag behind in terms of proper, evidence driven best practices.
And the thing nobody online will likely admit is that there isn't a single, complete answer because part of how fat loss and gain works is governed by individual circumstances regarding hormones, metabolism, and capabilities, which still ignores external factors in making a prescribed weight loss plan work. If your broke ass lives in a food desert, and you're limited to the corner store for the majority of your supplies, the task gets much harder, just as one example of what I mean by that.
Any medications you're on, that's got to be factored in to an overall plan, even OTC meds, supplements, etc.
Now, there are strategies that are fairly reliable in helping manage calorie intake, like going predominantly plant based. You'll have to study up and make sure that whatever plan you set up has the whole gamut of nutrients you'll need, but as long as a food desert isn't in play, that's usually easy enough. The good news about that is that the core foods tend to be very affordable, and easy to buy in bulk as long as you have storage space.
Another piece of good news is that if you're using exercise as part of your overall plan, not only will you give yourself a wider space for intake, but it improves your health no matter what weight you're at along the way. I mean, losing excess fat is great, but it isn't going to magically make your cardiovascular system work at its best.
And, again, you can only take this comment with a grain of salt because you have no way of knowing that I'm up to date on the interrelated subjects to a degree high enough to be useful. For all you know, I'm thirty years behind on things. And, truth is that the general subject matter isn't a high priority for my reading time. I do put a bit of time every week into digging through journals and publications with a focus on medical shit, but bariatrics isn't something I'm into for my own curiosity. So I have to be at least a little behind as default because I'm always behind even on my favorite subjects because I can't devote enough time to it all.
Weight management is something you have to take on as a long term project where you adapt along the way. You can't look at it as weight loss either, because just losing excess fat is only part of the project. You have to keep it off and improve your overall health.
You’re absolutely going to lose weight at 500-1000 kcal a day. It’s not particularly healthy, and you’re going to lose significant muscle mass, but you will absolutely lose weight rapidly. A significant caloric deficit will not prevent weight loss; its thermodynamics. You’ll lose muscle with that much of a deficit, which in turn decreases basal metabolic rate, but you’re not going to violate thermodynamics.
How are you tracking intake? If you’re not losing weight, I don’t believe you’re tracking calories correctly. Are you using a scale and weighing portions, or just eyeballing it?
The talk around weight loss is kinda crazy and a lot of it is dominated by pseudoscience.
However, we are pretty much positive that eating at a calorie deficit will result in weight loss in 99.9% of cases and you aren't going to be the 0.1%. There's a lot of anecdotal data about how eating too little will make you stop losing weight or even gain more weight because of your 'metabolism', but no controlled studies that show that to be a significant contributor without other causes. It's not some magical metabolism trick, you're just cheating on your metrics and doing less because you're tired and cranky and have no energy because you aren't eating right.
Saying that, eating at a massive deficit can definitely make you feel like shit and will make it hard to exercise, do not recommend. You will also likely have a part of your brain dedicated to fantasizing about food 24/7 and your libido will likely be in the trash if that matters to you. This will be very hard to maintain, and you have to remember that there's never going to be a day where you can go back to eating like 'normal'. Your current normal is why you need to lose weight and your goal is to eventually establish a new baseline.
Lastly, highly recommend against adding calories back due to exercise. We don't have a lot of good data about there being any reliable indicators of actual calories burned available to the average person and you'll find a tremendous amount of super variable answers when you find instances where people tried to actually test the estimates you see online. The time you put into exercise isn't about weight loss, it will help, but it's a bonus just for you because you deserve to have the body that you want.
The implication of your post is that you're struggling to get to 1500 calories, but you're also trying to lose, presumably, a large amount of weight.
If you're overweight, you clearly know how to eat enough calories. Eat more, like you were doing when you became overweight in the first place.
If you're not overweight and you're struggling to eat more than 1,000 calories, you should probably see a therapist about a potential eating disorder.
More broadly, eating 1,000 calories can make losing weight harder because you are likely to lower your basal metabolism and giving yourself less energy to burn calories through activity.
The math of 1,000 calories/day works out theoretically and may seem enticing ("I will lose an entire extra pound a week!"), but in practice it can often make things more challenging than it needs to be.
The simple fact is that losing weight is a long-term process. And, in general, you can gain a lot more weight in a month than you can lose, so weight gain/loss are not symmetrical processes.
In terms of your specific question about "eating back" calories from exercise: in general, you should indeed increase your calorie consumption if you are regularly exercising. Whether you should eat back every calorie you burn is far too nuanced a question related to exercise routine, health goals, basal metabolism, diet, etc. to answer in the abstract.
Weight loss advice is nearly a religion. You're going to have a million different people telling you that something absolutely is or isn't a certain way. They'll claim science isn't science, that the body is magical and mystical and you won't achieve your goals if you don't do exactly X or y.
The body does some weird things when you start going into starvation mode but it's not magic.
If you maintain a calorie deficit, eventually you will lose fat. You'll also lose muscle.
The calculations for how many calories you actually burn doing something are kind of voodoo, they vary wildly per individual.
You create a calorie deficit so that your body will burn the fat. You work out so that your body will put more energy into building the muscle you'll be losing. The only way you lose weight is through breathing out carbon dioxide. If you sit around sedentary that's going to take a very long time.
Pick a target for how much weight you want to lose over a month. Pick a calorie deficit that makes sense to you. Weigh yourself every couple of days and calculate a sliding average. Tune the number of calories you're eating after the first couple weeks to maintain your weight loss target.
You do need to be careful with extremely low calorie diets. You want to be monitored by a doctor and have regular blood tests to make sure stuff isn't going awry.
If you want to go cheap, use a free intake monitoring app, eat eggs, beans and rice, try to cram some vegetables in there where you can. Don't go out of your way to avoid fat but don't guzzle it either. Shy away from processed carbs like bread and noodles. Don't necessarily go keto, but keep your carbs in check.
It's hard for most people to eat and drink under 1500 calories a day. Are you saying you're having issues getting up to 1500 calories a day?
Eggs are the cheapest and most perfect protein you can get. Just eat loads of those (around 80 calories an egg) and do some spinach or kale and bell peppers as well. That will cover your veggies and your protein. Then you can fill the rest out with a bit of rice or oatmeal. All of that listed is pretty super cheap.
To your other quaestion- no, you do not need to eat an extra 500 calories if you burn an extra 500 if weight loss is your goal. Eating too little calories (like less than 1200, depending on sex and height) makes your body try to keep your fat and will start removing your muscle in order to make your body have less upkeep. That's really bad. However, if your body knows it's getting more calories than that, and that your having to use a lot of your muscles (burning 500 extra calories per day) it will burn off the fat reserves and try to maintain the muscle you keep using.
This helped me: https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/what-should-you-eat/
With practice. A lowered metabolism won't prevent weight loss. You never need to eat more to lose weight. An alternative is to just keep doing what you're doing so long as it's working. No, you never have to eat calories back.
You'll get a lot of contradictory answers with this question because of two major issues.
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There is more than one way to make your scale number go down.
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Your scale number going down can be for multiple reasons.
For example, dropping a bunch of body fat is a way of posing weight, but it does not look any different on the scale than losing muscle mass or losing a leg. You can have more healthy recomposition where you drop a bunch of fat slowly over time and gain some muscle but overall lose absolutely no weight on the scale, and you can also gain weight without changing fat but be in a better position.
So what would you aim for? It depends on your goals. Do you want to be jacked? Maybe you have early signs of type 2 diabetes and want to stop it there. Or maybe you just really want to get rid of your skin issues like acne and dermititis.
Nobody benefits from being insulin resistant. That is the state that pushes you towards weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and many other issues including dementia. Fixing that is a central goal for a lot of people and it actually helps with most other health related goals. If I were starting somewhere that is where I would probably try to start.
That said, if you have very little muscle that may be better to work on.
Can you give more detail about your goals?
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See if you can track down Weight Watchers stuff. The plan itself is expensive, but the basic approach is to simplify doing exactly what you describe. They formalize food categories, portion size, and simplified tracking. Alternatively, they have recipes meeting specific calorie goal, while also having good nutrient value
If your goal is to lose fat it doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you’re in calorie deficit.
10% restriction off your personal basal metabolic rate is not too bad. But it sounds like you’re wanting a severe cut so I’d recommend 25% under your BMR. You won’t be able to keep that up forever tho only like 6 weeks. You can find BMR charts online for age/height/sex
Fat loss is a lifestyle change. Do what you can be consistent with. It’s easier to add before taking away. So adding veges and protein is easier than trying to stop eating junk food. Protein will make you feel full and veges will fill you up just from quantity if your eating a decent amount of cals of them
There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, one thing to note is that too much change too fast is a recipe for failure. Whatever you do, make sure it’s manageable. For each change, ask yourself whether it can become a permanent habit for you. This is the only way to sustain it enough to achieve your goals. It could help to write down good ideas, and try them one week or month at a time.
As far as I know: forget this thing about the lowered metabolism. Your body needs the energy it needs for basic functionality.
You may feel less active, lowering the energy used above the basics, but still your heart, lungs, brain, temperature management and all the other stuff need roughly the same energy. If your body does not get it from food then it will use up the fat.
But eating this low level of calories you must make sure that you consume all needed vitamins, minerals and enough protein.
And being less active may end up in a decline of muscle mass. In the end that may lead to lower basal metabolsk hastighet, but not your metabolism shutting down.
I can't give medical advice, I mean I can but I won't. Anyway, I was a professional chef who worked in three very different locations before leaving the pirate kitchen life of sodomy.
What's affordable is going to depend on where you are, so buy in-season fruits and vegetables. Try different recipes using things you know you can afford and when something clicks for you, write it down. Keep a list of the healthy meals and snacks that are easy for you to make because the hungry brain has no past or future. Aggressively mid foods like beans, peas, potatoes, barley and peanut butter are cheap and no one will care if you steal them.
If you're a shit cook find some videos and follow along or ask a friend to walk you through some recipes if you have one.
Keep heathy, craving satisfying food on hand. Make a batch of nut balls (nut butter mixed with seeds, dried berries and whatever) and keep them in the freezer. Have lots of different tea on hand if that's your thing, popcorn is filling and low calorie. My go-tos are: hard boiled egg, or a baked potato, or a bowl of peas. Don't knock a bowl of peas until you try it after a joint, mixed with coconut oil, salt, pepper and cayenne.
Try smoothies. One of my faves is almond milk, spinach, lime juice, cashew or hemp butter, banana, pinch of salt. Blending up greens is a great way to stuff them in and they're low calorie by volume. What's great is I can pre-portion all of those ingredients except the almond milk into containers and freeze them. Then making a smoothie is as simple as dumping the frozen brick in a blender with some liquid.
Grocery store prices can vary by day, sales usually go on before they get in a new order and need to clear the shelves. Figure that out and only buy meat in bulk on sale or wait by the dumpster at night. Make a big batch of something like curry, chili or stew with it and freeze in portions anything you won't eat in the next few days.
There is no shame in using low-income grocery options to get healthy food you can't otherwise afford. See if there are any in your area. I have friends on disability who get a box of fresh fruit and vegetables every week, food that's perfectly good but would otherwise be thrown out because of our high beauty standards for crops.
Is this a European joke I'm too Free to understand?
Learn how to make alfredo sauce. Put it on everything. That will solve your lack of calories.
🤌
As someone who lost 60lb this year: just stop eating ultra processed garbage. Find real foods that you enjoy, and make meals out of those. Eat as much chicken, vegetables, fruits, unsweetened yogurt, fish, eggs, etc as you want and you will lose weight. Unhealthy stuff is fine to eat on occasion but only if you consider it well worth the calories and you are aware of how much you're eating. Dont mindlessly eat a family size bag of doritoes that you dont even like that much. Dont drown yourself in vegetable oil. I stopped buying loaves of bread, sweets, cereals (why are entire aisles of grocery stores dedicated to this garbage?) , carb-based snacks, etc.
Also no, working out does not mean you can eat a snicker's bar for free. The new Kurzgesagt video explains how that works. I dont believe you're gaining or even maintaining your weight at 800-1000 calories, but im just a random person.
The costco rotisserie chicken is only $5, just dont eat too much skin. Yogurt can be affordable and high in protein. Almond milk too. Nuts & beans are decent. Just look at protein to calorie ratios on cheap stuff so you maintain muscle, im sure you can find plenty of foods that work.
A lot of low calorie veggie to fill your stomach and intermittent fasting to save calories for a bigger dinner.
Here is a site that has some good lists: https://survival-mastery.com/diy/food_preserv/high-calorie-vegetables.html
Also, the number of calories you eat should be based on your current weight and the types of activities you plan on doing through the day. Calorie intake is variable!
Here is a chart for weight vs calorie intake vs activity:
you're eating a thousand calories a day and not losing weight? what's your height, weight, and sex currently?
I've read through your comments, and highly suggest a food diary for at least a couple weeks ago you really understand the calories in things you are eating.
Yes, your body does modulate its resting metabolic rate over the long term based on things like average daily exertion, food, etc, but that is largely inconsequential to weight loss.
As a rough guideline, you want about 50% of your calories to be carbs, preferably the fiber or complex variety, 30-35% protein, and the rest fat. If you run a lot, then a few more carbs. If you lift weights a lot, then a little more protein.
Protein will help you feel fuller, longer, so I like to go my ratio of protein a bit.
Meals that I enjoy: steal cut oats and peanut butter, pan seared tofu with salad and a light dressing, bean chilli, tacos or tostados using those low carb tortillas, bowl of rice, refried beans, salsa, and guac, etc
But you really, really need to have a good understanding of portions and actual calories. Most people are way off.
Edit: also, some fasting cardio, like a good brisk walk or jog in the morning before eating anything can help accelerate things. But don't fall into the trap of eating back the calories you burn.
My go-tos are legumes: cheap, easy to cook, go well with a lot of stuff, filling and full of fibre. If I feel snackish I go for a can of peas, f.i..
Pair them with rice, more veggies and lean meat, when you can score a good deal.
Hope my answer doesn't get buried and I hope you don't feel too overwhelmed by all the responses you're getting. But something I found really useful is frozen veg. If you're struggling to plan healthier meals that are higher calorie, frozen veg is a game changer. It doesn't go bad, it's cheaper than the fresh stuff, and the most important thing is you can add it to your existing diet. I have a soft spot for ramen and box mac and cheese for example, and it's so easy just to throw handfuls of whatever I've got in the freezer into a pot of pasta or ramen to make it just a bit healthier. Hell, you can even forget the ramen altogether and just use the soup base (it's just stock!) to make lazy soup. Add a chopped onion if you're feeling fancy and that's that.
You also list a lot of protein sources that you can't afford to add to your diet. Protein is a necessary nutrient, but it's not the end all to a healthy diet. I say that as a lifelong athlete. It's very easy to get an appropriate amount of protein from plant based sources, and they tend to be a lot cheaper. Plus, they tend to be higher in other macros and nutrients. Soy milk, for example, has the same protein content as dairy milk (but might be more expensive depending on your area). Beans and other legumes are fantastic and tasty. Chickpeas are my favourite. If you have a blender or food processor, you can make hummus very easily. Lentils are also amazing if you are able to cook. Cheap as hell if you buy them in bulk and insanely filling. Indian dhaal is a lentil stew that's fairly easy to make and very tasty. If you can afford it, snack on nuts and seeds. Add peanut butter (look at labels to find some that doesn't have sugar in it) to your diet. Both those things are higher in calorie while also being high in nutrients. If you eat rice, try getting brown rice instead of white rice. It's higher in protein and fiber and will likely keep you full for longer. Potatoes and other root vegetables are also awesome. Versatile, cheap, relatively high calorie, easy to cook, and keep for a long time if stored properly. I like to make a huge pot of potato stew with beans and frozen vegetables and keep it in the fridge for easy meals for like a week. If you're looking for animal protein, check your local grocery for frozen fish. Its usually half the price of the fresh stuff.
I'm not your doctor, but personally, 800-1000 cal/day was terrible for my health. Yeah, it'll make you lose weight, but for me it made me really lethargic and gave me brain fog. It just wasn't enough to keep my body going. Maybe try slowly lowering your calorie intake and see how your body feels. I've also found that in the past, calorie counting was actually counterproductive to my health because what ended up happening was it became a "game" to eat fewer and fewer calories a day. Luckily I saw that and stopped counting calories before it turned into an eating disorder. My point here is just that it'll take some work figuring out what works for you and don't get discouraged if a method doesn't fit your body or your lifestyle.
In terms of exercise, I know it's not a satisfying answer, but it's really going to depend on your body and what type of exercise you're doing. If you're exercising, you should definitely be eating more than 800-1000 cal/day unless you're like, a toddler. It's dangerous in my non-professional opinion to exercise when you're under eating by that amount particularly if you're lifting weights or doing high impact cardio.
I wish you luck on your journey and I hope it all works out for you :)
Look up the YouTube series on that very topic from Renaissance Periodization. It helped me loss 30 pounds and keep them off for more than 6 months now.
Extreme low calorie diet are not sustainable for long, especially if you are starting out.
First thing first, count your calories for a week or two to get the baseline calorie consumption for your current weight. Try to not change your normal food consumption while taking your first baseline calories because it will make the first weight loss cycle more difficult than it needs to be.
Then, start by removing 250 calories from your diet and burn 250 calories every day for 6 to 9 weeks.
Then, go into maintenance where you slowly add a bit more food and stabilize your weight. If you see that you are gaining weight during the maintenance, just cut back a little bit and keep that calorie intake as your maintenance intake. That will become your calorie baseline for the next cycle.
Repeat until your goals are met. Don't hesitate to take a longer maintenance break if you feel like it.
That will give you a sustainable way to lose weight and you will also learn to count calories without weighing everything you eat.
If you can easily cut 250 calories without any problem, try to cut more calories the next cycle, and see how it goes. If it's too hard, then go back to 250/250 calories cut.
As for the food, I don't know where you live, but nutritional yeast is a cheap way to add protein to any meals and add a cheesy flavor to the meal.
As for fat, cheap nuts or neutral oil can help meet your needs.
And for carbs, seasonal fruits and vegetables are usually cheaper, so go with that.
The only thing you should take from this post is that slow and steady is the name of the game. You are fighting millions of years of evolution, so it won't be easy.
TLDR: slow and steady. Cut 250 cal from your diet and burn 250 calories from activity for 6-9 weeks. Maintain for the same amount of time. Repeat.
Ok, you have been fed some bullshit. Anyone who just gives you a "eat X calories" advice without knowing your age, height, gender, etc... is full of shit. Makes me no end of mad when you see "Contains 25% of your daily..." on food packaging. Because a 19yo male rugby playing bricklayer and a 46yo female accountant have vastly different requirements.
At the core of it, its CICO (Calories in, Calories out)
https://www.calculator.net/macro-calculator.html Tap your details into that, select a REASONABLE weight loss goal a week, underestimate your exercise, and select the high protein option since you are weight training and want to avoid muscle loss.
A few eggs on a couple of pieces of wholemeal or multigrain toast, pot of greek yoghurt and a coffee is a perfectly good breakfast and Protein shakes are a great way to get protein in and keep calories reasonable, my lunch at work is 2 scoops of Casein protein and a protein bar. I eat boring and super low cal during the day because I train in the afternoon and want to enjoy my dinner.
When it comes to adding back in workout calories... both sides are right. "Diet fatigue" is a real thing, and if you want to keep your calorie defecit around a certain number to avoid getting burnt out then yes, you add them back in. Personally I calculated my macros and calories to "mild" weight loss and estimated my exercise as "none" so my training was where I found the larger part of my deficit.
I could write a very short book on this stuff so if tou have any questions feel free to PM me.
I loose weight by eating 2 big meals a day. My go to seems to be frozen pizza (1000 cal each) and and curries (500-600 for curry, another 200 for my naan in butter). I eat 1600-1800 calories a day and feel like a glutton while my scale keeps going in the right direction. 50lbs down so far.
Instead of trying a bunch of different conflicting methods for weight loss from these comments, I would recommend you instead first understand the science of it with:
Speak with a doctor, not the internet.
Don't lose weight to get healthy. Get healthy to lose weight.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto
The calorie model of eating isn't super helpful.
The hormonal model is more effective. Keep your hormones balanced (no sugar, no carbs, no alcohol), let your body do its own self regulation of intake and hunger, and see the direct benefits.
When you eat sugar your blood sugar increases, which your body immediately tries to regulate by producing insulin, insulin is a super hormone that impacts many systems in the body, not just blood sugar. If you keep your insulin levels low the body will function more normally, including much better control of hunger.
According to Dr Jason Fung, who does a lot of research on the pancreas and insulin, avoiding carbs and sugar is the most beneficial. The basic idea is that sugar and carbs trigger your pancreas to release insulin the most. Insulin is the hormone that tells your body to store fat.
Dry beans, rice, oatmeal, eggs and milk. Buy the plain bulk containers if you want the best unit cost. While eggs and milk have gone up in price, they can still be found cheap enough at the warehouse stores.
Don't skimp on a variety of greens and fruits!
One recommendation is a food tracking app. Personally I use MacroFactor, which gives custom calorie intake recommendations based on how fast/slow you're losing/gaining weight.
This is great as it allows you to select a slow, healthy, sustainable weight loss speed and the calories are simply adjusted to match that (weighing in regularly will be necessary)
7 Hostess Iced Jumbo Honey Buns, and a Coke
My sifu gave us this advice.
Eat colorful foods. Don't eat white foods. Take 1 or 2 less bites of everything. Leave the table just a bit hungry. Drink plenty of water. Don't eat before bed.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17469900/ just read the abstract if nothing else.
On apple there is an app called mynetdiary. HIGHLY recommended to help answer your questions. It sounds like finances are an issue, but the paid version really helps you dial in nutrition with detailed nutrient info and meal plans. The key feature of this app for me was the predicted weight loss trend line.. and then seeing my results line up perfectly. It’s almost like they knew what they were talking about.
DO NOT go below bmr..
If you are going into deficit, stave off the full effect of adaptive thermogenesis (“starvation mode”) with weights and higher levels of protein.
My brother.
Do not eat before 11am and do not eat after 7pm.
Drink water.
Weigh yourself daily, in the morning, right after you piss and shit, and then look at yourself in the mirror.
Eat as you please during your open window, don't lie to yourself about what you are eating. Trash is trash.
Let this truth wash over you as you buy your food. The shame will drive you to make better purchases.
To be successful, you must hate yourself as you are and love yourself as you want to be.
Good luck.