My 7 Days of Extreme Low calories test.

[Sherjav]

Note: This was just a test to see how my body would react! In no means would I be able to sustain such a program for a long peroid of time!

Ok guys so I tried to do a test to see what would happen if I would go on a extreme calorie deficit for one week.

So I'm 5'8 165lbs down from 240lbs and I want to go to 145lbs and start a lean bulk from there.

My macros are 1800 calories 70 grams of fat/ 170grams of protein/ the rest is carbs.

I have a refeed day once a week where I lower my fat and double the amount of carbs I eat and sometimes my refeed day turn into a full out cheat day to keep me mentally stable and water weight usually goes away a few days later.

Recently the leaner I got the harder it was to lose fat so I thought to myself let's do a little test! Here is what I did:

1. Two times 1 hour of cardio where I would lose 2400 calories aprox in total.
2. Do a 45 minutes of moderate full body workout after the first hour of cardio.
3. Go home and eat under 1000 calories.
4. I would be in a deficit of 3500 calories (including my bmr) which would mean a loss of about 1lbs a day.

So 1 hour of cardio lose 1200 calories, then 45 minutes moderate full body workout, and finish it with another 1 hour cardio to lose another 1200 calories.

I weighed myself each morning after going to the bathroom.



Day 1:

Weight: 75.1kg/ 165.5lbs




Cardio:








Food:







Day 2

Weight: 73.8kg/ 162.7lbs






Cardio:









Food:

[Sherjav]

Day 3


Weight: 72.7/ 160.2lbs






Cardio:





Second Cardio session was 1150 I forgot to make a picture.



Food:











Day 4


Weight: 74.8kg/ 164.9lbs





Cardio:








Food:

[Sherjav]

Day 5:


Weight: 74.2kg/ 163.5lbs








Cardio:








Food:

Slim Pasta again








Day 6:


Weight: 75.4kg/ 166.2lbs (I forgot to take a picture of the scale)




Cardio:









Food:

[Sherjav]

Day 7


Weight: 76.4kg/ 168.4lbs





Cardio:









Food:











So all in all in my extreme deficit I ended up gaining 1.4kg/ 3lbs.


So what exactly did happen? Why did I gain weight instead of lose it? Did I gain water weight because I did up my water from 1 gallon to 2 gallons of water after 2 days because of the excessive cardio and sweating and it kept me full during my hunger. Did I gain muscle? I would think muscle loss would have been something to happen instead of gain.

Metabolism slowed down? Even then I would not excpect it to happen so quick.


Anyway I'm going back to my normal routine starting tommorow.

[vismal]

losing fat has a section for logs bro. Plus, this idea is not smart at all! You won't lose 7 lbs of fat in a week. You might lose 7+ lbs of weight, but not fat...

[mikegt87]

Has to be water weight.. I bet if you start eating at 2k calories again you'll have a woosh as your body lets go of it

[Sherjav]

losing fat has a section for logs bro. Plus, this idea is not smart at all! You won't lose 7 lbs of fat in a week. You might lose 7+ lbs of weight, but not fat...

Sorry for that bro!

I know it was not the smartest thing but I just wanted to try it out only to see how much of the entire calorie in vs calorie out vs metabolic damage vs muscle loss thing would have effect.

By the way I saw your transformation video long time ago and it was verrrry motivational for me! Thanks for that !

[mavajo]

I didn't bother reading everything (about to leave for a movie), but I see that you gained weight despite apparently being on a VLCD with lots of exercise. This is actually something that happens sometimes. VLCD with excessive exercise can result in weird plateaus or even weight gain. The body cannot defy physics, so my money is on fluctuations in water weight. Extreme stress to the body can cause weird fluctuations in water weight, and a VLCD + tons of exercise can certainly be considered an "extreme stress" on the body.

Of course, this is all predicated on the assumption that you actually counted your calories correctly and were in a deficit. If you did, and if water fluctuations truly are to blame, then I wouldn't be surprised if you suddenly drop a few pounds after returning to a more moderate cut.

[birdlegs]

How do you burn 1200 calories in a 60 min cardio session?

[Sherjav]

I didn't bother reading everything (about to leave for a movie), but I see that you gained weight despite apparently being on a VLCD with lots of exercise. This is actually something that happens sometimes. VLCD with excessive exercise can result in weird plateaus or even weight gain. The body cannot defy physics, so my money is on fluctuations in water weight. Extreme stress to the body can cause weird fluctuations in water weight, and a VLCD + tons of exercise can certainly be considered an "extreme stress" on the body.

Of course, this is all predicated on the assumption that you actually counted your calories correctly and were in a deficit. If you did, and if water fluctuations truly are to blame, then I wouldn't be surprised if you suddenly drop a few pounds after returning to a more moderate cut.

Thanks for the info! I'm hoping it's water weight tough.. wouldn't going back to my normal routine make me gain more water weight because i'm upping the calls (carbs)?

I was sweating like crazy during the 2 hours of cardio it was insane! Have a nice day at the movies brah.

How do you burn 1200 calories in a 60 min cardio session?

I just kept going as hard as I could, I try to atleast go for 500cals at the 30 minute mark. It get's harder the more weight you lose the harder you have to go to lose the same calories.

[celtic723]

This forum never ceases to amaze me.

That clearly WAS NOT worth it.

[bbsapphireee]

This forum never ceases to amaze me.

That clearly WAS NOT worth it.

Nothing wrong with experimenting, it was a short experiment after all. Not to mention it's already been done lol.

It's weird you actually went up in weight during the 7 days OP. Maybe the heavy caloric deficit and excess activity put a strong stress on your body which forced your body to hold water/fat?

Go on a normal caloric deficit for another 7 days and see where your weight goes and report back, I'm genuinely curious.

[celtic723]

Nothing wrong with experimenting, it was a short experiment after all. Not to mention it's already been done lol.

It's weird you actually went up in weight during the 7 days OP. Maybe the heavy caloric deficit and excess activity put a strong stress on your body which forced your body to hold water/fat?

Go on a normal caloric deficit for another 7 days and see where your weight goes and report back, I'm genuinely curious.

Why would you experiment when losing weight is straight forward, results are guaranteed, and you can do so in a safe manner that can (if done correctly) provide quite a bit of satiety?

Maybe my brain is wired completely differently, I really don't know.

[DarthInvadeHer]

That feel when you run an extreme deficit and do a shiit ton of cardio and gain weight ooolaaawwwddddddd. Granted it's probably your body holding onto water it's still funny.

[bbsapphireee]

Why would you experiment when losing weight is straight forward, results are guaranteed, and you can do so in a safe manner that can (if done correctly) provide quite a bit of satiety?

Maybe my brain is wired completely differently, I really don't know.

Sometimes its worth thinking outside the box or look for alternative methods.

Your brain isn't wired differently, watch when you approach the 5+ month timeline on your diet, you'll start hating it/loving it and want more/faster results. Maybe you won't drop calories as much as OP, but maybe you'll add a fat burner, EC stack, yohimbine. Same concept.

[celtic723]

Sometimes its worth thinking outside the box or look for alternative methods.

Your brain isn't wired differently, watch when you approach the 5+ month timeline on your diet, you'll start hating it/loving it and want more/faster results. Maybe you won't drop calories as much as OP, but maybe you'll add a fat burner, EC stack, yohimbine. Same concept.

I know for a fact I won't change anything.

I'll continue doing what I'm doing now.

Patience is all you need, and an ability to reduce calories as weight lowers.

Not interested in quick-fixes, they don't last. It's in the name

But hey, that's just me.

[HandoverFist]

Interesting experiment indeed. I don't know why all the hate though, this doesn't effect anyone else but yourself :\

[PhilHill03]

The hate is unwarranted, and OP did state he just wanted to see what would happen (an experiment) so I'm a little confused as to where that is coming from too.

OP, I found your experiment interesting, the most interesting part being the weight gain starting on Day 4. I read some where that the body starts to react to the stress of an extreme diet around day 3 or 4 (no source).

My suspicion is that this was all water weight, as any adaptive metabolic rate slow down that you would have seen would have been around only 5% for the time period you were doing this (Lyle McDonald mentions this in his rapid fat loss handbook). I would hypothesize that if you repeated this experiment but ditched the cardio (kept the weight) you wouldn't see the drastic water weight gain.

How did you feel day to day?

[celtic723]

The hate is unwarranted, and OP did state he just wanted to see what would happen (an experiment) so I'm a little confused as to where that is coming from too.

OP, I found your experiment interesting, the most interesting part being the weight gain starting on Day 4. I read some where that the body starts to react to the stress of an extreme diet around day 3 or 4 (no source).

My suspicion is that this was all water weight, as any adaptive metabolic rate slow down that you would have seen would have been around only 5% for the time period you were doing this (Lyle McDonald mentions this in his rapid fat loss handbook). I would hypothesize that if you repeated this experiment but ditched the cardio (kept the weight) you wouldn't see the drastic water weight gain.

How did you feel day to day?

I nearly choked on my breakfast.

Hate? I was clearly pointing out the fact that what he done was clearly not worth the effort and or will-power.

Granted, I admire his enthusiasm and determination but feel it would have been better suited to a typical deficit.

Opinions are like ass holes, everyone has one.

Doesn't make me a hater though, I'm afraid.

[LPanda]

Wow OP you really went hardcore on this one props!

How could this be water retention? The guy did 2 hours of hardcore cardio ultimate sweating?
If anything he would probably gain more water going back to his normal eating routine.

Whole thing is just crazy makes wonder about the weigh yourself once a week thing...

Could it be overtraining? Or not drinking enough water?

[bbsapphireee]

I nearly choked on my breakfast.

Hate? I was clearly pointing out the fact that what he done was clearly not worth the effort and or will-power.

Granted, I admire his enthusiasm and determination but feel it would have been better suited to a typical deficit.

Opinions are like ass holes, everyone has one.

Doesn't make me a hater though, I'm afraid.

It's probably because you have a tone of condescension in your words.

And like I said before, not like OP ruined his diet or anything, it's not like he binged afterwards for the 7 days. Probably held some water and lost the same amount of fat as he would on a normal deficit. But again, not like he fell off the wagon which is the most important thing.

[GettingfitAgain]

I know for a fact I won't change anything.

I'll continue doing what I'm doing now.

Patience is all you need, and an ability to reduce calories as weight lowers.

Not interested in quick-fixes, they don't last. It's in the name

But hey, that's just me.

Nothing wrong with experimenting from time to time to see how the body will react under certain conditions in a controlled environment. Its called science. What do you think doctors, physical trainers and the supplement companies do daily? They experiment on the body to see how different things will impact weight loss or muscle gain.

Wow OP you really went hardcore on this one props!

How could this be water retention? The guy did 2 hours of hardcore cardio ultimate sweating?
If anything he would probably gain more water going back to his normal eating routine.

Whole thing is just crazy makes wonder about the weigh yourself once a week thing...

Could it be overtraining? Or not drinking enough water?

He drank 2 gallons of water a day, up from 1 gallon. Most likely water weight. 1 gallon of water = 8 lbs. If OP kept his water intake at 1 gallon a day, results would have been different.

[Tommy W.]

When you've already lost a bunch of weight your body will fight you very hard. Doing what you did will hold a LOT of water. Now slowly up your cals to maintenance and back of the cardio and you'll see a big difference. BTW you weren't burning 1,200 cals an hour with your cardio.

[jtrip007]

How do you burn 1200 calories in a 60 min cardio session?

I was wondering the same thing. I do around 600 calories in an hour at a very steady medium intensity. I'm not doubting or hating, but it doesn't add up to me.

[AncientYouth]

BTW you weren't burning 1,200 cals an hour with your cardio.

8 mile power walk at 4.5mph burns me about 700 calories Takes 1hr 40mins

[Tommy W.]

8 mile power walk at 4.5mph burns me about 700 calories Takes 1hr 40mins

That's more realistic. I generally figure 100 cals for every mile covered. Kind of depressing that that 1 little 100 calorie cookie that took you 3 seconds to eat will take walking or running a mile to compensate for

[AncientYouth]

That's more realistic. I generally figure 100 cals for every mile covered. Kind of depressing that that 1 little 100 calorie cookie that took you 3 seconds to eat will take walking or running a mile to compensate for

One double Oreo is 72 calories nearly a miles worth :-(

Thank god for overall TDEE :-)

[Znik]

That's more realistic. I generally figure 100 cals for every mile covered. Kind of depressing that that 1 little 100 calorie cookie that took you 3 seconds to eat will take walking or running a mile to compensate for

Slightly depressing but also highly fascinating, eat 7 cookies and you have the energy to power walk for 1hr 40min. Kinda crazy how much energy you can have from something so small.

[slimsta00018]

This forum never ceases to amaze me.

That clearly WAS NOT worth it.

^^^^^^^^^lol

[TheNobodyThere]

OP, please report your weight after 1 week of your regular diet, it should show your results from your fast as well. I'm interested to see how you actually did after losing all that water weight.