Low calorie diets.

[vwdsg2468]

What's the lowest calorie diet you have done? How much weight did you lose? How long did it take? How did you deal with hunger?

[faithbrah]

right now i'm doing around 1800-1900 calories per day, sometimes maybe 2000. been going at it for 4 months, aiming for another 2-3

even with my huge appetite, there's no hunger because i eat 300-500 calorie meals filled with protein (like 20-40 grams per meal)

[SuffolkPunch]

Personal experience isn't going to tell you much OP because different people have different compositions. Obese people will be able to safely lose fat way faster than you can.

The rate of loss is always proportional to the calorie deficit - just that sometimes people can't measure intake or expenditure accurately - and there are water weight errors involved in measuring your weight. But the underlying process is pretty reliable, just sometimes hard to see it happening.

So you should be asking:
- what is the max safe rate for ME to lose weight? (without any further info, this ought to be not more than 1% of bodyweight per week)
- how do I determine how many calories that is? 500 calories deficit gives you 1lb a week loss.

[Tommy W.]

What's the lowest calorie diet you have done? How much weight did you lose? How long did it take? How did you deal with hunger?

it doesn’t matter what others have done calorie wise and timeframe, etc. there are too many variables and any answer given will be of no real value. Just miscounting alone negates any possibility of any kind of validity

[Luclin999]

What's the lowest calorie diet you have done? How much weight did you lose? How long did it take? How did you deal with hunger?

Your first question is wildly variable based upon the general size of the person in question.

Examples: A "lowest calorie diet" for a 4'9" tall woman might be something like 900 calories/day, while the "lowest calorie diet" for a 6'5" tall man might be 2300 calories/day.

A slightly better question might be..

"What is the highest daily deficit you have ever done in a diet?" .. However even that would still be variable based upon the size of the dieter in question.

[AlexSays]

If you are asking because you want tips: don't go as low as possible, go for something you can (reasonably) comfortably sustain over weeks/months. It is best to stick to a range of 1-2lb per week fat loss for any extended period of time. More is unsustainable and will likely lead to rapid regain or poor adherence

If you are asking merely because you are interested: I ran a PSMF for a couple of weeks several years ago at around 900-1100 cals per day. I estimate this was around a 2000 cal deficit leading to just over half a pound loss per day. Wasn't fun, might as well have just lost it in the normal way at maybe a 1000cal deficit. Feel it would have been better. Also cut at perhaps even lower calories than that for a couple of months many years ago before I was properly educated on TDEE vs BMR. This ran VERY close to developing into an eating disorder as I simply wouldn't allow myself to eat almost anything and would throw up if I indulged/'slipped up'. Luckily I regained sanity.

In conclusion, very low, but it wasn't productive

[snailsrus]

I had a terrible coach that had me cutting on 800 calories, I passed out at work. I won’t go under 1700 calories now and generally eat 2100-2200

[Cautious1]

5"11 @ 78.9KG

Cutting on 1500Kcal, losing 0.9KG a week

Small meal or protein shake every 4hours which is when I start to feel hungry again

[Tommy W.]

If you are asking because you want tips: don't go as low as possible, go for something you can (reasonably) comfortably sustain over weeks/months. It is best to stick to a range of 1-2lb per week fat loss for any extended period of time. More is unsustainable and will likely lead to rapid regain or poor adherence

If you are asking merely because you are interested: I ran a PSMF for a couple of weeks several years ago at around 900-1100 cals per day. I estimate this was around a 2000 cal deficit leading to just over half a pound loss per day. Wasn't fun, might as well have just lost it in the normal way at maybe a 1000cal deficit. Feel it would have been better. Also cut at perhaps even lower calories than that for a couple of months many years ago before I was properly educated on TDEE vs BMR. This ran VERY close to developing into an eating disorder as I simply wouldn't allow myself to eat almost anything and would throw up if I indulged/'slipped up'. Luckily I regained sanity.

In conclusion, very low, but it wasn't productive

Good post

[Luclin999]

Also keep in mind that the daily deficit can vary considerably as well.

Example: During this cut over these past three months, on some minimally active days I have been at a deficit of only 100-200 calories while on other (more active) days my deficit has been as high as 1300 calories.

The key to it has been that because my daily calories have stayed around 2000/day, that my average daily deficit for each week has come to essentially 650 calories/day which is why I have lost 18 pounds since April 1st.

Conversely, while it would have been theoretically possible for me to have pushed myself and my activity levels up so as to have had a deficit of 1300 calories/day every single day, not only would that have been detrimental to my health and lean mass, but the stress of attempting to push myself that hard would almost certainly not have been sustainable and guaranteed that I would have burnt out and quit in just a few weeks (at most).

[vwdsg2468]

Also keep in mind that the daily deficit can vary considerably as well.

Example: During this cut over these past three months, on some minimally active days I have been at a deficit of only 100-200 calories while on other (more active) days my deficit has been as high as 1300 calories.

The key to it has been that because my daily calories have stayed around 2000/day, that my average daily deficit for each week has come to essentially 650 calories/day which is why I have lost 18 pounds since April 1st.

Conversely, while it would have been theoretically possible for me to have pushed myself and my activity levels up so as to have had a deficit of 1300 calories/day every single day, not only would that have been detrimental to my health and lean mass, but the stress of attempting to push myself that hard would almost certainly not have been sustainable and guaranteed that I would have burnt out and quit in just a few weeks (at most).

Thanks

[Tommy W.]

Yes varying cals works well. Some fun days and some low days just make the weekly number work