Is 1600 calories a day to little?

[alika55]

I'm 5' 10" and weigh 240lbs. I'm trying to lose fat but keep the muscle I have. I can comfortably consume a clean diet of 1600 calories a day (not starving myself). According to some of the calculators I've done online, for extreme weight loss I should be consuming 1920 calories a day. If I do less than that would it hurt my metabolism?

[mridgley]

I'm 5' 10" and weigh 240lbs. I'm trying to lose fat but keep the muscle I have. I can comfortably consume a clean diet of 1600 calories a day (not starving myself). According to some of the calculators I've done online, for extreme weight loss I should be consuming 1920 calories a day. If I do less than that would it hurt my metabolism?

I am going to say 'Yes' this is not enough calories and food to maintain muscle for any extended period of time. I myself have those 1600 calorie days but try to maintain close to a 1800 / 2000 calorie diet. Even that is too little for me. I am currently 220lbs at 6ft.

My goals are slightly different now - I want to be muscular and will sacrifice being slightly overweight in order to get bigger.

The last thing that you want to do is loose a bunch of weight too fast - you will end up looking like the picture below!

[dougmoney]

At 240, yes. However, I will say that I have a VERY slow metabolism, my maintenance is only ~2100-2250 or so, so 1600 wouldn't hurt you if you're like me after you drop ~40 or so.

[alika55]

Holy crap that picture is too gross! Well if I mixed in some high calorie cheat days once a week (around 2600cal) would that be ok?

[gfundaro]

Holy crap that picture is too gross! Well if I mixed in some high calorie cheat days once a week (around 2600cal) would that be ok?

Hehe....you don't want to undereat one day, and then have a high calorie day full of crap to increase your calories. Just eat more clean food every day. There's plenty of excuses to eat junk food, but no good reason. You will indeed slow your metabolism, lose muscle mass, and make normal eating very difficult later in life.

[gymrat111]

Hehe....you don't want to undereat one day, and then have a high calorie day full of crap to increase your calories. Just eat more clean food every day. There's plenty of excuses to eat junk food, but no good reason. You will indeed slow your metabolism, lose muscle mass, and make normal eating very difficult later in life.

Good advice.....I completely agree.

[¡STFU!ˇNˆLIFT!]

eat 4-6 tablespoons of natural peanut butter in serving of 2 tbspln and add 2-3 tbsplns flax meal to your oatmeal once a day . Plus your 1600 and you're good to go .

[alika55]

Awesome, thanks to everyone for their advice.

[tunaB0Y]

eat 4-6 tablespoons of natural peanut butter in serving of 2 tbspln and add 2-3 tbsplns flax meal to your oatmeal once a day . Plus your 1600 and you're good to go .

x2

Be careful of the PB, it's veeeeeeerrrryyyy easy to get addicted to it.

I said I'd have 1 tblspoon, I ended up having 5.

[Tu-160]

Extreme dieting like that for a few days can only be helpful to professional bodybuilders precontest but not to most people who are trying to lose weight. So no, don't do it

[MEStrange]

IMO you are eating way to little. You should go for losing at most 2 pounds a week and get it off the good way. What will happen with that few calories is that your body will start to shut down and try to save as many calories to survive as possible, ending in weight loss stopping and your body will start to use the protein stores (IE muscle) to survive on while keeping the fat. Bad way to go.

Eat more, eat clean and do the work. The weight will come off.

[SteelyD]

Check out this guy's "Physique Clinic". He's doing the "Velocity Diet" for approximately 1 month.

http://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1852688

Age: 36
Weight: 210.0 lbs
Height: 68.0 in

Diet calories: 1500 non-workout days, 1800 workout days.

About half way through (as of this post), he seems to have shed some fat and minimized catabolism.

[alika55]

Thanks for the additional info/comments. The V-diet seems crazy to me. I'm actually not trying to eat such low calories, I'm only trying to eat healthy and eat 5 meals a day. With some additions, I'm able to get the calories between 1800-2100/day. I'm comfortable with that. I've also started eating before working out and it helps with my energy. So far changing my eating habits have improved my energy level. I don't think my metabolism is being affected negatively.

Thanks again everyone!