• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Is a low calorie diet the best for weight loss?

nolla

Senor Membrane
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
3,166
MBTI Type
INFP
Calories are energy, so I think it should do the trick. But personally I would not eat or drink anything that boasts on having less of sugar or fat. Artificial sweeteners trick the brain to think you are eating sugar, but the stomach doesn't get it's fix, so it might tell to the brain to have more desire for sugar. So, just eat less. It might not be a bad idea to drop all processed food. There's always some chemicals that play with the mind. Go with as natural as you can get.
 

kyuuei

Emperor/Dictator
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
13,964
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
8
Refined sugars and saturated fats are probably more important to cut out than the calories themselves. Eating 2,000 calories of healthy food a day is way better than 2,000 calories of donuts. Ya know?

No matter what you consume, if you burn more than you eat, you'll be on the right track, but WHAT you burn has a big factor in other things with your body, so burning energy stored from lettuce, for example, is better than the energy stored from skittles.

Stick with some healthier foods, and pull back on the calories, and you should be fine. If I may add my two personal cents, I never miss an opportunity to pitch in the two cookbooks I used when losing weight and maintaining it:
1. Cook yourself Thin
2. Eat This Not That

Hope I helped?
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I agree with Kyuuei. Watch saturated fat and refined sugars, especially eating saturated fat and refined sugar TOGETHER - I swear things like donuts and full-fat ice cream are some of the worst things you can eat.

Try to eat whole grains - wheat bread, oatmeal, whole grain pasta - and get fiber from that and things like fruit and vegetables.

But yes, calorie restriction is important. You'll note that a bag of potato chips only has 250 calories, and while it has unsaturated fat, they actually tend to be quite low in saturated fat and have zero cholesterol....the problem is when you start COMBINING foods...like eating *too many* potato chips (especially if you dip them in something), or eating them with candy, or eating them with a double cheeseburger.
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5,059
MBTI Type
INtp
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. 3500 calories = 1 pound. Slower weight loss is better and more likely to keep off over the long term. That way you're not drastically cutting the calories so you don't feel like you're starving yourself. If you try to cut too many calories too soon, you'll wreak havoc with your body's metabolism as it will slow down, trying to hold tightly onto the calories it consumes as your body will think its starving itself. Aim to lose 1-2 pounds a week, no more.

If you're strictly talking about weight loss it doesn't matter what foods the calories come from. However, there is far more to being healthy than just being a healthy weight, so whether or not you're trying to lose weight, you should be eating healthy stuff, not junk and also exercising regularly.
 

GZA

Resident Snot-Nose
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
1,771
MBTI Type
infp
What do you typically eat in a 3 or 4 day period? What are some of your usual breakfasts, lunches, and dinners? I think we could help a lot more if we knew that!
 

mrcockburn

Aquaria
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Messages
1,896
MBTI Type
¥¤
Enneagram
3w4
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
Don't cut calories. That'll just slow your metabolism.

Exercise away a few extra calories instead.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
Don't cut calories. That'll just slow your metabolism.

Exercise away a few extra calories instead.

This is both true and false. Cutting calories TOO SEVERELY will slow your metabolism.

Cutting calories to a reasonable amount for your healthy weight and activity level will cause you to lose weight.

For example, eating 800-1000 calories per day will slow your metabolism.

But eating 1200-1800 calories per day (pending on activity level and starting weight) can put you in a good zone to lose weight.

Someone who is overweight who constantly eats 2500-3500 calories per day needs to cut at least 500 calories, if not more.

It depends on your build, gender, and activity level, though. Some hardcore athletes do have to eat that many calories, especially when they're male.
 
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
1,858
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
54
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
Depends on how active you are. I just consume a shitload of Wholefoods peanut butter, sprint a few miles every other day, then swim like 4 thousand yards on off days.

Try eating only when hungry and moving around everyday.

Alllll about that heart rate.
 

PH.

New member
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
79
MBTI Type
INTP
But eating 1200-1800 calories per day (pending on activity level and starting weight) can put you in a good zone to lose weight.

This is the best advice on losing weight by controlling your intake of calories.

It does matter what kind of calories you eat. Some foods will speed up your metabolism, like yoghurt or spicy foods. Variation is also the key to a healthy metabolism. Eat potatoes and meat one day, the next a nice salmon out of the oven or a pasta with tomato sauce and veggies.

(There is also a very unhealthy way of keeping your metabolism high, calory variation. Anorexic people sometimes use this to lose weight. They go from -500 calories one day to 1500+ the next. This is very, very unhealthy.)
 

Curator

Another awesome member.
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
898
MBTI Type
eNFP
Enneagram
9
*many people have already given some good advice, so Im just going to add this in instead of re-iterating many things already said.*

what you eat matters a whole lot more than how much you eat, one major problem people find with calorie restriction is that the human body goes into famine mode, where it tries to store as much nutrients as possible, and get by with burning as little calories as possible for any given task.. also on low calorie diets its hard to actually stay motivated because you have so little energy, I lost almost 80 pounds eating over 3,000 calories a day, why? cause most of it was raw fruit and veggies... its important though to get a good variety so you can get all the nutrients you need, it also helped I was doing body building and Kenpo karate, exercise is of course one of the best things for your health and weightloss...

Honestly I think there is no good reason to reduce calories, at least not below 1800 depending on your activity level, just change where you are getting your calories from...and use something like www.nutritiondata.com or www.fitday.com to track the nutrients you are getting in to make sure you dont become deficient in anything, and that should work like a charm...
 
O

Oberon

Guest
I have found that by switching off carbs (mostly) and onto protein and fat for my primary calorie sources, my blood sugar stays much steadier through the day. Because my blood sugar stays steady, I don't get the sudden ravenous desire to overeat that I commonly used to get. I will typically start to get a little hungry about two hours after a meal, and hang there in the "a little hungry" until my next meal, which is quite tolerable.

I have been cutting calories some, but not drastically; I'm still eating at least 2,000 calories a day typically. I also get into the gym about three times a week to do moderate cardio and weight training.

The foods I no longer eat in significant quantity are potatoes, rice, bread (in all its endless variants like pita, biscuits, crackers, and so on) and anything with a lot of sugar in it (no sodas, no sweet tea). I have not cut carbs completely; I still will have one or two small pieces of chocolate daily, or a handful of chips, so I can sustain my eating plan. Oh, and I will eat the heck out of as many greens and garden veggies as my wife is willing to throw at me.

Over the past month or so I'm down about ten pounds from 234; my target weight is 200. My energy level is actually improved over what it used to be, as is my mood.
 

Queen Kat

The Duchess of Oddity
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
3,053
MBTI Type
E.T.
Enneagram
7w8
Yes. I read an article about a professor who went on a low calory diet that only consisted out of candy and vitamin pills and I believe he lost 13 kg/27 pounds in ten weeks and believe it or not, his entire health improved, even his blood sugar and his cholesterol levels. I should try that diet when I move out.

Here is an article about it:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
 

Curator

Another awesome member.
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
898
MBTI Type
eNFP
Enneagram
9
id never take something like that seriously unless the entire process was peer reviewed and his test results available to the public, I believe he could easily have lost the weight, but not that he was healthy, at all... especially since lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides are not indicative of a person being "healthy" or not... most foods like that are very difficult for the body to digest too, so that could also help with losing weight... but I really really doubt he was "healthy" and he expresses similar doubts in the article...
 

Stanton Moore

morose bourgeoisie
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
3,900
MBTI Type
INFP
It's best to 'shave off' some calories everyday, meaning to reduce your intake by ~250 calories. It really doesn't even matter what type of food they are, but it's easiest to cut sugar and fat since most of us eat more of those than we need.
 

kyuuei

Emperor/Dictator
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
13,964
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
8
^ Right.

Cutting calories and eating the right things at steady times while exercising > Cutting calories and eating the right things at steady times > cutting calories and eating at steady times > eating the right things but not at the right ratio or times > you > doing the opposite of all of that.

:laugh: If that makes any sense. I think that WHEN you eat is extremely important in weight loss as well.. if nothing else, just adjusting when you eat the foods you do can have a big impact on your body.
 

Beargryllz

New member
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
2,719
MBTI Type
INTP
If you don't use more calories than you consume, you will gain weight. If you use more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. These are both indisputable facts. Many would recommend a balanced split between caloric sources (primarily carbs, some fats, some proteins, maybe a little ethanol). If you eat little and exercise often, you will lose weight faster than if you only eat little.
 

MacGuffin

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
10,710
MBTI Type
xkcd
Enneagram
9w1
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Eliminate as many carbs as you can, esp. refined carbs.
 
Top