# Can 500 calories/day support an active, healthy adult? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240 "2012-06-06T04:55:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/61 "2012-06-15T04:17:08Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Back when I had my “big loss” (lost 60 pounds in about 2-3 months, going from 180 to 120) I was eating 300-500 calories a day on average, some days no more than 150 or so, other days peaking to 1,000. Literally, I would have one meal a day, a tin of vegetables like Veg-All or Creamed Corn, then maybe an orange or a couple of lemons, and that was it. Since I was in crushing depression (the real reason for my weight loss) I didn’t notice being hungry. In fact, I had lots of energy, was very productive at work, and had no real problems of note. > > Other than being horribly depressed, of course. No doubt, your body was eating fat stores which it was designed to do, after the first few days it was probably acclimated to using stored fat for energy. There’s no scientific problem with your described weight loss, but as someone who struggled with weight **immensely** when I left the military I have to say that the worst possible thing for a “regular” person wanting to lose weight is to pursue an extreme diet. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/62 "2012-06-15T16:03:33Z")
Yeah but **Una** you know how bad people are at estimating their calories … (🙂 but still d&r …) More seriously, the fact that you had no serious complications of your depression induced tin of creamed corn a day starvation diet does not make such a thing any less of a poor idea. (And in point of fact, few would lose that much that fast even eating that little. The average on a medically supervised very low calorie diet, as **Martin Hyde** ’s early link notes, is 44 pounds over 12 weeks. And longer term success is still contingent on long term lifestyle changes.) ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/63 "2012-06-15T16:23:28Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > More seriously, the fact that you had no serious complications of your depression induced tin of creamed corn a day starvation diet does not make such a thing any less of a poor idea. It’s also very possible the starvation increased the depression in a feedback loop. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/64 "2012-06-15T16:25:11Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > …the worst possible thing for a “regular” person wanting to lose weight is to pursue an extreme diet. I agree completely. My anecdote was meant to be just that, not a judgment on the overall process. Clearly, _for a short time and under special circumstances,_ 500 calories a day could support an _active_ adult. “Healthy,” however is highly debatable. ---
**Author:** ![tadtooornamental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@tadtooornamental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tadtooornamental)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/65 "2012-06-17T01:41:45Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I can’t imagine exercising to a net intake of zero calories or negative calories. How do you think weight loss is achieved? You HAVE to exercise (or take in few enough calories) that your body burns “negative calories”- it’s own fat stores. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240/66 "2012-06-17T02:11:46Z")
> [@tadtooornamental](#): > > How do you think weight loss is achieved? You HAVE to exercise (or take in few enough calories) that your body burns “negative calories”- it’s own fat stores. LOL! You’re totally right. Reading that now, I wonder what it was I thought I was typing. I think, I was meaning to convey that I could not imagine exercising away every last calorie I had taken in that day. I’m not really sure. I know how weightloss is achieved and am succeeding at it in a sensible manner (50 lbs in the last 20 mos). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-500-calories-day-support-an-active-healthy-adult/624240.md?page=3)