Since I’ve been dieting and excercising, and consequently losing weight something has bothered me the whole time. Several people and sources have told me that my body needs over 2000 calories a day simply to function. But even before I dieted, if I look at what I would eat in a typical day I am sure I was not reaching 2000 a day, maybe not even 1500.
At this stage in my progress I can now have a 400-500 calorie meal and then maybe 200 calories more before I go to bed. 2000 seems a bit excessive when I think about how much food that translates to, and then compare that with how much I eat.
Can I increase muscle mass if my body is not reaching 2000 calories a day?
You’re best source for an answer to that is a trained, qualified nutitionist
WebMD probably has a list of those in your neck of the woods
Basically the number of calories you need a day is based on your current weight, your activity level, and your particular goal (loss, maintenance, gain)
Weight Watchers, for example, ranges from 1100 to 1500 depending on the weight to be lost and the amount of exercise the individual is getting
It’s different for everyone
Umm… depends. IMO (and it’s just my opinion) based on almost 30 years of meticulous calorie counting and dieting I think existing projections and estimates of the calories needed to maintain a lb of body weight used by doctors/nutritionists are substantially off for many people, especially those that have lost and gained substantial amounts of weight over the years.
Depending on exercise levels most projections are that the average person will use 12-14 calories per lb of maintained body weight, per day depending on activity level. Based on my empirical experience over time I sincerely believe that there is a substantial cohort of active people whose metabolic calorie needs per of body weight requirements are in the 9-10 range not 12-14.
This means (in my case) that I’m 6’3" and I can walk lengthy distances and swim and kayak, but I can’t go much more than 2400 calories per day if I want to maintain a active body weight of 225 lbs. There are small women I know who can eat close to that amount, exercise less than I do, and not gain weight. The bottom line is that human metabolism varies a great deal.
You can easily gain muscle on sub 2000 calorie per day diet, but you need to keep your high quality protein intake up so a healthy proportion of those calories need to be high quality proteins like tuna and other lean meats.
Having said this 700 calories per day is very, very low and you would normally be losing several lbs a week on that kind of intake, unless you have some severe thyroid issues. Are you saying you eat 700 calories per day period? If you do then your body is going to consume muscle and fat and putting on muscle will be difficult with that starvation level of intake.
You can easily gain muscle on sub 2000 calorie per day diet, but you need to keep your high quality protein intake up so a healthy proportion of those calories need to be high quality proteins like tuna and other lean meats.
Caveat * - This assumes you are overweight and are burning lot of fat calories. If you are not overweight restricted calorie diets that are less than your daily metabolic base line needs can lead to muscle loss.
I think that alot of times people do not realize the amount of calories in a meal. The suggested serving sizes for a meal are far smaller than what most of us would ever imagine. The important thing is to be sure that you are maintaining an equal number or less calories to that which you burn on a daily basis.
You said that you eat a 400-500 calorie meal and then 200 calooies before dinner. Does that mean that you eat only one meal a day? If you are not a big meal eater you should really try to snack throughout the day and not go more than three hours without eating something. (small heathy snacks loaded with protien). This will up your calories while uping your metabolism, helping you build muscle mass and lose weight.
I don’t think you need to be consuming 2000 calories a day. But one meal surrinded by 200 other calories is not a long term reality.
Taking a conservative assessment of my height as 6’ then I am still a stone (16 pounds) above Ideal weight. I have been aware all along that I am probably not doing the whole thing right but I have shown myself that what I am doing is losing the weight without affecting my ability to function during the day.
I may have underestimated the number of calories I eat on average. The 700 I mentioned can happen on some days, but not all days. Probably not many days even. But I still think the majority of days are under 2000.
When I’ve lost the last stone I intend to operate a kind of mental thermostat whereby I regulate my calorie intake between weight-maintenance and weightloss depending on which direction my weight goes.
Another question - It’s so long since I saw my abs that I wonder if they would still buldge out if I let my stomach relax? I wonder if all those poncy models with abs you see are actually holding themselves in… I can’t feel much fat in that area when I grab my skin, but I can still make it all bulge if I let it relax.
I’ve had a bowl thing of tuna-pasta salad. calories about 460, fat about 4.4, carbs 72. I’ve had a few coffees and one 500ml bottle of diet coke.
I had the tuna pasta salad a good 3 or 4 hours ago and haven’t felt hungry at all. I have a microwaveable lasagne 360 calories, 9.2 fat, 42 carbs which I was going to have today as well. But I am now not hungry enough to have it. I may or may not have something when I get home from work (toast, bran flakes) depending on hunger.
There is a “zone” where if you restrict your intake and stick to it for an extended period of time, your stomach shrinks & you can do what you are describing and NOT be severely hungry on small portions and/or a restricted intake. The main problems with doing this are physical weakness, and blood sugar fluctuations after eating which are more severe when in starvation diet mode.
Also, if you “cheat” and eat big meal while doing this “zone” gets knocked to hell, your stomach re-expands and appetite returns with a double vengance
The best visualization aid for a recommended meal size I ever heard was, “You know that dinner you get on a coach-class airline flight? That’s your recommended meal size.”
For American restaurants, I usually follow the rule of thumb that whatever they serve you is twice as much as you need to eat.
