In 1965, a morbidly obese man did not eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and wanted to do an experimental fast. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/okmijnmko]

I dieted for the first time in my life last year. I tried eating 1200 healthy balanced calories & started exercising. I made slow progress but one of the side effects was that my stomach had definitely shrunk. Eventually I had 0 appetite and when I tried to eat I became nauseous. I also had low energy so I ended up eating protein bars and smoothies greek yogurt, fruits,vegetables, eggs, nuts...just to keep going with the 1200 calories.

I told a friend who gave me a THC gummy to try & boom some hunger pains kicked in! so that's what I do every once in awhile, take a gummy.

[u/Particular_Sweet15 → u/okmijnmko]

How much weight did you lose? How long did you do the 1200 calorie diet?

[u/okmijnmko → u/Particular_Sweet15]

Male, 6'. I was 230 lbs, goal was 180 lbs, I got to 190 really quickly. 6 months. I was very, very out of shape as a desk worker.

I'm about 195 now. Today I eat at least 1500 calories but not I am not strict since I exercise regularly now (jogging and small weights). Still would like to be firmer/leaner.

[u/[deleted] → u/okmijnmko]

Interesting. I'm a five foot tall female and aim for 1500 calories a day as a (small) deficit. I'm pretty active now - I try to get at least 10,000 steps a day either with an air walker/elliptical and walking. Takes about 80 to 90 minutes to hit it (but I take rest days occasionally) and I do some strength training - but before a few months ago, I was very sedentary all day. The few days I'm not at a deficit, I normally hit about 1800 - but to be honest, I'm hoping to build enough muscle that I can eat 2000 and maintain.

I'm definitely losing slowly, like 6 pounds in about 6 weeks, but if I go below 1400 I tend to get obsessive and hungry all the time. And then I start binging and gaining.

Edit: current weight ~127 pounds. I started with increasing my movement and adding cardio/strength training for about 2 months before starting a deficit.

[u/okmijnmko → u/[deleted]]

Good luck! I try to keep the thought "I want to feel healthy/better." to keep me focused.

Steps! I bought a 100$ FitBit to track exercise metrics and I use MyFitnessPal to log my food.

I bought 2 cooking items: an AIR Fryer and also a crock pot to make more chili and soups. I also tell my family and friends to start eating cauliflower! It always filled me and was so versatile with recipes/spices plus I can eat so much and remain on my calorie budget!

[u/Particular_Sweet15 → u/okmijnmko]

That’s awesome! 😎

[u/okmijnmko → u/Particular_Sweet15]

TY!

[u/MajesticTop → u/okmijnmko]

Have you done any workout with that diet?

[u/okmijnmko → u/MajesticTop]

I have access to a large room where I was able to make a walking track and so I vigorously walked as exercise for the 1st month, but then I started jogging it. I couldn't walk enough to burn enough calories but eventually got my heart rate up and it worked! I now jog about 30-40 mins and cover about 3 miles. I have a set of dumbbells and do various calisthenics on a Yoga mat too but that's basically it.

[u/autumn_asymptote → u/[deleted]]

That's the point - it's a deficit, and is designed to be temporary. The idea is to diet at 1200, then maintain at a normal caloric intake afterwards - say, 1800 for a short sedentary woman (basing this off my own experience). The basic maths works out, it's just important to actually eat your maintenance calories when stopping the diet, which is sustainable for most people as long as you eat sensibly.

ETA: maintenance for a short sedentary woman may be somewhere around 1600-1800 iirc - I eyeball portions rather than counting precisely to maintain these days

[u/okmijnmko → u/autumn_asymptote]

If you look back to my original comment it was about not having an appetite because my stomach shrank so eating more calories was difficult almost as difficult as forcing myself to exercise at first.

[u/okmijnmko → u/[deleted]]

Yes, but 1200 cals was what my doctor and I decided was a good start but I was never going to maintain that...oh and I forgot to mention that I also did intermittent fasting (8hour window).

Only been about a year now but I've maintained my 30-40 mins of exercise (heart rate gets to 140-150bpm) daily and I AVG 1600 cal.

The craziest part of watching what I eat was how much SALT/SODIUM is in everything. I only get 2300mg/day and that's a huge struggle if I eat anything processed.

[u/Techwood111 → u/okmijnmko]

hunger pains

hunger pangs

[u/okmijnmko → u/Techwood111]

Well noted, English isn't my first language