Calorie counting question

~Crooked Smile~

Silver Member
Hi guys, hope you don't mind me gate crashing your forum! I spend my days in the WW section but had a quick question. A male friend of mine has been asking on Facebook how best to lose weight. Somebody who calorie counts has advised him to aim to eat 1500 calories a day and burn 1000. Am I right in thinking this is a dangerous undereat? Common sense tells me that with a daily calorie intake of 500 and no added vitamins etc, it must be!

Also, assuming I'm right, what sort of net calorie intake should he be going for? He's a 25 year old male, I imagine he weighs 14/15 stone.

Thanks guys :)
 
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There are alot of people on here who have been doing cc longer than me and know the in's and outs of it better than me but eating 1500 cals and exercising 1000 of them off is no good!!

Caroline g and fattack have both got threads on here that explain why! Take a look at them or better still get your friend to look.

If you can get him to sign up to myfitnesspal that will tell him how many cals he needs to have to get a steady weight loss before exercise.
 
I watched this program where this journalist was doing exactly that to show how bad these crash diets are for you. Ate 1500 but exercised her butt off and burnt 1000. It really isn't good for you!
 
I'd say that aiming for 1500 per day from food cals is just about OK (maybe a bit low for his weight) but the 1000 exercise cals per day is absolutely too low unless he plans to eat them all back!

I'm only 11 stone-ish and am aiming for 1650 cals per day (-500 cals pd/-1lb fat per week). I also aim to lose about about 1200 exercise cals per week, but I only really exercise so I can eat more nice food.

If he doesn't get enough cals he'll likely binge out and undo all his hard work or his body will stop losing weight as it starts to shut down and protect itself from the shock of under-eating.

Good luck! :)
 
Thanks so much for your replies guys. The person commenting is still adamant that his way is good and healthy because he lost weight that way. But I'm not the only one replying how dangerous his advice is, so hopefully my friend will listen.

Thanks again :)
 
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