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One meal a day?

Hey,

Ok hear me out. I am coming back after having a baby. I am strictly Calorie in /Calorie out and trying to just be more active. I work midnights. 11PM-7AM Monday-Friday. I eat more and drink on the weekends. Working these hours makes sleep a priority and it is hard. I do a lot better by working out just before I go to work. It wakes me up and gets my metabolism going while I am awake. (Metabolism issues are my and I'm sure many of people's most common cause of weight gain on mid-nights). SO i am for the most part eating one meal a day? I've lost 30 lbs so far since January 1st but I want to be sure I am doing it right. I am not trying to rush anything. I would like to lose 30 more in a healthy way.

 

Here is how my typical schedule looks:

4PM - a cup of coffee (black) when I wake up. Not every day but 2-3 times a week. 

7PM- DInner with husband - 500-1000 calories. High protein.

9:30PM- Workout before work. T25 or run

1AM- Cup of coffee at work

7 AM - come home go to sleep before I get hungry.

 

I drink about a gallon of water a day. If I work out more than normal I will bring a hard boiled egg or a piece of fruit with me to work and eat it around 4AM.

 

Again, I am not trying to use this as a quick weight loss. Obviously the more results the better but more importantly I want them to stick. But I have adapted this through counting how many calories I take in mixed with how my not so normal schedule falls. I make up for quite a few calories over the weekend but I definitely don't sabotage my hard work from the week.

 

But is this ok? or will big problems come later.

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6 REPLIES 6

500-1000 calories is below your BMR (calories burned during the day while resting) and therefore not advised. It will send a signal to your body that there is not enough food available, which might respond to that in different ways. One way is that you might hit a plateau as at some point it is going to hang on to the weight as a survival instinct. You can use this calculator to determine your BMR. While eating at a calories deficit is the way to go for weight loss, eating too little is not and will have counter effects at some point. Why not eat something before going to bed, so you don't have to go to sleep before getting hungry? Also weight loss will slow down the closer you get to your goal weight, so don't get demotivated when that happens.

Karolien | The Netherlands

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The idea of a diet is to have it correctly portioned by scheduled intervals to keep your body in working condition. Otherwise in simple English terms, you will collapse in your office and wind up in the hospital suffering from Hypoglycemia or other glucose related illnesses. You need to find out what kind of a diet plan works for you on your schedule and terms to keep yourself alive.

 

Having only one meal a day at 1,000 calories is really not a good idea. You need more like 300 300 300 300 300 if you're closer to the thin goal. Even another 300 (recovery protein shake) if you're doing a high power cardio program like T-25 or Fitstar Get Lean.

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Once you have set the right amount of calories for your goal (whether it’s to lose, maintain or gain weight), how you split this amount within the 24 hours of the day is mostly a matter of personal preference. For some people, a single meat (intermittent fasting) works better. For others, six smaller meals evenly spread across the day work better. And others favour the traditional breakfast, lunch, dinner approach. Whatever promotes adherence best and fits your schedule best. Your metabolism will be the same regardless of the approach: eating only once a day won’t put you in "starvation mode", and eating six times a day won’t "kick start" or "boost" your metabolism.

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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Although some people do well with eating low some days and high on others I think that 5 days of very low calories followed by a weekend of excess might not be the way to go.  You could work on a 7 day total of calories but again, I wonder if 5 days of low calorie could possibly cause your body to conserve calories and then you would have issues on the weekend.

 

I've never found that time of day eating or spacing of calories make a difference.  I've read so many opinions that eating after a certain time of day will cause you to not lose weight.  For me, I specifically eat calories before I go to bed.  I just count them in.

 

Anyway, as already suggested, find out what you should be eating to lose weight.  You can still eat higher on the weekend, but keep the days in between not quite so low.

Anne | Rural Ontario, Canada

Ionic (gifted), Alta HR (gifted), Charge 2, Flex 2, Charge HR, One, Blaze (retired), Trendweight.com,

Down 150 pounds from my top weight (and still going), sharing my experiences here to try and help others.

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If I may I would like to suggest you ADD a little boost to compliment your nutritional needs to offset the stresses of working  night shifts especially while eating such a low calorie diet.  

Packed ( Vitamins D . A, C etc... / Minerals / Protein ) which makes for an excellent recovery drink following your daily run.  Which I believe may help you meet weight loss objectives even more so.

 

 

Carnation Breakfast Essentials Light Start™° Powder

 

 https://www.carnationbreakfastessentials.com/products

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0 Votes

 

When I was losing weight, I did it on 1000 calories per day- three meals. How many meals is your preference, as long as your calories are good. Yes 1000 is low. I would also eat above that on the weekends- I just stayed in the food groups I identified as healthy and didn't make me feel like I was starving or passing out. There are a million arguments and studies about less calories more calories. The one thing I didn't do is work out. If you are eating a 1000 and burning through 500- you need to eat 500 more. That is just stressful on your body as it recuperates from the workout. If you feel good, are not tired, lethargic, weak - then your body is doing alright. I wouldn't recommend this long term- I lost what I wanted in 3 three months. That was three years ago. Haven't gained an ounce back. In fact since the initial loss - I lost a few pounds more.

Elena | Pennsylvania

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