Increasing Calorie Deficit to above 1000 cal

[Faceoff]

Hi to all,

Is there any possible way to increase calorie deficit in your food plan to above 1000 cal?

I have looked in the iOS app and main desktop website, also in the community forum here but could not find a way. It seems that a 1000 cal deficit is set as the maximum possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Many Kind Regards,

Andrew

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

It’s a safety feature. Unless it’s for a medical reason, there’s no reason to go higher than that and should be monitored by a doctor if doing so.

[Baltoscott]

@Faceoff -- the NIH has a pretty good calculator for estimating how much you should eat each day in order to lose weight over a period of time.  It defaults to 180 days, but you can change the time period to run various scenarios.  As a test I put in a 5 lb loss for me and first tried 90 days (eat about 250 cal/day less), and then 10 days, (reduce calories by about 900), and finally 5 days (reduce calories by about t150).  So you could calculate what would happen if you achieved a greater than 1000 calorie/day deficit.  That said, I agree with @SunsetRunner that anything over a 1000 calorie deficit is generally a bad idea; it is just too far from maintenance calories and will likely set you up to regain all the weight you lose once you stop doing it. 

I find it easier to set up a daily calorie target for weight loss and keep it consistent for 2-4 weeks for evaluation.  If it is working and I'm not losing too fast (1%/week is a reasonable max; 0/5% is better in terms of setting yourself up to maintain the loss once you get to your goal), I stay with that deficit.  If I'm not in the 0.5%-1% weight loss range after 2-4 weeks, I can adjust how much I eat.

On the exercise end of things, I try to make sure I don't drop from my baseline (whatever you do when you are NOT trying to lose weight) and then I might add a little bit more.  I try to avoid making exercise too big a part of the weight loss equation, because one injury can dramatically affect your plans.  As it happens, I have exercised about 60-90 minutes/day for most of my adult life -- mostly bike commuting and about 4 hours/week in the gym.  That means I can eat a lot more at my weight that most people, but an injury would mean I would need to drop my calories quite a bit in order to maintain weight.  I would rather drop calories temporarily to lose weight rather than making it a requirement in order to maintain weight while recovering from an injury.  So I try not to push myself too much beyond the exercise level I've become used to, so as to avoid injuries.

[Faceoff]

Thank you for taking time out to reply. Ok. I have been at an at least 1000 cal deficit for the last 2.5 months. I have a fair bit of weight left to lose. About 43 kg or 95lbs. I was wanting to experiment a little with energy intake. 

I take your point and appreciate your response.