I’ve been intermittent fasting and it makes me a lot less hungry (which is good). I’m a 5’3 female who weighs 11 stone and I was wondering if 1000 calories per day is too little, or whether that’s fine?
Edit: I should also add I’m not very active due to my job and not being able to afford a gym membership. I just go on 2 mile walks every day.
The recommended minimum is 1,200. If you’re consistently below 1,200 that can start to potentially have malnutrition issues, just not enough of everything the body needs in so little.
Cutting that low also has implications for the body to use increasingly more lean body mass instead of fat for energy. So someone can be losing weight but not changing their body fat percentage as much, and that muscle tissue is more metabolically active so it’s just throwing away metabolism.
Obviously this is tough for individuals with smaller bodies, there’s only so many calories to be cut. But it’s better to try and go slow and sustainable. Maybe try to up your walking, or add weight to it?
Depending on your size it probably isn’t dangerous for a not long term thing, but it also would likely cause your metabolism to shut down so maybe it’s counterproductive long term. Alternate day low calories may be more sustainable
There is a documented case of an obese man in the UK who had 0 calories a day for more than a year while under medical supervision. He was healthy because his body was burning up his excess fat. After you burn up the excess fat it’s extremely dangerous but before that, it’s fine as long as you are drinking water with vitamins and minerals. Most people do this fast for a few days and then go back to a normal diet.
I think you can do 1000 calories a day for a very short term weight loss but after longer periods, your body will adjust to the lower caloric intake and then you’ll be screwed once you go back to eating even 1200 calories a day - you’ll gain weight. You need to mix it up so your body doesn’t adapt to the steady caloric restriction. SO one day eat 1800 calories and fast the next day. I highly recommend Jason Fung’s Book the Obesity Code which explains how our focus on calories has been a bit misguided. Lowering insulin is the key to weight loss. So having periods of fasting or eating low carb allows your insulin levels to drop. If you eat 1000 calories every day, if spread out throughout the day and those calories include lots of carbs, your insulin levels will remain elevated so you can’t lose weight.