Thread: What happens if you eat less than 10x your BW?

depends on how much LBM the person has and their level of activity. for some 10x BW may be to much for others to little...

For most people, they go into starvation mode, your metabolism slows down and well as fat loss. They will start to lose muscle and they will have no energy. Basically every morsel they eat will be held onto the body because it isn't get proper nutrition.

So if they are currently sitting on STALL mode at 172 and eating 1500 cals..

Do you personally think they should LOWER the cals?
I dont think they have much more room to lower.

Cardio 4 x
weight 3 x a week
CLEAN DIETS .. I know this.

They will lose wieght like that no doubt. they will lose mostly muslce though wich in the long run will (a) run their metabolism into the ground and (b) if anything make them a fatter person (aka skinny fat). You need to convince them to get away form the scale and just concentrate on eating healthy and exercising properly to increase leaness.

The human body is always smarter than you are. In your head it seems simple....."I don't eat...I lose weight, cals in vs. cals out" But your body saying "What the hell is this?? No food means no energy! hang onto as much fat as possible just incase this lasts for a long time and start to burn up muscle to feed the brain and give us energy to go about the day." It is just how things work. As a personal trainer this is one of the most difficult things to convince people of.

Thanks! If you read this and you have an opinion please post it as I will be directing thee crazy lil critters to this thread in a while and I need all the help I can get.

I understand where you are coming from and some people just dont change. But correct me if im wrong, if they are stalled eating that little calories they need to do a refeed. If they eat like that constantly I would tell them to refeed every 4-5 days. Others agree?

Originally Posted by mikah

What happens if you eat less than 10x your BW?

Your head will explode.

Originally Posted by Monolith

Your head will explode.

LMAO. That is for sure.

How many cals should you go to during a refeed vs. how many you were on before.

Originally Posted by jaim91

How many cals should you go to during a refeed vs. how many you were on before.

I never count my cals on a re-feed. All I do is make sure that I am eating low in fat and a minmum of 1g per lb of bw and then I eat as much carbs as I want (easy on the fructose though).

Originally Posted by JoeR.

.....But correct me if im wrong, if they are stalled eating that little calories they need to do a refeed.

Pardon the interruption.

What is a "stall?"

Stop losing weight even on a calorie deficit.

If you go long enough with to low a number of calories, the body begins to break down muscle tissue for fuel. When protein is broken down, it releases nitrogen. Your body will quickly wash away the nitrogen by releasing water from tissue cells, causing an immediate reduction in water weight and a noticeable drop on the scale. (That's why so many people choose to drastically decrease their calories below thier RMR) However, water and muscle loss is NOT WHAT YOU WANT. The water weight will be quickly regained as soon as you have something to drink, and the missing muscle can wreak havoc on your metabolism for a long time. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. It requires a certain number of calories each day to maintain itself. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you’re just sitting around. As your muscle mass drops, so does your daily calorie requirement. Example: you loose 10 pounds of muscle (along with maybe 20 lbs. of fat) on a strict diet. Now suppose that each pound of muscle had been burning 50 calories a day just sitting there. Together, those 10 pounds of muscle had been burning 500 calories a day. With this muscle tissue gone, you must now consume 500 fewer calories a day in order to maintain that weight-loss. Not fun- WE LIKE TO EAT. We're a society who's main focus point is usually food. However, most people won’t keep up the starvation routine for long. You'll eventually return to your old eating habits. When this happens, the weight comes piling back on. The thing is that while you lost both muscle and fat during the diet, what you put back on is all fat. So, even though you may weigh the same as you did when you started, you now have a lot more fat and a lot less muscle than you did before the diet. This means that your metabolisms is slower and your calorie requirements are lower. Even if you return to your pre-diet eating habits, you still require 500 fewer calories a day due to the muscle loss. When you're strength training it's possible to get smaller and heavier at the same time. Muscle is a much denser tissue than fat. A pound of muscle is like a little chunk of gold, while a pound of fat is like a big fluffy bunch of feathers.

WHat about anorexics they dont have lots of fat but they are constantly starving them selves?

That's different - they're body has tapped into the last of their fat, carb and protein stores, and has begun to literally eat away at itself (kidneys, stomach, etc.) They are in a totally different caterogry on their own.

Originally Posted by ncgirl21

If you go long enough with to low a number of calories, the body begins to break down muscle tissue for fuel. When protein is broken down, it releases nitrogen. Your body will quickly wash away the nitrogen by releasing water from tissue cells, causing an immediate reduction in water weight and a noticeable drop on the scale. (That's why so many people choose to drastically decrease their calories below thier RMR) However, water and muscle loss is NOT WHAT YOU WANT. The water weight will be quickly regained as soon as you have something to drink, and the missing muscle can wreak havoc on your metabolism for a long time. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. It requires a certain number of calories each day to maintain itself. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you’re just sitting around. As your muscle mass drops, so does your daily calorie requirement. Example: you loose 10 pounds of muscle (along with maybe 20 lbs. of fat) on a strict diet. Now suppose that each pound of muscle had been burning 50 calories a day just sitting there. Together, those 10 pounds of muscle had been burning 500 calories a day. With this muscle tissue gone, you must now consume 500 fewer calories a day in order to maintain that weight-loss. Not fun- WE LIKE TO EAT. We're a society who's main focus point is usually food. However, most people won’t keep up the starvation routine for long. You'll eventually return to your old eating habits. When this happens, the weight comes piling back on. The thing is that while you lost both muscle and fat during the diet, what you put back on is all fat. So, even though you may weigh the same as you did when you started, you now have a lot more fat and a lot less muscle than you did before the diet. This means that your metabolisms is slower and your calorie requirements are lower. Even if you return to your pre-diet eating habits, you still require 500 fewer calories a day due to the muscle loss. When you're strength training it's possible to get smaller and heavier at the same time. Muscle is a much denser tissue than fat. A pound of muscle is like a little chunk of gold, while a pound of fat is like a big fluffy bunch of feathers.

EXCELLENT post girl!!!

sticky worthy perhaps?