Minimal food requirement for a day

[Deleted]

Welcome everyone

I have a question about energy consumption of our body.
It is usual to me that on non workdays I only eat once or maybe one and a half time. For example 1 serving of Sechuan chicken with rice and 2-3 fruits later. And I haven't lost a single kilogram from my weight. I am not fat. I was always about in the middle of optimal bodyweight according to standard BMI (~65 kg for me). But I read we require about 1500 kcal a day to get the minimal energy our body uses to sustain itself, and is takes about 3 meals a day. Then how can I eat this low amount and not drop in weight? I don't eat snack or anything else eaiter. Even on workdays I usually eat about 2 or 2 and a half time. Ie.: 1 small sandwitch for breakfast, 1 full meal for lunch - usually some cooked, roasted meat with rice and some vegetable salad - and another full meal for dinner, but sometimes I cut that in a half serving too. I'm working in 12 hour shifts in a factory as data manager (mostly computer work with several kilometer walking in hurry since the factory is quite large). 3 day work, 3 day break. When I'm at home, I usually in front of my computer, so my energy consumption isn't that great, but still eating once a day just seems very low. So the question is, just how much energy do we need for real, and how much food contains that?

[Deleted]

Are you female? 65kgs is very thin.

[lockedout]

Are you female? 65kgs is very thin.

It didn't take long to get to the sexism posts.

[Tziva]

Moved to the Fitness forum since I think you'll find there's a lot of knowledgeable people there when it comes to diet.

It didn't take long to get to the sexism posts.

I don't think it's sexism to point out that women typically are smaller and weigh less on average than men.

[Deleted]

It didn't take long to get to the sexism posts.

How is it sexist?

[Lafdet]

I survived with 800 calories for about six months, sure you will be tired. Feel slow and easily get dizzy, but it's not like you will die off. I doubt people in Africa. etc get even that 1500 that is considered ''minimum'' also to lose weight you have to go below what your body needs, this includes working out.

I am currently at 6feet (183cm) and 150 pounds ( about 68kg), workout three times a week (Strength training 5x5) and I'm doing fine with 1400 calories. Sure I am not gaining much muscle with that, but it's mostly about training your nerve system anyway. Anyway, I think the minimum recommended for men is like 1400, and for women 1200 for dieting.

There are plenty of metabolism rate calculators etc. online to figure out how much you should eat in order to sustain weight etc. Google should help, but the thing of it is. You got to count calories, what you put in those sandwiches etc. could easily turn out to be a lot more than expected

[Klingers]

I'm not an expert on the calorific amounts you need, but your metabolism is pretty adaptive to your eating habits.

It's definitely better to break your recommended calorific intake up into more, smaller meals and front-load them at the start of the day.

A bigger breakfast, filling lunch and a smaller tea/dinner will stoke the furnace and make you burn food better for the whole day. If you can intersperse a piece of fruit or something light between the main meals even better.

Keep in mind with me saying all this it's still pretty important not to go over your recommended daily intake.

Also if you're cold, your body will burn more calories to maintain your body temperature (basically...). If you're sick or recovering from surgery your body will burn more calories to repair itself.

If you stop-dead eating anything with sugar (even fruit or juice) and refined carbs (bread, starchy vegetables), your body will even switch to transforming protein into burnable carbs. If that fails and the conditions are right then your body will actually switch over to an alternate fuel source (think of it from going from leaded to unleaded) in the form of transforming fat into an acidic burnable sugar.

TLDR; In short the metabolism is pretty awesome.

[Jordaen]

Welcome everyone

I have a question about energy consumption of our body.
It is usual to me that on non workdays I only eat once or maybe one and a half time. For example 1 serving of Sechuan chicken with rice and 2-3 fruits later. And I haven't lost a single kilogram from my weight. I am not fat. I was always about in the middle of optimal bodyweight according to standard BMI (~65 kg for me). But I read we require about 1500 kcal a day to get the minimal energy our body uses to sustain itself, and is takes about 3 meals a day. Then how can I eat this low amount and not drop in weight? I don't eat snack or anything else eaiter. Even on workdays I usually eat about 2 or 2 and a half time. Ie.: 1 small sandwitch for breakfast, 1 full meal for lunch - usually some cooked, roasted meat with rice and some vegetable salad - and another full meal for dinner, but sometimes I cut that in a half serving too. I'm working in 12 hour shifts in a factory as data manager (mostly computer work with several kilometer walking in hurry since the factory is quite large). 3 day work, 3 day break. When I'm at home, I usually in front of my computer, so my energy consumption isn't that great, but still eating once a day just seems very low. So the question is, just how much energy do we need for real, and how much food contains that?

Before I got pregnant I had similar habits to you. I work at a high energy job where I'm constantly moving (waitress) and yet I wouldn't eat much. I'd eat a sandwich for lunch, some fruit or veg for a snack and something small like half a chicken breast for dinner and small portion of rice or potatoes. Most mornings I would skip breakfast. However, I drank a lot of high calorie drinks - soda, juice and sweet tea. I calculated it one time and between everything I consumed about 1200-1500 calories a day. You could put it into a calculator and see where you come out at. There's a free app called MyFitnessPal and that'll tell you all sorts of stuff. I've been 98 pounds (what is that, 44kgs?) since early high school. It's just your body and how your body works. As long as you don't feel sluggish/ill and if you're at least taking a multivitamin and getting some protein I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially since you seem decently active.

For reference, I'm obviously female, 23 5'2" (1.57 meters).

[Deleted]

Are you female? 65kgs is very thin.

Male. 172 cm tall. I'M thin but muscular. Have about 10% body fat.

[Lafdet]

Male. 172 cm tall. I'M thin but muscular. Have about 10% body fat.

65 isn't really that bad, as said I'm currently at 68 (about) and 183cm tall male, according to body analysis scales I am at about 7.7% body fat without much muscle to talk about (48% or so) though I haven't been water weighed or so to actually know accurate body fat percentages.

Anyway if you are really muscular you should be able to survive with a quite a high amount of calories, with my 3x a week workout routine and pretty much just sitting about otherwise should (according to several sources) consume well over 2.5k + calories. 3.5k calories = 1 pound of fat (0.46kg or something), so basically you need to go below your recommended calorie in take a day by x amount to lose x amount a week.

Woah... That's thin. Maybe i dunno anymore, since i'm 115Kg for a long time.

Gj keeping that shape, just don't get obsessed, you prob on the edge of the minimum.

As surprising it may be, he is not even close to being on the lower end of the BMI charts , about mid-range for his weight/height. Would need about 55kg/172 cm for him to be considered underweight.

That seems healthy and fine, stick to what you are currently doing unless you want to put on muscle.

It's a fine weight yeah, if he wishes to lose some body fat to get more defined muscles then he could diet a few kilos off and still be just fine, just don't go about dirty bulking

[edmorte]

Male. 172 cm tall. I'M thin but muscular. Have about 10% body fat.

Woah... That's thin. Maybe i dunno anymore, since i'm 115Kg for a long time.

Gj keeping that shape, just don't get obsessed, you prob on the edge of the minimum.

[Deleted]

Male. 172 cm tall. I'M thin but muscular. Have about 10% body fat.

That seems healthy and fine, stick to what you are currently doing unless you want to put on muscle.

[Knaar]

In short the metabolism is pretty awesome.

Cannot say it better then that.

I'll take my exemple. I spent about 1 year barely eating anything. During that time, my usual meal for the whole day was 2 nutela toast and 2 can of pepsi (or about 800ml). Thats it. Unless i know i was going to do something out of my ordinary stuff, that was all i'd eat for the day.
I didnt gain weight (duh... ) But i also didnt really lost (much) weight (other then the first month where i might have lost like... 2 kilos)

As long as you maintain your diet to what you do, your metabolism will (usually) be fine after a while.

(Personal note here : I never follow any food-related advice/guide. I eat what i want, when i want, how i want, in the quantity i want. To hell with all the "eat X calories per day, eat X number of fruits a day, eat X things in such a way etc etc etc. Have you ever tryed to eat the exact recommandation the guides says we should? 8-10 servings of fruits/veggy a day? LOL I barely eat that many fruits in a week nowaday! You expect me to eat that much every single day? let me laugh.)

[Aristeia]

Oh jeez I'm the same height but only 58kg, I don't have a very large appetite, always work out in the morning but almost never eat breakfast. I'll have a larger lunch though with a salad on the side and then not too much for dinner, and maybe a snack later.

[Muffinator]

Contrary unfortunately to what you may want to hear, you're going to need to up your intake to force your body's furnace to burn hotter and for longer.

What is happening right now is that your body is going into storage mode because you aren't eating often enough, keeping fat stores high and burning to a minimum. Up your intake to 5 smaller meals per day, with the first meal as the largest, and the last meal as half the size of your first. Focus on 40% lean protein, 20% fat, 20% carbs, and 20% varied fruits and vegetables of dark strong colours.

Drink lots of fluids too, all that proper diet won't help if you don't have enough water in you to facilitate the process. Coffee, tea, and alcohol do count, but keep them to minimum, go for non concentrate fruit juices and water. Lots of fluids.

These are your macro intake components. The larger picture.

Your micro intake components are things like all of those vitamins, minerals, etc on vitamin bottles that go on and on, a-z etc.

You can get these with some kind of all in one supplement vitamin pills. Or don't, if you don't like the idea or the cost (usually like 30-50$ per bottle of 100 tablets, 1/day) you can skip this. I wouldn't recommend skipping it, the little things add up right, but it's your body.


Lastly, as a count on calories, try to keep yourself at around 1600, give or take 100-200 depending on preference or performance.


This can all be done without working out, but I highly recommend doing some independent research on what kinds of working out would benefit you, and getting into them asap, if you have 3 days off between work, you've definitely got time for 1-2 hours a day.

[Deleted]

You can get these with some kind of all in one supplement vitamin pills. Or don't, if you don't like the idea or the cost (usually like 30-50$ per bottle of 100 tablets, 1/day) you can skip this. I wouldn't recommend skipping it, the little things add up right, but it's your body.

I have BioTech One-a-day, but I don't take it everyday, just about every second day. Depends on how much need do I feel.

This can all be done without working out, but I highly recommend doing some independent research on what kinds of working out would benefit you, and getting into them asap, if you have 3 days off between work, you've definitely got time for 1-2 hours a day.

I used to do one of these - 20 minute running / 100 push up in one shot / 6 minute abs training in one shot / 150 squats in one shot - sometimes 2 of these but that is rare.

Before I got pregnant I had similar habits to you. I work at a high energy job where I'm constantly moving (waitress) and yet I wouldn't eat much. I'd eat a sandwich for lunch, some fruit or veg for a snack and something small like half a chicken breast for dinner and small portion of rice or potatoes. Most mornings I would skip breakfast. However, I drank a lot of high calorie drinks - soda, juice and sweet tea. I calculated it one time and between everything I consumed about 1200-1500 calories a day. You could put it into a calculator and see where you come out at. There's a free app called MyFitnessPal and that'll tell you all sorts of stuff. I've been 98 pounds (what is that, 44kgs?) since early high school. It's just your body and how your body works. As long as you don't feel sluggish/ill and if you're at least taking a multivitamin and getting some protein I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially since you seem decently active.

Thanks for the advice. Now I have an app to monitor my calorie intake. I'm interested in how much do I actually take.

[zhero]

Welcome everyone

I have a question about energy consumption of our body.
It is usual to me that on non workdays I only eat once or maybe one and a half time. For example 1 serving of Sechuan chicken with rice and 2-3 fruits later. And I haven't lost a single kilogram from my weight. I am not fat. I was always about in the middle of optimal bodyweight according to standard BMI (~65 kg for me). But I read we require about 1500 kcal a day to get the minimal energy our body uses to sustain itself, and is takes about 3 meals a day. Then how can I eat this low amount and not drop in weight? I don't eat snack or anything else eaiter. Even on workdays I usually eat about 2 or 2 and a half time. Ie.: 1 small sandwitch for breakfast, 1 full meal for lunch - usually some cooked, roasted meat with rice and some vegetable salad - and another full meal for dinner, but sometimes I cut that in a half serving too. I'm working in 12 hour shifts in a factory as data manager (mostly computer work with several kilometer walking in hurry since the factory is quite large). 3 day work, 3 day break. When I'm at home, I usually in front of my computer, so my energy consumption isn't that great, but still eating once a day just seems very low. So the question is, just how much energy do we need for real, and how much food contains that?

BMI has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are overweight or underweight, it is just a formula for comparing average weight across different heights, so don't use it to tell you if you are healthy.

eating too little can also prevent you from losing weight, as your body changes its metabolism to deal with famine like conditions.

[Deleted]

Contrary unfortunately to what you may want to hear, you're going to need to up your intake to force your body's furnace to burn hotter and for longer.

What is happening right now is that your body is going into storage mode because you aren't eating often enough, keeping fat stores high and burning to a minimum. Up your intake to 5 smaller meals per day, with the first meal as the largest, and the last meal as half the size of your first. Focus on 40% lean protein, 20% fat, 20% carbs, and 20% varied fruits and vegetables of dark strong colours.

Drink lots of fluids too, all that proper diet won't help if you don't have enough water in you to facilitate the process. Coffee, tea, and alcohol do count, but keep them to minimum, go for non concentrate fruit juices and water. Lots of fluids.

These are your macro intake components. The larger picture.

Your micro intake components are things like all of those vitamins, minerals, etc on vitamin bottles that go on and on, a-z etc.

You can get these with some kind of all in one supplement vitamin pills. Or don't, if you don't like the idea or the cost (usually like 30-50$ per bottle of 100 tablets, 1/day) you can skip this. I wouldn't recommend skipping it, the little things add up right, but it's your body.


Lastly, as a count on calories, try to keep yourself at around 1600, give or take 100-200 depending on preference or performance.


This can all be done without working out, but I highly recommend doing some independent research on what kinds of working out would benefit you, and getting into them asap, if you have 3 days off between work, you've definitely got time for 1-2 hours a day.

The broscience is strong in this one.

[Deleted]

BMI has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are overweight or underweight, it is just a formula for comparing average weight across different heights, so don't use it to tell you if you are healthy.

eating too little can also prevent you from losing weight, as your body changes its metabolism to deal with famine like conditions.

I don't intend to lose weight. I was just wondering how came I eat less than the typical recommended for months, yet I don't get thinner. So that recommended thing is not true. We don't really need that much after all, it seems.