[MerelyMortal]

My goal is to become a lean, fit, machine. First I have to drop a lot of weight. I started 4 weeks ago and I'm down 17 pounds so far. Basically I'm just limiting myself to about 500-700 calories of protein-rich foods a day, plus a multivitamin, a calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement, and more recently, a fiber supplement.

It's very dangerous, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't put their body through extreme circumstances in the past and knows their actual (not percieved) limits. I haven't pooped in a week, and my last bowel movement was gnarly.

A safer rate of weight-loss should not be more than 2 pounds a week, or approximately a 1,000 calorie defecit per day. An online search for a basal metabolic rate calculator should be a starting point.

Advice to others, no matter what process you take: I recommend not weighing yourself more than once a week - it's a mental thing.

[technosamay20]

With such drastic diet - gastric system goes for a toss. You don't want to wait that long between pooping. One option is to try buffered vitamin c. It was definitely give you a poop whenever you want without side effect and dependency.

I recommend the following vitamin c powder. If you are up for it you can do also a vitamin c cleanse: https://www.perque.com/product/perque-potent-c-guard-powder/

[MerelyMortal]

I just had a BM, and it was more normal. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[MerelyMortal]

6 weeks, 24 pounds.

[DarylZero]

Why do you think it's dangerous? If you have fat on your body you don't need any caloric intake.

[MerelyMortal]

Things I've faced so far: Constipation and Hyponatremia.

Catabolysis and heart damage is also possible. The body will consume fat first, so this is an avoidable outcome. I added the multivitamin and calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement to help avoid damage as well. Damaging my heart is my largest concern with this diet.

[DarylZero]

Losing fat inherently raises blood lipids (the fat has to be circulated), which is bad for the heart long-term, but not an acute danger. The body is evolved to live on body fat, it's fine and normal.

[mikewarot]

My dad survived stage 4 cancer... a bowel obstruction is what took him out... you don't want your bowels completely stopped, otherwise very, very bad things happen. That's why it's dangerous.

[DarylZero]

They don't completely stop though. You poop out liquid that (I've read) comes mostly from your body's dead blood cells.

[strikelaserclaw]

how do u get anything done at ur job on such an extreme diet? I've tried 1000 cal deficit for 2 months and i barely slept most days due to the hunger.

[MerelyMortal]

Eating only protien (versus carbohydrates) should smooth out the hunger. Keeping busy helps me ignore the hunger. For the first two weeks, the hunger was mostly mental. Drinking lots of water helps also curb the hunger as well as keep me focused. I don't know if there is a universal answer, just my experience. I don't sleep any better or any worse during versus before the diet. And actually, I've wanted to go to bed earlier to so I can sleep through the hunger rather than be awake to deal with it. Four, almost five weeks in, I don't have any mental hunger any more, I still have some occasional physical hunger, but its timeline varies. Somedays I feel like I could go all day without eating, somedays two meals isn't enough. I always stick to two meals a day: one breakfast, and one lunch which eventually moved back towards about three hours after normal lunchtime.

[DarylZero]

Try eating even less. I don't eat anything and I'm never hungry. (This is because I have a lot of fat on my body.)

If you're fat, you shouldn't ever be hungry, but eating food actually makes you go through cycles of hunger.

Stop eating altogether you get a steady hormonal state that is never hungry (until your fat reserves deplete).

[MerelyMortal]

Also, the desire to want to "feel full" is something that's hard to overcome. I'm not sure I'm there yet.

Feeling "full" means overeating.

I read a comment on reddit once: "hunger" is telling you when to eat, not how much to eat.