What happens if I eat less than my maintenance calories?

Regularly eating fewer calories than your body requires can cause fatigue and make it more challenging for you to meet your daily nutrient needs. For instance, calorie-restricted diets may not provide sufficient amounts of iron, folate or vitamin B12. This can lead to anemia and extreme fatigue (16, 17, 18).

Will you lose weight if you eat less than your maintenance calories?

Weight loss requires a calorie deficit Once your body’s energy needs are met, extra calories are stored for future use — some in your muscles as glycogen, but most as fat. Thus, eating more calories than you burn will cause you to gain weight, whereas eating fewer than you need will cause weight loss ( 4 ).

Can eating less cause weight gain?

A calorie deficit means that you consume fewer calories from food and drink than your body uses to keep you alive and active. This makes sense because it’s a fundamental law of thermodynamics: If we add more energy than we expend, we gain weight. If we add less energy than we expend, we lose weight.

What happens if you eat too less?

In addition to sabotaging your weight-loss efforts, eating too few calories can also harm your health. When your body goes into starvation mode, you are at increased risk for the following: Abnormally low blood pressure and slow heart rate. Heart rhythm abnormalities.

What happens if you don’t eat enough calories to lose weight?

Calories are critical when you’re trying to lose weight, but low calorie diets eventually catch up to you. If you’re eating less than 1,200 calories a day, you might experience negative side-effects. Your body begins to fight weight loss by lowering your metabolism and releasing hormones that make you hungry.

What are the side effects of a low-calorie diet?

You may end up with constipation, as it’s hard to get enough fiber on so few calories. If you maintain less than 1,000 calories a day for a month or longer, you may also experience gallstones due to the inactivity of the gallbladder from the very low fat in the diet.

What are maintenance calories and how do they work?

Maintenance calories are the number of calories that won’t cause weight loss or weight gain – they’re serve to maintain the current state. The maintenance calories value depends on two major factors – basal metabolic rate (BMR) and physical activity level (PAL). Changes in both those factors can cause your maintenance calories change.

Can you lose muscle mass on a low-calorie diet?

You’re likely to lose muscle mass on a low-calorie diet. According to MedlinePlus, weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week can cause muscle loss. If you’re losing that much weight or more while eating under 1,200 calories per day, some of it is likely muscle.