Is it possible to lose weight by only eating 600 calories per day?

Sounds like a phenomenally bad idea to me. That’s way less than the recommended daily caloric intake recommended for anyone. That the sort of diet my grandma was on…during WWII in Yugoslavia while they were occupied.

I went down that route before. I only ate 400 calories a day for a little while and I lost tons of weight, however, I gained it all back, became sick, and I felt absolutely horrible. You can’t even exercise with 600 calories because you would become violently ill during it all.

Yeah but it’ll come right back and you’ll feel like shit while you do it. Why not lose weight the healthy way?

It depends on how big you are. If you’re 4’1” you probably could. 600 is about half of the recommended calories for dieting, so it’s probably not a good idea. Take a little longer to reach your goal and add a more calories so as to keep your strength up. See @KateTheGreat .

@Sunny2 I totally hadn’t considered the possibility that the OP might be a little person. I suppose it might be feasible if they were.

1500 calories a day is pretty tough for most people so unless you’re very young with excellent muscle and skin tone already, I’d wouldn’t gamble for a good looking recovery. The more you have to lose, the slower you should go if you want the best aesthetic results.

If you’ve been used to eating 700 calories a day, then yes. You will lose weight eating only 600. Slowly but surely you will lose weight.

If you’re used to eating 3000 calories a day and cut back to 600 a day you will definitely lose weight very, very rapidly and probably go into shock.

I eat, probably, 1500 calories per day (deliberately) and maintain my weight at about 140 (I’m 5’8.) But 1500 is what I eat day in and day out, year after year. I don’t “go on diets,” and I don’t have to change my wardrobe. Ever.

You will certainly lose weight, but it could cause much more severe problems than having a bit of extra fat. Like death—which will also make you lose weight rather rapidly, but without the ability to enjoy your newfound skinniness.

There was a medical report that said eating 600 calories for 6 weeks has been found to cure Diabeties 2. It lowers the amount of fat on your pancreas.
Anyway, ya you will lose weight.

Would it be a better idea to eat 850 Calories a day ? Plus 45 min of exercise each day ? The recommended amount of calories for a woman my age(22) is about 1400 calories per day.

Sure you will be it is awfully low. I am very small and I can lose weight if I eat 900–1000 calories a day and will gain weight if I eat more than about 1500. Depending on your size, probably 1000–1200 is a better dieting number to shoot for. Get some good calorie counters and plan some menus.

@janbb – Thanks sounds good.

A 600 calorie diet is pretty low. There also is not enough detail on many other factors here.
If you are serious, find a good personal trainer.

Eating only 600 calories a day is unhealthy. Sure, you’d lose weight, but you’d be sick and we’d start calling you “Skeletor”.

@WillWorkForChocolate – Yeah I figured it would really be a terrible idea. I’m shooting for about 900/1000 calories per day now. Thanks for the feedback everyone. Don’t know what I was/wasn’t thinking. lol.

Does this mean we don’t get to call you Skeletor? lol :P

You can in a medically supervised way. You will also slow your metabolism. If you are doing it on your own, I wouldn’t go lower than 1200 calories and make sure you incorporate plenty of vegetables and fruits.

Yes, it is possible. I know two women that went on a doctor approved 500 calorie a day diet. One lost 30 lbs and the other 40 lbs within a six week period. It re-sets your metabolism so that when you are done, your body naturally burns more calories in a day. It has six cycles that last for 6 weeks each and alternate between 500 calories a day and maintenance (one maintenance lasts for 12 weeks).
I suggest talking to your doctor : )

I lost 80 lbs on the HMR 500 Calorie a day Diet Hubby and I are the “freedom gained” couple. It was medically supervised though and nutrient controlled.

Yeah, but you can die. A couple years ago there was a report of a bride who died just before her wedding trying to lose weight for the big day. She was eating 500 cals a day I think.

That’s why it really needs to be medically supervised if under 1200 calories.

There’s also that Lighter Life programs. They combine a very low calorie diet with psychoanalysis to retrain your thinking on food. I think though that a lot of the problem is that if you lose weight fast, your body goes into meltdown and thinks there’s a famine. It shuts your calorie use down so that when you start eating more, you are eating too much, even if it is still less than you ate before you started the diet. Therefore you put weight on. Cut out a little but make sure you enjoy what you eat by eating slowly and stopping when you are full. Your plan to exercise is good.

Your Primary Care Physician needs to be on board with this.

When I was 22 I went on a 500 calorie diet. I weighed 280 lb and went down to 165 lb. in less than a year. However, I looked emaciated (because I was), couldn’t sleep most nights, lost all color (looked like a vampire), and had ZERO energy while doing it. I gained all of it plus 20 pounds back in less than two years. At 27 I finally lost weight the healthy way. I’d aim for 1500 a day and exercise. Weight has stayed off for three years.
BTW, you absolutely CANNOT workout with 600 calories a day. I passed out just standing up too quickly.

Extremely unlikely. You will miserable and the weight loss is only temporary. Our brain doesn’t like to feel hungry. A better approach is losing weight very slowly, for example 1 pound per month or 12 pounds per year.

I can’t believe that no-one has mentioned that if you drastically cut your calories, your body will go into starvation mode and will try it’s best to keep the weight on. Your metabolism will crash and you’ll feel tired all the time because your body will want to sleep to avoid burning calories.

You can mess up your liver, kidneys and heart as well. Don’t go on any drastic diets without talking to the doctor. Seriously. People die doing stuff like this.

@keobooks My understanding is that the notion of “starvation mode” is largely a myth with no scientific backing.

@SavoirFaire I wonder about that too. I went from eating about 2500 calories a day down to about 1300. It’s been two years and I never went into “starvation” mode just because I was eating quite a bit less than I was used to