WASHINGTON — This is the time of year when people tend to indulge, and some think about balancing all those extra calories with a low-cal diet.
But how low is too low? The truth is there is no single answer.
“That is really dependent on your size, age and your activity,” says Stephanie Wright, an associate professor at the George Washington University School of Nursing.
There are a number of good calorie calculators online — including one devised by the Mayo Clinic — that anyone can use to determine the number of daily calories needed to maintain their weight.
“If you go more than 20 percent below that number, it is not necessarily too low, but you have to pay attention to your nutrition because you have restricted your calories quite a lot,” says Wright, who specializes in training family nurse practitioners.
For the average person, anything below 1,200 calories a day is tricky. They will lose weight but may end up malnourished, and soon the warning signs — decreased energy, changes in the hair and skin — will be evident.
Some research indicates an ultra-low calorie diet can make for a sluggish metabolism. Wright says that over the long haul, people on such diets still lose weight, although sometimes their rate of loss will slow over time.
She says a low-cal diet is fine for a day or so, and certainly will do no harm. But for most, in the long term, severe calorie restriction only works if you still get all the nutrients you need, and that is difficult on, say, 1,000 calories a day.
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