1358 kcal/day? Is that sustainable/healthy for an average sized male? That sounds really low - low enough that I feel like I'd be missing other components of my diet (vitamins).
Simple online BMR calculators put my BMR at >1500 kcal/day. Add life on top of that, plus some exercise, and that value needs to be 2000+, sometimes much higher.
What has happened in my experience, and as the author mentions, is that to keep yourself from feeling hungry all the time on a low-calorie diet you will automatically start eating low-calorie-density food.
The most obvious choice here are things with lots of mass that are readily available and suitable for snacking on. For me that's cherry tomatoes and carrots dipped in hummous.
While low in calories, these foods (vegetables) tend to have a high density of nutrients, so I believe what happens is you end up getting more or the same amount of nutrients for fewer overall calories.
I guess I'm just blown away by the 1300kcal figure maintained for a year.
I frequently consume that before lunch and my dinners are often that large on their own. I'm 5'7" and 150lbs. I do workout regularly, but even without the exercise, I don't see how I could stay -200kcal/day on my BMR without making a mess of my metabolism and supplementing vitamins.
I'm sure store-bought is made with lots of oil. When I make it at home it's mostly chickpeas with a little tahini, usually about 1tbsp per carton of beans.
If I'm eating it with carrots I'll get about eight servings from a bowl. So say 100g carrots is 40kcal, plus 240/8, equals 70kcal.
Right enough it about doubles the calories from the carrot, but it is a _lot_ tastier, and 70kcal isn't going to break your budget too hard if you're being careful generally.
1358 cals/day would be a 642 cal deficit a day with a 2000 calorie expenditure. That's a loss of about -4500 calories/week or around 1.28 pounds (~3500 cal/lb). A typically suggested healthy weight loss rate is around 1-2 pounds/week so those numbers are pretty reasonable to lose weight.
If you are not trying to lose a ton of weight, it might be a bit drastic and you would certainly want to take in other considerations based on your goals.
Why does that 'sound' unhealthy? If you want to actually lose weight and eat healthy you need to change your lifestyle, not do a diet here or there for a week or 2.
The more you exercise the more you can get away with eating!
(Sure if you are 5'7 and weigh 150lbs, that would be unhealthy for a year, you don't need to lose 50lbs. But that would be just fine for someone that is overweight)
Exercising to the point of burning >1000 calories is not trivial. You're basically committing to run like 8 miles just for that amount. Then you'll still be hungry with the additional food.
Your BMR is far more important to weight loss than what most people can do with exercise.
I was thinking the same thing. That is definitely on the low end, probably a bit too low from what I have seen. Regular life doesn't need to be added on top of it, that is included in the minimum, but any exercise should. However most people exercising aren't going to be burning more than a few hundred calories. 1800 is probably a safer place to be. And would probably suggest vitamins even if they aren't that effective just to help out a little when that low.
That's totally believable. My own calorie log for the year shows me at a daily average of just under 1600/day and even with 6+ hours at the gym every week that's still only allowing me to just barely keep my weight from increasing again.
As you lose weight, you cause irreparable damage to your metabolism and for the rest of your life it will burn fewer calories. The more you lose, the slower it gets. It's a bitch and a half.
Not healthy at all, every nutrition professionnal will tell you.
90% of people using this "diet" will gain all the weight back; if not more, for lots of reason.
There are direct simple reasons like, by eating much less than your BMR, you are going to loose a ton of muscle mass, even though you eat "enough" protein. The lost of this muscle mass will make your BMR even lower, make your testosterone level lower, and lots of other bad consequences for your hormones.
There are lots of studies about weight loss, comparing every diet, and almost all diets don't work in the long run.
The only thing that works in the long run is eating slightly less calories than needed, with healthy food, with good macros/micros, and building muscle mass, to keep the metabolism rate high.
The thing is, with this type of diet it could take years to achieve your target weight, and not a lot of people are able to accept that, even though it's the healthiest thing to do.
Simple online BMR calculators put my BMR at >1500 kcal/day. Add life on top of that, plus some exercise, and that value needs to be 2000+, sometimes much higher.