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There is a huge difference between a 50%+ calorie deficit and a 17% calorie deficit. The two aren't comparable.

by Permit 10y ago

abandonliberty 10y ago
Control period was 3,200, starvation was 1560. This seems high. Most dietary recommendations today are structured around a 2000 calorie diet. Wikipedia mentions that this was a healthy weight diet - they must have been very active and/or large. What calorie deficit is required to obtain 25% weight loss in 6 months?
- Jemmeh 10y ago
  It says they tweaked it per person, those are just approx amounts. They were measuring weight to make sure it stayed on track for that loss. So I think the deficit varies slightly. It says they picked people from the CPS(civilian public service) work camps, so I would guess they were doing a lot of physical labor.
- epimetheus 10y ago
  It's not really 2000 for everybody[0] "From USDA food consumption surveys of that era, the FDA knew that women typically reported consuming 1,600 to 2,200 calories a day, men 2,000 to 3,000, and children 1,800 to 2,500. But stating ranges on food labels would take up too much space and did not seem particularly helpful. The FDA proposed using a single standard of daily calorie intake—2,350 calories per day, based on USDA survey data. The agency requested public comments on this proposal and on alternative figures: 2,000, 2,300, and 2,400 calories per day." "Despite the observable fact that 2,350 calories per day is below the average requirements for either men or women obtained from doubly labeled water experiments, most of the people who responded to the comments judged the proposed benchmark too high. Nutrition educators worried that it would encourage overconsumption, be irrelevant to women who consume fewer calories, and permit overstatement of acceptable levels of “eat less” nutrients such as saturated fat and sodium. Instead, they proposed 2,000 calories as:" <snip - I highly recommend reading the rest> [0]-http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/08/where-did-the-2000-calorie-diet-idea-come-from/ http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/08/where-did-the-2000-calor...
- vonmoltke 10y ago
  The participants were expected to perform manual labor every day and expected to walk no less than 22 miles per week. 1500 calories a day is really low under those conditons, and the 3200 was probably selected to maintain weight given them.
- IanCal 10y ago
  > What calorie deficit is required to obtain 25% weight loss in 6 months? Depends what you originally weigh, but we can make a reasonable approximation of 3500cal/pound of fat, so ~20 calories per day deficit for each pound lost. So ~800/day if they weighed 160lbs to begin with. They were very active, that's an important part of the experiment.

There is a huge difference between a 50%+ calorie deficit and a 17% calorie deficit. The two aren't comparable.

by Permit 10y ago

There is a huge difference between a 50%+ calorie deficit and a 17% calorie deficit. The two aren't comparable.

Control period was 3,200, starvation was 1560. This seems high. Most dietary recommendations today are structured around a 2000 calorie diet. Wikipedia mentions that this was a healthy weight diet - they must have been very active and/or large. What calorie deficit is required to obtain 25% weight loss in 6 months?

Jemmeh 10y ago
It says they tweaked it per person, those are just approx amounts. They were measuring weight to make sure it stayed on track for that loss. So I think the deficit varies slightly. It says they picked people from the CPS(civilian public service) work camps, so I would guess they were doing a lot of physical labor.
epimetheus 10y ago
It's not really 2000 for everybody[0] "From USDA food consumption surveys of that era, the FDA knew that women typically reported consuming 1,600 to 2,200 calories a day, men 2,000 to 3,000, and children 1,800 to 2,500. But stating ranges on food labels would take up too much space and did not seem particularly helpful. The FDA proposed using a single standard of daily calorie intake—2,350 calories per day, based on USDA survey data. The agency requested public comments on this proposal and on alternative figures: 2,000, 2,300, and 2,400 calories per day." "Despite the observable fact that 2,350 calories per day is below the average requirements for either men or women obtained from doubly labeled water experiments, most of the people who responded to the comments judged the proposed benchmark too high. Nutrition educators worried that it would encourage overconsumption, be irrelevant to women who consume fewer calories, and permit overstatement of acceptable levels of “eat less” nutrients such as saturated fat and sodium. Instead, they proposed 2,000 calories as:" <snip - I highly recommend reading the rest> [0]-http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/08/where-did-the-2000-calorie-diet-idea-come-from/ http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/08/where-did-the-2000-calor...
vonmoltke 10y ago
The participants were expected to perform manual labor every day and expected to walk no less than 22 miles per week. 1500 calories a day is really low under those conditons, and the 3200 was probably selected to maintain weight given them.
IanCal 10y ago
> What calorie deficit is required to obtain 25% weight loss in 6 months? Depends what you originally weigh, but we can make a reasonable approximation of 3500cal/pound of fat, so ~20 calories per day deficit for each pound lost. So ~800/day if they weighed 160lbs to begin with. They were very active, that's an important part of the experiment.