Many desperate dieters look for extreme diet programs that seek to drop lots of pounds, very fast. One radical technique is the starvation diet. For these dieters, the minimum calories required each day to survive may come into question. However, starvation is unsafe, ineffective and temporary.
Minimum Calories
The National Institute of Health and MedlinePlus.com report the minimum number of calories necessary for both men and women. For men, 1,500 calories are required every day to maintain health. For women, the minimum number of calories per day is 1,200.
Survival
A 220 pound person can technically survive for several weeks without food, as long as they have water. Their body will take calories and energy from their fat stores. Depending on a person's body fat percentage, their survival length will be longer or shorter.
Considerations
You should never consider a diet plan or weight loss programs that aims to provide you with the bare minimum of calories to survive. Effective weight loss is conservative combination of reduced caloric intake, balanced nutrition and reduced portion size. Starving techniques may drop pounds fast, but they are dangerous and once you begin eating again, the weight will come back just as fast.
Diminishing Return
Calculating the minimum calories required for a 220 pound person is a problem related to the law of diminishing return. A person's basal metabolic rate is the number of calories they require per day in order to maintain their current weight. The less a person weights, the fewer calories they require. If a 220 pound person eats a minimum number of calories, their body will burn fat to make up the difference and they will lose weight. As they lose weight the minimum number of calories they need to maintain their weight goes down. The number of calories a person needs will decrease until a person essentially starves to death.
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