1200 calorie diet and exercise

ambultje

hi everyone! I'm currently on 1200 calorie diet to lose 2 pounds a week. When I go running, do I add back those calories after burning them to hit the 1200 calorie goal. Someone please help to clarify!

diannethegeek

This post might help to explain things: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

rpdholly

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

ELiCiT23

No. Eat at 1500 and burn 300 with cardio. It is much safer, 1200 calorie a day diet is not really safe. What happens when you hit a plateau and have to go down to just lose 1 more pound? Increase calories and reach calorie GOAL with cardio. Is 1200 calories what you need to lose 2 pounds a week? The fast you lose weight the faster you hit a plateau. What's your weight/height?

arditarose

rpdholly wrote: »

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

At 1200 calories, if you're truly weighing and measure all food, you should definitely eat back exercise calories. 1200 should be your absolute minimum.

ambultje

I'm 158 and I'm 5 foot 3 inches. I am still 25 pounds overweight from my son.

TX_Rhon

arditarose wrote: »

rpdholly wrote: »

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

At 1200 calories, if you're truly weighing and measure all food, you should definitely eat back exercise calories. 1200 should be your absolute minimum.

^^agreed! 1200 net calories.

jacksonpt

rpdholly wrote: »

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

That's dumb advice.

"Hey, message board full of people with poor relationships with food and no real knowledge about nutrition or energy... just listen to your body."

ELiCiT23

Take it slow. You actually need 1400 calories to lose 1 lb a week (if activity level is 3+ times a week). Try something like: eating 1600 calories and 200 burned through cardio. It's gonna get to the point where you'll need 1000 calories or less to lose weight and that's not fun! Be safe.

jacksonpt

ELiCiT23 wrote: »

No. Eat at 1500 and burn 300 with cardio. It is much safer, 1200 calorie a day diet is not really safe. What happens when you hit a plateau and have to go down to just lose 1 more pound? Increase calories and reach calorie GOAL with cardio. Is 1200 calories what you need to lose 2 pounds a week? The fast you lose weight the faster you hit a plateau. What's your weight/height?

It's the same thing... you are still netting 1200, the only difference is how you log it. "It's safer"... SMH

ELiCiT23

jacksonpt wrote: »

rpdholly wrote: »

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

That's dumb advice.

"Hey, message board full of people with poor relationships with food and no real knowledge about nutrition or energy... just listen to your body."

Yeah "listen to your body" isn't always the best thing to do. You should listen to your body by the way it reacts to certain foods, not listen to it when it wants to gulp down a tub of ice cream! Lol

jacksonpt

OP, assuming what you think is 1200 calories actually is 1200 calories, then yes you probably should be eating them back.

arditarose

ELiCiT23 wrote: »

Take it slow. You actually need 1400 calories to lose 1 lb a week (if activity level is 3+ times a week). Try something like: eating 1600 calories and 200 burned through cardio. It's gonna get to the point where you'll need 1000 calories or less to lose weight and that's not fun! Be safe.

Stop confusing newbies. And me.

sandrop329

You're not overweight from your son. You're overweight from eating more calories than you burned. Period. End of story. Eating 1200 to lose weight for women is ridiculous. I suggest you use a reputable TDEE calculator, find out your TDEE, and eat 15% less of that. Starving yourself at 1200 calories is only going to backfire. You will get discouraged and eventually gain back anything that you do manage to lose if you manage to lose anything at all. Educate yourself. I suggest looking into gokaleo.com.

TDEE calculator: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
GoKaleo: https://gokaleo.com/

ELiCiT23

@arditarose‌ @jacksonpt‌

I just realized I DID make it sound more complicated than it really is

lemurcat12

arditarose wrote: »

rpdholly wrote: »

Not necessarily. Listen to your body. If you are hungry after all of your meals and snacks and need an additional nutrition then add it. If you don't feel hungry don't eat. Go by how you feel.

At 1200 calories, if you're truly weighing and measure all food, you should definitely eat back exercise calories. 1200 should be your absolute minimum.

This.