1200cals - how much are you loosing?

londonanni

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to hear if the 1kg loss per week on a 1200 calorie diet works for you?
MFP has predicted I should eat 1200 calories a day to lose 1kg per week. This doesn't work at all, I'm losing weight but probably 1/2kg or less each week. I'm pretty accurate and strict with my tracking so I don't think I'm eating more without knowing and I spend about 6h at the gym doing cardio and weights. I'm not actually that bothered if it's a kilo or less but I'm curious to hear what others are experiencing, if you care to share.
On a side note, even the weight loss prediction when I complete a day does not think Ill be 5kg lighter in 5 weeks even if I'm sticking to my calorie allowance. Confusion!

Hope to hear from you
Anna

MarcyKirkton

I adjusted and am losing 1.5 to 2 lbs weekly. At 1200 I would lose .08.

daniwilford

To minimum calorie goal MFP will give a female is 1200 no matter how fast you want to lose. This is to insure that you get adequate nutrition, which is difficult to do at lower calories. You have set too aggressive of a goal, so MFP has defaulted you to 1200 calories. In this case the 5 week projection is closer to the amount you can expect to lose if your average calories over the next five week was equal to that day's net. That said, I rarely eat only 1200 calories, most days I eat around 1500. I have lost over 53 pounds. When I was over 200 lbs, I lost 2 pounds a week like clockwork. Now in the 180's I am losing 1 pound a week on average. I anticipate that I will lose at a rate closer to .5 on average once I lose when I am 150 lbs. If I didn't exercise, I couldn't lose at 1500 because that is very close to my to maintenance on my rest days.

AliceDark

So, to calculate your target, MFP takes the numbers you input and calculates your daily caloric needs (NEAT) based on your height/weight/age/etc. Then it subtracts a certain number of calories per day, based on the amount of weight you say you want to lose (it take a deficit of 500 calories per day to lose a pound per week, or 1000 per day to lose 2 pounds per week). However, MFP won't ever give you a target less than 1200.

Just making up numbers...if your NEAT is 1700, and you say you want to lose 1 pound per week, MFP says 1700-500=1200. If you eat 1200 calories per day, you'll lose 1 pound per week.

If your NEAT is 1700, and you say you want to lose 2 pounds per week, MFP says 1700-1000=700, but the system won't let it spit out 700, so it bumps it up to 1200 automatically. You could say that you want to lose 10 pounds per week, and it would still tell you to eat 1200.

Not everyone can lose 2 pounds per week safely, and you're probably not one of them.

TeaBea

1 pound a week is 500 calories (a day) below your current maintenance. You can come up with that 500 calories by eating less and / or moving more.

Find your maintenance here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

A couple of things to consider: 1200 is a default minimum. Perhaps 1200 matches 1 kg. per week exactly - perhaps 1200 is just as low as MFP is ever going to go.....and .65 kg. is closer.

The activity level you put in MFP is a range, not 1 set number. You may be at the top of that number on day 1 .....and on the bottom of that number on day 2. Most people don't have exactly the same activity level from day to day.

Measuring foods - measuring cups are ok - a food scale is much better. Many (many) people under estimate how much they eat. Be careful choosing entries in MFP as some are flat out wrong.

Exercise calorie burns - these are estimates. Even with a heart rate monitor, steady state cardio calorie burns are estimates....strength training burns are wild guesses.

Weight loss will not be linear. Time of month, constipation, sore muscles, high sodium days.....all of these things mess with the scale. You should look for a general weight loss trend....not exact numbers.

Also, I would never eat as little as 1200 calorie (5'5"). I want fat loss....not "weight" loss.

Unknown

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TeaBea

MarcyKirkton wrote: »

I adjusted and am losing 1.5 to 2 lbs weekly. At 1200 I would lose .08.

This is sad.............

With less than 15 pounds to lose 1.5 - 2 pounds per week is reckless. Moderate paced weight loss helps your body support existing lean muscle mass. Fast weight loss doesn't lower your body fat % nearly as much.

BTW - promoting VLCD (very low calorie diets) is against MFP guidelines.

WinoGelato

OP, the question isn't "how much are people losing at 1200 cals" it should be, "is 1200 the right amount of calories for me?". As others have said, MFP sets your goal based on information you give it when you set up your profile including: Gender, Age, Height, Weight, Activity Level, and Desired Rate of Loss. Based on the first 5 data points, MFP will calculate an estimate of your maintenance calories without exercise. Then, depending on your desired rate of loss, MFP will subtract the appropriate amount of calories to help you achieve that goal, if it is reasonable. That looks like this:

0.5 lbs/week = 250 cal deficit
1 lb/wk = 500 cal deficit
1.5 lb/wk = 750 cal deficit
2 lbs/wk = 1000 cal deficit.

With this said, the default minimum for MFP is 1200 cals, because this is a minimum number of calories that most people need in order to not lose too rapidly, still get in appropriate nutrients, etc. Please note this is a MINIMUM, most people need more calories than this, even to lose weight. This is also the calories excluding exercise, which means if you do choose to exercise, you are meant to eat a portion of these calories back.

So if MFP is giving you 1200 cals but telling you that you will only lose 0.5 kg/week (sorry I just saw that you were using kg and all my numbers above are in pounds), that is because you are at the bottom of their recommendation for you and it is probably not appropriate for you to lose weight at 1 kg/week.

I strongly suggest you read this thread, as well as the other links provided within it and the others at the top of the forum sections for more information about how best to set up this tool and have the greatest success.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1235566/so-youre-new-here/p1

londonanni

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess the logic explanation is that 1200 cals is the lowest default but I can't lose 1kg on that and that's ok! I'm eating healthy and if I'm hungry I'll eat more. It's about healthy choices and exercising.

WinoGelato

londonanni wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess the logic explanation is that 1200 cals is the lowest default but I can't lose 1kg on that and that's ok! I'm eating healthy and if I'm hungry I'll eat more. It's about healthy choices and exercising.

That sounds good but keep in mind, if you are exercising, and logging it in MFP, you should be eating some of those calories back. 1200 is a NET calorie minimum.

BurnWithBarn2015

How do you know you ate 1200 calories
Do you use serving sizes cups spoons?

Or do you really weigh all your food in grams on a digital scale...Because that can be a huge difference.
Hundreds of calories even.
Sometimes people think they eat 1200 while they eat more without knowing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY


It also depends on how tall your are, gender, age, how much overweight and some other factors.
But in general 1200 calories works pretty good.

daniwilford

londonanni wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess the logic explanation is that 1200 cals is the lowest default but I can't lose 1kg on that and that's ok! I'm eating healthy and if I'm hungry I'll eat more. It's about healthy choices and exercising.

Great attitude!

ohmscheeks

When I actually eat 1200 each day, I lose about 2 lbs a week. I am 5'4". ^-^

lalainap19

I lose about 1.5 pounds a week total 18 pound loss in 4 months no exercise.

thankyou4thevenom

I'm 5ft 1 and I lose about 2lbs a week on 1200.

I can't do that level for long as I burn roughly 2500 cals on a daily basis and I feel like I'm starving all the time. So right now I'm only doing 1200 on work days (4 days a week) and upping my cals on days off to 1700. Still losing about the same but I am not hangry all the time any more.

LessthanKris

I am 5'1 and I think at my heaviest I was only able to lose about 1.5 lbs at 1200 calories. I am 18 lbs from my goal of 120 and the largest amount I can lose now at 1200 is 1.1. I find that MFP has been accurate when I enter my exercise calories and eat what it tells me too.

doobie2015

daniwilford wrote: »

To minimum calorie goal MFP will give a female is 1200 no matter how fast you want to lose. This is to insure that you get adequate nutrition, which is difficult to do at lower calories. You have set too aggressive of a goal, so MFP has defaulted you to 1200 calories. In this case the 5 week projection is closer to the amount you can expect to lose if your average calories over the next five week was equal to that day's net. That said, I rarely eat only 1200 calories, most days I eat around 1500. I have lost over 53 pounds. When I was over 200 lbs, I lost 2 pounds a week like clockwork. Now in the 180's I am losing 1 pound a week on average. I anticipate that I will lose at a rate closer to .5 on average once I lose when I am 150 lbs. If I didn't exercise, I couldn't lose at 1500 because that is very close to my to maintenance on my rest days.

Can I ask how long it has taken you to get where you are in terms of wieght. I have similar stats to you and was curious. Tia!