Who else has a calorie goal of 1200? Or anywhere close!
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I am 5'5"/112 lbs and my daily calorie goals are 1320 on smaller muscle group weight training days (arms/shoulders/abs), and 1520-1600 on larger muscle group training days (legs/chest/back). I do only 1-1.5 (max) hrs cardio per week, mostly HIIT cardio (30/30 sprints are my favorite) and very little steady state cardio (though I do try to keep it in the mix), and often mix either plyometrics and/or working rests in with my lifting sets. This strategy has worked amazingly well for me. Have lost 12 pounds over the last year with little to no weight fluctuation and am in the best shape of my life. For the record, I have a HUGE struggle with keeping sugar cravings under control
Note - I actually am thinking of trimming my calorie goals a bit, as I'd like to lean out a bit more in my abs area. It's tricky though as I don't want to lose muscle, but in fact want to grow it!0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range2 -
I shouldn't be surprised but I always am at how many people are undereating due to setting too aggressive calorie deficit for their weight loss goals and/or not understanding that with MFP you are meant to eat back exercise calories. So unless you are truly sedentary then almost all of you should be eating more than 1200 cals, even to lose weight...
For what it's worth, I'm 5'2 and lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 cals and am maintaining at 120 lbs with a TDEE of 2200.
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Mine is 1200 a day. My fit bit tells me that my RMR is around 1550 or so (without exercise) so I think this is appropriate!
I am trying to get more friends on here so it can keep me motivated! Sweating for the wedding - sept 17th!
What FitBit do you have that measures RMR? Even if it does, why would you eat below that in order to lose? You should be eating at a deficit from your TDEE, which FitBit cals "total calories burned".0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
I agree that losing muscle sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're malnourished.0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
I agree that losing muscle sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're malnourished.
I choose to lose weight slower so that I can retain a larger % of lean muscle mass. That means I choose to eat more than the MFP DEFAULT minimum of 1200 calories (for women).
We all make choices.....my choice is healthy weight loss. Lowering my body fat % is healthy weight loss. The number on the scale can be fairly meaningless. I'm over 50 and no longer take lean muscle mass for granted.3 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
I agree that losing muscle sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're malnourished.
I choose to lose weight slower so that I can retain a larger % of lean muscle mass. That means I choose to eat more than the MFP DEFAULT minimum of 1200 calories (for women).
We all make choices.....my choice is healthy weight loss. Lowering my body fat % is healthy weight loss. The number on the scale can be fairly meaningless. I'm over 50 and no longer take lean muscle mass for granted.
I don't think either of our choices are wrong. Like you said we all make choices and I respect yours.1 -
lemonblossom wrote: »I'm 1250 calories a day. Btw, I am short! LOL!!
Me too lemonblossom being 5 foot nothing sucks lol x1 -
[RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
if MFP put a woman at 1000 calories then it was a glitch because I have messed around with the settings and it wont go below 1200. Im eating more than 2000 calories and Im only 5'6 and I lost 0.6lbs this week alone. and Im 163.8 lbs as well. so if I can lose eating that much then a male taller than myself or even 6'1 could lose eating more than 1200-1500 calories. also Im lightly active. most days I get in over 10,000 steps,some days more.Im going to get back to lifting weights too. but if someone is more than lightly active then 1200-1500 most likely is not enough. you have to fuel your body and your workouts. if you arent eating enough and getting enough protein you are losing muscle mass as well. losing too fast too quickly is not good unless you have a lot of weight and fat to lose in which case it will eventually slow down.0 -
if MFP put a woman at 1000 calories then it was a glitch because I have messed around with the settings and it wont go below 1200
Mine lets me save and spits out a projected number every time I log 1000-11002 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »[RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
if MFP put a woman at 1000 calories then it was a glitch because I have messed around with the settings and it wont go below 1200. Im eating more than 2000 calories and Im only 5'6 and I lost 0.6lbs this week alone. and Im 163.8 lbs as well. so if I can lose eating that much then a male taller than myself or even 6'1 could lose eating more than 1200-1500 calories. also Im lightly active. most days I get in over 10,000 steps,some days more.Im going to get back to lifting weights too. but if someone is more than lightly active then 1200-1500 most likely is not enough. you have to fuel your body and your workouts. if you arent eating enough and getting enough protein you are losing muscle mass as well. losing too fast too quickly is not good unless you have a lot of weight and fat to lose in which case it will eventually slow down.
Go back and read the thread. There are two other explanations about where I got the 1000-1200 for women from.
I never said I couldn't lose eating 2000 calories.
I'm not losing muscle.
I do have a lot of fat to lose.1 -
not talking about saving the entry. Im talking about when you put in your weight and how much you want to lose. and MFP experiences glitches often. the only way it would let me save under 1200 is if I ate over that and my net was under 1200. is that what you are experiencing? are you getting exercise and netting under 1200?0
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not talking about saving the entry. Im talking about when you put in your weight and how much you want to lose. and MFP experiences glitches often. the only way it would let me save under 1200 is if I ate over that and my net was under 1200. is that what you are experiencing? are you getting exercise and netting under 1200?
I had assumed that's what he was talking about... that he can save his food log at 1200 as a male and 1000 as a female without getting the nastygram. I can net 600 calories and save it.. and it still will give me a projected weight for 5 weeks from now. The gross calories are the ones that are counting when saving0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
I agree that losing muscle sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're malnourished.
I choose to lose weight slower so that I can retain a larger % of lean muscle mass. That means I choose to eat more than the MFP DEFAULT minimum of 1200 calories (for women).
We all make choices.....my choice is healthy weight loss. Lowering my body fat % is healthy weight loss. The number on the scale can be fairly meaningless. I'm over 50 and no longer take lean muscle mass for granted.
I don't think either of our choices are wrong. Like you said we all make choices and I respect yours.
Respecting others' choices is a wonderful thing. And I respect yours!
Urging our choices on others, in the form of advice about what they should do . . . well, that can get dicey.
You seem to be male, and I'm guessing you're young. OP is young, and female. On average, women build (or rebuild) muscle slower than men - maybe half the rate. Older people build/re-build muscle slower than younger ones. The slower one rebuilds it, the crazier it is to risk losing it.
In my mind, @TeaBea's view that it's good to lose weight more slowly, in order to preserve as much muscle mass as possible, is good advice to anyone. So, it's good advice to a young woman like OP.
Your advice, to cut calories to very low levels, and (here @TeaBea is correct, scientifically speaking) risk losing more lean body tissue (like muscles) along the way, is good advice for . . . well, no one; and only even remotely defensible advice to young men.
So, repeating: I respect your choices. Your advice to OP? Not quite so much.
(Signed: Concerned granny-type conservative li'l ol' lady, who, BTW, has lost over 1/3 of her body weight in less than a year, and is strong as all git-out.)3 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »not talking about saving the entry. Im talking about when you put in your weight and how much you want to lose. and MFP experiences glitches often. the only way it would let me save under 1200 is if I ate over that and my net was under 1200. is that what you are experiencing? are you getting exercise and netting under 1200?
I don't eat back my exercise calories, but I also don't eat as low as 1200 on exercise days. I normally only drop my calories to 1200 if I have an injury and can't exercise.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »[RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
if MFP put a woman at 1000 calories then it was a glitch because I have messed around with the settings and it wont go below 1200. Im eating more than 2000 calories and Im only 5'6 and I lost 0.6lbs this week alone. and Im 163.8 lbs as well. so if I can lose eating that much then a male taller than myself or even 6'1 could lose eating more than 1200-1500 calories. also Im lightly active. most days I get in over 10,000 steps,some days more.Im going to get back to lifting weights too. but if someone is more than lightly active then 1200-1500 most likely is not enough. you have to fuel your body and your workouts. if you arent eating enough and getting enough protein you are losing muscle mass as well. losing too fast too quickly is not good unless you have a lot of weight and fat to lose in which case it will eventually slow down.
Go back and read the thread. There are two other explanations about where I got the 1000-1200 for women from.
I never said I couldn't lose eating 2000 calories.
I'm not losing muscle.
I do have a lot of fat to lose.
ok but still even at that 1200 calories is too aggressive of a goal. even with a lot of fat and weight to lose you still can and should eat more and how do you know you arent losing muscle? everyone who loses weight loses some muscle mass which is why its recommended to take in enough protein and lift heavy to retain as much muscle as you can. as for closing your diary it was most likely a glitch.0 -
I moved mine to 1400 because I was too cranky on 1200! But that's what MFP defaults me to.0
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CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »not talking about saving the entry. Im talking about when you put in your weight and how much you want to lose. and MFP experiences glitches often. the only way it would let me save under 1200 is if I ate over that and my net was under 1200. is that what you are experiencing? are you getting exercise and netting under 1200?
I don't eat back my exercise calories, but I also don't eat as low as 1200 on exercise days. I normally only drop my calories to 1200 if I have an injury and can't exercise.
MFP uses the neat method so you are supposed to eat back 25-50% of your exercise calories back at least. it already calculates your deficit. if you are netting less than the recommended for women. you arent getting enough nutrition. this is a marathon not a sprint. weight loss takes time,and should be done in a healthy matter but if you dont want to do things the healthy way then you go ahead. thats up to you.0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
MFP puts the minimum for men at 1200 and the minimum for ladies at 1000. I know this because I tried to close my diary at 1194 and a message popped up.
The truth is, you could eat 4000 calories and still suffer from malnutrition if all you eat is honey buns. You can also eat 1000 or lower and still get proper nutrition if you have enough body fat to give your body energy. The minimum that you've read about on the internet is there to keep people from dying who don't understand nutrition.
Unfortunately your body doesn't use fat stores (exclusively) for fuel. Unless you are currently obese, your body is also using existing lean muscle mass as fuel.
There's a price you pay for fast weight loss............
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
I agree that losing muscle sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're malnourished.
I choose to lose weight slower so that I can retain a larger % of lean muscle mass. That means I choose to eat more than the MFP DEFAULT minimum of 1200 calories (for women).
We all make choices.....my choice is healthy weight loss. Lowering my body fat % is healthy weight loss. The number on the scale can be fairly meaningless. I'm over 50 and no longer take lean muscle mass for granted.
I don't think either of our choices are wrong. Like you said we all make choices and I respect yours.
Respecting others' choices is a wonderful thing. And I respect yours!
Urging our choices on others, in the form of advice about what they should do . . . well, that can get dicey.
You seem to be male, and I'm guessing you're young. OP is young, and female. On average, women build (or rebuild) muscle slower than men - maybe half the rate. Older people build/re-build muscle slower than younger ones. The slower one rebuilds it, the crazier it is to risk losing it.
In my mind, @TeaBea's view that it's good to lose weight more slowly, in order to preserve as much muscle mass as possible, is good advice to anyone. So, it's good advice to a young woman like OP.
Your advice, to cut calories to very low levels, and (here @TeaBea is correct, scientifically speaking) risk losing more lean body tissue (like muscles) along the way, is good advice for . . . well, no one; and only even remotely defensible advice to young men.
So, repeating: I respect your choices. Your advice to OP? Not quite so much.
(Signed: Concerned granny-type conservative li'l ol' lady, who, BTW, has lost over 1/3 of her body weight in less than a year, and is strong as all git-out.)
I never gave advice to anyone. The OP in this thread is looking for friends with similar goals. I have not seen her ask for advice the first time. I have similar goals. That's why I'm here. If people want to tell me I'm wrong for making choices about my body, they should expect a reply.
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I honestly am having a hard time keeping my calorie goal under 1200-1500lbs. Maybe because I just started doing this. I keep on having cravings. Any tips for a beginner? Thanks
Anyway, to anyone out there, if you ever need a friend to accompany you through this journey to a happier and healthier life, motivate you to reach for you goals, support you through ups and downs, I'm always here to be that friend, so feel free to add me! I hope we all will succeed in this journey, until the end! Have a nice day everyone!
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