Is 1,200 calories healthy?

MostlyWater

I don't know. For me to lose weight I generally go lower but then again, I exercise an hour a day, 6 days a week, and if I were hungry, I'd eat. You have to know your body.

What does your dr/nutritionist say?

paperpudding

AliceDark wrote: »

Be prepared for the fact that changing your rate of loss to 0.5 pounds per week may not get you a lot of extra calories to eat. Here's why: 1200 calories is MFP's floor for women. It won't give you a goal under 1200 calories, so that doesn't mean that 1200 calories will actually result in your chosen rate of loss. If it's giving you 1200 calories to lose 1.5 pounds, that also means that it will give you 1200 calories if you told it you wanted to lose 2 pounds per week. I suspect it would probably give you 1200 calories if you told it you wanted to lose 1 pound per week as well (although I'm not 100% sure of that).

Try playing around with your numbers, and see what rate you have to enter to get a number other than 1200 calories. That will tell you when you've reached a more realistic goal and when MFP isn't just automatically spitting out 1200 calories because you've hit the floor.

Based on OP's stats i say changing to 0.5 lb per week would give more calories.

as per my post upthread that is based on fact it gave me 1460 to lose 0.5 per week at lightly active and I was same height and gender as OP but 20 years older, and had not much more to lose. (10kg total, around 22lb)

Hard to see MFP would give her less than me with comparable stats.

takemetosingapore19

Definitely. R/1200isplenty changed my life. I eat more than 1200 due to activity level but my net is always 1200 or less

kimny72

Unfortunately, the fact that other people eat 1200 (or think they eat 1200) is not useful information on it's own. A person's height, current weight, age, activity level, exercise schedule, and method of measuring portions all affect the health, feasability, and sustainability of a 1200 calorie goal. Are there some people who do (and should) eat 1200 cals? Yes. But they are in the minority.

Based on OPs stats and the symptoms she described, no she should not eat 1200 calories.

AliceDark

paperpudding wrote: »

AliceDark wrote: »

Be prepared for the fact that changing your rate of loss to 0.5 pounds per week may not get you a lot of extra calories to eat. Here's why: 1200 calories is MFP's floor for women. It won't give you a goal under 1200 calories, so that doesn't mean that 1200 calories will actually result in your chosen rate of loss. If it's giving you 1200 calories to lose 1.5 pounds, that also means that it will give you 1200 calories if you told it you wanted to lose 2 pounds per week. I suspect it would probably give you 1200 calories if you told it you wanted to lose 1 pound per week as well (although I'm not 100% sure of that).

Try playing around with your numbers, and see what rate you have to enter to get a number other than 1200 calories. That will tell you when you've reached a more realistic goal and when MFP isn't just automatically spitting out 1200 calories because you've hit the floor.

Based on OP's stats i say changing to 0.5 lb per week would give more calories.

as per my post upthread that is based on fact it gave me 1460 to lose 0.5 per week at lightly active and I was same height and gender as OP but 20 years older, and had not much more to lose. (10kg total, around 22lb)

Hard to see MFP would give her less than me with comparable stats.

You're right, it will probably give her more. My point was that it might not give her a lot more. If 1200 were her actual number to lose 1.5 pounds for real, reducing her rate of loss to 0.5 pounds would give her an extra 500 calories per day. I don't think she's going to get that many extra calories, because I don't think that 1200 would really result in a rate of loss of 1.5 pounds per week. I don't want her to get disappointed if she thinks she's going to drastically slow her rate of loss and doesn't get a lot more calories to eat.