1200 cals a day!
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I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.0
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I'm0
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I'm 4'11and half my maintenance calories are 1200. I weight around 103lbs. I think if you are short, 1200 calories per day is fine. Good luck with your journey ☺3
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adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
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prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
I am 5ft 5 inch.
Dont take that too low calories take 1200 atleast.
What I do I take 90-100 gram of carb and 27 gram fat and 100-150 gram protein daily with 40 mins walk at 13 mins per km daily.....0 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »I am exactly 5ft and 166lbs. I am quite sedentary, but I am trying to walk more than I do currently.
OP, you don't have much to lose to be at a healthy weight - 0.5lb a week would be perfect, input that into the app and see what calories you are given. Weight loss is hard enough without feeling more deprived than necessary, plus if you are eating a healthy amount of calories you are more likely to stick with the plan and see it through which equals results.
All the best.
Thanks
I've just played around with different weight losses.
If I put in 0.5lb loss - I get 1260 calories
If I put in 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb, it gives me 1200 calories, and a maximum weight loss of 1lb a week.
So to keep healthy, it looks as though 1lb is the most I can lose a week and still keep healthy. (unless I do a lot of exercise and not eat all the calories back)
Some days I find it really difficult to get enough protein without overdoing the fat calories. But I am learning day by day.
I'm not getting this at all.
I'm weighing and measuring my intake faithfully each day and this past week I've increased or maintained each day and now I'm almost 2lb up.
Friday I had 1000 calories and I went up 0.2lb
Saturday I had 1161 calories and I went up 0.6lb
I'm trying to stay as close as I can to 1200lbs - I didn't have many exercise calories those last two days. I think the only way I can lose is to exercise and have a deficit of at least 400 calories a day.
Dont weigh and measure, try just weighing for a couple of weeks. Putting literally every single thing on the food scale, I discovered I was eating 300 -400 cals more than I thought. Also double check the entries you are using in the database have accurate calorie info, many are user entered and not correct.
Also, weight loss isn't linear - your body doesn't lose weight on the scale immediately and in direct proportion to what you were doing. You could be retaining water for myriad reasons. Consistency and patience are key.7 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »I am exactly 5ft and 166lbs. I am quite sedentary, but I am trying to walk more than I do currently.
OP, you don't have much to lose to be at a healthy weight - 0.5lb a week would be perfect, input that into the app and see what calories you are given. Weight loss is hard enough without feeling more deprived than necessary, plus if you are eating a healthy amount of calories you are more likely to stick with the plan and see it through which equals results.
All the best.
Thanks
I've just played around with different weight losses.
If I put in 0.5lb loss - I get 1260 calories
If I put in 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb, it gives me 1200 calories, and a maximum weight loss of 1lb a week.
So to keep healthy, it looks as though 1lb is the most I can lose a week and still keep healthy. (unless I do a lot of exercise and not eat all the calories back)
Some days I find it really difficult to get enough protein without overdoing the fat calories. But I am learning day by day.
I'm not getting this at all.
I'm weighing and measuring my intake faithfully each day and this past week I've increased or maintained each day and now I'm almost 2lb up.
Friday I had 1000 calories and I went up 0.2lb
Saturday I had 1161 calories and I went up 0.6lb
I'm trying to stay as close as I can to 1200lbs - I didn't have many exercise calories those last two days. I think the only way I can lose is to exercise and have a deficit of at least 400 calories a day.
Dont weigh and measure, try just weighing for a couple of weeks. Putting literally every single thing on the food scale, I discovered I was eating 300 -400 cals more than I thought. Also double check the entries you are using in the database have accurate calorie info, many are user entered and not correct.
Also, weight loss isn't linear - your body doesn't lose weight on the scale immediately and in direct proportion to what you were doing. You could be retaining water for myriad reasons. Consistency and patience are key.
^ This. Don't attempt to judge your progress from day-to-day or a week's time. As a woman, you need a good 4-6 weeks to establish a reliable trend.7 -
SchrodingersOtherCat wrote: »My goal is 1200 a day because MFP tells me that's what I need to eat to lose. NHS actually recommends not less than 1400 a day for women on weight loss regimes but I don't lose at that intake.
How are you measuring calorie intake? A digital food scale? How many days (weeks, months) did it take you to "realize" that 1400 calories were "too much?"
Many people assume that their calories are logged are accurate: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10640205/the-basics-of-accurate-logging
A lot of people also assume weight loss is linear: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10702290/the-importance-of-this-phrase-weight-loss-is-not-linearI’m in. But let’s try to not be so critical of each other what works for one person may not work for another
Logging issues, water weight fluctuations, and unrealistic weight loss goals are far more common than the very small % of women with metabolic disorders, or those that are very petite and sedentary.9 -
A couple of points to reinforce here:
1. MFP is a NEAT goal meaning that any calorie target provided is excluding exercise and if/when you do, you should be eating those cals back.
2. MFP chooses a goal for you based on stats and targets you provide. If you are petite, select Sedentary, and choose a rate of loss of 1-2 lbs/week you are almost guaranteed to get a 1200 calorie target. That doesn’t mean that’s the right target for you!
3. Most people, even those with desk jobs, aren’t completely Sedentary. If you have a step counter and average anything more than 5-7k steps/day you are at least lightly active. You also don’t have to be a marathon runner or heavy lifter to consider your activity “exercise” that needs to be tracked
4. A healthy rate of loss for someone with less than 50 lbs to lose is 1 lb/week. For someone with less than 20 lbs, it should be 0.5 lb/week. Losing weight faster may lead to adverse effects or not being sustainable.
5. Whatever calorie goal you go with - make sure you’re logging as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. Many who think they don’t lose eating above 1200 calories are not logging accurately and are actually eating more than they think.
6. Being petite doesn’t doom you to 1200 cals. I’m 5’2 and lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 cals (total) and that’s with a desk job, with walking and light circuit training as my forms of exercise. I’ve been in maintenance for >3 years and my TDEE is around 2000 now, and that’s because I’m not as active as normal.
As a wise rabbit used to say, “the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses weight”12 -
adilrafi93 wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
I am 5ft 5 inch.
Dont take that too low calories take 1200 atleast.
What I do I take 90-100 gram of carb and 27 gram fat and 100-150 gram protein daily with 40 mins walk at 13 mins per km daily.....
I am finding it difficult to get enough protein in when eating 1200 calories, if I eat enough protein my fat is too high
1 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »I am exactly 5ft and 166lbs. I am quite sedentary, but I am trying to walk more than I do currently.
OP, you don't have much to lose to be at a healthy weight - 0.5lb a week would be perfect, input that into the app and see what calories you are given. Weight loss is hard enough without feeling more deprived than necessary, plus if you are eating a healthy amount of calories you are more likely to stick with the plan and see it through which equals results.
All the best.
Thanks
I've just played around with different weight losses.
If I put in 0.5lb loss - I get 1260 calories
If I put in 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb, it gives me 1200 calories, and a maximum weight loss of 1lb a week.
So to keep healthy, it looks as though 1lb is the most I can lose a week and still keep healthy. (unless I do a lot of exercise and not eat all the calories back)
Some days I find it really difficult to get enough protein without overdoing the fat calories. But I am learning day by day.
I'm not getting this at all.
I'm weighing and measuring my intake faithfully each day and this past week I've increased or maintained each day and now I'm almost 2lb up.
Friday I had 1000 calories and I went up 0.2lb
Saturday I had 1161 calories and I went up 0.6lb
I'm trying to stay as close as I can to 1200lbs - I didn't have many exercise calories those last two days. I think the only way I can lose is to exercise and have a deficit of at least 400 calories a day.
Dont weigh and measure, try just weighing for a couple of weeks. Putting literally every single thing on the food scale, I discovered I was eating 300 -400 cals more than I thought. Also double check the entries you are using in the database have accurate calorie info, many are user entered and not correct.
Also, weight loss isn't linear - your body doesn't lose weight on the scale immediately and in direct proportion to what you were doing. You could be retaining water for myriad reasons. Consistency and patience are key.
I found one incorrect entry in the database which I missed. 30 grams of wholemeal bread in one entry gave me 3 calories for yesterday. I did only have that..
The measuring was for liquids as I've read on here that millilitres on the food scale only work for water. I have been weighing for 3 weeks now, and not missed a day.
I do think I need to drink more water0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »A couple of points to reinforce here:
1. MFP is a NEAT goal meaning that any calorie target provided is excluding exercise and if/when you do, you should be eating those cals back.
2. MFP chooses a goal for you based on stats and targets you provide. If you are petite, select Sedentary, and choose a rate of loss of 1-2 lbs/week you are almost guaranteed to get a 1200 calorie target. That doesn’t mean that’s the right target for you!
3. Most people, even those with desk jobs, aren’t completely Sedentary. If you have a step counter and average anything more than 5-7k steps/day you are at least lightly active. You also don’t have to be a marathon runner or heavy lifter to consider your activity “exercise” that needs to be tracked
4. A healthy rate of loss for someone with less than 50 lbs to lose is 1 lb/week. For someone with less than 20 lbs, it should be 0.5 lb/week. Losing weight faster may lead to adverse effects or not being sustainable.
5. Whatever calorie goal you go with - make sure you’re logging as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. Many who think they don’t lose eating above 1200 calories are not logging accurately and are actually eating more than they think.
6. Being petite doesn’t doom you to 1200 cals. I’m 5’2 and lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 cals (total) and that’s with a desk job, with walking and light circuit training as my forms of exercise. I’ve been in maintenance for >3 years and my TDEE is around 2000 now, and that’s because I’m not as active as normal.
As a wise rabbit used to say, “the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses weight”
MFP will not allow me to set a goal any higher more than 1lb a week, and I would be happy with that. I have set myself as Sedentary and my Garmin info which has gone to MFP has given me an extra 106 calories, so 1306 calories.
I have eaten more than 1200 today including most of my exercise calories - I'm interested to see what tomorrow shows. Unfortunately I have had to estimate some of my food today as I ate out. This is the first time in 3 weeks that I have eaten out of the house.
I'm happy for my loss to be at a small rate - what worries me is the gains I'm getting when I know how carefully I am weighing everything I have (except today, of course)
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prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »A couple of points to reinforce here:
1. MFP is a NEAT goal meaning that any calorie target provided is excluding exercise and if/when you do, you should be eating those cals back.
2. MFP chooses a goal for you based on stats and targets you provide. If you are petite, select Sedentary, and choose a rate of loss of 1-2 lbs/week you are almost guaranteed to get a 1200 calorie target. That doesn’t mean that’s the right target for you!
3. Most people, even those with desk jobs, aren’t completely Sedentary. If you have a step counter and average anything more than 5-7k steps/day you are at least lightly active. You also don’t have to be a marathon runner or heavy lifter to consider your activity “exercise” that needs to be tracked
4. A healthy rate of loss for someone with less than 50 lbs to lose is 1 lb/week. For someone with less than 20 lbs, it should be 0.5 lb/week. Losing weight faster may lead to adverse effects or not being sustainable.
5. Whatever calorie goal you go with - make sure you’re logging as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. Many who think they don’t lose eating above 1200 calories are not logging accurately and are actually eating more than they think.
6. Being petite doesn’t doom you to 1200 cals. I’m 5’2 and lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 cals (total) and that’s with a desk job, with walking and light circuit training as my forms of exercise. I’ve been in maintenance for >3 years and my TDEE is around 2000 now, and that’s because I’m not as active as normal.
As a wise rabbit used to say, “the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses weight”
MFP will not allow me to set a goal any higher more than 1lb a week, and I would be happy with that. I have set myself as Sedentary and my Garmin info which has gone to MFP has given me an extra 106 calories, so 1306 calories.
I have eaten more than 1200 today including most of my exercise calories - I'm interested to see what tomorrow shows. Unfortunately I have had to estimate some of my food today as I ate out. This is the first time in 3 weeks that I have eaten out of the house.
I'm happy for my loss to be at a small rate - what worries me is the gains I'm getting when I know how carefully I am weighing everything I have (except today, of course)
Keep in mind that weight fluctuates day to day due to lots of factors. More carbs or sodium than usual can lead to water retention, the weather, where you are in your menstrual cycle, exercise, how quickly or slowly food is digesting, probably moon phases, and a little sprinkling of fairy dust can all influence the number we see on the scale.
I’d you’re expecting today’s food/activity to translate directly to movement on the scale tomorrow-you’re going to be disappointed a lot of the time.
If you went out to eat today, you will probably end up with a little water retention (due to consuming more salt and probably carbs than you normally would). You didn’t gain weight. You retained water. Water also has weight so that will reflect on the scale for a few days.
I would encourage you to look into a weight trending app (Libra or Happy Scale). You are currently set to lose 1/2 lb/week. Many of us fluctuate by as much as 2-3 pounds on any given day. What that means is that your 1/2 pound a week can easily get lost in a sea of weight fluctuations. A trending app will help.
10 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »A couple of points to reinforce here:
1. MFP is a NEAT goal meaning that any calorie target provided is excluding exercise and if/when you do, you should be eating those cals back.
2. MFP chooses a goal for you based on stats and targets you provide. If you are petite, select Sedentary, and choose a rate of loss of 1-2 lbs/week you are almost guaranteed to get a 1200 calorie target. That doesn’t mean that’s the right target for you!
3. Most people, even those with desk jobs, aren’t completely Sedentary. If you have a step counter and average anything more than 5-7k steps/day you are at least lightly active. You also don’t have to be a marathon runner or heavy lifter to consider your activity “exercise” that needs to be tracked
4. A healthy rate of loss for someone with less than 50 lbs to lose is 1 lb/week. For someone with less than 20 lbs, it should be 0.5 lb/week. Losing weight faster may lead to adverse effects or not being sustainable.
5. Whatever calorie goal you go with - make sure you’re logging as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. Many who think they don’t lose eating above 1200 calories are not logging accurately and are actually eating more than they think.
6. Being petite doesn’t doom you to 1200 cals. I’m 5’2 and lost my weight eating b/w 1600-1900 cals (total) and that’s with a desk job, with walking and light circuit training as my forms of exercise. I’ve been in maintenance for >3 years and my TDEE is around 2000 now, and that’s because I’m not as active as normal.
As a wise rabbit used to say, “the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses weight”
MFP will not allow me to set a goal any higher more than 1lb a week, and I would be happy with that. I have set myself as Sedentary and my Garmin info which has gone to MFP has given me an extra 106 calories, so 1306 calories.
I have eaten more than 1200 today including most of my exercise calories - I'm interested to see what tomorrow shows. Unfortunately I have had to estimate some of my food today as I ate out. This is the first time in 3 weeks that I have eaten out of the house.
I'm happy for my loss to be at a small rate - what worries me is the gains I'm getting when I know how carefully I am weighing everything I have (except today, of course)
Keep in mind that weight fluctuates day to day due to lots of factors. More carbs or sodium than usual can lead to water retention, the weather, where you are in your menstrual cycle, exercise, how quickly or slowly food is digesting, probably moon phases, and a little sprinkling of fairy dust can all influence the number we see on the scale.
I’d you’re expecting today’s food/activity to translate directly to movement on the scale tomorrow-you’re going to be disappointed a lot of the time.
If you went out to eat today, you will probably end up with a little water retention (due to consuming more salt and probably carbs than you normally would). You didn’t gain weight. You retained water. Water also has weight so that will reflect on the scale for a few days.
I would encourage you to look into a weight trending app (Libra or Happy Scale). You are currently set to lose 1/2 lb/week. Many of us fluctuate by as much as 2-3 pounds on any given day. What that means is that your 1/2 pound a week can easily get lost in a sea of weight fluctuations. A trending app will help.
^this. Understanding and accepting that weight loss is not linear, that there will often be inexplicable gains and losses due to confounding factors, is really important for long term success. What matters is the overall trend over time, and while I’m a fan of daily weighing to help understand those fluctuations, it’s the pattern of weight loss over weeks and months that matters - not what happens from one day (or even hour) to the next.3 -
I am 1200-1400 depending on workouts or weekend wanting a treat. Just started, what helps me is managing when I eat as well as calorie count.0
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Thanks everyone who has taken the time to answer my queries.
@WineGelato - I will look into trending aps2 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
I am 5ft 5 inch.
Dont take that too low calories take 1200 atleast.
What I do I take 90-100 gram of carb and 27 gram fat and 100-150 gram protein daily with 40 mins walk at 13 mins per km daily.....
I am finding it difficult to get enough protein in when eating 1200 calories, if I eat enough protein my fat is too high
Protein can be challenging on 1200. If it's causing your fat to be high, you'd want to choose lower fat sources of protein (skim or low fat dairy, lean meat, non fatty seafood). However, it's totally fine to go over fat so long as you aren't over calories (fat vs. carbs doesn't matter much except for personal preference, but on 1200 I definitely would not undereat protein).3 -
weight goes up and down daily. i've been using a weight trending app and inputing daily weight (same time of day each day). it's AMAZING at times to see how weight can bump up 2pds overnight. or down 1.5 randomly. but the trend is stable and shows the rate of loss i want. I also vary a few pounds depending on time of day.
3 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
I am 5ft 5 inch.
Dont take that too low calories take 1200 atleast.
What I do I take 90-100 gram of carb and 27 gram fat and 100-150 gram protein daily with 40 mins walk at 13 mins per km daily.....
I am finding it difficult to get enough protein in when eating 1200 calories, if I eat enough protein my fat is too high
Protein can be challenging on 1200. If it's causing your fat to be high, you'd want to choose lower fat sources of protein (skim or low fat dairy, lean meat, non fatty seafood). However, it's totally fine to go over fat so long as you aren't over calories (fat vs. carbs doesn't matter much except for personal preference, but on 1200 I definitely would not undereat protein).
I'm vegetarian, and a lot of my protein food choices are high in fat. I'm doing what I can to find ones with lower fat.
I know it's a problem because I'm feeling really tired lately.
0 -
prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »prehistoricmoongoddess wrote: »adilrafi93 wrote: »I think this is the group I was searching for. I am taking 1200 calories for past 50 days and I lost 7-8 kgs.
Can I ask how tall you are? At my height, according to my TDEE calculator, I lose weight at 957 calories - therefore calorie deficit of 500 from my maintenance level.
I cannot lose from cutting calories alone, I need to do a lot of exercise
I am 5ft 5 inch.
Dont take that too low calories take 1200 atleast.
What I do I take 90-100 gram of carb and 27 gram fat and 100-150 gram protein daily with 40 mins walk at 13 mins per km daily.....
I am finding it difficult to get enough protein in when eating 1200 calories, if I eat enough protein my fat is too high
Protein can be challenging on 1200. If it's causing your fat to be high, you'd want to choose lower fat sources of protein (skim or low fat dairy, lean meat, non fatty seafood). However, it's totally fine to go over fat so long as you aren't over calories (fat vs. carbs doesn't matter much except for personal preference, but on 1200 I definitely would not undereat protein).
I'm vegetarian, and a lot of my protein food choices are high in fat. I'm doing what I can to find ones with lower fat.
I know it's a problem because I'm feeling really tired lately.
Ah, usually it's meat-eaters who struggle with the fat.
Eggs are high in fat, yes. (Egg whites are possible, but I am not a fan, personally. But many will use them to add to a whole egg to up protein content, and if that makes it easier it can be a good idea (I won't toss yolks but the whites are available in a carton.)
Low fat or skim dairy -- greek yogurt and cottage cheese are both good sources of protein without a lot of fat.
Beans and lentils are about as low fat as you can get.
Tofu and tempeh have some fat, but don't seem very high.
Nuts and seeds have a lot of fat, but also aren't all that high in protein. Nice supplement, but hard to rely on as a major source.
That said, don't make it harder on yourself than necessary. Totally fine to go over fat, especially from healthy sources, and more important to get in the protein.4
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