Haters gonna hate. tired of the "1200 is not enough" speech

Francl27

I think it's not eating 1200 calories that bothers people, but when people workout 6 times a week and only eat 1200 calories, because their TDEE is way above 1700, and they complain that they're hungry/not losing etc.

My TDEE is barely above 1700 when I do nothing but sit on my butt all day too, to be honest, but even then 1200 calories wouldn't be enough... 1400 would be healthier. But I try to move more, get my TDEE to 2100 or so (I use a fitbit) and I've been losing on 1700.

ajaxe432

PS: First language is not english, I'm from Chile and speak spanish so any grammer mistakes I apologize.

I think you communicate very well - better than most of the native English speakers around here! :flowerforyou:

I second that!

DiamondL88

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yakube

This is why people comment that 1200 is not enough. 2000 calories at 5'1 and still losing weight. What happens when you stop losing weight eating 1200 calories, you have to eat less or do more cardio. Theres not much food that you can cut from, cant really go anywhere. Whereas at 2000 calories it is easy to get past little times when your body adapts to the food you are eating and you stop losing weight.

I dont know about you but I would much rather be able to lose weight eating 2000 calories over 1200. And yes you can increase your metabolism by slowing increasing the food you eat. Just as the body does when in deficit calories, the body slowly adapts..

I eat 2000 calories a day, am 5'1 and still losing weight. Why would I hate someone eating 1200 calories, lol? Feel sympathy for, maybe.

ajaxe432

Through my PT certification, it is not recommended to go below 1200 calories for women. This is a generalized recommendation. Not everybody reacts the same to every defecit or surplus. So to you, I say whatever works for you and keep it up! I would not give someone else that advice to eat that many calories though, as the results "for them" could be disastrous! Btw- your grammar is fine;)

randomtai

Oh boy.. :yawn:

murphy612

I lost all my weight on 1200 and did not eat my exercise calories. I also am not an excessive exerciser. I lifted weights so I was able to maintain my lean muscle and my metabolism is fine. I also saw a dietitian ever 6 weeks and ate a HEALTHY 1200 diet, I didn't do the IIFYM and the healthier the food choices I made the more I could eat. If I ever felt hungry or lethargic I'd eat more, not a big deal.

However, now I'm focused more on fitness and fat loss and I noticed that on 1200 I was not getting any stronger. I've increased my calories (not by a huge amount) and I am a lot stronger and continue to gain strength. The scale has not moved in 6 months but I have gone down a pants size. My metabolism is actually better than when I started. If done right 1200 is perfectly healthy for some people, it really depends on your activity level and what you choose to eat. I ignore the "starvation" mode comments and just do what worked for me.

LorinaLynn

Not all of us are 6'2 and have a TDEE of 2400.

Nope, but not all of us have a 1700 TDEE either - in fact most of the people I post to or talk with don't - it's much higher.

I'm 45, 5'8" 136 lbs or so at the moment - I have had my best success at losing the fat by eating 1800-1900 cals a day, a 15-20% cut from my TDEE. I tell those who are eating 1200 and complaining about being tired, hungry, burnt out, and not losing that their issue is likely due to under eating. No hating. No judgement. I've been there (on the 1200 train). It sucks. Why eat so little when you don't have to - especially when you're not getting results?

And yes, I do ask people their stats if they don't post them at the start, because of course we're not all the same, and different sizes, shapes, ages, circumstances all result in different numbers.

But as others have said, very very often it's a case of someone entering the maximum loss goal of 2lbs a week when they only have 20-30 lbs to lose, and MFP spits out the 1200 goal, which just isn't enough.

All of this.

I'm 5'5, 41 years old, and around 142 pounds. My TDEE is somewhere around 2300. I lose eating anything less than 2000.

A TDEE of 1700 sounds really, really low for a 23 year old woman.

BamaBreezeNSaltAire

Not all of us are 6'2 and have a TDEE of 2400.

Nope, but not all of us have a 1700 TDEE either - in fact most of the people I post to or talk with don't - it's much higher.

I'm 45, 5'8" 136 lbs or so at the moment - I have had my best success at losing the fat by eating 1800-1900 cals a day, a 15-20% cut from my TDEE. I tell those who are eating 1200 and complaining about being tired, hungry, burnt out, and not losing that their issue is likely due to under eating. No hating. No judgement. I've been there (on the 1200 train). It sucks. Why eat so little when you don't have to - especially when you're not getting results?

And yes, I do ask people their stats if they don't post them at the start, because of course we're not all the same, and different sizes, shapes, ages, circumstances all result in different numbers.

But as others have said, very very often it's a case of someone entering the maximum loss goal of 2lbs a week when they only have 20-30 lbs to lose, and MFP spits out the 1200 goal, which just isn't enough.

All of this.

I'm 5'5, 41 years old, and around 142 pounds. My TDEE is somewhere around 2300. I lose eating anything less than 2000.

A TDEE of 1700 sounds really, really low for a 23 year old woman.

It is, unless she's 4'11" tall and weighs around 98 pounds.

willdob3

Seriously, if you don't want people telling you to eat more than 1200 calories don't start threads like this.

da_bears10089

I'm not 6'2", more like 5'5" and my TDEE is 2300-ish. There is nothing wrong with eating at 1200 calories as long as that is genuinely a reasonable deficit. For most people, it isn't.

wesleycneill

This thread is stupid.

"Hater's gonna Hate"? What is this, some ghetto hip hop song? Just because you don't agree with someone's advice doesn't mean they are hating. Let me know when you graduate third grade.

-Official Hater

Ophidion

Vegetarian here let me tell you eatting 1200 calories a day is real easy when you only eat Veggies and small amounts of dairy, its not all that bad .

Huh? How does having a Vegetarian diet contribute to the amount of calories eaten...a deficit is a deficit.

BTW am vegan myself but logic of this statement eludes me...unless you are implying that veggies are low cal thus can eat more.

ETA: Forget it this thread is another pointless thread BYE.

PepperWorm

This is just silly.

Also, too many people underestimate their activity level. I don't know anyone that follows the TDEE -20% method that was given 1200 calories.

I think I'll stick with 1800 cals and continue to feel sorry for those touting 1200 as a sustainable lifestyle.

quirkytizzy

MsEndomorph

This is just silly.

Also, too many people underestimate their activity level. I don't know anyone that follows the TDEE -20% method that was given 1200 calories.

I think I'll stick with 1800 cals and continue to feel sorry for those touting 1200 as a sustainable lifestyle.

No one would be given 1200 calories because 1200 calories doesn't include exercise and TDEE does....

neandermagnon

This is why people comment that 1200 is not enough. 2000 calories at 5'1 and still losing weight. What happens when you stop losing weight eating 1200 calories, you have to eat less or do more cardio. Theres not much food that you can cut from, cant really go anywhere. Whereas at 2000 calories it is easy to get past little times when your body adapts to the food you are eating and you stop losing weight.

I dont know about you but I would much rather be able to lose weight eating 2000 calories over 1200. And yes you can increase your metabolism by slowing increasing the food you eat. Just as the body does when in deficit calories, the body slowly adapts..

I eat 2000 calories a day, am 5'1 and still losing weight. Why would I hate someone eating 1200 calories, lol? Feel sympathy for, maybe.

^^^ all of this

so many people when they diet they think they have to eat very little, when they don't. Really the best advice I can offer everyone is to try to find the largest number of calories that you can eat and still lose fat slowly and steadily. Long term compliance is what you need to aim for, because 95% of diets fail in the long term, i.e. people successfully lose weight then gain it all back again, the most common reason for that is their diet was too strict and they couldn't stick to it in the long term. Add in some other issues like their adapting to fewer calories (i.e. their BMR and TDEE go down over time), loss of lean mass and bone density, triggering survival responses to eating too little, such as binge eating and obsessing about food... and it's a recipe to gain all the weight back again.

It is far, far, far better to try to make dieting as easy and sustainable as possible for yourself, to lose the fat slowly, while enjoying your food and your lifestyle... you do that by finding the highest number of calories you can eat while still losing weight, and doing kinds of exercise and physical activity that you enjoy enough to be able to stick to long term, and making it your goal to stick to those things in the long term while enjoying your life. Most people can continue to lose weight while eating more, find it easier to live with, and have a much better chance of maintaining in the long term.

that's why all the 1200 calorie threads are full of people telling the 1200 calories a day eaters that they can, in fact, succeed at weight loss while eating more than that. While it's true that a tiny minority due to medical issues or menopause or being very tiny may not be able to, the vast majority of people on 1200 calories a day diets are not in that category, they are young, active, usually with a lot of weight to lose (which means their TDEE will be that much higher) and in a lot of cases extremely active (e.g. 1-2hrs cardio a day or more).

BTW I'm 5'1" and lose weight on 1850 cals/day, without doing cardio.

PepperWorm

This is just silly.

Also, too many people underestimate their activity level. I don't know anyone that follows the TDEE -20% method that was given 1200 calories.

I think I'll stick with 1800 cals and continue to feel sorry for those touting 1200 as a sustainable lifestyle.

No one would be given 1200 calories because 1200 calories doesn't include exercise and TDEE does....

Exactly.

You were saying, OP?

mattparle

I completely agree, I speak to people everyday who just don't get how to work out their basal metabolic rate. In-fact the worst case I've come across is a personal trainer in the gym I belong to working out my wife's calorie intake to maintain at more than my 11.5 stone male bulking diet consumption. Luckily enough we had already worked this out with with specific macronutrient intake so she wasn't sucked into any miss-guided information. I am still completely dumb struck how this miss information could come from someone that gets paid to give nutritional and fitness advice. Their estimate was over 1000 calories a day in excess!! If she didn't know better she's look like a whale now... Luckily this is not the case and is looking leaner and more beautiful every day, and with the right lifting program gaining huge amounts of strength in the process.

This could be a tell tail sign why almost nobody in our particular gym is making any noticeable gains or changes. I did just loosely bring this up with one of the other Personal trainers there but they seem to look after their own with one excuse or another...

Learn whats right for your body and work it out for yourself its really not that difficult. 2 of the best books I've read on this subject are by an author Mike Matthews, for women, thinner leaner stronger, and for men the bigger leander stronger books, kindle versions from amazon are really good value. Great post by the way ;-)

The fact of the matter is if you've worked out your calories and 1200 is what you need to loss weight then it is what it is.

Yanicka1

I am 4'11" 40 years old. I have been doing this for almost 3 years. From my time here I can tell you one thing. The most successful people long term at not eating 1200 calories.

For the rest I really do not care what you or anyone else do.