Minimum Calorie Requirement

Cait_Sidhe

I am slightly confused by some things I've been reading. Is the 1200 minimum daily requirement a generic absolute minimum the MPF comes up with regardless of height? I ask because I am only 4' 10 1/2". I read that the calorie minimum should be based on your goal weight in pounds X 10. So if my goal weight is 110, would my minimum be 1100, or is it absolutely the 1200 that the app came up with for me. I was once told by a (kind of jerk) doctor that I would be healthy in the 80 pound range so I don't even know if 110 is my definite goal weight or not. The BMR calculator on this site gave me 1224 calories. Is it accurate for those under 5 feet tall? I'm confused. Until someone tells me absolutely otherwise, I'll stick with the 1200 number.

mykaylasmom

I would stick to what the app says. If your active and eating healthy you should start to see some results from it sooner or later...That doctor is a butt.. LOL I had one tell me once that if my husband wanted to hug a tree he would go outside. Needless to say I told him he doesn't just like to "hug" this Tree! I never went back to him.

daloverlyme

Generally, women should not consume any less than 1,200 calories per day, no matter the height. starvation mode sets in when calories are any lower. Your body will hoard all the calories, fat, and everything it can use to store as energy for later.
You should have at the MAXIMUM a 1000 calorie per day deficit of what you take in, compared to what you expend. anything less than that will be putting you at risk to go into starvation mode.

rileysowner

I wrote a much longer reply on the other posting of this which is now gone. The essence of it was that you should stick with the sites recommendations as you BMR calculation is based on your height. You are not at the absolute minimum of 1200 even, so just stick with it and see what happens. Add resistance training to your exercise to maintain muscle, and that will help keep metabolism up.

Cait_Sidhe

Sorry about the double post. I did not delete it as I don't know how.

I guess the 1200 calorie thing has been working for me so far. Why change it now. I just read a few posts by people who seemed to know what they are talking about, that those under 5 ft might have lower calorie requirements so it got me thinking that maybe the 1200 number was a generic number regardless of height (like how the BMI can be inaccurate for those under 5 ft). I've lost about 33 pounds so far, although it's taken almost a year. I'll just stick to what I've been doing.

And yes, I am very aware of the effects of starvation mode.

rileysowner

Using the information you provide here and in your profile I checked a BMR estimate elsewhere. It estimated 1360.35. Remember that is the amount you burn if you do nothing, that is what is burned just to keep you alive. You actually burn more than that because of the activity you do throughout the day. In fact you burn more than that the moment you get out of bed and start moving. With that in mind a 1224 calorie amount is quite reasonable. Stick with it. Even getting down to 110 the estimate is still 1229.85. So with your daily activity you would still be losing weight at 1224 because there would still be several hundred calories burned from your daily activity.