Unrealistic Goal Weights (Long post)

Rompa_87

Now a pet peeve of mine as someone who has reached a healthy weight for his height (well technically overweight based on BMI but not uncommon in athletes) is how almost every female I have seen post for help on weight loss has a calorie target of 1200. Even worse are when they don't eat back their exercise calories or undereat 1200 calories.

Why does this annoy me? Well 1200 calories is unrealistic for almost all of these females. Rather it is possible but not without losing all your muscle mass and destroying your metabolism, resulting in no muscle tone and a higher % body fat even if the total weight is lower.

A few ways to calculate who should actually eat 1200cal a day. First we are going to use a Basal Metabolic Rate formula for females which is approximately your weight (kg) x 22 x Harris Benedict Adjustment (for a sedentary person this would be 1.2) = daily calories (which we are assuming to be 1200).

So weight (kg) x 22 x 1.2 = 1200 or weight (kg) = 1200/22/1.2 = 45.5kg or 100lbs

Unless you weigh 100lbs or 45kg it is incredibly unrealistic that you require 1200cal a day. Now for someone to be 45kg and healthy they would need to be short. How short? We can calculate this using the BMI.

Now BMI is your weight in kg/Height in metres squared. We have a target weight of 45kg and the lowest healthy BMI is considered to be 20.

So (20 = 45/height squared) = (20 x height squared = 45) = (height squared = 45/20) = (height = SQR(45/20) = 1.5m or 5ft).

In other words for females who are 5ft or smaller and weigh 45kg then a daily calorie goal of 1200 is realistic. Otherwise if you are taller and heavier, which the majority of females are then you are setting an unrealistically daily calorie goal and are likely to be destroying your lean muscle mass more than body fat by eating as this low level.

barbiex3

you are my hero <33 haha i really didn't get all those calculations, but you should do mine =] lol 5'7" 130lbs
I usually eat around 2000 a day tho because i burn like 700 usuallly. mine is set to net 1450 a day?

KourtneyP83

I would starve if I only ate 1200 calories...just sayin!

slim_photographer

I really love a geeky response like this, but one question remains:

how much or how can they calculate how much to eat?

I'm not just being a contrarian I really also want to know how to do my own calculation as a man since the BMI calculations doesn't seem to work in my case.

HannahPendrigh

No, it is not setting 1,200 as our BMR, the 1,200 is creating a deficit so we can lose weight!
BMR is what your body will burn if you don't do anything.. so obviously you need to eat less than that to lose weight!
for example my BMR is around 1,700 so eating 1,200 means I have a deficit of 500 a day = 3500 a week = 1lb loss a week

MelissaJ20

Thank you!!!! I feel the same way!

foremant86

I honestly don't know how people eat so little calories!

barbiex3

you are my hero <33 haha i really didn't get all those calculations, but you should do mine =] lol 5'7" 130lbs
I usually eat around 2000 a day tho because i burn like 700 usuallly. mine is set to net 1450 a day?

jk its 1544 :O my goal is too low!!

kr3851

Oh I wish MFP had body fat percentage included in their goals for this very reason... I'm a long way away from reaching my goal weight, but when I do get close I'll certainly be taking more into account than just the number on the scale. I want to be healthy, not skinny.

yanicka

I am 4'11'' 123 pounds. I would nenver eat 1200 calories a day. I do not lose at 1200 since my body just freak out!!! I feel tired, have difficulty concentrating and life just plain suck. What get my panties in a bunch is girls saying it's ok for them to eat 800 calories a day because they are small..... I call bu!!*kitten*.

Bellyroll

I feel the same way. I eat like I normally would but I work it off hard core.

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

MFP standards are really quite too low. I did many research on my daily caloric intake and majority said I need about 2100 calories a day but MFP only sets me at 1700. So it means I should be eating 1600 calories to lose weight but MFP sets it to 1200 which is why I've been eating that 1200 caloric amount even if I'm close to 5'3. Then when I was just 3 lbs. away from my goal, I decided to up my calories becuase since I do lift weights then my weight would climb to 130 and then down again to 128 and so on. But guess what, when I started to ate about 1500 calories (still low from my 1700 MFP calorie standards), I eventually reached my goal weight in few weeks.

thurberj

I'm so glad to hear this since I am 4'11. I would not want to lose any muscle mass since I'm 55 yrs old and have been working hard at the gym to get in shape. I guess it's ok for me to stick with 1200, or eat a bit more if I burn more:-) I wish I were 5'10, then i would not be overweight....oh well, maybe in my next life:-)

darkdestiny7

I'm 5' 4" 140 and tried the 1200 a day thing. I was starving all the time, felt like crap and lost no weight. When I started eating back at least some of my exercise calories I felt better and started to lose right away.

Elzecat

thanks for the thoughtful post. I'm within 5-10 lbs of goal weight, and I recently manually changed my calorie goal to 1690, after steadily losing about 40 lbs at 1500 calories (over a period of about 5 months). When I was first working on losing weight I sometimes had large deficits from exercise and struggled to meet 1200-1500 net calories a day, but always tried to plan ahead for it so I wouldn't be too far under calories...eating more calories (but overall choosing more healthy foods) is working for me. I will likely up my calories again soon as I am training for a half marathon and need to take in more calories...

it's just unfortunate that the people who need this information the most probably won't even see it.

myiceisonfire

I saw a professional and asked what I should be eating.... They have a chart for height/weight that says what your minimum calories is...

I can't eat less than 800... They say it's because my body has so much stored up fat that it lives off of, that's why I don't have to eat as much as someone who's a lot more fit and don't have the fat to live off of.

So my advice to people, is to see a professional if you have questions.

BeautyFromPain

Mine comes up with like 2349 calories Is this right?

RyonsLions2

Does it depend on what you are eating as well? I mean if you ate 1200 to 1500 calories a day in milk and cookies for instance, you would not lose right? How can I calculate the number of calories?? I had a doctor do a body scan??? on me at an office, and it measured water weight, fat weight, bone weight and skin weight... I don't know how but I got a print out of it and it said I, just sitting around doing nothing burn like 1274 calories a day. I am 5 ft tall and I was 167 lbs at the time. I can't eat ANYTHING or I gain weight. If I eat NOTHING I gain or maintain. I have lost a lot of weight in the last couple years. I don't know how I did it exactly, but I did. I've lost about 38 lbs. or so. NOW I have 28 left and I can't seem to lose it! I am aggravated! Please help if someone can.

Rompa_87

Of course this is really a ball park figure.

You can use these formulas to calculate roughly a weight to aim for and then as you approach it then focus more on body fat % than weight in particular.

For example and if anyone wants to calculate their rough needs then place your numbers instead of mine and again keep in mind that all BMR calculations are approximations.

However, I am a 5' 8" or 170cm tall male. A high range of healthy using the BMI is 25. So my ideal weight would be weight (kg) = 25 x 1.7x1.7 (height in metres squared) = 72.25kg (159lbs). Now I am currently above this but that is from years of weight training. Now to maintain my current weight I would need to eat appromxately;

For females: 22 x 72.25 weight(kg) x 1.2 (Harris benedict adjustment for sedentary) = 1907.4cal
For males: 24x 72.25 x 1.2 = 2081 cal

Now if I was trying to get down to 70kg or 154lbs then I would replace my current weight with my goal weight to eat at maintenance level of a 70kg person.

24 x 70kg x 1.2 = 2016 calories a day.

This would put me in my healthy BMI range and I wouldn't be starving myself in the process. Now on exercise days I would aim to eat back my claories so my net intake would be close to 2016. This would enable my body to adjust to a healthy 70kg male

RyonsLions2

I KNOW!! Mine was like 3960 I would be a fat cow!!!!

Queen_Christine

1200 calories was set for me ( and most every woman I know on this site) ... Set for me by the website calculator. At first it was hard to find the right foods to eat to stay within that range but after a while you get good at it and it's not hard... It's like any basic diet plan - stick with the healthy foods (fruits, veggies, lean meats) and take it easy on the sugars and starches - everything in moderation - and in doing so your calorie intake is naturally low.

RyonsLions2

OH, GOAL weight not CURRENT weight for loss. Right?? But the calorie level is still 3036. That's too high! I don't get it.

LorinaLynn

Like everyone else on the planet, once I decided to lose weight, I wanted it gone as quickly as possible, so I set my goal to 2 lbs a week. Since I was only a little overweight, the most I could lose by MFP calculations was 1.3 lbs a week. Tried that for a while, and never lost more than one pound a week. So I changed my calorie goal to one pound a week, and lost on average 1.5 lbs a week!

Less food does not equal faster weight loss. Eat!

foremant86

1200 calories was set for me ( and most every woman I know on this site) ... Set for me by the website calculator. at first it was hard to find the right foods to eat too stay within that range but after a while you get good at it and it's not hard... It's like any basic diet plan - stick with the healthy foods (fruits, veggies, lean meats) and take it easy on the sugars and starches - eat in moderation - and in doing so your calorie intake is naturally low.

1200 is only if you don't do any exercise at all, once you exercise you need to eat more calories.

Rompa_87

Does it depend on what you are eating as well? I mean if you ate 1200 to 1500 calories a day in milk and cookies for instance, you would not lose right? How can I calculate the number of calories?? I had a doctor do a body scan??? on me at an office, and it measured water weight, fat weight, bone weight and skin weight... I don't know how but I got a print out of it and it said I, just sitting around doing nothing burn like 1274 calories a day. I am 5 ft tall and I was 167 lbs at the time. I can't eat ANYTHING or I gain weight. If I eat NOTHING I gain or maintain. I have lost a lot of weight in the last couple years. I don't know how I did it exactly, but I did. I've lost about 38 lbs. or so. NOW I have 28 left and I can't seem to lose it! I am aggravated! Please help if someone can.

There are individual differences and of course quality of food is always going to be important. Now as for helping to burn more calories at particular weights the best advice is just eat clean but sufficient. Also throw in lots of resistance training. The less bf% and more muscle mass you have the more energy you burn. For example someone 6' and 180lbs at 40% bf would burn less than someone 6', 180lbs and 15%bf.

If you want to lose weight and eat more then start lifting heavy to build some muscle

kmeekhof

I saw a professional and asked what I should be eating.... They have a chart for height/weight that says what your minimum calories is...

I can't eat less than 800... They say it's because my body has so much stored up fat that it lives off of, that's why I don't have to eat as much as someone who's a lot more fit and don't have the fat to live off of.

So my advice to people, is to see a professional if you have questions.

A professional what?! In all of my nutrition can exercise physiology classes I learned you should not got lower than 1200 a day unless (regularly) medically supervised.

SiltyPigeon

Hmmmm... I'm 5'5'' and 122 lbs. My BMR is 1301. Considering my activity level that puts me at 1788.
So... 1200 would put me around a 500 calorie deficit per day.
Sounds about right to me!

julesmcclelland

I had always just ignored the preprogrammed 1200 cals as I know that I should eat about 2000. I finally took the time to manually reset the calorie amount.
I have read posts where people wondered and lamented the low calorie amount but never took the time to respond that 1200 is really too low, esp if you are exercising.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this.

fiberartist219

Honestly, I don't feel like converting my measurements into metric or doing the calculations, but here's what I've been doing.

First of all, I'm 5'2", and 162lbs, on a good day. So, yes, I'm short, and I probably shouldn't eat much. MFP says I should eat 1270 on a day that I don't exercise. I'm quite sedentary. According to the tools, my BMR is 1400 or so. I imagine that my daily expended calories isn't much higher since I sit at a desk all day.

So, I know I want to eat more than 1200 calories. I just work out more. Then I have more that I can eat. I build muscle, and get to have a snack later. How great is that?

I wasn't losing any weight at all until I started restricting my calories and paying close attention to it. I can lose weight slowly on 1400 or 1500 calories a day, but I lose more when I work out more and eat less. If I ate like a man, or a taller person, I would not lose anything.

jamiegirl816

I agree that eating too few calories can have serious repercussions, but as for 1200cals a day, my DOCTOR says it is a healthy amount for a weight loss program and I am a 5'6" lady who is certainly not tiny. You should eat back your exercise cals, but even today. I worked out, I had a busy day, it's now after 8pm here, and I have a lot of calories left. Will I try to eat most of them? Yes. But I am not going to eat too much and be overfull, just so I can hit some calorie requirement. How is that learning to improve my habits? Eat until your satisfied, and only eat when you are hungry, that's what I am here to learn how to do. I have not had any trouble sticking to a 1200cal diet, I eat a lot of vegetables and lean meats. I also avoid the pre-packaged diet foods, I find their portions to be too small for the calories. I am working on portion control, but certainly I am never left hungry, at least not physically. I have lost 15lbs so far and have had very consistent and healthy weight loss.
All that said, it is sad to see people starve themselves, and make poor, unhealthy choices in the quest for happiness and health. It's hard enough to change, and to teach yourself self control without being grumpy and hungry all the time. Good luck everyone!

Rompa_87

Hmmmm... I'm 5'5'' and 122 lbs. My BMR is 1301. Considering my activity level that puts me at 1788.
So... 1200 would put me around a 500 calorie deficit per day.
Sounds about right to me!

For someone your weight and height 500cal a day deficit is massive!
Considering you are already within a healthy weight range for your height a 500cla deficit a day is likely to be eating away at your lean body mass. You would be better off just having a 100-200cal a day deficit perhaps. Faster weight loss is not indicative of the quality of weight loss