eating 1200

shellsy0424

I started MFP in july 2010 and have lost 99lbs only 1.5 lbs to go to reach my original goal of 100 lb weight loss. I have done it eating 1250 cals a day not eating back my exercise cals and exercising 30-90 mins 6xs a week. You need to find what works for you. Everyone is different........

wow, great job!! That is inspiring:happy:

Sarauk2sf

When I first started needing to lose weight about 15 years ago, I went from a 35+% body fat % and a size 12/14 (US) to a size 8, 18% BF by eating on average (weeks did vary) about 1800 - 2000 calories. I did not do much cardio but weight trained 3 x week. I pretty much ate what I wanted. It took me about 2 years to get there and I sustained this for 5 years until I got very ill (not food or exercise related!).

After my illness I put a lot of weight on and at my heaviest was 202lb. So I decided to do something about it about 2 years ago and restricted my calories to about 1500, did not eat my calories back and did alot of cardio and quite a bit of strength training. After about 3 months, I had lost about 20lb - hurray I hear people say....not!! I had my body fat tested at the beginning and after 3 months in the water dunking thing (very accurate but I cannot remember what it is called!!). I had lost more muscle than fat. I was baffled - how could I have possibly lose muscle as I was weight training. The reason - I was not eating enough and all the weight lifting possible would not have changed that fact.

I am now back to eating much higher calories - 1745 goal plus my exercise calories (which are never very much as I pretty much only weight train) - and so far so good.

My little 'cheat' is that I usually go a little under in the week (only by about 50 - 100 cals a day at the most) and use these at the weekend when I do not usually work out.

So, from someone who has done this both ways (the eating too low was just inattention and lack of understanding on my part), eating more definately works for me if I want to lose weight while keeping my lean muscle mass maintained and also, do it in a more sustainable way (1700 - 200 calories is far more sustainable and more fun than 1200 or even the 1500 I was at before) like I did the first time round.

Anyway, as you have seen, there are a lot of people who will argue both sides here. Whatever decision you make, I would urge you to keep track of your body fat %. It is especially important to women to keep a healthy lean body mass for the health benefits. That, along with measurements, will allow you to better monitor what works for you while keeping healthy.

LorinaLynn

For me, I didn't even go into this trying to really lose weight, because I didn't think it possible. If I could barely lose weight eating barely any food, why should this be any different?! As I went along, I was amazed at the progress I had... it seemed so easy! This didn't feel like "dieting." I was just paying attention to what I ate, and being more active. And as I got more involved with the site and the forums, I noticed that the majority of the women with bodies I looked at and thought, "WOW!" were ones that ate more. Losing a lot of pounds is admirable, but transforming your body without losing all that much is just incredible.

But to be fair, I think we all tend to gravitate towards the success stories that fall in line with our own beliefs. As a "big eater," surrounding myself with other big eaters, those are going to be the ones I notice more.

donna_glasgow

WOW, a lot for me to consider. Thank you each and every one of you for your input. I think I will have to experiment and see what works best for my body that is all. I have not had any cheats or bad days in nearly three weeks. I find the less crap you put in your body, the less your body craves it. I have been focusing on what it is I am eating, like the carbs and the sugars and salts the most. I know there is going to be a day when the husband wants to go out to eat or there is a party or something and then I don't want to freak out because I don't know how many calories is in something. I also agree with one of the posts on here that there should be a daily allowance for error because just because it says that you burned so many calories in a workout, what if you didn't go as hard that day, or went harder another day. It will all even out I am sure but I really want to trust this process. The first 5 pounds came off pretty easy but this week I haven't changed what I am eating and it has stalled already. It has only been three weeks and this week kind of sucked in the weight department.

take measurements, normally when the scale wont budge your inches are going down .... I lost no weight last week but I lost over 8 inches across my hips, bust, waist and belly .. then this week my loss was 1.8lbs .... think of no weight loss as your body getting ready for a big weight loss

Tara4boys

Bump - helpful stuff here

VanessaMFaulkner

EVERYONE is different from activity level to what their body is sensitive to (sugar, starch, carbs). I don't think there is a live or die by formula to losing & maintaining...long story short to maintain & lose you must make a lifestyle change. Find what works for you. What works for me...cut starch, carbs & sugar...I eat about 1200 (many times less) & am doing well. I have energy & have 5 kids. I eat mostly organic & gluten free & lean proteins, fruits & high fiber veggies.

jjennyb4

I'm on a 1200 calorie diet.... I sometimes eat some exercise calories back. Most of the time I'm pretty good about being at 1200 but I usually get yelled at by MFP for not eating enough. I'm not going to force myself to eat if I'm not hungry. I workout everyday and I'm losing weight.

bizgirl26

When on 1200 calories per day, WHAT you eat is vitally important.

Agree

ElizaRoche

I do not eat them back, I rarely do.. just when I have family gathering on the weekend , or just some sort of special ocassion. Other way I stick to my 1200..

cmccorma

edit, wrong quote

CoderGal

Starving yourself works (which is what 1200 calories is to someone who's my height). But eating at your TDEE also works. I've lost 27 pounds and weigh 123 pounds (I'm 5'7). Woopie! * celebrate* *eats more then 1200 cals worth of food*

Di3012

Starving yourself works (which is what 1200 calories is to someone who's my height). But eating at your TDEE also works. I've lost 27 pounds and weigh 123 pounds (I'm 5'7). Woopie! * celebrate* *eats more then 1200 cals worth of food*

It depends entirely on what you eat. 1200 calories per day is not starving yourself if what you eat is good food.

Kebby83

I eat 1200 and I am satisfoed, not hungru amd energetic. And losing weight, gaining muscle.

Kebby83

Excuse my typing-android keyboard

littlememo

I've been loosing weight sloooooowly over the last few years, although the last year was prety much a plateau until about 2 months ago when I started using MFP again and have been sticking to 1200 increased my exercise and sometime eating the calories back.
I have read a lot over the last few days about people's ideas on calorie allowance and I agree it's whatever works for you, I've personally upped my allowance to 1300 and am going to play around with eating or not eating back exercise calories until I find what works, I might up it even further not sure at the moment just wasn't sure how sustainable 1200 calories was and was worried about what would happen when I reached goal and started eating to maintain..........
I've learnt alot from reading everyone else's discussions and realise it's not an exact science and you need to do what works for you

mayaaxibal

I would recommend 1500 calories for women and 1800 calories for men(depending on a person's weight as well and how much exercise she/he does). Not 1200 because it's too low. It'll just make you miserable and such.

lcat2000

I'm on the 1200 calories allowance too. I joined this group about 3 weeks ago and stared exercising 5 days a week for about an hour, both cardio and sculting. I've been doing 1200 to about 1600 calories depending on my daily workout. The first week and a half I lost 3 pounds and have since gained 1. No matter what I do my weight doesn't seem to budge. Am I doing something wrong? Should I just stick to the 1200 calories for a few weeks and gradually increase? I've been dieting my whole life, and the idea of increasing calories, as logical as it sounds, terrifies me. has anyone experienced this plateau, and if so what did you do?

ladyraven68

I have been reading a lot on here about eating more calories for success but what I am wondering is if anyone is having good results with NOT eating your exercise calories back and sticking to the 1200 recommended calories?? Curiosity has me wondering if it's possible to eat 1200, exercise and still lose. It seems that the hot topic is always about eating more but to me this just doesn't make sense, even though it is explained well.

The thing is - MFP doesn't set just 1200 calories.

it sets 1200 NET calories, so 1200 + exercise calories.

People just chose not to follow it because they assume less food = more weight loss.

If they aren't going to follow MFP's logic then they should find their Total Daily Expenditure including exercise and work out their defict from there.

Too often people come here, they ignore all the stickied threads above which explain how the site is supposed to work, and away they go.

freckledrats

I'm sedentary, I do a light workout 3x a week at home, and eat 1000-1200 most days. I lose approximately as much weight as you would expect for my age, gender, and size. When I plateau it's because I've gone drinking, not because I've "starved" myself into some mysterious "ate too little to lose weight" hole.

All of my weight loss problems that I've ever had stemmed from not logging, drinking too many alcohol calories, sweet tea, but mostly not logging.

Log it all, people. Log everything. Eat a 500 calorie deficit, get better at judging calories burned, and you'll be golden. Metabolism is a factor, but it's not the holy grail of factors a lot of people believe it is. The biggest factor in dieting is human error.

Roseisrose3111

This site rec 1200 cals for me as well, but when I talked to the trainer at my gym he told me if I am working out I should be eating at least 1400 and no less. Otherwise your body goes into starvation mode and stores fat. You have to eat cals to lose weight. strange I know.