1200 calories?

SummerFun2011

Everyone seems to be so against this. But does it sound right in my lifestyle?
For a sedentary 20 year old? I have a desk job/intern, I go to class and sit on my rear, then I come home study, then sleep.
I do work out though 4 times a week. So if I have my calories set at 1200 then eat back my calories from exercise (250-400) on the days I workout am I good? MFP says my maintenance is 1700 calories.

5ft1 and 124 pounds. Need to lose about 5-6% body fat to be in the middle of healthy from my estimations.

Moxie42

I've been wondering the same thing about my MFP-assigned cal limit of 1200 (though I have about 50 more lbs to lose and my goal is 2 lbs a week). I also have a desk job that makes me sit 10-14 hours a day. I try to exercise once a day but some weeks are better than others.

A lot of people say only eating 1200 cals, even if you're eating your exercise cals back as well, isn't enough. There have been times I've eaten closer to 1300 or 1400 and it definitely hasn't hurt my weight loss and there have been times I've had a bad "cheat night" and actually ended up losing more weight that week.

Still, I'm paranoid and have been trying to stick to 1200. My weight loss has definitely slowed though and when I hit the inevitable plateau, I'm going to try upping my cals to 1400-1500...some people say I'll see a gain the first week but that the weight will fall off faster after that. Guess we'll see!

I guess this doesn't really answer your question but this is what I've heard over and over and over again here. Hope it helps at least a little!

attacksquirrel2

MFP set me at about 1200 too. What I've always been told by nutritionists is 1200 is fine (and that's not including eating back exercise calories). However, it's really hard to get adequate nutrients at that level. Especially if you tend to always eat the same foods. So taking a multivitamin and eating nutrient dense foods is important. For example, I've gotten severely anemic on 1000-1200 (without eating back exercise) before, but I was dumb and not taking a multivitamin. If you're concerned about it, or have underlying health issues, you should ask your doctor.

Pebble321

Everyone seems to be so against this. But does it sound right in my lifestyle?
For a sedentary 20 year old? I have a desk job/intern, I go to class and sit on my rear, then I come home study, then sleep.
I do work out though 4 times a week. So if I have my calories set at 1200 then eat back my calories from exercise (250-400) on the days I workout am I good? MFP says my maintenance is 1700 calories.

5ft1 and 124 pounds. Need to lose about 5-6% body fat to be in the middle of healthy from my estimations.

If your maintenace is 1700 and you only have a few pounds to lose, then I suspect that you would see better results by eating more and fitting in some good exercise to build muscles. Try setting your goals to "lose 1/2 pound a week" and eat those calories plus what you burn from exercise and see how that works out for you in a month or so.