1200 Calories

Christine1110

I am 5'5" and weight 113 pounds...and eat right around 1200 calories. I don't eat processed foods. I eat alot of food for 1200 calories.
Feel free to add me and check out my diary.

Changing_Charity

your body will go into starvation mode if you arent getting enough calories. just like a car wont work with out gas. even when you arent exercising, your body is burning calories just being alive and breathing. its not a good idea to eat fewer calories than your body needs to work properly.

Changing_Charity

i eat "bagel thins" and "sandwich thins" they only have 100-110 calories, and a wedge of laughing cow cream cheese is only 35-45 depending on the flavor!

butterflygurl89

Well, I just want to say that your dog is adorable.

And you're tiny! (I'm 5"3) so 1200 cals is probably fine for you.
Only you know what's right for your body, so listen to YOU above anyone else.

I noticed one of your snack times was called "morning tea" and if you put anything other than tea bag + water in your cup, don't forget to add that into your calories, too! I couldn't believe it when I realized that my morning coffee was 167 calories cuz of creamer and milk. :sick:

Aviva92

your body will go into starvation mode if you arent getting enough calories. just like a car wont work with out gas. even when you arent exercising, your body is burning calories just being alive and breathing. its not a good idea to eat fewer calories than your body needs to work properly.

I'm pretty sure that starvation mode doesn't happen until you are at a very low body fat %. Getting 1200 or just under it like the o.p. is planning to do is not going to cause starvation mode.

Aviva92

Well for one, you should never eat less than 1200. Maybe by a few calories, but that's the minimal caloric need for your body to survive, your organs to survive, yadayada. It's tempting to eat below 1200, but that is actually a minimum, not a max.

I think that's bull****. I don't think that organs will start to shut down on a diet under 1200 calories. It's not a magic number. completely ridiculous. Some people will go over 1200 calories a day by eating junk food. That doesn't mean they are better off than a person who eats under 1200 calories of healthy food.

lol... agreed!

Sorry 'bull ****', but the American Medical Association doesn't agree with you. It is best to stick to 1200 calories a day, unless you know personally from a Doctor/testing that you can consume a little less. The reason is that your body freaks out a little if you're not getting enough calories and over time breaks down muscle and lowers your metabolic rate significantly, therefore inhibiting your ability to lose weight and be healthy. It can lower your rate by up to 40% and take a year to recover once you're eating healthily again!! See here: http://www.fitsugar.com/Why-1200-Calories-Day-Important-When-Dieting-13080864

well, i still don't believe it. AMA doesn't know everything. eating over 1200 calories a day when it includes crap can't possibly be better than a lower calorie healthier diet.

for 80% of women the above statement is not true because 1200 is too low. yes, people should eat healthy, don't get me wrong, see below:

only 10-20% of people can eat below 1200cals without risking health problems. those people usually are women shorter in stature, older women or people with some kind of illness.

the lowest BMR recorded in the most comprehensive study sited here: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/5/941.full from the american journal of clinical nutrition listed the lowest BMR recorded as 1027, so that would serve as the hard deck that 1-2% of the population could eat and not risk health problems.


I think what you are trying to say is its better to eat less but healthy than more with a bad diet. healthy diet will always win over nutritionally devoid crap but:

not eating enough, even if its a balanced diet you could still run into problems because of nutrient deficiency because you need more protein or vitamins than you can actually get out of the healthy but low amount. definitely a good idea to eat healthy in any case at any intake but:

it eating healthy doesn't protect you from the risks of not eating enough because

---

> you are not getting enough of the things your body needs like iron, vitamin c, healthy fats, protein etc.

not hating on you at all just supplying information

This.
And undereating with healthy food does not make the person healthy either. I used to undereat (and only eat healthy foods) and I got very scary health problems from it, and I know many women that had similar issues as me due to lack of calories.

this semi makes sense. this isn't really what i'm disagreeing with. when i looked at the diary of the person who initially was lecturing the o.p. about not eating enough, i saw that her diary consists of tons of calories from brownies and snickers bars, i'm not going to take her advice seriously. that was what i really have issue with. a lot of "eat more police" are eating a crap diet.

Jester522

Well for one, you should never eat less than 1200. Maybe by a few calories, but that's the minimal caloric need for your body to survive, your organs to survive, yadayada. It's tempting to eat below 1200, but that is actually a minimum, not a max.

I think that's bull****. I don't think that organs will start to shut down on a diet under 1200 calories. It's not a magic number. completely ridiculous. Some people will go over 1200 calories a day by eating junk food. That doesn't mean they are better off than a person who eats under 1200 calories of healthy food.

Tempting? Since when was undereating tempting?

The human body requires 1500 calories/day to sustain normal body function either coming from diet or self, regardless of stats. By health means, we can live on a 15% deficit but anything >20% for long periods of time compromise well being. IN the event of such a diet where the deficit is far more than sustainable the body adapts to the low intake by slowing metabolic processes and encouraging fat storage and, if necessary, pulling from somatic tissue for nitrogen recycling to build proteins.

If you're not working out:
1) You have zero reason to take in carbohydrates
2) You're losing out on a plethora of health benefits besides calorie burning.

Aviva92

Well for one, you should never eat less than 1200. Maybe by a few calories, but that's the minimal caloric need for your body to survive, your organs to survive, yadayada. It's tempting to eat below 1200, but that is actually a minimum, not a max.

I think that's bull****. I don't think that organs will start to shut down on a diet under 1200 calories. It's not a magic number. completely ridiculous. Some people will go over 1200 calories a day by eating junk food. That doesn't mean they are better off than a person who eats under 1200 calories of healthy food.

Tempting? Since when was undereating tempting?

The human body requires 1500 calories/day to sustain normal body function either coming from diet or self, regardless of stats. By health means, we can live on a 15% deficit but anything >20% for long periods of time compromise well being. IN the event of such a diet where the deficit is far more than sustainable the body adapts to the low intake by slowing metabolic processes and encouraging fat storage and, if necessary, pulling from somatic tissue for nitrogen recycling to build proteins.

If you're not working out:
1) You have zero reason to take in carbohydrates
2) You're losing out on a plethora of health benefits besides calorie burning.

Then why does MFP set most women at a 1200 calorie diet? That's greater than 20% below 1500 calories. For me that was just to lose 0.75 pounds a week iirc.

FitMomTwo

Please eat at least 1200 calories. More since you're working out. Make sure you are eating back ALL of your exercise calories! Also, it looks like you're not eating enough protein. Not enough food in general.

JacksMom12

Sorry 'bull ****', but the American Medical Association doesn't agree with you. It is best to stick to 1200 calories a day, unless you know personally from a Doctor/testing that you can consume a little less. The reason is that your body freaks out a little if you're not getting enough calories and over time breaks down muscle and lowers your metabolic rate significantly, therefore inhibiting your ability to lose weight and be healthy. It can lower your rate by up to 40% and take a year to recover once you're eating healthily again!! See here: http://www.fitsugar.com/Why-1200-Calories-Day-Important-When-Dieting-13080864

well, i still don't believe it. AMA doesn't know everything. eating over 1200 calories a day when it includes crap can't possibly be better than a lower calorie healthier diet.

The AMA may not know everything, but apparently you do. Bravo!

Aviva92

The AMA may not know everything, but apparently you do. Bravo!

well i know how to quote for one....

JacksMom12

The AMA may not know everything, but apparently you do. Bravo!

well i know how to quote for one....

Cool story, bro.