The 1200 Calorie Myth

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  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    My TDEE is 1,700 or so, so I do not lose weight eating 2,000, I maintain and slowly start to gain


    My TDEE minus 20% is 1037 calories. Under this I loose weight. Over this I gain. I am never hungry.

    Then your TDEE is wrong. TDEE is the number where you do not gain or lose. And unless you are a midget, or a small child, or you have a suppressed metabolism, your TDEE is not 1037.

    She said TDEE MINUS 20% is 1037 which is entirely possible for a small, sedentary older woman (I know, I am one). My TDEE without exercise is about 1400, if I take off the recommended 20% I'm at about 1120 as a 55 yr old, 5'2" 115 lb woman. I maintain my weight on 1300 to 1350 per day without eating any exercise back. Have done so for 2 years now. It is possible to need those few calories.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    My TDEE is 1,700 or so, so I do not lose weight eating 2,000, I maintain and slowly start to gain


    My TDEE minus 20% is 1037 calories. Under this I loose weight. Over this I gain. I am never hungry.

    Then your TDEE is wrong. TDEE is the number where you do not gain or lose. And unless you are a midget, or a small child, or you have a suppressed metabolism, your TDEE is not 1037.

    She said TDEE MINUS 20% is 1037 which is entirely possible for a small, sedentary older woman (I know, I am one). My TDEE without exercise is about 1400, if I take off the recommended 20% I'm at about 1120 as a 55 yr old, 5'2" 115 lb woman. I maintain my weight on 1300 to 1350 per day without eating any exercise back. Have done so for 2 years now. It is possible to need those few calories.

    She said if she eats LESS than 1037 then she loses but if she eats over she gains. ie she is saying her TDEE or maintenance is 1037.
  • fitnessgal1985
    fitnessgal1985 Posts: 110 Member
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    I'm definitely not going to claim I'm an expert on losing weight but I found this calorie calculator, so now if I eat more than 1200 but still less than 1600 calories I dont particularly freak out lol

    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
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    Pandora's box is all I am gonna say :glasses:

    Hmmm, Adrian Mole fan huh?

    (Very obscure reference for non-British readers not of a certain age)

    Heeheehee, instantly brought airfix to mind.
  • scottbrown78
    scottbrown78 Posts: 142 Member
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    lol, keep em coming people, keep em coming...
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,264 Member
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    Pandora's box is all I am gonna say :glasses:

    Hmmm, Adrian Mole fan huh?

    (Very obscure reference for non-British readers not of a certain age)

    Heeheehee, instantly brought airfix to mind.

    I thought you would be too young to know! did you make the Spitfire? It was always the number one first choice way back, yep in the 1950s
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    My TDEE minus 20% is 1037 calories. Under this I loose weight. Over this I gain. I am never hungry.

    The original post. Just saying from my experience with a BMR of 1094 and a TDEE of 1400 that her numbers don't sound wonky to me.

    ie she is saying her TDEE or maintenance is 1037.
  • Polparrot
    Polparrot Posts: 54 Member
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    And round and round in circles we go! How many times a month does this come up?
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,189 Member
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    This site does a good job if you use it honestly and don't try to be too aggressive when setting your weight-loss Goal here. Keep this in mind when using the tools to set up your goals:

    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

    The problem is most people have no idea what a healthy rate of weight loss is.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

    THIS ^^

    And the fact that this site is set up so you ate those base calories PLUS more to fuel your exercise. So an average person eating 1,200 and doing a reasonable amount of exercise of perhaps 200-300 a day is eating 1,400-1,500. If they are using the tool properly.

    Very good observation. 1200 calories here is what a person would eat if they were a complete couch potato (mmmm potatoes). If they exercise or are active at all, their calories would go up if they used this site the way it was designed.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    My TDEE minus 20% is 1037 calories. Under this I loose weight. Over this I gain. I am never hungry.

    The original post. Just saying from my experience with a BMR of 1094 and a TDEE of 1400 that her numbers don't sound wonky to me.

    ie she is saying her TDEE or maintenance is 1037.

    It sounds like she is saying if she eats more than 1037 she gains. In which case her true TDEE is not what the calculators estimated.
  • Cobwellac
    Cobwellac Posts: 75 Member
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    I am 5ft 1, therefore several inches below average. I cannot therefore eat an average calorie intake without gaining weight. I must eat proportionately to my height, to lose, gain or maintain. When I exercise, I burn fewer calories for the same time, speed, distance as someone taller than me.
    When people say things like 1200 is the bare minimum the body can survive on, just what kind of body are they referring to?
    If I were tall, I'd be told that 1200 wasn't meant to be taken literally and my base line number would be higher than that. Does it not make sense that 1200 is also too high a baseline for very short people? Why is everyone so fixated on the magic 1200 number?

    This!! I'm 5'1" and 42, no matter what weight goals I put in, I'm told 1200 calories. Maintenance is 1280. I think that for people at our height, we need to go below 1200 to achieve weight loss.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    So question: why do smaller people need fewer calories? and am I odd for losing weight and eating 1600-1900 calories (net wise) and being only 5'2"?

    The smaller you are, the less energy you need. But everyone has different metabolic rates affected by MANY different factors (hormones, brown fat -- and some are more active than others, too). It is entirely possible for someone your height to lose weight at that amount of calories. But not everyone who is 5'2"(or taller even) will be able to do that,
  • MemphisKitten
    MemphisKitten Posts: 878 Member
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    Thank you for posting this!! :drinker: So many people believe that 1200 calories of ANY food will make them lose weight. 1200 is NOT a magic number, and shame on MFP for making it seem like it is. :grumble: Some people really don't know how to eat healthy and what is good and bad to eat, and this myth just complicates it for everybody!!
  • IvyWhispers
    IvyWhispers Posts: 51 Member
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    everyone's different I eat healthy generally maintain a steady weight and constantly feel full on 1200 calories

    if I'm exercising hard that day I'll eat more to make sure my body can cope with it but generally I find it hard to reach 2000 calories unless I start snacking on ridiculously high calorie fatty things
  • dreamin2bethin
    dreamin2bethin Posts: 111 Member
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    OP thanks for the laugh, I have consulted with my doctor and everything is good and fine here. I eat 1200 and have lost 61 pounds. I have PCOS (Google search it) and I have to maintain a calorie limit. I have to watch my carbs and sugars. For people that workout 5-6 days a week you are right 1200 is too low, but if you don't exercise much then 1200 is just fine. But to say that 1200 in general is bad for everyone, I am sorry you are wrong. Please do some more research. I consult with a doctor and nutrition specialist and I have never starved myself.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
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    1200 is JUST A NUMBER.

    It's fine for SOME people. It all depends on your age, height, weight, activity level, how much you have to lose.. so many things,....What is ok for one person is NOT always going to be ok for someone else - even someone of the same weight.

    You can't arbitrarily say OMG 1200 you will dieeeee. Figure out your TDEE and go from there.. read, learn, be responsible for your own journey:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/510406-tdee-is-everything
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/477666-eating-for-future-you-method
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    Put it into any search bar

    Did I happen to mention I'm a French model?

    Bonjourno

    Maybe you are a Fench model, but I'm a French teacher and bonjour not is not French!
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,264 Member
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    Put it into any search bar

    Did I happen to mention I'm a French model?

    Bonjourno

    Maybe you are a Fench model, but I'm a French teacher and bonjour not is not French!

    yes it is, with a space bon jour = good day

    However, given the typo, you are correct, Bonjourno I believe is Italian but stand to be corrected
  • bluelena
    bluelena Posts: 304 Member
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    inb4 CaliforniaGirl

    BWAH!
  • lil9tails
    lil9tails Posts: 4
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    Your body can go into starvation mode if you don't consume fat... I'm here because I need to make some changes in my diet. I know that isn't going to make great, rapid progress. What's going to get me results is when I get off my butt and exercise. I gained weight, not because I was consuming too many calories, and not because I consumed too few calories and my body went all starvation and stored all the fats. (insert meme here) I gained weight because I went from an active lifestyle to a very sedentary one. That's why most of my weight is where it is on my body.
    No one thing is gonna work for everyone, you have to find your own plan. But starving yourself is obviously not going to give you the results you want in the long run. The key here is not to eat 2000 calories and only veggies... Get active.

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