Do I need to add more calories?

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allstarlolo
allstarlolo Posts: 30
in Food and Nutrition
Hey all - 5'5", 207 lbs, and doing 1200 calories a day (trying to, anyway) - I am worried eventually I will hit a plateau and not be able to drop any more calories without being starving all the time. Should I be taking in more than this, anyway? Pretty new to this, and I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

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  • abhirvg
    abhirvg Posts: 7 Member
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    As far as I know, do not go below 1200. Staying 1200-1400 average daily calorie should be fine. You can try calorie cycling. Like one day 1000 calories and the next day 1400, so the average is 1200. I have read that cycling calories helps more than sticking to a very low calorie diet.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Read the first post in this thread, do the calculations and give it a try:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    If you can successfully lose weight without unnecessarily starving yourself, why purposely keep the calories so low?

    There's a lot of discussion and tips here from people using the "roadmap":

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7965-in-place-of-a-road-map
  • jlynnem13
    jlynnem13 Posts: 12 Member
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    I would start with 1500. 1200 is not very much and you want to make sure starting out that it is something that you can stick to all the time. Eventually, once you start plateau then you can lower your calorie count. I am sure that you will have success with 1500 and you wont feel like you are starving all the time.
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    What is your activity level? If you're sedentary, then 1200 calories should be okay for now. If you exercise, then you'll want to increase your caloric intake, and you will have some wiggle room in terms of being able to eat back some of the calories you burned (some people do this, some don't). I just started MFP a month ago, and I have been doing just fine on 1200 calories. I haven't hit a plateau yet. At this point, since you are so early in the game, I wouldn't worry about hitting a plateau.

    As for the 1200 calories, if you eat a lot of fruits and veggies (and other things you love - in moderation), you should be just fine. Be sure to eat healthy snacks throughout the day. Watch your sodium intake, as high sodium content will make you retain water, and also make sure you drink lots of water and include a lot of protein in your diet.

    I discovered the Special K line of snack options, and they are amazing! Love their cracker chips and bars (raspberry cheesecake is to die for!).

    You can do this! Best of luck to you!
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    Read the first post in this thread, do the calculations and give it a try:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    If you can successfully lose weight without unnecessarily starving yourself, why purposely keep the calories so low?

    There's a lot of discussion and tips here from people using the "roadmap":

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7965-in-place-of-a-road-map

    This ^^^^
    I think you can definitely eat more and still lose weight.

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