A Success story from someone who eats 1200 calories

emeadows83

Very true, no reason to be unsulting. For us 5'2'' women, you skin your cat your way and we'll do it our way. Like she said, you're comparing apples to oranges.

cdmatlock1

ALRIGHT!!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!

kgoodman0108

Congrats on your weight loss success! In high school, I lost over 60 pounds by eating under 1200 calories. During the summer, when I was extremely sedentary, I would even dip down below 1000. I'm 5'2", and I'm sure this is only do-able to those who are on the shorter side.

Malaika946

Congrats!!

tripodsmom

before i worked as a waitress, and also worked out 1-2 hrs every day and consuming 1200 calories was just impossible i tried it for two weeks and just thought i was goin to pass out... now i cannot work out as much and im a student and spend most of my time sitting, and studying 1200 does really do anything to me, im never really hungry, and i dont lose weight. if i go over 1200 i gain so... i dont think 1200 is too little depending on your life style.

AntShanny

yes maam eating on the Maker's diet and doing 1200 calories. which is what I started on 1/13/13. on this plan I don't have to count calories. I just log what I eat and feel full and satisfied. phase 3 I lose to but at a slower pace. last time I was on my eating plan I went from 250 pounds to 210 pounds.

When you say last time you were on the eating plan you lost weight, I'm just curious...once you went off "the plan" did you gain weight back? And is that why you are doing it again? If that's the case it doesn't seem to be a very sustainable way to lose the weight.

fightininggirl

I didn't gain back just got back on to finish the job.

imthejenjen

I'm close to 250. I'm 245.2 lbs right now. I am eating 2000 calories with moderate exercise five times a week. I think I'm eating too much. But I'm afraid to go down to 1200. I don't know if I can do it, Lol....I wonder if I should lower to 1600-1800 like you did? Results are SLOW right now. I started tracking since December 27. I started at 247 then went up to 251, and now back to 245.2 as of today.

Well, it's inspiring and hopeful to see someone who started around my weight lose so much and gain a lot more. If you have any advice for me, please let me know! Thanks...

try going to 1500-1600 cals then. See how that works. Good luck!

wmoomoo

I was very excited to come in to this post and see your success story but when you start it with "there has been alot of 1200 calories basher...", the tone sounds a bit negative to me. Your sucess story is yours, no need to bring that in. But still, congrats on your success.

Momto32010

OP, congratulations on your success!

erinpooh

Congrats to the OP for losing the weight! If 1200 calories is working for you and you don't feel hungry, I fail to see what the problem is.

I'm really tall and work out at least an hour a day, high intensity cardio, so I could not get by on 1200 calories.

KatieJane83

look from 1/13/2013 and on thats my eating healthier and lost me 23 pounds. the previous diary was when I was doing processed crap. nice try though

You've lost 23lbs in 16 days???

No bashing from me, I lost a lot of my weight netting around 1200 until I had to up it a bit towards the end to keep losing. Congrats on your loss!!

However, I would seriously be concerned about this rate of loss. I do not believe losing this fast is healthy, you're probably losing too much lean body mass, and if nothing else you're risking a greater chance of loose/floppy/saggy skin hanging off your body.

Best of luck to you, honestly most (and I stress most, not all) are just posting on here to be helpful. :flowerforyou:


edited for typo

justkeepgoing1010

1200 calories is not the problem...The problem is when people burn X amount of calories through exercise a day and THEN eat 1200. The net calories is now low. I mean whatever works is what works. It's an individual choice. As you lose more and more weight, it becomes harder to lose. Then you have two options...you either start going lower on your calories or exercise more.

This is just my opinion. I'm not bashing anyone. I don't even know where "1200" number came from but everyone is different. Everyone's body is different.

Congrats on your success

tiffany5839

First, congrats on your success.

Second, it isn't that people are saying you CAN'T lose weight eating 1200 cals a day, of course you can! What the criticism is that MOST people have a hard time only consuming 1200 cals, especially if they are very overweight or taller. This leads to binge eating or making it harder to stick to the plan, or having less energy to exercise/weight lift. Plus, the question the remains, is what will your body do once you start eating at maintenance? If your Maint cals are in the 1800-2000 range, and you spend a year eating 1200, there is a pretty good chance you'll have a hard time keeping it off long term. THAT is why people are so suspicious of this way of losing weight. It isn't about "Hatin'"......

THIS^^^
You're training your body to live off of 1200 cals so once you do go to maintanience, then you will start to gain weight even though your weight should stay the same. Why train your body to lose weight off 1200 cals when you can at 1600 cals. If you know for sure that you can live off 1200 cals for the rest of you life then go for it but I did the 1200 cal thing for 2 years and did get to my goal but could not keep up with it much longer without feeling drained and no matter what kind of exercises I did, I could not tone up the way I wanted. I'm much toner now at a higher weight then I was then and it's because I eat more now while working out.

So you may shrink down but being as tone as you'd like may be a different story.

mamareese

Fightinggirl-Congrats on your success. I wish you the best on your journey! :flowerforyou:

Helloitsdan

Sorry if someone has already said this. There are so many posts now!

I read this rule of thumb a while back: If you want to weigh 150, eat 1500 cals. If you want to weight 120, eat 1200 cals. This is not meant to be exact. But here's the thing. If you weight 300 pounds, you would not go straight to eating 1200. One, you wouldn't need to in order to lose weight, and two, it would be difficult and discouraging. You could set a goal of 250 lbs. and eat 2500 cals for a while. Then lower your goal and your cals. Hope that makes sense. It makes sense to me.

I only have about 20 pounds to lose. If I were heavier the 20 pounds would come off faster. When you get near to your goal weight you need to lower your cals to make progress.

So it makes no sense to argue for eating a particular number of calories without stating your current weight and goal weight. If I were to eat 1600 cals, I would gain weight for sure.

No

jfang86

Couldn't this entire thread be summed up as - "Everybody, and every BODY, is different. If your body is totally satisfied at 1200-1400 calories, than don't force feed yourself. If your body is starving at 1200 calories, up your calories. Either way, don't do things that make you miserable because there's always a way to do things that won't make you miserable."

All the math being thrown around in this thread is based on "the average person", which makes a lot of basic assumptions about a lot of variables. In truth, everybody is different. All this being healthy stuff really just depends on learning about your body, understanding what it wants and it needs, and doing that.

As a breakfast-skipper, it is not hard for me to fall within only 1200-1400 (I'll admit I'm usually on the 1400 end of that range) and feel TOTALLY fine all day. I've lost ~50lbs on a cleaned up diet like this (this is way before I joined MFP so it's not reflected in my profile). I now lift on a 1200-1400 calorie diet and am making good gains in all my lifts, with noticeable improvement of muscle size and strength. I rarely eat back my full exercise calories and am able to fuel my lifting without a problem because I regulate my food intake based on whether or not I'm hungry, not based on calorie content. I use MFP as a retroactive tool just to know what my food intake is.

I could be really weird. I could be totally normal. In general, I really wish folks would stop making the assumption that 1200-1400 cals/day could never possibly work for anyone, just because there are people for whom it would be totally miserable and would result in plateaus.

Tl;dr - people need to know their own bodies and stop making the assumption that their own body is exactly like everyone else's body. If you are starving and miserable at 1200, eat more. If you're actually honestly happy at 1200, stay there.

Also - again, congrats to the OP whom I'm sure didn't want their thread hijacked.

sweetpea129

Congrats OP! I also eat 1200 and have no problem, i feel great. I have just gone by the guidelines set by MFP. I believe i started around 1700 calories. Now im down to 1200.

To the person saying that its probably just weight and not body fat, i beg to differ. I think my body fat loss shows quite a bit thank you.

sweetpea129

I've only read 2 pages of responses here, so bear with me if I repeat something that was said, but I have two questions:

1. The OP is eating 1200 calories to LOSE weight - so that number is clearly not her calorie goal to MAINTAIN weight loss. Many people are asking her if she is ok with eating 1200 cals for the rest of her life, but wouldn't she be eating more to maintain that weight loss? It is the same as any other number - if you are eating 1500 to lose weight, your number to maintain would be higher than that - that is what all of those calculators are for... am I wrong?

2. In order to lose weight, you need to create a deficit for the week, right? So for example, if you are allowed let's say 1400 calories per day x 7 days = 9800 calories for the week. If you go over one day and eat, let's say 1700 calories, couldn't you just reduce your daily calories to make up those extra 300? That is what I have always done - and I've heard it mentioned many times - if you have a "cheat day" or a 'bad day' where you go over, you can make up for it throughout the week by eating better the remaining days.
So my question is this - if you are on a 1200 calorie/day plan, and you go over by let's say 300 calories on 1 day, can you eat below the 1200 a few times to make up for that extra 300? So for example:
Based on a 1200/calories per day plan:
Saturday - 1500 calories (went over 300)
Sunday - 1100 calories
Monday - 1200 calories
tuesday - 1100 calories
Wednesday - 1200 calories
thursday - 1100 calories
Friday - 1200 calories

OR
are you just 'screwed' that you went over, and you can't do this because it is 'unhealthy'?
I personally know if I go out to eat and go over by a few hundred, there is no way I can eat my usual calories the next day because I am usually feeling stuffed - so I have no problem keeping it under my calorie goal that day to make up for the previous day.

Yes this is what I always get confused by. I hear it very often on the board & never get it. Why would we have to eat 1200 cals for the rest of our lives? We would obviously switch to maintenance like everyone else eventually does. Why would eating at 1500 be any different? Are those ppl going to eat at 1500 for the rest of their lives? Not being snarky, just honestly asking why people say that so often?

CandiSki

Good job OP on the weight loss! I think people are only arguing against the 1200 calories per day because it's really hard to maintain, you will plateau eventually, you may gain some weight back after your journey, will have a lot of muscle loss and possibly look "skinny fat." I think there are good intentions here to advise you to up your calories, but I think you will eventually learn on your own and come to that conclusion yourself. I wish the best of luck to you on your journey!