For all the girls/guys who talking about 1200 kcal max / day

24

Replies

  • squiggyflop
    squiggyflop Posts: 148 Member
    I dunno. I eat like every 2 hours. I eat when im hungry and I stop when I am full. Because I eat so often, I do not binge anymore. This causes me to naturally eat 1200 calories. I have a max of 1500, but I just cannot eat more while eating anything even remotely resembling healthy foods. I tried to eat more but I ended up with tummy aches like a 4 year old on halloween night. I used to eat like this all the time when I was skinny (before a series of problems made me get fat, not the least of which being multiple times breaking toes and an Achilles tendon injury that lasted 2 years) . I do not understand how listening to my body and eating when im hungry can be bad for me. Doesnt my body know when I need food? I am more energetic, healthy (I usually take weeks to get over a cold but since starting this diet it takes just days), and with every pound I lose my chronic pain gets a little bit less terrible. Of course there are side effects some may consider bad, like the resurgence of a certain comfort behavior I had when I was very skinny (pacing), but thats just because my constant eating gives me so much energy. I always wanted to pace but there were always things stopping me, like getting too tired, or you know the broken toes and the tendon pain. Guessing a lot of neurotypical folks here have no idea what I mean by comfort behaviors. Think of them as rituals. Just like my urge to sort my m&ms by color before eating and my desire to have all doors locked at all times, I have always felt the need to be in motion. Even as a baby I needed my caregivers to pace the house with mybin their arms or bring me on car rides. Some around me found my pacing bothersome. I need a treadmill and a playlist of virtual cycling videos. Thats my idea of heaven I think. Constant motion.
  • jellybaby84
    jellybaby84 Posts: 583 Member
    I only let myself back on MFP the other day. I had to ban myself because I freaked out if I DIDN'T get the 'you are eating too little' red message that pops up when you are under 1200.

    So, I agree, 1200 is important. However, I still make sure I stay under 1300 because I am female, short and slim. It's all relative. I'm sure a large male would feel starving and ill on 1200 but it's actually plenty for me, I don't get hungry on it at all.
    sounds like you should reconsider your plan.

    Why?
  • 1223345
    1223345 Posts: 1,386 Member
    We are not all exactly alike. Some people can eat endlessly and be skinny as a rail, others gain weight just thinking about food. I had hyperthyroidism, which, actually caused me to gain weight. Surprise! I know what you are going to say. "That's a lie! That's impossible! HYPERthyroidism causes you to LOSE weight!" Well not in my case. What happened to me was first off, I was pregnant with hyperthyroidism. Yeah, you can call that misery for sure... the thyroid only recently leveled off. It was explained to me by my endocrinologist like this, "Your thyroid is fast enough to make you hungry, but not fast enough to burn off the extra energy from the food. You are in a gray area." I find that if I eat more I do not lose weight as some suggest. I often wonder if there is some missing info in this. If it works so well for others then why does it not work for me?
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    I do what works for me

    afc.gif
  • Ain't it funny how different we all are? I marvel at the people who say they cannot eat a certain number of calories a day., when it would be SO easy for me to eat those calories in one meal! lol This is not a dig at those people, more of a "Hey, guess what? We're all different!". Certain rules do apply to the human condition but every person has a different approach to things or a different reaction to certain methods, diets, etc.

    Ex. My calorie goal is almost 2X this 1200 calorie line. And I'm losing weight on it. But... if you're not a 45 year old, 6'4", 265 lb., semi-sedentary lifestyle guy... maybe MY calorie goal isn't right for you! Or the way that I eat (food choices, quantities, times) and exercise are not your style... it's okay!

    Just please, be careful and arm yourself with knowledge. Then find the way that works for YOU. It may require some experimenting, but remember, this is a life-long journey... not a quick-fix. If you're serious. Don't believe in gimmicks and embrace the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".

    Best of luck to everyone.


  • Somewhere on the internet I saw this rule of thumb: if your goal weight is 140 then eat 1400 cals per day. If your goal is 130, eat 1300 cals per day. You get the idea. This works for me and is easy to follow. Maybe too easy for the professors and experts on these boards.

    I've heard that too. In which case though I'd be eating less than 1200 because my goal weight is 115. But I still like the method.

    It's one of the worst ways to arrive at a calorie target. Anyone even remotely active would be grossly UNDEREATING using that estimate.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member


    Somewhere on the internet I saw this rule of thumb: if your goal weight is 140 then eat 1400 cals per day. If your goal is 130, eat 1300 cals per day. You get the idea. This works for me and is easy to follow. Maybe too easy for the professors and experts on these boards.

    I've heard that too. In which case though I'd be eating less than 1200 because my goal weight is 115. But I still like the method.

    It's one of the worst ways to arrive at a calorie target. Anyone even remotely active would be grossly UNDEREATING using that estimate.
    Srsly. It would have me eating only 1800 calories, when I eat 2400 + exercise to maintain.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    Yes..I'm new and uneducated about this so..... My calorie intake I have been given is 1560. Most days I do not eat that much. Close but not 1560. So...on the days I exercise I should eat more?

    Example: Today I've eaten 1243 calories. I have burned 413 calories. So I need to eat 413 more calories at least?

    If that's the case I won't be able to exercise because I can not eat that many calories.
    Yes. On a day where you burn 413 extra calories you should be eating 1973 calories. If you are having trouble because you are trying to avoid "junk" foods, add in some calorie dense foods, such as peanut butter or cheese. Also, an apple can be 100 calories, same for one banana.
  • ahubbard134
    ahubbard134 Posts: 61 Member
    I didnt come up with my 1200 cals a day target, i entered my information and thats what this site told me to do.
    I didnt lower my target or cheat the information.
    There must be some logic for that being my goal intake, no?

    charlie
    When you are not/slightly overweight and you tell it you want to lose 2 or 1.5 pounds per week, the program subtracts either 1000 or 750 calories from your other "information" that you entered. If 1200 is more calories than the program gets, it'll stay at 1200. If you want a more meaningful number from the program, you need to pick a smaller loss/wk and recalculate. Unless you are very overweight, losing a lot of weight in a short amount of time is not healthy, nor does it produce lasting results.
  • squatsandlipgloss
    squatsandlipgloss Posts: 595 Member
    Agreed. 1,200kcals worked for me for a while until my body said hold up!! You're not feeding me? I'll hold on to your fatty fat and water and I hit a major plateau. Upped my calories to 1,500 next day the weight came right off.
  • nuttyduffy
    nuttyduffy Posts: 255 Member
    Hey there,

    imho I highly recommend Scoobys Calorie Calculator. The guy is awesome.. Check his website --> http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Cheers

    Django1977

    Still in need of cool mfp fellow guys/girls.... feel free to add me

    Scoobys website rocks - I recently changed to eating TDEE -15% & couldn't be happier :bigsmile:
  • adorable_aly
    adorable_aly Posts: 398 Member


    Somewhere on the internet I saw this rule of thumb: if your goal weight is 140 then eat 1400 cals per day. If your goal is 130, eat 1300 cals per day. You get the idea. This works for me and is easy to follow. Maybe too easy for the professors and experts on these boards.

    I've heard that too. In which case though I'd be eating less than 1200 because my goal weight is 115. But I still like the method.

    It's one of the worst ways to arrive at a calorie target. Anyone even remotely active would be grossly UNDEREATING using that estimate.
    Srsly. It would have me eating only 1800 calories, when I eat 2400 + exercise to maintain.

    This just cannot work... I wold be eating 980 calories! When I include exercise I would be net 600ish cals... That would not be fun!
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
    On the radio the other morning they had a fitness instructor on talking about recent studies and whatnot and he said women should be eating about 1100-1200 calories per day to lose weight and men 1500-1600 to lose weight.... To each their own I guess... whatever works for you!

    Yeah, just like the registered dietician that was on the forums not too long ago, telling people that if you're not losing weight, restrict your calories more. I started thinking, well maybe I DO need to cut my cal's down to 1,200??? Maybe I'm just short, n that's what it will take for me to lose any more weight, since I'm so close to my goal now??? I almost started to starve the crap out of myself, until I went n got me the body media device I saw people talking about on here. Found out I roughly burn around 2,500 calories daily, without my typical exercise!!! That's just what my body burns doing just my daily activities, like playing with my kids, cleaning house, and shopping, and etc. I'm 5' 3", 143lb's, and 25% BF. I do zumba about 3x's/week, sometimes I'm instructing the class. I also lift weights. So happy I got this little lifesaver!!! I love love love it!!! And also so happy I didn't listen to the ridiculous line of BS he was feeding us!!!
  • bearwith
    bearwith Posts: 525 Member
    I can't believe I was at 1300 for so long but you manage it. You get 1800 at maintenance.
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
    I didnt come up with my 1200 cals a day target, i entered my information and thats what this site told me to do.
    I didnt lower my target or cheat the information.
    There must be some logic for that being my goal intake, no?

    charlie
    When you are not/slightly overweight and you tell it you want to lose 2 or 1.5 pounds per week, the program subtracts either 1000 or 750 calories from your other "information" that you entered. If 1200 is more calories than the program gets, it'll stay at 1200. If you want a more meaningful number from the program, you need to pick a smaller loss/wk and recalculate. Unless you are very overweight, losing a lot of weight in a short amount of time is not healthy, nor does it produce lasting results.

    What you put for your activity level makes a HUGE difference! MFP doesn't do a very good job of explaining the definition of activity level. I found out after purchasing my body media device, that I'm actually "very active." I've been hearing that the "scooby" calculater is a good indicator of TDEE. It's also much more accurate when calculating your TDEE, to know your BF%. http://femalemuscle.com/nutrition/calculate.html Here is another great calculator, and like I said, helps to know your BF%. Also, the activity level is again a little difficult to determine, based on their definition, but still better than MFP's.
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    MFP reset my allowance to 1210 calories per day. I did loads of exercise yesterday (900 calories worth) and saved 400 calories for Sunday lunch but even with a long walk this mroning it doesn't look like many caolires. I know its only gone down about 80 per day, but I was saving about 50-100 per day for weekends (when family want roasts!) and now thats gone :noway:

    I am set on sedentary, because I do have a sedentary job and so exercise doesn't just "happen", and this way I can make sure I'm not eating more than I've earned. But I'm wondering if I should set it back to 1290 - I've got half-way to my goal in 3 months so I'm on target to reach goal weight before vacation.
  • babydiego87
    babydiego87 Posts: 905 Member
    its 80 calories. is it really that much of a big deal?
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
    MFP reset my allowance to 1210 calories per day. I did loads of exercise yesterday (900 calories worth) and saved 400 calories for Sunday lunch but even with a long walk this mroning it doesn't look like many caolires. I know its only gone down about 80 per day, but I was saving about 50-100 per day for weekends (when family want roasts!) and now thats gone :noway:

    I am set on sedentary, because I do have a sedentary job and so exercise doesn't just "happen", and this way I can make sure I'm not eating more than I've earned. But I'm wondering if I should set it back to 1290 - I've got half-way to my goal in 3 months so I'm on target to reach goal weight before vacation.

    It's not just about what you do at work though. Are you on your feet most of the day at home? If so, then you're not sedentary. Sedentary is sitting or lying around most of your day, which most of us don't do. It also has to do with your exercise. Make sure you're eating back those exercise calories. Go for a walk n you can increase your daily allowance. Also, listen to your body! If it's telling you you're hungry, it's for a reason! Good luck! :)
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member


    Somewhere on the internet I saw this rule of thumb: if your goal weight is 140 then eat 1400 cals per day. If your goal is 130, eat 1300 cals per day. You get the idea. This works for me and is easy to follow. Maybe too easy for the professors and experts on these boards.

    I've heard that too. In which case though I'd be eating less than 1200 because my goal weight is 115. But I still like the method.

    It's one of the worst ways to arrive at a calorie target. Anyone even remotely active would be grossly UNDEREATING using that estimate.
    Srsly. It would have me eating only 1800 calories, when I eat 2400 + exercise to maintain.

    This just cannot work... I wold be eating 980 calories! When I include exercise I would be net 600ish cals... That would not be fun!

    NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Lolol...Maybe if you lie around all day barely breathing! Even then......STILL NO!
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    I work full time at a desk job so most of the day IS spent sitting on my but! I walk to and from work (wow, a whole 15 mins each way!) and try to fo a light workout before breakfast )25 mins) and one when I get home (25-45 mins), and that gives me plenty of calories. But I also read I should have a rest day - surely that's for high impact/weights only though? Like I wouldn't do Zumba every day, but a few minutes toning or a logn walk should be OK, right?

    And no, 80 calories a day is not much to lose, but if I was saving all of that it made a big difference for the weekend.
  • BeccaBollons
    BeccaBollons Posts: 652 Member
    I found the IIFYM TDEE calculator great, you can actually see how many calories you'd need if you literally slept for 24 hrs, or if you incorporated even just one hour of light activity, or worked moving heavy things all day long. I was surprised to find my TDEE is 2780! And even if I slept all day, it would be 1650! Its worth checking out anyway. I only have my phone so can't post a link, but it comes up easily in google.

    Edited for typo
  • my aim was for 1200 calories, but as i put in my first day intake i was suprised at how little 1200 cals actually was, another app told me i should be on 1500, so i set this as 1400 a day, at the moment i can maintain this and when i excercise i get to have atreat, this works for me as a starting point and as my diet and cal intake improve i can lower my calorie goal and weightloss will be quicker,
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    MFP reset my allowance to 1210 calories per day. I did loads of exercise yesterday (900 calories worth) and saved 400 calories for Sunday lunch but even with a long walk this mroning it doesn't look like many caolires. I know its only gone down about 80 per day, but I was saving about 50-100 per day for weekends (when family want roasts!) and now thats gone :noway:

    I am set on sedentary, because I do have a sedentary job and so exercise doesn't just "happen", and this way I can make sure I'm not eating more than I've earned. But I'm wondering if I should set it back to 1290 - I've got half-way to my goal in 3 months so I'm on target to reach goal weight before vacation.

    Congrats on your success so far. 20 pounds in 3 months is really great. As you get closer to your goal weight, your body will need to have a smaller calorie deficit, so it would be perfectly fine for you to keep the 80 calories. You will lose a bit slower, but that is ok. You should be slowing down as you get closer to goal. A 1 pound per week loss right now would be fantastic for you, or even a half pound would be just fine.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    I work full time at a desk job so most of the day IS spent sitting on my but! I walk to and from work (wow, a whole 15 mins each way!) and try to fo a light workout before breakfast )25 mins) and one when I get home (25-45 mins), and that gives me plenty of calories. But I also read I should have a rest day - surely that's for high impact/weights only though? Like I wouldn't do Zumba every day, but a few minutes toning or a logn walk should be OK, right?

    And no, 80 calories a day is not much to lose, but if I was saving all of that it made a big difference for the weekend.

    Yes, rest days are for harder effort workouts to allow your muscles to repair. A moderate walk every day is perfectly fine. And I understand what a difference 80 cals can make, especially when you have to stick to a lower cal level than others. Enjoy your Sunday roasts!

  • Somewhere on the internet I saw this rule of thumb: if your goal weight is 140 then eat 1400 cals per day. If your goal is 130, eat 1300 cals per day. You get the idea. This works for me and is easy to follow. Maybe too easy for the professors and experts on these boards.

    This is HORRIBLE advice! This does not account for exercise! Yesterday I burned 1252 calories on a 2 hour 30 mins hike. If I followed this and ate 1600 calories then minus the burn, my NET Calorie intake would be 348. Then if you throw in the calories I burn from just living I'm sure I'd be beyond negative. This is not healthy!!!!

    We must take into account what be burn for just being alive and what we burn via exercise.
  • cschiff
    cschiff Posts: 209 Member
    MFP calculated my goal at 1200. I usually eat back 1/2 exercise calories because I know the gym machines often overestimate. That said, if my body is still hungry I will give it something else to eat. If I'm not hungry, all done. I think that listening to my body is the most important. :)
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    I'm actually quite flustered that people live to only consume so little - if it was up to me and I could keep the same weight i would stuff my face!!!

    I currently eat 1600 kcal and that really is my lowest im willing to go, i already get borderline headaches if i eat to that xD
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
    Well...

    no one wanna discuss that with me 8-)

    This is just one of the most talked about topics on these boards. We have so many posts dedicated to it.. it just doesn't create as much hype anymore because people are done arguing about it.
    Well, for the most part.
  • 1223345
    1223345 Posts: 1,386 Member
    Hey there,

    imho I highly recommend Scoobys Calorie Calculator. The guy is awesome.. Check his website --> http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Cheers

    Django1977

    Still in need of cool mfp fellow guys/girls.... feel free to add me

    I have looked at this website and it asks me questions i dont knw the answer too-like what % i want my macros to be ???? How on earth do i find that out? And with the information i could give it gave me a predicted loss of 3lbs a month. I want to lose 2lbs a week. and it was only 300 cals higher than MFP .
    charlie


    Yeah, this makes it more complicated than it has to be. Unless you are going for some serious body building regimen this is way too much.
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
    Agreed. 1,200kcals worked for me for a while until my body said hold up!! You're not feeding me? I'll hold on to your fatty fat and water and I hit a major plateau. Upped my calories to 1,500 next day the weight came right off.

    If your body were doing this, you would have gained on the 1500 for a minute, not had it come right off the next day. With that said, if 1500 works for you, there's no reason to eat 1200. Just wanting to point out that it was likely coincidence or all water, not fat so other people in a plateau don't automatically assume they have to up their calories. Some people really do need to up, but others don't and find themselves really frustrated and confused that it doesn't end up working for them.

    Edited to clarify that I believe that the scale did change overnight, but that it didn't change due to fat loss because your body stopped holding onto fat. It was coincidence or mostly all water.