1200 calories

NicoleZ1515

So I realize that anything under 1200 a day is not good. I usually try to be as close as possible but find it weird that MFP reinforces being under by "....completed her food and exercise diary for 04/11/2013 and was under her calorie goal." How much over is too over?

MysticRealm

MFP is assuming most days you are going to be doing exercise so you will be eating more calories than 1200. Most people that MFP gives 1200 cals to are people who want 2 pounds of loss per week and put their activity level at sedentary or lightly active, when most of these people should be going for 1 pound loss and are at least lightly active to moderately active
I manually set my cals to 1800 (and don't eat back exercise cals).

BurtHuttz

1200 might not be your magic number. It's just MFP's floor - it will not recommend any lower than that.

So how much over is too much over? Your TDEE. The amount of energy you burn in a day. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight. Please see here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/952996-level-obstacles-lose-weight-target-fat-easy

mlcastle

1200 might not be your magic number. It's just MFP's floor - it will not recommend any lower than that.

So how much over is too much over? Your TDEE. The amount of energy you burn in a day. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight. Please see here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/952996-level-obstacles-lose-weight-target-fat-easy

Completely agree with this.
Use the calculators, find your numbers, and use those. Before knowing what I know now, I went with MFP's numbers and I don't really think it was good for me. I lost weight, but now that I'm into maintenance mode and eating more calories, I think that the low calories were not really good for my overall health.

bcattoes

If MFP is giving you 1200 calories then you've likely chosen to lose 2 lbs per week, which means that you have a large deficit already built in. You can likely go over by several hundred every day and still lose.