STOP with the 1200 calorie posts ~ rant

originalcookiemonster

I think 1200 is ok if you don't go under it consistently and eat back all your exercise calories. You don't want to hurt your body in the long run. I think if you were to stay under 1200 for a long period of time, you could do some damage. But no, I don't think 1200 is too low if you are staying on or over it, even after exercise.

A lot of people will say why eat so little when you can eat more and still lose? Which is pretty much true, But everyone is different and I am not really here to bash anyone. I think if you are still being healthy its perfectly fine. I don't really condone the "I am eating 900 calories a day and I am just fine!!!" Because the body won't probably show any symptoms until much later on. I still have issues sometimes eating at 1200. But mostly because I am watching carbs for glucose reasons. It's super hard to get up to 1200 without intaking too many carbs.

False.

originalcookiemonster

im sick of posts about "my boyfriend thinks im fat," or, "good news, i can finally see my penis..." but who am i to police the message boards and tell them to shut up? just mind your own... why stress over something your not even interested in, simply pass the post...

I gotta admit, if I saw a post that said "good news I can finally see my penis" I'd click on it. Not sure I could resist reading that post. JUST sayin. LOL.

sexymuffintop

How strange. I'm also 5ft 4 and according to my fitbit on an average day with hardly any cardio I could maintain on about 1000 more calories than you do. Funny old world isn't it?

Hehehe, Sexymuffintop, I think it's funny that we're both back on this thread again... :laugh:

Lol I know. Sad isn't it? In my defence I was incredibly bored though...nothing wrong with a little internet jousting on quiet Saturday night ha ha.

brit_ks_89

I think 1200 is ok if you don't go under it consistently and eat back all your exercise calories. You don't want to hurt your body in the long run. I think if you were to stay under 1200 for a long period of time, you could do some damage. But no, I don't think 1200 is too low if you are staying on or over it, even after exercise.

A lot of people will say why eat so little when you can eat more and still lose? Which is pretty much true, But everyone is different and I am not really here to bash anyone. I think if you are still being healthy its perfectly fine. I don't really condone the "I am eating 900 calories a day and I am just fine!!!" Because the body won't probably show any symptoms until much later on. I still have issues sometimes eating at 1200. But mostly because I am watching carbs for glucose reasons. It's super hard to get up to 1200 without intaking too many carbs.

PROTEIN HAS CALORIES IN IT ! - EAT SOME MEAT!

brit_ks_89

im sick of posts about "my boyfriend thinks im fat," or, "good news, i can finally see my penis..." but who am i to police the message boards and tell them to shut up? just mind your own... why stress over something your not even interested in, simply pass the post...

I gotta admit, if I saw a post that said "good news I can finally see my penis" I'd click on it. Not sure I could resist reading that post. JUST sayin. LOL.

i can see my toes

Qsik

Agree. Some are new comers, some know a little, some know a lot, but we are all here for the same reason. A forum should provide advice, support and motivation, no matter how many times a question is asked, without being made feel stupid or inadequate.

cerenia

Personally, everyone is different. I tried TDEE -20% and all sorts of other figures - most had me at 1500-1600 calories, tried them, lost a couple of pounds, then started to gain... panic set in, went down to 1270, and eating back WO calories, and i'm losing. Not much, only 1lb/2lb a week, but i'm happy with that, and having lower calories makes me take in mind my portion size - eventually I will work at going back upwards as I know 1200 isn't meant to be healthy long term, but just playing by ear

We're all different, we're all here for one reason wethere its in the past, present or future - we want to lose weight!

Katmary71

I'm 5'4 and sedentary. I have physical limitations that cause a lot of pain. I'm hoping to start using my recumbent bike soon, starting at 5-10 minutes as recommended, along with my physical therapy routine of stretching and strengthening. Anyhow, I'm 206 pounds, and wanted to lose a pound per week, which landed me at 1260 calories.

My doctor actually told me to stick with 600 calories, so it's more than she recommends!. I do plan to eat calories back and start adding in my exercise calories once I start. I was 1400 until i lost 11 pounds and MFP asked me to re-enter my info.. And YES, I have read the 1200 posts to learn and have learned from them.

You're really going ignore the advice of a medical professional who has examined you and knows your medical history in favor of some people who like jawbone on the web? If your doctor told you to go on a diet that restricted, there's probably a reason.

Um no, I never based my diet on what anyone here said, though I do read and think about things that come up continually which is how I learned of adding back calories and will keep track if I struggle with not losing at all. It's come up often enough that it's worth noting if you're also being told to eat the same cals as others who are struggling. I wouldn't change my diet without consulting with the doctor who manages my pain issues. I consulted this doctor and my PT and talked about my situation and they know more about it. She (original doc) had suggested going on either a liquid diet or sticking with 600 calories as I wasn't losing weight eating healthy only, but keeping track and counting calories has gone well so far. She had a few patients who'd done the liquid diet with monitoring at 600 calories, something I don't want to do as I want it to be part of a lifestyle change. I could keep explaining, but since your post was basically to tell me I was an idiot, I won't bother.

SoxyKitten

So, I've read the first few pages and skipped to then end and have some questions.

*MFP has set me a 1200 cal goal. Is this the minimum I should eat? I ask as it comes up in red if I go over it which makes me feel like I've done wrong?!

*I'm fairly active in that I have horses, I'm a nurse working 12hr shifts, have a 6yr old daughter, 2 large dogs that require walking etc. Do I count this as seperate exercise or not since I'm doing it all everyday? Or should I only count my exercise if it's extra like if I went for a hike or something.

*The starvation myth - serious question, if eating way under your calorie goal can slow or stop weight loss, cause weight gain, then HOW are people anorexic?? My friend has been on a strict 500 cal a day diet for 6months and has lost 11stone!!! I'm not saying it's healthy but she hasn't had one week with a gain!

Hope I haven't annoyed anyone with my questions. I just want to lose weight the easiest way and healthiest way I can so advice is appreciated

JakiDee

Boom! I hates rants on what other people say. If you can't help keep it moving and it makes people feel uncomfortable about asking questions.

CristinaL1983

So, I've read the first few pages and skipped to then end and have some questions.

*MFP has set me a 1200 cal goal. Is this the minimum I should eat? I ask as it comes up in red if I go over it which makes me feel like I've done wrong?!

*I'm fairly active in that I have horses, I'm a nurse working 12hr shifts, have a 6yr old daughter, 2 large dogs that require walking etc. Do I count this as seperate exercise or not since I'm doing it all everyday? Or should I only count my exercise if it's extra like if I went for a hike or something.

*The starvation myth - serious question, if eating way under your calorie goal can slow or stop weight loss, cause weight gain, then HOW are people anorexic?? My friend has been on a strict 500 cal a day diet for 6months and has lost 11stone!!! I'm not saying it's healthy but she hasn't had one week with a gain!

Hope I haven't annoyed anyone with my questions. I just want to lose weight the easiest way and healthiest way I can so advice is appreciated

I'll try to answer your questions.

MFP sets up your calories based on how you answer the initial profile information. It asks for your lifestyle, height and weight and calculates the estimated total daily energy expenditure (excluding exercise which you add in as you do it) and subtracts the appropriate number of calories for the weight loss goal you selected (250 calories for half pound a week, 500 for a pound a week, 1000 for 2 lbs a week).

MFP follows the general medical guideline that 1200 calories a day is a safe minimum from a nutritional standpoint. At 1200 calories, it is generally expected that you can be adequately nourished. So, if MFP calculates all that information and the calorie level will be below 1200, it will set it at 1200 calories for your safety.

It seems as though you have a very active lifestyle. I work on my feet for 10 hour shifts and go to school and have a 6 year old so I know the feeling. Ideally, when you set up your profile, you would have picked active as your activity level. If you didn't, you would probably be better off by changing it (you can go into your profile and change your activity level). Once your general activity level is set to a higher level, you would only add in any extra exercise (something you don't include in your day to day activity level).

The starvation myth is just that, a myth. The reality is that your basal metabolic rate will drop slightly anytime you are in a deficit but the most measured through experimentation was a 10% drop (when adjusted for the lower weight of the subjects). This will probably not offset a deficit (especially when it is set high). The problems that can occur at high deficits include a psychological aspect when people have trouble complying and end up "cheating" either with cheat days or because they start viewing food as less than it is because they are very hungry. At this point people feel like they are depriving themselves to no end because they aren't losing weight or aren't losing as much weight as they feel they should. A second problem is that with lower protein intake, more muscle will be consumed by your body to meet it's nutritional needs. Lower muscle mass equals a lower basal metabolic rate. At higher protein intakes, lean muscle is more likely to be preserved. This can be accomplished at lower total energy intake but protein levels must be a priority. The ACSM recomments 1.2-1.8 grams protein per kilogram of bodyweight. When you combine "cheating" with a lower basal metabolic rate due to inadequate protein intake, people find that they aren't losing as much weight as they feel that they should or even not losing at all.

Sometimes doctors decide that for a patients health rapid weight loss is more important than nutrition and will put patients on a very low calorie diet (VLCD, defined as less than 40% TDEE or more commonly 800 calories or below). It is extremely difficult to maintain adequate nutrition on such a low calorie diet and often requires massive amounts of supplements. Long term VLCDs not carried out under medical supervision can be extremely harmful to the body which will take nutrients from wherever it can get them including muscle and organ tissue.

The easiest/healthiest way to lose weight is to set your activity level appropriately, set a reasonable weight loss/week goal, exercise, log your exercise, eat back some portion of those calories, focus on adequate protein and other nutrients, and make sure to measure/weigh all foods. You absolutely can still lose weight if you go over your calorie goals by a little bit. You will lose less weight than "projected" but many people set very small deficits so that they can lose weight as comfortably as possible.

A lot of people prefer the TDEE-20% method which means that you account for all your exercise and activity and eat 20% less than your average TDEE each day. Other people prefer to use MFP as it is set up with appropriate activity levels. Some people prefer to use the calories as set by MFP and change their macronutrient ratios (this is what I do) to make sure that proteins and fats are at comfortable levels. It's all about individual preference and experimentation.

If you have more questions, feel free to message me or there are some excellent posts that give you step by step instructions on how to find TDEE and how to set macronutrient ratios as well as how to change your calorie goals. Look for the "how to set your calories and macros" post. It is a great read.

Orient_Charm

So OP dont read the threads and dont worry yourself about what others are eating. Then there would be no need to rant.

yes, this! who are you police the message boards? click on the posts you are interested in, skip the ones you are not! problem solved!!!

This ^ makes sense to me. I find usually a thread title will give a clue what the content is ~ I simply skip those that don't interest/pertain to me.

^^^^ This.


And By the way I lost about 10 Kg on 1200 without eating back my burned cals.

CatMcCheesey

"The starvation myth is just that, a myth"

Exactly! And believing that myth can sure slow down your weight loss progress. It's sad that so many people believe it and repeat it. Thanks for a great post, CristinaL1983!

Timmyk84

I think the big issue is some people think this website is a free fitness coach, IT IS NOT. This is nothing more than an electronic food diary, which is great. If you really want to loose weight, you need to do your own research. You need to find out what macro's and micronutrients YOUR body needs. I cannot stress enough about the your part. What I need is not what you need and vise versa.

Yes you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, but starving yourself is the single worst thing you can do. You need to be eating every 2-3 hours based on your body type. This keeps the furnace running hot and speeds up your metabolism. Moral of the story is, do not think that sites like this are the answer to ones prayers. Do your own independant research from trusted sources, gain some knowledge on the subject, find what works for you and watch the weight fly off.

TeacherTurnedNurse

Well.. i've eaten at 1200, eaten at 1500.. done workouts, not done workouts.. NOTHING worked.. ( i think my body is broken.. lol) until i've CUT CARBS.. down to 50-110 per day.. (yes, wide range.. i tend to do 50 one day/ 100 the next .. so cycle between the 2 limits) and i'm losing.. FINALLY...

but my calories have been averaging around 1200.. go figure.. i'm shooting for 1500 but when you eat a ton of veggies, 1500 calories can be a lot of food!

sexymuffintop

I think the big issue is some people think this website is a free fitness coach, IT IS NOT. This is nothing more than an electronic food diary, which is great. If you really want to loose weight, you need to do your own research. You need to find out what macro's and micronutrients YOUR body needs. I cannot stress enough about the your part. What I need is not what you need and vise versa.

Yes you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, but starving yourself is the single worst thing you can do. You need to be eating every 2-3 hours based on your body type. This keeps the furnace running hot and speeds up your metabolism. Moral of the story is, do not think that sites like this are the answer to ones prayers. Do your own independant research from trusted sources, gain some knowledge on the subject, find what works for you and watch the weight fly off.

Very well put. Some people just rely on the info MFP spews out and wonder why things arn't working for them. They seem to want the site to do the work for them. No. Read, learn, research, think outside the box occasionally.

Timmyk84

Well.. i've eaten at 1200, eaten at 1500.. done workouts, not done workouts.. NOTHING worked.. ( i think my body is broken.. lol) until i've CUT CARBS.. down to 50-110 per day.. (yes, wide range.. i tend to do 50 one day/ 100 the next .. so cycle between the 2 limits) and i'm losing.. FINALLY...

but my calories have been averaging around 1200.. go figure.. i'm shooting for 1500 but when you eat a ton of veggies, 1500 calories can be a lot of food!

I would need to know the details about yourself, what is your weight, what is your workout routine, what kind of a lifestyle do you have, what kind of work do you do. DO not DO not get hung up on calories, worry more about your protein, carbs and fats. Once you hit those numbers your calories will fall into place. When I first started body building I didnt realize the importance of fats, I ran a very low fat diet, big mistake ; because fats control a lot of your hormones. Another example is when you run your carbs very low for a long period of time you can drop your lepten levels to low. Lepten is the hormone that controls fat burning, so you could be doing more damage than good. Look up refeed days.

FluffyMcNutter

I understand the frustration with dealing with these posts, I really do. I also figure that everyone has to pay their dues by responding to them, so I don't mind doing it for the time being.

This is what I have a REAL problem with:

I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps

This is much more dangerous than people telling MFP they want to lose 2 lbs a week and having MFP put them on a 1200 calorie goal. I really don't like the threads with people stomping all over the place because they gained .5 lb after eating a meal, but I'll deal with 10 of those a day if I don't ever have to see advice like this again. If people want to do this to themselves, then that's their prerogative, but advising other people about this is reckless and, well, awful advice. Give me more 1200 calorie diet threads in exchange for completely purging these comments.

That quote is from another thread...someone asking how eating back calories works...

Francl27

Bump.

chatogal

But MFP has given me 1200 based on my current weight and losing 1 lb a week.

Also, Weight Watchers, which is pretty healthy and supports a conservative rate of weight loss, is also about 1200 for my weight and height.

Wouldn't a net 1200 calories be adequate and healthy, especially if I also eat exercise calories?

yes it is....as long as you are making healthy choices with your food 1200 can work very well for lots of people and not everyone wants to become a gym bunny now or for the rest if their lives. Each to their own say I :-)

But if you maybe did decide to try using the gym you wouldn't have to try and live on 1200 cals? Just a thought. I was a little chubbster this time last year. Hated the gym, tried to lose on 1200, couldn't live on it at all. I changed from an unfit lazy lump to how I am now. I know I am younger than you before you say it...but I have a lady on my FL, similar age to you. She eats around 1500 a day and weight lifts. She is a fantastic example that age doesn't have to be a factor. Any factor in your life can be changed, its just a mental game.

lots of ways of becoming fit or maintaining fitness without the use of a gym and probably far more sustainable over a life than using a gym, such as walking, jogging, cycling, gardening, housework, playing tennis, hockey, netball, basketball, skipping...heck anything that gets you moving, plus you are outside getting fresh air, stoking up on sunlight and much needed vitamin d :-) Anyway, as I said, each to their own and mine is DEFINETLY not gym orientated, but is health orientated :-)

I love how patronising this post is, trying to tell me what other ways there are to exercise without the use of the gym. Just because you dislike going inside a gym doesn't mean I dislike exercising outside of the gym. I am fully aware of the benefits of exercise without using machines thank you (housework not included though, I did it as a fatty, I still do it now, it's nothing new!) Just because I chose to use a gym to achieve my goals it certainly doesn't mean I am not health orientated, anything but I'd say...but hey ho....like you said....each to their own :laugh:

lol...and I was thinking how patronizing YOU were...my point is that there are all sorts of ways of loosing weight, exercising and gaining health. As I said earlier in the debate EACH TO THEIR OWN...so you like lifting weights as does a woman "my age" on your friends list...well, bully for you. Others may not. Personally, I feel mucking out horses stables and digging the garden is not only weight training, but achieves a heck of a lot more than lifting weights in a gym!!