losing weight on 1200 cals feel fine

malone103

Hi all,

Have been using mfp since Jan 2013, have lost 22lbs based on 1200 cals, eat back some of my exercise cals too, not all though. I have felt fine on just 1200 cals, loosing weight etc. I'm a bit concerned now as so many posts say 1200 is just not enough, I have recently changed my cals to 1240, should I increase it to more? I have put some of my stats below.

Height 5ft 4in
Weight 136lbs (9st 10lbs)
BMR 1368
TDEE 1881
TDEE -20% 1505

I swim for half an hour once a week, gym twice (occasionally three) times a week, 75 mins of cardio plus weight toning.

Only have 5lbs left to loose so know it will be a slower loss then my so far 1lb a week.

Thanks for looking

mamosh81

i think with only 5 lbs left to lose you could start adding slowly more and more cals till you get to your tdee since you are almost at goal and then your body will get used to having more food

Bettyeditor

I ate 1200-1300 for many months. I felt fine. Until I didn't feel fine.... the symptoms of under-eating kind of crept up on me. Now that I have been eating more for a few months, my nails are just now starting to get back to normal. But my hair still falls out more than it should. I am able to keep warm now. And most of all I finally have ENERGY,

To answer your question, eating too few calories will not kill you the first day. The body is very adaptable. Think about all the people who have survived horrible prison camps and wars, etc. But realize that in order to survive, your body will adapt by
1) dialing down your metabolism so that you require fewer calories (this is the worst things for your long-term weight loss)
2) burn muscle over fat, since muscle requires so many calories even at rest
3) start prioritizing what parts of your body gets calories. Your vital organs are first in line. Things like hair/nails are at the bottom

Eating too few calories won't give you side effect the first day, just like smoking won't kill you of cancer the first week. But it IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

Think about what you said: your BMR is 1368. What is your BMR? That is the calories that your body burns even if you lay in bed all day in a coma just to keep your vital organs and heart and brain going. If you were in a hospital in a coma, they would feed you your BMR in an IV. If they deliberately fed you less than your BRM, you could sue them for medical malpractice. Why would you want to deprive your body of the fuel to even keep your organs alive? It take ENERGY to burn fat, if you don't consume enough to even sustain your organs why would you have any left over to burn fat?

So.... with all that, you might wonder why it "works" to eat 1200... you have lost weight after all! Well it does work, it just has a price. The first price is your health and vitality since insufficient calories means something has to be sacrificed. The other price is that you are set up with the ideal conditions to regain all of the weight you lost and then some. Have you heard of yo-yo dieting? Regaining everything you lost and more? This is what causes it: losing by eating too little. Right now your body is so starved for nutrients that it will try and make you binge, and the moment that you start eating more, it will gain like crazy. Eating so little messes up the hormones in your body too. Releases cortisol and elevates the hormones that cause hunger and fat gain. And of course your metabolism is so slowed.... that's a big reason why you can't eat more without gaining weight. So the net result is that you can either 1) keep dieting at 1200 or less the rest of your life or 2) regain all the weight and more. Those are the most likely outcomes (I've seen it over and over again on this site).

On the other hand, if you eat the maximum amount that you can and still lose weight (as opposed to eating the minimum amount), you won't damage your health, you will keep your body from being stressed and keep your hormones in balance, you will keep your metabolism healthy, and you will make the transition to maintenance smoothly and successfully.

malone103

I ate 1200-1300 for many months. I felt fine. Until I didn't feel fine.... the symptoms of under-eating kind of crept up on me. Now that I have been eating more for a few months, my nails are just now starting to get back to normal. But my hair still falls out more than it should. I am able to keep warm now. And most of all I finally have ENERGY,

To answer your question, eating too few calories will not kill you the first day. The body is very adaptable. Think about all the people who have survived horrible prison camps and wars, etc. But realize that in order to survive, your body will adapt by
1) dialing down your metabolism so that you require fewer calories (this is the worst things for your long-term weight loss)
2) burn muscle over fat, since muscle requires so many calories even at rest
3) start prioritizing what parts of your body gets calories. Your vital organs are first in line. Things like hair/nails are at the bottom

Eating too few calories won't give you side effect the first day, just like smoking won't kill you of cancer the first week. But it IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

Think about what you said: your BMR is 1368. What is your BMR? That is the calories that your body burns even if you lay in bed all day in a coma just to keep your vital organs and heart and brain going. If you were in a hospital in a coma, they would feed you your BMR in an IV. If they deliberately fed you less than your BRM, you could sue them for medical malpractice. Why would you want to deprive your body of the fuel to even keep your organs alive? It take ENERGY to burn fat, if you don't consume enough to even sustain your organs why would you have any left over to burn fat?

So.... with all that, you might wonder why it "works" to eat 1200... you have lost weight after all! Well it does work, it just has a price. The first price is your health and vitality since insufficient calories means something has to be sacrificed. The other price is that you are set up with the ideal conditions to regain all of the weight you lost and then some. Have you heard of yo-yo dieting? Regaining everything you lost and more? This is what causes it: losing by eating too little. Right now your body is so starved for nutrients that it will try and make you binge, and the moment that you start eating more, it will gain like crazy. Eating so little messes up the hormones in your body too. Releases cortisol and elevates the hormones that cause hunger and fat gain. And of course your metabolism is so slowed.... that's a big reason why you can't eat more without gaining weight. So the net result is that you can either 1) keep dieting at 1200 or less the rest of your life or 2) regain all the weight and more. Those are the most likely outcomes (I've seen it over and over again on this site).

On the other hand, if you eat the maximum amount that you can and still lose weight (as opposed to eating the minimum amount), you won't damage your health, you will keep your body from being stressed and keep your hormones in balance, you will keep your metabolism healthy, and you will make the transition to maintenance smoothly and successfully.

WOW, that is amazing advice and so clear cut, thank you so much. I shall start to slowly increase my calories until I reach my TDEE, would you recommend weekly to increase cals or every two weeks or monthly??? thank you again for such superb advice. :happy:

Bettyeditor

i think with only 5 lbs left to lose you could start adding slowly more and more cals till you get to your tdee since you are almost at goal and then your body will get used to having more food

This is good advice. If you are going to eat below TDEE, don't eat less than 5% below, since you only have 5 more pounds to lose. If you have a ton of extra weight, the body is not too stressed about a 20% deficit. But when you have so little "safety buffer" of only 5 pounds to lose, 20% deficit is much more alarming to the body and it will see that big of a deficit as threatening and try to hold on to those 5 pounds of safety fat. The closer your get to your goal weight, the smaller percentage you can eat below TDEE.

If your TDEE is 1881, then 5% below is 1787. By the way, be prepared to gain weight at first as you go up to 1787. Remember, you have been eating below BRM so your body is like a rubber band pulled all the way back, primed to gain weight at the slightest increase in calories. Stick with it, and your body will adjust, your metabolism will recover, and you will eventually lose at a 5% deficit.

Bettyeditor

I ate 1200-1300 for many months. I felt fine. Until I didn't feel fine.... the symptoms of under-eating kind of crept up on me. Now that I have been eating more for a few months, my nails are just now starting to get back to normal. But my hair still falls out more than it should. I am able to keep warm now. And most of all I finally have ENERGY,

To answer your question, eating too few calories will not kill you the first day. The body is very adaptable. Think about all the people who have survived horrible prison camps and wars, etc. But realize that in order to survive, your body will adapt by
1) dialing down your metabolism so that you require fewer calories (this is the worst things for your long-term weight loss)
2) burn muscle over fat, since muscle requires so many calories even at rest
3) start prioritizing what parts of your body gets calories. Your vital organs are first in line. Things like hair/nails are at the bottom

Eating too few calories won't give you side effect the first day, just like smoking won't kill you of cancer the first week. But it IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

Think about what you said: your BMR is 1368. What is your BMR? That is the calories that your body burns even if you lay in bed all day in a coma just to keep your vital organs and heart and brain going. If you were in a hospital in a coma, they would feed you your BMR in an IV. If they deliberately fed you less than your BRM, you could sue them for medical malpractice. Why would you want to deprive your body of the fuel to even keep your organs alive? It take ENERGY to burn fat, if you don't consume enough to even sustain your organs why would you have any left over to burn fat?

So.... with all that, you might wonder why it "works" to eat 1200... you have lost weight after all! Well it does work, it just has a price. The first price is your health and vitality since insufficient calories means something has to be sacrificed. The other price is that you are set up with the ideal conditions to regain all of the weight you lost and then some. Have you heard of yo-yo dieting? Regaining everything you lost and more? This is what causes it: losing by eating too little. Right now your body is so starved for nutrients that it will try and make you binge, and the moment that you start eating more, it will gain like crazy. Eating so little messes up the hormones in your body too. Releases cortisol and elevates the hormones that cause hunger and fat gain. And of course your metabolism is so slowed.... that's a big reason why you can't eat more without gaining weight. So the net result is that you can either 1) keep dieting at 1200 or less the rest of your life or 2) regain all the weight and more. Those are the most likely outcomes (I've seen it over and over again on this site).

On the other hand, if you eat the maximum amount that you can and still lose weight (as opposed to eating the minimum amount), you won't damage your health, you will keep your body from being stressed and keep your hormones in balance, you will keep your metabolism healthy, and you will make the transition to maintenance smoothly and successfully.

WOW, that is amazing advice and so clear cut, thank you so much. I shall start to slowly increase my calories until I reach my TDEE, would you recommend weekly to increase cals or every two weeks or monthly??? thank you again for such superb advice. :happy:

I'm glad my ramblings made sense. :P I would advise you to eat at 1787 (and net that by eating back exercise calories) as quickly as possible to minimize weight gain. Since your body is primed to gain when you increase and since it takes 3-8 weeks for your body to adjust to a change in calories, the longer that you take to ramp up to 1787 the longer you will wait to start losing again (and the more pounds you will gain along the way). You will get the best results by starting at 1787 right away.

squatsandlipgloss

I was also totally fine for weeks on 1,200 - 1,300 calories. Lost 25+ lbs, easily. Had enough energy. It is fine to lose weight for a bit, but I stalled after a while, so then upped my calories to about 1,500 and then 1,800 - kept losing though. I think 1,200 works, but not in the long term, so why not up it when you can? Good luck!

malone103

I ate 1200-1300 for many months. I felt fine. Until I didn't feel fine.... the symptoms of under-eating kind of crept up on me. Now that I have been eating more for a few months, my nails are just now starting to get back to normal. But my hair still falls out more than it should. I am able to keep warm now. And most of all I finally have ENERGY,

To answer your question, eating too few calories will not kill you the first day. The body is very adaptable. Think about all the people who have survived horrible prison camps and wars, etc. But realize that in order to survive, your body will adapt by
1) dialing down your metabolism so that you require fewer calories (this is the worst things for your long-term weight loss)
2) burn muscle over fat, since muscle requires so many calories even at rest
3) start prioritizing what parts of your body gets calories. Your vital organs are first in line. Things like hair/nails are at the bottom

Eating too few calories won't give you side effect the first day, just like smoking won't kill you of cancer the first week. But it IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

Think about what you said: your BMR is 1368. What is your BMR? That is the calories that your body burns even if you lay in bed all day in a coma just to keep your vital organs and heart and brain going. If you were in a hospital in a coma, they would feed you your BMR in an IV. If they deliberately fed you less than your BRM, you could sue them for medical malpractice. Why would you want to deprive your body of the fuel to even keep your organs alive? It take ENERGY to burn fat, if you don't consume enough to even sustain your organs why would you have any left over to burn fat?

So.... with all that, you might wonder why it "works" to eat 1200... you have lost weight after all! Well it does work, it just has a price. The first price is your health and vitality since insufficient calories means something has to be sacrificed. The other price is that you are set up with the ideal conditions to regain all of the weight you lost and then some. Have you heard of yo-yo dieting? Regaining everything you lost and more? This is what causes it: losing by eating too little. Right now your body is so starved for nutrients that it will try and make you binge, and the moment that you start eating more, it will gain like crazy. Eating so little messes up the hormones in your body too. Releases cortisol and elevates the hormones that cause hunger and fat gain. And of course your metabolism is so slowed.... that's a big reason why you can't eat more without gaining weight. So the net result is that you can either 1) keep dieting at 1200 or less the rest of your life or 2) regain all the weight and more. Those are the most likely outcomes (I've seen it over and over again on this site).

On the other hand, if you eat the maximum amount that you can and still lose weight (as opposed to eating the minimum amount), you won't damage your health, you will keep your body from being stressed and keep your hormones in balance, you will keep your metabolism healthy, and you will make the transition to maintenance smoothly and successfully.

WOW, that is amazing advice and so clear cut, thank you so much. I shall start to slowly increase my calories until I reach my TDEE, would you recommend weekly to increase cals or every two weeks or monthly??? thank you again for such superb advice. :happy:

I'm glad my ramblings made sense. :P I would advise you to eat at 1787 (and net that by eating back exercise calories) as quickly as possible to minimize weight gain. Since your body is primed to gain when you increase and since it takes 3-8 weeks for your body to adjust to a change in calories, the longer that you take to ramp up to 1787 the longer you will wait to start losing again (and the more pounds you will gain along the way). You will get the best results by starting at 1787 right away.

should i eat back my exercise calories if i change to 1787? i feel a bit scared to up my cals too, keep saying in my mind i'll up them next week, but today is as good as any right? worried i'll pile too much weight back on!

sammyf147

Very interesting advice above l worked to 1200 cals for several months to try to lose around 10lbs and really struggled as found that if I ever strayed from the diet and had even one cake or treat I put back on a disproportionate amount of weight. Now working to around1600 with exercise and trying to build up. Also found cutting carbs drastically had a similar effect. Best of luck with those last 5 lbs !