Increasing calories to 1,200 calories/day

She's asking a legitimate question and trying to do things the healthy way.
I agree to perhaps speak to a professional, perhaps a nutritionist.
But no need for harshness.
I'd say well done for realizing mistakes and trying to turn them around

I don't think you guys should be rude to her over this question. I am 5'2" and when I was 17 I weighed about 105. I am now 33 and weigh 127. I EASILY have more than 10 pounds to lose to be toned and healthy. She is not anorexic because she doesn't want to weigh 117. She is asking how to increase calories without gaining weight. My advice would be to watch what KIND of calories you are taking in. If you want to consume 1200 calories a day, make sure you are getting plenty of vitamins and making healthy food choices. I have been eating 1200/day for the last six months and have lost 36 pounds. If I spend those calories eating pizza, I can't have much and I am hungry. If I eat fruit, veggies, yogurt, lean meats, etc. I can eat a pretty large amount of food and keep myself full. You are making a good choice to up the calories. 400/day is too low for anybody.

Definitely speak with a Nutritionist in regard to the amount of calories you should consume daily. Anything close to 800 calories per day should require direct supervision because you can do major damage to your internal organs and cause serious long term health problems if not observed by a professional.

In regard to consuming enough calories and losing weight, my advice is simple. Eat what MFP recommends AND exercise about 30 minutes per day, 5 times per week. When you exercise, you are quite able to eat back the caloires and still reap beautiful results in regard to your body. Your body should have a healthy BMI, no less than 20, and up to 25 in order for you to be considered "nourished" and at a healthy weight.

When you consume less calories than you should, you put your body into starvation mode, which in turn slows down your metabolism and will cause serious, even fatal, effects. You should eat quite often (approximately 5-6 small meals per day of adequate calories) in order to maintain a more healthy body. Your nutrition should be balanced by eating protein, good carbohydrates, whole grain or wheat breads, water, dairy, and definitely a multivitamin daily.

Good luck, and please speak with a physician and/or nutritionist.

hello I am a newbie. I have a question. I want to lose 20lbs and I am working hard at it with diet and exercise. I workout for 30 minutes and vigorously ride my bicycle for 3.5 miles a day. Anyhoo, the fitness diet is perplexing because it is so strict on sugar that it restricts eating fruits and vegetables and instead enourages bread and protein. I am going over on sugar just by eating wholesome fruits. I only eat half my calories and am way way under all the rest of the parts the diet.

What types of foods is this diet asking you to eat? How come it is so against fruit?

Honestly I wouldn't worry as long as your getting your sugar from fruits and veg and not processed sugars.
Mfp sets it way I low .
Sugar is unavoidable in a healthy diet of your getting it from the right places xx

I lost about 25 pounds on a very restricted calorie intake. I am 5'2, 116 pounds, and 17 years old. I was eating between 400-800 calories/day for about 6 months and got down to 112.5 pounds. I started reading about how one shouldn't eat less than 1,200 calories/day so I gradually increased my calories. I got myself to 1,300 calories/day and a month after being on 1,300 calories/day, I weighed myself and I was 117.5. Does anyone know how long my body will take to get used to the increased calorie intake (if it will ever get used to it) or have a simply reached my plateau? When I eat about 800/day I lose weight but if I increase it by a couple hundred calories, I gain it back again. Is there a healthier way to get myself back to eating a safe amount of calories/day. Any advice would be extremely helpful.

I'd suggest you talk to your parents since it says your 17 and ask them to take you to a Nutritionist. You're still growing up and doing alot of damage your body.

I lost about 25 pounds on a very restricted calorie intake. I am 5'2, 116 pounds, and 17 years old. I was eating between 400-800 calories/day for about 6 months and got down to 112.5 pounds. I started reading about how one shouldn't eat less than 1,200 calories/day so I gradually increased my calories. I got myself to 1,300 calories/day and a month after being on 1,300 calories/day, I weighed myself and I was 117.5. Does anyone know how long my body will take to get used to the increased calorie intake (if it will ever get used to it) or have a simply reached my plateau? When I eat about 800/day I lose weight but if I increase it by a couple hundred calories, I gain it back again. Is there a healthier way to get myself back to eating a safe amount of calories/day. Any advice would be extremely helpful.

In what way does she need help? She fell into a very common mistake uninformed people make about dieting- less is better. She realized it was unhealthy, and wants to know the healthiest way to get back to eating a normal amount without putting on a ton of weight. Unless she's showing signs of disordered eating (which, from what I can tell, she's really not) there's really no need to seek therapy.

OP, you may just have to accept that you will gain a few pounds back, or that staying at 112 forever is not a maintainable goal. Our bodies have weights they like to sit at, and sometimes it's very difficult to maintain lower than that.
I would recommend adding some strength training into your routine, if you haven't already. You'll build muscle and look leaner, and your body will burn more at rest than it would otherwise. The number on the scale may go up, since muscle is denser than fat, but you will look smaller and less jiggly.

I was ever referred to myfitnesspal by a nutritionist and have been following it for a week to log in my daily food. What I have found is that I only eat 800 calls max because my diet is mostly veggies and fruits and fish but even still I am going over on the sugar level recommended by myfitnesspal. A cup of pineapple is 16g of sugar and without exercise you are allotted 24. So when I look at the foods that don't have sugar they are breads and some protein. I seem to have a difficult time taking in enough calories but I am exceeding the sugar limit by eating what I thought was a healthy diet of 5 servings of veggies and 3 fruits. I plan to show my nutritionist my log.

The reason that my MFP sugar limits are so easy to exceed if because MFP only accounts for added sugars in the amount, yet all naturally occurring sugars get added in as well due to the nature of the logging. It's generally recommended we consume no more than 40g of added sugar a day, but there is no recommended amount of natural sugars, like the sugars found in milk and fruit. As long as most of your sugars are coming from natural sources, it's okay to exceed them.

Less than 1200 calories a day is considered disordered eating.

If you eat 800 calories a day you are in very serious danger of developed a legitimate eating disorder, which trust me, is not fun at all.

Your best bet would to be forget about the scale entirely for now, and work on improving your health. Eating so little has likely effected your muscle-to-fat radio in a bad way, and losing more weight will not correct that.

The best thing to do is start strength training (which contrary to popular belief, will NOT make you bulk up/look manly, but will give you a more toned appearance) and eating at least 1500 calories a day. Get a measuring tape, and focus on that rather than what the scale says. Muscle weighs more than fat, and by strength training and eating more, you may weigh more, but you will be smaller in size.

A few years ago, I did the same as you did (although I then developed an eating disorder out of it), and ate 800 calories a day. Back then at 127lbs I was a UK size 12 (US size 8) and very unhealthy.

Now I eat 1300 - 1900 calories a day, depending, and do strength training. Now at 127lbs, I am a UK 8/10 (US 4/6) and much, much healthier.

Your body will thank you in the long run for eating more.

hello I am a newbie. I have a question. I want to lose 20lbs and I am working hard at it with diet and exercise. I workout for 30 minutes and vigorously ride my bicycle for 3.5 miles a day. Anyhoo, the fitness diet is perplexing because it is so strict on sugar that it restricts eating fruits and vegetables and instead enourages bread and protein. I am going over on sugar just by eating wholesome fruits. I only eat half my calories and am way way under all the rest of the parts the diet.

What types of foods is this diet asking you to eat? How come it is so against fruit?

Honestly I wouldn't worry as long as your getting your sugar from fruits and veg and not processed sugars.
Mfp sets it way I low .
Sugar is unavoidable in a healthy diet of your getting it from the right places xx

Agree. I never worry about natural unrefined sugar in fruits and vegetables. It's REFINED sugar and PROCESSED carbohydrates that are to be avoided.

If you eat 800 calories a day you are in very serious danger of developed a legitimate eating disorder, which trust me, is not fun at all.

I see this written a lot here and it is incorrect. Yes, very low calorie diets can result in disordered eating patterns but you cannot develop an eating disorder (as in the psychological illness) just from a restricted diet. Eating disorders are psychological disorders that stem from the person's mind, not bad eating patterns.
Sorry for going off topic but it's just something I see here a lot

Obviously not everyone who eating a restricted diet develops an eating disorder.

But it can and does happen. A lot of eating disorders in young girls especially start out this way.

People who have low self-esteem and/or a desire to lose weight will do so by eating a very restricted amount of calories. Then when they reach their goal they go back to eating a normal amount of calories, and because of what restricted dieting has done to their metabolism, they gain weight. So they panic, and go back to eating the restricted amount and then become fearful of eating a healthy amount of food. So they continue to eat a low amount, drop more weight, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Eating an unhealthily low amount of calories and fearing eating a healthy amount because you think it'll make you fat is disordered eating, which is a key component to developing an eating disorder.

It happens. There are dozens upon dozens of forums of teenagers/young adults that show that this happens.

It happened to me.

She may not have an eating disorder now, but the longer you eat in a disordered way, the more chance you have of falling into that path. Especially if you're someone who is now a healthy weight.