4' 11" Female, 1200 Calorie Budget too high?

I know spring break is a big thing, but losing 20 lbs by March is pretty big goal at your height/weight already. If you want to do it healthy, I would follow the advice your getting and just try to lose 1 lb a week, figure out how much you should be eating (TDEE minus your cut of 10% or so) and eat that.. Try to eat cleanly, I just glanced at your diary and I notice your eating out/fast food a bit.. I know its hard to eat clean at 20/21 but this is all stuff that helps you lose that weight. (Not saying don't eat out, just not every meal/day)
If your just doing cardio I would suggest adding some strength training in there to help, as you may even get down to your goal weight and still not like your body due to bf%.

On a sidenote, as someone and a number of people I have trained (depending on the amount needed to lose and how) there is absolutely no problem with losing 2lbs a week. And yes, myself and others have kept it off.

First, happy birthday!

My stats are pretty similar to yours -- I started out at 130 and I'm 5' tall (or, 5' short, haha). I actually found that staying at 1200 calories frequently gave me a headache and left me too hungry, so I'm trying to aim for 1300-1350, and that's going well. As an example, in the last week I lost 2 pounds. And for exercise so far, I've mostly just been walking. So I bet 1200 will help you lose well!

I'm 4ft 11, and was initially losing on 1600 a day when I was exercising.

There are others here who are 5ft and eating 2000 calories per day.

It will all depend on your activity levels, but personally 1200 was too low and made me feel I'll, dizzy, tired, cold etc.

With only a small amount to lose a goal of 1lb per week would be preferable, especially if you are likely to get discouraged and give up if you don't hit your 2lb a week goal.

THANK YOU! My goal would be to get down to the weight I want fast and then tone. Thanks for your comment.

that actually makes it much much much harder to tone. If you exercise regularly through your weight loss, your skin/fat will stay much tighter against your muscle, rather than reaching the point of "skinny fat" where your skin and fat just hangs from your body (been there, it sucks). When you weigh a bit more as you start weight training, you are working with the weights plus your body weight, thus resulting in more calorie expenditure and a better workout, even though the extra effort isn't very noticeable to you. That's why a lot of guys "bulk and cut" meaning they gain weight as they start working out and then diet as they increase resistance. The same model applies to women in the sense that the more you weight, the more effort it takes to work out (hence why someone who is obese can have an easier time losing 2 lbs a week than someone who is mildly overweight).

In addition it takes more energy to maintain muscle, since it needs circulation/nutrients etc, which means you will be able to eat more calories and lose weight faster. Fat is a method of energy storage, so it really doesn't take much energy to maintain it.

Furthermore, your BMR is the minimum calories you need to keep your body alive if you were in a coma. If you were absolutely not using ANY energy, except for vital functions. When you eat less than your BMR, you will see weight loss at first but your body will adapt to using less energy than it really needs, since that's what you're giving it. That causes a slowdown of metabolism resulting in almost unbeatable plateaus (case in point, I'm about 5'1" and I was eating 1300 cals/day. I lost weight for about 2 months, and then had an 8 month plateau before I upped my goal to 1500 calories. Then it started coming off consistently again).


source: nursing and nutrition student

4'11 also, woop woop. I started on MFP in spring/summer 2011 around 148lbs, eating 1000-1200 calories a day. It sucked and yes, I did lose some weight that was but I was miserable. I now net around 1300-1600 and I'm much happier and less exhausted. I'm about 125lbs now, though I was able to dip down to 115lbs a few times but then life happens! Right before hurricane Sandy hit New York (where I live) I was about 117lbs but the storm really screwed up my diet and exercise routine (no heat/power/fresh food for two weeks -- yikes!!).

Since you're short and not really overweight, it is likely that you will NOT lose weight as quickly as some larger people. I see a lot of larger people on here that can easily lose 20lbs in 3 months but it just doesn't happen that way for us little people. Good luck and happy birthday!