1200, and why it won't work

Great info! I do think a lot of people should read this so they can understand the progression which I think makes people feel defeated after a while.
I haven't eaten my allotted 1420 and then 1330 calories since I started MFP and I don't feel starving. My husband has an allotment of 200 cals more than me daily and is ready to faint most days from hunger so I guess it also has a lot to do with how you "used" to eat as well. I had triplets 6 yrs ago and was supposed to eat 4200 cals a day and I wanted to die, I couldn't make it past 2000 of "healthy food". I can eat 6000 cals a day in junk food though.

I'm sure the original poster posted this with good intention, but it is medical advice and people should be seeing actual nutritionists and doctors. I don't understand why, when people post other medical questions in MFP, members are quick to urge them to get to a doctor. However, when calculating your daily nutritional needs, people are gobbling up the info of someone who, "obtained [a] NASM personal training certification, which was a breeze." What? That's as dull as merely following MFP's recommendations without question. This fellow took a thirty minute exam after a few months of studying. Most medical doctors only have mere hours of nutritional training and that's still significant compared to what he has. The mythical "Monica" could have had a thyroid disorder or, like I have, PCOS. These things alter your metabolisms so significantly that you need someone truly skilled in helping you find the right balance. You might even, as I have had to do, have to see internists as well.

If you're obese and looking for answers here, please stop. No, don't start at 1200. Don't start at 3000. Don't start without tests for diabetes, PCOS, Insulin Resistance, etc. "Monica" was rather lucky in this scenario, but it's hardly a case study; if you are obese or morbidly obese, there is a chance underlying conditions are helping you stay that way. You're going to feel better having medical clearance anyway when you want to begin exercise. For example, he had a six week period of Monica not loosing. Eventually she did again. We don't know how her diet's composition change. Did she alter carbs/fats/etc? Did she begin drinking more water? Taking supplements? How many people think 1200 isn't working and push on for six weeks without result? Not many. Yes, Monica seems to have had a decent amount of will power and a load of blind faith, but she could have very well had the same stall and restart at 1200, 1400, 1600, or 2000 calories. There are just too many factors to consider. She could have had more plateaus than he could have accounted for; what then?

Two things I find wrong about this kind of hostility:

All she said was for people to start with seeing a doctor, how is that hostile?

1. I am a bio major. went through 2 years of med school, took all the orgo, chem, biochem, and associated classes, before deciding that 8 more years of school would put me into too much debt. for all educational purposes, I'm a doctor.

most doctors will tell you to eat less. they have NO idea about the current studies and literature pertaining to human weight loss, performance nutrition, and optimal disease prevention...

Then why did you use personal experience and a fun story to lay our your assertions? Where are these peer reviewed studies that show how eating at -15% TDEE is better than a decent calorie cut + exercise?

Oh that's right, the results of those studies don't fit into your perfect little story. I've seen pages of articles published, books, TV shows even (think Mr. Oz) about how wheat is a poison, how carbs are the key to losing weight. Now I'm supposed to take you at your word that you know what you're talking about????? Seriously? Raspberry ketones is all I have to say about that.

3. I exist in some grey space, outside of personal trainers who charge money, and oustide of doctors who know nothing about being "beach-ready". I exist to help. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it elsewhere.

Again, I have to ask, what's the hostility and danger of talking to a nutritionist or medical professional and listening to them over what some internet forum user says? After all of the BS that has been published in so many places and passed off by so many people as "truth" you'd understand if you thought that some of us "logic" and "reason" type people didn't just swallow what you served without any CITED evidence.

So I applaud her for telling people to stop looking for Jesus in your post. It's a nice story, but it shouldn't be taken as advice for them. Go have your results published, reviewed, and studied with more than one person and I will retract my statements.

I'm sure the original poster posted this with good intention, but it is medical advice and people should be seeing actual nutritionists and doctors. I don't understand why, when people post other medical questions in MFP, members are quick to urge them to get to a doctor. However, when calculating your daily nutritional needs, people are gobbling up the info of someone who, "obtained [a] NASM personal training certification, which was a breeze." What? That's as dull as merely following MFP's recommendations without question. This fellow took a thirty minute exam after a few months of studying. Most medical doctors only have mere hours of nutritional training and that's still significant compared to what he has. The mythical "Monica" could have had a thyroid disorder or, like I have, PCOS. These things alter your metabolisms so significantly that you need someone truly skilled in helping you find the right balance. You might even, as I have had to do, have to see internists as well.

If you're obese and looking for answers here, please stop. No, don't start at 1200. Don't start at 3000. Don't start without tests for diabetes, PCOS, Insulin Resistance, etc. "Monica" was rather lucky in this scenario, but it's hardly a case study; if you are obese or morbidly obese, there is a chance underlying conditions are helping you stay that way. You're going to feel better having medical clearance anyway when you want to begin exercise. For example, he had a six week period of Monica not loosing. Eventually she did again. We don't know how her diet's composition change. Did she alter carbs/fats/etc? Did she begin drinking more water? Taking supplements? How many people think 1200 isn't working and push on for six weeks without result? Not many. Yes, Monica seems to have had a decent amount of will power and a load of blind faith, but she could have very well had the same stall and restart at 1200, 1400, 1600, or 2000 calories. There are just too many factors to consider. She could have had more plateaus than he could have accounted for; what then?

Two things I find wrong about this kind of hostility:

1. I am a bio major. went through 2 years of med school, took all the orgo, chem, biochem, and associated classes, before deciding that 8 more years of school would put me into too much debt. for all educational purposes, I'm a doctor.

2. most doctors are contact of last resort. you don't see a doctor while you are gaining weight, you see them when you've gained too much weight that it threatens your health. most doctors will tell you to eat less. they have NO idea about the current studies and literature pertaining to human weight loss, performance nutrition, and optimal disease prevention....that is unless they keep up with peer reviewed studies. If they do...it's in the area of disease correction, instead of prevention. Although all doctors have fundamental knowledge of how to prevent disease, not all of them update their knowledge profiles bi monthly.

3. I exist in some grey space, outside of personal trainers who charge money, and oustide of doctors who know nothing about being "beach-ready". I exist to help. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it elsewhere.

Actually, as you pointed out, you are eight years of school away from being a doctor. A lot of stuff happens in eight years of education; I've learned that working on my own doctorate.

Doctor's don't and shouldn't have to be a last resort. I don't even get where you're saying that people don't see doctors while they are gaining weight. If people aren't getting regular physicals there are a lot of health problems they could be overlooking aside from obesity. Encouraging them to use you as a substitute isn't helping anyone. I'm also not sure your critical thinking skills are up to par. I clearly already outlined that people should see specialists in nutrition and internal medicine. I said myself that most doctors undergo only hours of nutritional training--but still they are more licensed and trained than you. That's a fact. Certainly a nutritionist would put you to shame.

And finally, you did not seriously just champion yourself for your knowledge of "beach ready" bodies? Yeah, I don't think a lot of doctors are marketing that...you know...because a beach ready body isn't the main indicator of health.

If you can't see the informative nature of my original response, where I even gave you the courtesy of saying you had good intentions, you're really off. This is a forum; it's a place of discussion. You have no need to be threatened. You seriously don't want obese and morbidly obese people to have a reminder to seek medical help, to find out if they have any underlying medical problems before jumping in to a diet? That's just negligence.