Ending 1200 Calorie Bashing: Respecting Your Peers

Thank You for posting what so many others have been thinking! I also have PCOS and have been able to lose weight slowly on 1200 calories (which by the way is what MFP set my target at). I am slightly under 5ft so that also could contribute to my low calorie allowance. There are some days I try to eat 1300-1400 just so my body doesn't get used to only consuming 1200. I'm not sure why everyone is bashing eating 1200 calories. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2 snacks a day. Everyone is made different and depending on their body and lifestyle some people can consume more calories than others. I think we are all after the same goal of losing weight to be healthy. We should be supporting each other!

All of the time it took to write that you could have been exercising and not getting angry at the forums

Who cares what other people say? Find what works for you and go with it, if you ask for advice/recommendations, be ready for ideas/recommendations that you don't agree with. (this goes for everyone)

How to say this without sounding like a prick.. because honestly I don't mean to be..

But I'm reading the responses, "My doctor put me on this diet, they know more than you" "I know my own body" "Everyone's different, I know what works for me"

Ok. You don't want to hear that what you're doing is wrong or isn't working. Ok.

So why ask for advice?

That's the part I don't understand. If you ask for advice people are going to give it. And a lot of what you'll get is "Unless you have a medical condition that your doctor is treating you for you should probably eat over 1200 calories a day and exercise."

How to say this without sounding like a prick.. because honestly I don't mean to be..

But I'm reading the responses, "My doctor put me on this diet, they know more than you" "I know my own body" "Everyone's different, I know what works for me"

Ok. You don't want to hear that what you're doing is wrong or isn't working. Ok.

So why ask for advice?

That's the part I don't understand. If you ask for advice people are going to give it. And a lot of what you'll get is "Unless you have a medical condition that your doctor is treating you for you should probably eat over 1200 calories a day and exercise."

With respect to the OP, I agree with this. I too have PCOS. I did the 1200 calorie diet and lost 50lbs and then plateaued for several months before gaining back half of what I lost. When I told my doctor that I was struggling he was like " whoa, you need to eat more that 1200 calories!!" In my experience, after seeing 3 different doctors before finding this one I love, they used common knowledge rather than expertise to give out advice on medical conditions.

Most importantly, as I am a perfect example, Just because it seems to be working for you, doesn't mean you are doing it right! I quit 1200 calories, ate my tdee for awhile, which made me bloated and miserable for a couple weeks but now I cut down and eat between 1900-2000 calories a day with exercise and I am feeling better, clothes are fitting better and see where I went wrong.

As I said, OP I respect your post but I really hope that you aren't telling all these people with PCOS that they have to eat little to lose weight, that is the impression I am getting with a ton of the responses here.

Doctor tells me 1,300 calories, MFP tells me 1,280. I eat what I need to not be hungry and lose a couple of pounds a week and it is just a shave over 1000 calories a day.

Despite people saying every one isn't different I think we are, I am very unfit, sedentary I just do not lose when I eat above 1,300 calories. Some would struggle on my allowance but it suits me.

Great post- although I will be honest and admit that I may have speed read some of it, however, MFP has calculated that for me to lose 1 1/2 pounds per week, I need to follow a 1200 calorie per day diet. I panicked at this at first! 1200 cals did not seem a lot. And it isn't if you eat rubbish, but I use MFP to input my food intake and track things.
This has changed my thought process of losing weight. I have in the past (prior to reaching 30) been able to eat almost anything I wanted, but burn it out in the gym, however this is not the case for me now at 30+. I am much more aware, since using MFP, of what I eat and its worth for my body when compared to the calorie in the food. I think MFP has educated me to 'earn' my calories. If I feel the need to have more calories to eat, then I must offset this with some physical activity.

This has so far worked for me.

I think that must be true because I am at the other end of the spectrum. I am losing while eating close to 2000 calories a day and maintaining what most websites call "sedentary" or just barely "lightly active" lifestyle. I believe that it's true that some women would be gaining weight if they ate what I did. The online calculators are based on averages, and some of use are above or below the average due to our unique physical attributes.

It's important to realize that we should never judge strangers whose life stories are unknown to us. Personally, I subscribe to the "live and let live" philosophy of libertarianism. Excellent OP.

I admire the OP for being able to stick to 1200. It does not give much wiggle room and requires a lot of vigilance.

I have just had a cold meat salad for lunch and inputting it into my Fatsecret log I find it totals 1200. There's no way I can make that meal last me till tomorrow. In fact, I am already hungry again!

366.

Haven't read any replies, just the OP. LOVE IT!!

Unfortunately, I doubt it will change much. I fear some have put themselves on such a high pedestal that they are afraid to fall off.

It's actually NOT easy to be snarky and judgmental. I think most of us who roll our eyes at these "I'm different! I swear it! I will die if I eat more than 8 calories per day!" posts would truly LOVE to be able to discuss healthy food and fitness techniques with the new members of the site.

The problem is that most of the people who come here claiming to be looking for advice are really only looking for confirmation of their pre-existing misconceptions about weight-loss. And when you tell them they are wrong, they immediately get defensive. Any attempt to dissuade them from bowing before the systematic starvation throne is viewed as being mean, snarky, and judgmental.The people here who say "Eat more," "lift heavy weights," "stop doing 100 hours of cardio a week," etc., are people who have been there and done that and have learned from experience what is SUSTAINABLE and what only works for about six weeks.

Then there is the inevitable "my doctor told me to do this, so you must not know what you're talking about" nonsense. Allow me to clue you in: most doctors don't know their *kitten* from their carotid arteries when it comes to losing weight. They tell you to eat 1000 calories per day because they don't KNOW what else to tell you. They spend their careers wiping noses, writing prescriptions for antibiotics, and passing people off to specialists. Experience has taught them that telling you to starve yourself will cause you to drop a lot of weight in a short amount of time, thus convincing you of their brilliance ... before you inevitably crash and burn, blame yourself, and settle on the fact that losing weight is simply not possible for you because you don't have the requisite willpower or discipline. And if you could think for yourself, you might have realized at some point along the way that maybe your doctor was wrong.

If you don't want to take my word for it, that's actually a good sign because you absolutely SHOULD be doing real, independent research. Spend some time educating yourself rather than taking your doctor's advice as gospel.