1200, and why it won't work

Options
1…2021232526

Replies

  • lissaloue
    lissaloue Posts: 34 Member
    Options
    Awesome post! *bump*
  • hsnider29
    hsnider29 Posts: 394 Member
    Options
    I think it is easy to lose on 1200 calories. It's also not that difficult to stay within your calorie goal if choosing the right foods. To all the people saying that the OP is completely wrong, get back to me in a year. I think the point he was trying to make is that 1200 calories probably isn't sustainable in the long run for maintenance. I think 1200 net is much better but many people are eating 1200 gross and exercising like crazy.

    I'm small. 5' and 32. I'm averaging around 1800 calories a day and strength training 3 days a week. I'm not losing much weight but am losin inches. I'm trying to undo years of dieting and a crappy metabolism.
  • iveyroze3
    iveyroze3 Posts: 89
    Options
    Thank you so much. I am an RN and work night shift. I was easily eating 3,000 cals a day and usually only 1-2 meals a day,if you could call them that. I started out at 1200 cals a day.( Even my Bariatrician said to do this) Anyway I soon found I was just too hungry. I want this to be a lifestyle change I can do forever ,not just a little while . I don't want to get bored,feel deprived or quit because it's too hard to do. I upped my cals a day to 1400. Now I am thinking 1500-1600 . still way under my TDEE. I have researched on this a lot and understand you have to eat to lose.This is progress not perfection. I am 3 months in and am open to remaining teachable. I didn't get heavy overnight and it will take work and dedication to succeed. FYI I started at an all time high of 248lbs and 5'5.
  • CoraGregoryCPA
    CoraGregoryCPA Posts: 1,097 Member
    Options
    I read it ! When does the person start eating at the TDEE or BMI calorie level? I am pass the point of starting out at a high calorie point and decreasing. So I'm starting out (this month) with 1200/day calories as long as the scale continues to move. But this week I think I might creep up to 1400. The 1200 does affect my workouts. I workout a lot! I log it on the Polar website, not here. I think 1200 is "okay" for someone who doesn't workout.
  • jbonow1231
    jbonow1231 Posts: 75 Member
    Options
    Excellent post - thank you so much for making it! I have a big long term weight loss goal, and went to visit a personal trainer who was adamant that I start on 1500 calories right away, and that anything less than that was unacceptable and that I was just wasting her and my time. I didn't make it more than two days, felt ashamed, and fell off the wagon, and stopped going to the gym for months out of shame.

    I think people some people who have psychologically broken free of the mental vice grip that is the bane of overeating forget sometimes the true issue that it is. And those that have never experienced it might not truly be able to sympathize, and thus they assume (and they will sometimes make sure to be vocal about it) that someone can just "buckled down and stopped eating so much." But it is very difficult to overcome, it becomes second nature, but breaking yourself gradually is a lot easier on you mentally and physically than going "cold turkey" on food, so to speak.

    My BMR as calculated on this site is 1,778, and currently I'm set my daily goal for 1,720 calories. Which - while that not seem like a lot, I've only been on Myfitnesspal for less than a month, but just that small change -and- beginning to actually be accountable to myself for how much and what I'm eating I've already lost one pant size. :D

    So thank you for letting people know that going into things gradually -is- an option, and that better than that, that it is okay. That you didn't get here overnight, and you can't fix it overnight, but you can't fix it, every day, one change at a time.
  • wikitbikit
    wikitbikit Posts: 518 Member
    Options
    Very interesting read!

    I think this is something I finally figured out for myself sort of recently, and having the long version (so to speak, giggle) laid out like this made it all ping so much the louder in my head.

    I have a very... "If a little is good, a lot is better!" kind of mindset in many facets of life. As I'm nearing... an age with a zero... I think I'm starting to REALLY get why that isn't true, and this is a pretty perfect demonstration of it.

    Thanks for taking the time (even if it was a month and a half ago).
  • ashleab37
    ashleab37 Posts: 575 Member
    Options
    Bumping to read later
  • Juleeroch
    Juleeroch Posts: 98 Member
    Options
    Very interesting... Maybe explains that following MFP on and off for over one year on 1200 cals a day (I'm 5ft 3in) my start weight was 147 - went down after about 6 months to 140 - now it is 146...................I think 1200 to start with is okay BUT personally speaking I think I found it quite limiting - long term - I got bored with the same old food etc etc etc.... Maybe this time I will increase my 1200 to maybe 1300 plus increase my exercise (must admit I dont exercise much at all). Maybe then I can keep at it for longer and loose more..........................ha who knows...............been yo yo dieting for about 30 years............. I think its more my body image that needs working on...............I know I'm not massively overweight - I'd just like to maintain at about 1stone (14 pounds) less than I am at the moment..

    Thanks anyway - and thanks to anyone who reads this.
    x
  • nik2710
    nik2710 Posts: 49 Member
    Options
    :flowerforyou:
  • magicsnapper
    magicsnapper Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    bump
  • countrystylist
    countrystylist Posts: 7 Member
    Options
    I JUST jumped on here hoping to have that question answered/ confirmed. Thank you.
  • jdavis193
    jdavis193 Posts: 972 Member
    Options
    bump
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options


    I agree with you, and also if 1200 is so bad why does MFP recommend that for some of us ? Also why does my nutritionist and Doctor also recommend it ? I know what's working for me and I am carrying on that way.

    It's the recommended MINIMUM.

    MFP takes the amount of pounds you say you want to lose per week and subtracts a set amount of calories from your estimated calorie needs, but only to a minimum of 1200. If you tell it you want to lose 2 pounds a week, it is going to subtract 1,000 calories per day. It doesn't mean that is the best thing for you.

    Ask your doctor and nutritionist what their strategy is when your weight loss stalls and you aren't losing any more. Magic pills?
  • 1jobean
    1jobean Posts: 84
    Options
    I agree mfp told me 1200 because I didnt put info in correctly. A few days were fine but I was hungry all the time. I think it was just setting myself up for failure. Im now at 1290 and I eat my exercise calories back or at least most of them and I feel more content.
  • Loulousq
    Loulousq Posts: 38 Member
    Options
    great thread. i started MFP again on 1/8/13 at 1200 calories and have lost 12 lbs so far though few days i felt starving! i'm 5ft, now 208 lbs, TDEE 2679, BMR 1729. The 1200 calories was working for me and some days i found it difficult to even reach 1200 bc of my food choices and i rarely ate back exercise calories. After reading this thread and all 19 pages so far, I have decided to up my calories (i think i hit a plateau for a week but i'm not sure) to 1500 a day starting today and not eat back my exercise calories. i exercise 3-5 days a week mountain biking and love it! I'm just worried that i'm eating under my bmr which sounds like it slows down the metabolism and i don't want that to happen anymore. in a few weeks, i will up to 1700 and try to find the perfect daily calorie limit for myself :)

    any advice from other readers or the OP would be appreciated as what i've interpreted from this thread was expressed above. Thanks for such a great thread and all the advice.
  • aelunyu
    aelunyu Posts: 486 Member
    Options
    Reading this thread is nostalgic. I've had many people try to refute my original post, but I think they misunderstood my message. Perhaps the title is misleading, but I think honestly, for most of dieters 1200 is too low, and I hope that this post has helped many of you see the alternatives.

    For those of you that are happy and thriving on a 1200 diet, I applaud you for your compliance and unwavering effort...there's no need for animosity. You are doing well.

    For anyone asking about setpoint, or startpoint or "what's a good intake", the solution requires some experimental curiosity. Pick a number you feel you are slightly hungry...by the end of the day. I actually love figuring set points for people, and seeing if they respond. This is probably at least a 4-8 week endeavor...but I would hope that in that time, dieters (like Monica) would have figured out the ultimate pattern. We just keep testing things until something works. My method is not complex.. Nor does it rely on some arbitrary formula. It just says..."eat this much". Then asks "did you lose weight". then says "eat less" or "keep going!".

    I am overwhelmed by the response I've gotten from this post. I honestly did not expect it to gain such favor. But I hope that you've all gotten responses from me...and that I've given you some guidance.
  • juliesmithdiet
    juliesmithdiet Posts: 33
    Options


    I agree with you, and also if 1200 is so bad why does MFP recommend that for some of us ? Also why does my nutritionist and Doctor also recommend it ? I know what's working for me and I am carrying on that way.

    It's the recommended MINIMUM.

    MFP takes the amount of pounds you say you want to lose per week and subtracts a set amount of calories from your estimated calorie needs, but only to a minimum of 1200. If you tell it you want to lose 2 pounds a week, it is going to subtract 1,000 calories per day. It doesn't mean that is the best thing for you.

    Ask your doctor and nutritionist what their strategy is when your weight loss stalls and you aren't losing any more. Magic pills?


    No magic pills just keep slogging on which is where I have always gone wrong before, I haven't felt this good in many years, this site is supposed to support people but it seems anyone not doing what some of you are is made to feel they are doing something wrong, to me support would be help them if it goes wrong not bash them down while it's working. I think this may be my last visit to the forum, I find it way to depressing to be told what I am doing cannot work when I can see the results in the mirror and on the scale. If it helps you feel better to eat more fine, I am not hungry, I have more energy, it is working for my body to eat less.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    It will work, for awhile. But when you get to the point where it is not working, it is going to be much harder for you to fix, any may come with other health issues that you caused by eating too little.. People are just trying to give you the benefit of their experience, as a way to support you, so you don't make the same mistakes they did. For your benefit. People are not disagreeing with you because we are trying to bash you, we are disagreeing because we are concerned.
  • juliesmithdiet
    juliesmithdiet Posts: 33
    Options
    As they do not know me or inhabit my body how can they say it's bad ? How can anyone say what is right for anyone else ? by all means tell your own stories but don't assume that it will or won't work for everyone. Future problems I'll face when I get there, what I trying to through at the moment is past problems. Eating more is what got me where I am now.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    As they do not know me or inhabit my body how can they say it's bad ? How can anyone say what is right for anyone else ? by all means tell your own stories but don't assume that it will or won't work for everyone. Future problems I'll face when I get there, what I trying to through at the moment is past problems. Eating more is what got me where I am now.

    Because human bodies have more similarities than differences.

Categories