When is 1200 calories appropriate? (hint: almost never)

That or people don't like hearing the same ole' lies over and over, I'm with the lies group. Tired of hearing it because REALITY is it's NOT everyone's truth, certainly not mine.

Nice try, but this is going to fall on deaf ears.

I wish there was a new rule in the forums that said when you talk about the 1200 calories you are set at that you are eating NET OR GROSS. Without one of those words next to the 1200 then the conversation really can confuse new people. 1200 Gross means you are only eating 1200 calories a day period. 1200 NET means you are set at 1200, enter exercise and eat the calories back. Which means depending on what you burn in a day you are always eating more than 1200 calories. Regardless of what you personally want to do I don't care. Everyone is an individual and should make their own choices. I just always see new people getting confused because we are not explaining it very well. It sure would stop a lot of confusion if we just added those two little words behind the number.

the elephant in the room is that many people who insist that 1200 calories is fine, really don't eat 1200. they eat less than that, but are too embarrassed to admit that they are only eating 800 or 900 calories per day. so even when we talk about 1200 calorie diets, we're talking about more than that... we're talking about all those eating less than that (over a prolonged period of time).

my goal was never to get into a debate with people who insist that 1200 is perfectly fine for them. it's their life, it's their choice. for some people, their physical size means that 1200 can be fine (if nutritionally sound). for some people who have yo-yo dieted, their lowered BMR means that 1200 can work as well. some people have medical conditions or medical emergencies and need to eat at 1200 or less. i think that's fine as well, so long as they are under medical supervision. there are probably a handful of other scenarios where 1200 works out to be the right daily goal.

but many people choose 1200 without understanding what their correct daily goal should be. i just wanted to pass along some helpful links to them so that they don't struggle on 1200 when they could thrive on 1400 or 1500.

a couple of people angry about previous threads in which i did not participate have posted their objections here. they are still fighting an argument they've had with other people. this was not the thread for that. i am not the one that they have an argument with. until today, i had no idea who these 4 or 5 people were. i wish them the best, but i wish they had exercised some self-restraint and not tried to hijack and derail this thread. i won't see anything they post from this point forward because all of them have earned a spot on my ignore list. i suggest they put me on ignore as well.

You probably have me on ignore now, so won't read this, but in case you do see this, allow me to explain my response to your thread.

Your OP did not simply give advice to those people who are struggling on 1200 a day and are miserable by respectfully suggesting an alternative to eating at a higher calorie level that was more appropriate for them.

Your post clearly spelled out a list of 'guidelines' that you declared to be the law as to whom a 1200 calorie diet would be appropriate, and that 99+% of the people on here should be eating more than 1200 calories.
You deemed that 1200 calories is 'starving oneself' and is an unhealthy VLCD that should only be done under unusual medical conditions and closely monitored by a doctor.

1200 calories a day is NOT considered a VLCD in any medical definitions.

Is 1200/day appropriate for everyone? Of course it isn't. It all depends on an individual. Age, height, weight, body comp, activity levels, hormone levels, all play a role in determining your TDEE.

1600/day is not appropriate for everyone either. Nor is 2000, etc.

If someone has a TDEE of 3000 and they eat 2000 cals per day, they are eating at a 1000 cal deficit which should result in a 2 pound per week loss. This is perfectly healthy and acceptable for someone who needs to lose a moderate to large amount of weight.

If someone else's TDEE is 1700, and they eat 1200, then they are eating at a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound per week.

If both people need to lose say 40 pounds, then why is the first example perfectly fine, but the second example is unhealthy? The first example is eating at TWICE the deficit of the second person.

It is all relative.

When someone like yourself, gets all passionate and creates a thread with the blanket statements like you did, without rational arguments other than your own opinions, then you are bound to piss a lot of people off and receive some responses like you did.

There are a lot more than 1% of the members on here that are eating at 1200 and are succeeding in losing and keeping their weight off. I have almost 200 of them on my friend list alone, because most of them fall into similar age and activity levels that I am in.

If most of your friends are tall, young, active, heavy weight lifters, then certainly they all need to eat at considerably higher levels. I think this is what puts blinders on many of the people who constantly bash the lower calorie diets. They assume that what is appropriate for themselves and those around them, are automatically appropriate for everyone else.

I was surprised by this myself several months ago when I found a girl that maintained on 3000 cals a day. I could not imagine how that was possible. She was younger, taller, had a high LBM, and was extremely active. Her BMR was over 1800. So of course she could eat at 2000 and lose 2 pounds a week.
Since this was HER reality, then that made sense why she could not fathom ANYONE eating only 1200 a day, and declared she would surely starve on that amount. She probably would have eaten her own arm off on that amount!

Our realities were drastically different. Our needs were drastically different.

Being able to look outside one's own self and situation, to see that others do not always fit into the same mold as you do, and accepting that difference with respect, is a sign of maturity and will result in a much happier life for you and those around you.

There is very little in this world that is strictly black and white. When someone makes black and white statements, when there is so much grey, then arguments are sure to follow. And any helpful advice can be lost in the mayhem.