1200 Calories

MFP has set my calorie intake to 1200 and aiming for 1lb loss per week. I'm at the end of week 2 and haven;t lost a thing. I have stuck to my calorie intake with plenty of fresh veg and water.

I'm at 1200 calories a day. I avoid beef, pork and dairy products (milk & cheese) at all costs.
I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. So far, I've lost 40 lbs and I still have 40lbs more to go.
Good luck!:flowerforyou:

I'm at 1200 calories a day and set my goal to a pound and a half a week. It hasn't been working too well (although I did drop 7 pounds gained while traveling very fast). Admittedly, I'm not a stickler to it every day, I prefer to look at the whole week and see where I fall at the end. I also just started getting back into exercising regularly (CrossFit) and I'm starving so I eat back most of my exercise calories.

On days I don't work out, 1200 isn't too hard for me food wise. Wine kills me. But, I stay pretty full by eating cut veggies throughout the day, drinking water, having a snack around 4 and dinner around 6.

I'm always open to tips from others.

Wine, YES! I don't even count it. Ugh!

I try to make myself count it, but sometimes it's just too embarrassing.

MFP has set my calorie intake to 1200 and aiming for 1lb loss per week. I'm at the end of week 2 and haven;t lost a thing. I have stuck to my calorie intake with plenty of fresh veg and water.

as a rough guideline, if you are trying to lose these amounts, you should choose these weight loss rates:

More than 75 lbs: 2 lbs/week
40-75 lbs: 1.5 lbs/week
10-40 lbs: 1 lb/week
Less than 10 lbs: 0.5 lb/week

I'm at 1200 calories a day and set my goal to a pound and a half a week. It hasn't been working too well (although I did drop 7 pounds gained while traveling very fast). Admittedly, I'm not a stickler to it every day, I prefer to look at the whole week and see where I fall at the end. I also just started getting back into exercising regularly (CrossFit) and I'm starving so I eat back most of my exercise calories.

On days I don't work out, 1200 isn't too hard for me food wise. Wine kills me. But, I stay pretty full by eating cut veggies throughout the day, drinking water, having a snack around 4 and dinner around 6.

I'm always open to tips from others.

i'm pretty sure 1200 is too low for you.

did you calculate your BMR? do you know your Harris-Benedict activity level? how much exercise are you doing?

Thanks for jumping in here! My BMR is 1415.45, but I don't know what Harris Benedict is. Is there a calculator online? For the past two weeks I've been going to CrossFit three times a week. I plan on keeping to that schedule (went today, hoorah!).

here's the way i think about it:

BMR is a measure of what your body needs to function normally without external energy demands. alot of people call this "being in a coma" or "sleeping all day"

however, most of us go about our daily lives and that burns calories too. it's nearly impossible to quantify what those energy demands are, so we use an estimate. these include things like making coffee, brushing your teeth, checking the mailbox, etc. everything that you do during the day that is not specific exercise designed to burn calories, should be accounted for using this estimate. this estimate it provided by the Harris-Benedict equation. for sedentary/office workers, this is a x 1.2 multiplier. for lightly active, this is 1.375. etc.

additional exercise that you do every day specifically to burn calories (or for fun, like a game of pickup basketball) is treated as additional calorie burn for that specific day. these are the amounts you are logging with the MFP exercise diary.

use all of these to determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)

TDEE = BMR x Harris-Benedict multiplier + exercise for the day

then, subtract your desired calorie deficit from your TDEE.

daily calorie goal = TDEE - desired calorie deficit

for example.,

for a person whose BMR = 1650, is sedentary normally, wants to lose 1lb per week (i.e., a 500 calorie per day deficit), and has burned 650 calorie playing racquetball today.

TDEE = 1650 x 1.2 +650 = 2630
daily calorie goal = 2630 - 500 = 2130

therefore on this day, this person should eat 2130 calories to meet their goal.

I stick with 1200 calories 97% of the time, but I am 5'3".

You can get wrapped up in the numbers if you want (I do, but I'm obsessive like that), or you can take a more common sense approach to it all...

Are you losing weight? ---> Yes ---> Is your performance/energy levels affected? ---> No ---> Keep doing what you're doing
Are you losing weight? ---> Yes ---> Is your performance/energy levels affected? ---> Yes ---> Eat a little more
Are you losing weight? ---> No ---> Is your performance/energy levels affected? ---> No ---> Eat a little less
Are you losing weight? ---> No---> Is your performance/energy levels affected? ---> Yes---> Sucks to be you

.

This is so helpful, thank you.

So, then I guess here are my stats:

BMR: 1415
HB: 1698
Exercise: 400*3/7 = 171

Daily calorie goal: (1698 + 171) - 500
= 1,369

I was conservative on calories burned and spread the calorie deficit from working out three days a week across the whole week.

I think 1lb per week is a little aggressive for you, but if you can maintain it then you're probably ok.

This is so helpful, thank you.

So, then I guess here are my stats:

BMR: 1415
HB: 1698
Exercise: 400*3/7 = 171

Daily calorie goal: (1698 + 171) - 500
= 1,369

I was conservative on calories burned and spread the calorie deficit from working out three days a week across the whole week.

I think 1lb per week is a little aggressive for you, but if you can maintain it then you're probably ok.

You are probably, most definitely, right. This is probably why I plateaued.