any 1200 calorie success stories?
snowy_sk
Posts: 117 Member
Hi, I keep reading so many negative comments about sticking to 1200 calories. This is the amount I was planning to eat but am now confused! Anyone have any positive stories please?
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Replies
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I was just reading "that" thread, too.
I lost what I considered a plateau of years in just two weeks doing this!
Eating 1200 calories, that is.
I don't freak out if I go over, I eat if I am hungry/cranky *lol*
I also eat more protein if I decide to work out.
Maybe they work out more or something, I don't know.
Right now, this 1200 thing is working for me and I am sticking with it, despite what a bunch of strangers say!
If something changes, hey - I might look in to what they are saying but the scale does not lie and for the first time, in YEARS, I am seeing 130s!!!
They can eat what they want. I am quite content at 1200 (give or take some days)!0 -
I have been staying under or at 1200 calories a day and it is working for me. I am going to the gym at least 6 days a week and I am losing weight. I don't feel hungry throughout the day either. I would say give it a try, with anything, you are going to have the horror stories because it is not a one size fits all, everyone is different. Good Luck!0
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1200 calories with 1500-2000 a day on the weekends is working for me. I make sure I can fit in snacks so I don't feel hungry between meals and I buy/use lower calorie items than I normally would so that I have more to eat. (Light bread, reduced fat cheese, fat free pudding, low carb tortillas) I don't do this because I'm cutting out anything like fat or carbs, I do it simply because it lets me put more food on my plate.0
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Thankyou! x0
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The question I have is: if you CAN eat more than 1200 calories/day and still lose weight, why wouldn't you?0
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Eating 1200 or under worked for me all the way through high school until I got to Uni and made the worst choices ever (fast food fiend), I've been eating like the old days for about 10 days now and aside from a noticeable difference in my skin, face fat and belly I feel GREAT. I can't remember having this much energy for years!
People are plain wrong when they say you can't maintain the 1200 cal lifestyle, it's just utter bull. It's also wrong to say that you can't feel good or full if you eat under 1200 cals. Go for it and let us know your experience!
Different people need different paths. I know if I allowed myself 1800 cals a day, I'd fill it up by making much worse choices than I do currently. What's most important is that you do what's best for YOU. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
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The question I have is: if you CAN eat more than 1200 calories/day and still lose weight, why wouldn't you?
Would you lose the same amount of weight in the same amount of time by eating more cals? I think the obvious answer is no. So that could be one reason.0 -
No. I eat 3200 calories a day and stil lose right at .5 a pound a week. Unless you're 4'11" or you have to for medical purposes, I see no point in eating a 1200 calorie diet. Especially if you're working out as well.0
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I began on Oct 20, 2012 at a weigh-in of 253, I have limited myself to an avg of 1250-1300 a day, as of today I have lost 63 pounds.
The key is to eat and eat often, eating the right things and excercise0 -
The question I have is: if you CAN eat more than 1200 calories/day and still lose weight, why wouldn't you?
Would you lose the same amount of weight in the same amount of time by eating more cals? I think the obvious answer is no. So that could be one reason.
It's not a race, why do you HAVE to lose weight FAST? You don't.0 -
1,200 seems so low. I eat about 1800.day. But I think if you aren't cranky, eating balanced, not feeling exhausted, and lose weight -- then it works for you! I definitely agree, different people need different paths, and that's just fine0
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I've been at around 1200 calories for the last 9 months. I have lost 70lbs. I'm not trying to "race" or do it fast or anything. I work out almost everyday (running) and try to pay attention to how my body feels. 1200 calories can be a LOT of food if you are eating really clean, and healthy. I really think it should be more about the quality of your food, than the quantity of your food.0
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My personal opinion is that you should do what you want to do- if you aren't losing weight that you want, add more calories and work out more. Weight loss is all about what's best for YOU! You might need to experiment different calorie intake amounts but, you will find what's right for you! I first started with 2000 calories and gained, I than dropped to 1200 and I was still hungry- now, I have 1300 calories a day and I usually don't eat a lot less than that. I also cannot for the life of me workout 7 days a week having a newborn baby.
My mother in law lost about 200 pounds on a 1200 calorie diet but, she only ate fruits and vegetables ALL DAY! She lost that 200 pounds in about 2 years.
I wish you the best of luck!0 -
I am 4'9", and 59 years old. I am eating 1100 during the week, and more on weekends. I am losing 0.5 - 1.0 pounds per week. That's still not very fast, but if I eat more, I don't seem to lose anything. My doctor knows about this, and approves as long as I don't feel weak or shaky, which I never do. I have been on this plan for close to a year. I have been on several vacations, and always enjoyed my food, then went back on plan. I exercise with TRX straps 3x per week, and try to walk or do something the other days. I seem to have plenty of muscle mass in my legs and arms. While I sometimes wish I could eat a little more, I eat three reasonably filling meals a day, plus a snack or two. You can eat quite a lot of food if you choose wisely. :drinker:0
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It worked for me for 40 lbs. of course I exercised and logged and ate back the calories, so most days I was eating more like 1450 calories.
I follow all the threads that say we can eat more. I've even used the very helpful in Place of a roadmap group spreadsheet for figuring calories. The funny thing is that even though the roadmap group swears that everyone can eat more calories and lose, when I put my numbers in it generates a number very similar to 1200 plus my exercise calories. This is probably because I am small, slim, female, and middle aged! The fact is if you are all those things you don't need a lot of fuel!
I think that what so many people freak out about is thinking that when you say you eat 1200 you are not logging and eati g exercise calories. If you do that, you will actually eat more than 1200, plus develop a really good attitude toward exercise as a positive thing rather than something else on the to-do list. That's what happened for me.0 -
I lost just under 10 lbs in two months eating around 1200 calories a day. Since I only have about 15 lbs total to lose, those were pretty great results for me!
Give it a shot and see how it works for you.
I didn't consistently eat 1200 calories during those two months--at least twice a week I had a 1700-1800 calorie day, but normally because of some special event or work lunch that caused me to up my intake. So don't be upset with yourself if you have a few days where you go over. You'll still lose weight.
The trick I found to keeping my intake at that level? At least one meal a day had to be a salad. If you are smart about the toppings and make sure to include plenty of protein in the salad, it works!0 -
I know several women who ate an average of 1,200 calories a day who have some of the best bodies on the planet -- body fat percentages in the teens. They followed a ketogenic protocol, were never hungry because their brains were fed endogenously, and consequently they reached their goals in about half the time that they would if they were dealing with depleted liver glycogen and hypoglycemia. A few of them are still ketogenic and rarely eat more than 1,200 calories. A few of them have reintroduced carbs and eat about 1,500 calories. All are thriving.
Conduct your own experiment and think for yourself. It requires no ethical guidelines or funding.0 -
The question I have is: if you CAN eat more than 1200 calories/day and still lose weight, why wouldn't you?
Would you lose the same amount of weight in the same amount of time by eating more cals? I think the obvious answer is no. So that could be one reason.
What's the rush? The loss of lean body mass associated with accelerated weight loss is enough of a reason to take it slow and steady, IMO. Eating at a more "normal" level also helps teach you good, healthy, manageable behaviours for maintenance and long-term success.0 -
I am 4'9", and 59 years old.
This is a good example of who should be eating less!
At 5'4 and a normal weight, the average woman's BMR is 1200, so there is no harm in eating that amount. For someone particularly short, it could end up as their maintenance calories.0 -
The calories each person needs to eat to lose weight is going to be different depending on gender, age and their particular metabolism. I decided to start eating more calories because of everyone saying that 1200 calories isn't enough and am now stuck around the same weight when i started eating 1400 calories instead of the 1200 calories i was eating before to lose 2 pounds per week. I also added exercise to my program at the same time in increased my calories to 1400. I think we have to figure out for ourselves what is going to work. I'd love to eat more calories and still lose but i don't think that is going to work for me and it scares me to eat more calories and gain the little bit of weight i lost. Yes, I see these younger guys and gals eating more and losing but that is not going to work for everyone.0
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Yep, 1200 and occasionally less than 1200 calories works just fine for me. I get plenty to eat and I'm definitely not hungry or starving myself. Now, I wouldn't suggest eating two 600 calorie muffins and calling it a day, but you can eat fruit, veggies, cheese, eggs, grains, or really, anything you like in moderate portions. Granted, some people need more than 1200 calories and I think a lot of it depends on your genetic makeup, your physical activity, etc., but others do just fine and are very well satisfied with their 1200 caloric intake.
I don't skip meals and I eat my fair share of snacks. I just happen to 'like' a lot of the low cal foods. For example, I am perfectly content eating an entire can of green beans with half a pat of real butter and a dash of salt & pepper which comes to about 83 calories total. Add in a delicious Morningstar Farms Veggie Sausage Patty on top of half of a homemade, lightly buttered biscuit, and for dessert, a container of Activia 60 calorie yogurt and a juicy Cuties clementine and that entire meal is roughly 354 calories.
A grilled cheese sandwich, using Aunt Millie's Light Wholegrain Bread @ 35 calories a slice and a slice of Kraft Cheese @ 45 calories, an entire pat of real butter, spread thinly on each slice of bread, and *GASP* half a can of Baby Coke, and you're looking at 171 calories of delicious. Accompany the sandwich with a bowl of veggie or tomato soup and you have a filling, satisfying meal.
My snacks include string cheese, apples, bananas, yogurt, nuts, hard boiled eggs, popsicles, fudgesicles, fresh fruit in season, yummy protein bars...lots of tasty things. In short, I can munch all day, depriving myself of nothing, and still stay within that 1200 calorie range.
So, to all the 1200 calorie naysayers, I say "Come on over and spend the day with me! I guarantee you will not go home hungry and you will be shocked by the amount of food there is in 1200 calories!"0 -
The question I have is: if you CAN eat more than 1200 calories/day and still lose weight, why wouldn't you?
Would you lose the same amount of weight in the same amount of time by eating more cals? I think the obvious answer is no. So that could be one reason.
What's the rush? The loss of lean body mass associated with accelerated weight loss is enough of a reason to take it slow and steady, IMO. Eating at a more "normal" level also helps teach you good, healthy, manageable behaviours for maintenance and long-term success.
I don't think a pound a week is rushing it. It's enough to keep you motivated.0 -
I eat 1200 cal or less a day, but I'm only 5'0". This works for me. On days when I plan a long distance run, then I'll increase my calorie intake to 1300-1400.0
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I started my weight loss journey netting between 1200-1350 calories a day and lost 21 pounds pretty quickly. But I became miserable, I no longer had any energy, and my weight loss stalled for weeks. I was still eating the correct amount of calories (and I have a food scale so I weighed everything), and it was "clean" calories, plus I was working out as usual (but with less intensity because I just didn't have the energy to), but the scale would not budge and I wasn't losing inches either.
I almost gave up, but I decided to look online first and that's when the idea of eating more was introduced. I was very skeptical: why in the world would you eat more to lose weight? It made absolutely no sense. I was terrified: but what if I gain the weight back? But I was at my wits end and willing to try anything short of surgery.
I lost 2 pounds the first week after upping my calories to 1900 a day. Most suggested to do it in small increases, but I'm impatient. That was last week. I only weigh myself once a month, so I won't really know if that was a fluke or not, but the tape measure doesn't lie, I'm also losing inches.
I have WAY more energy, I feel better, my mood is better: trust me, I was the crankiest person ever on 1200 calories. My concentration improved (which is really important for me since I study a lot).
Like seriously, I'm a 23 year old 5'7" fairly active female netting only 1200-1350 calories? My BMR (what I need to eat to maintain my body weight if I was in a coma and not moving at all) is 1730. No wonder I felt horrible.
I eat 1900 calories now, which is ~500 less than my TDEE (2400 at lightly active). And coupled with exercise, I should be losing approximately ~1.5 pounds a week. Which from my first week's result is just about right.
Sure, not everyone* will be able to lose following the TDEE-20%, so do what is best for your body, but I'm willing to bet 90% of people (without health problems) will, it's just human stubbornness that is keeping people from following common sense (math is always common sense).
Getting fit and losing weight doesn't have to be miserable, nor (for me) does it have to happen in a certain amount of time. I'll get there when I get there, but I don't want to spend the next couple of months in agony.
Plus I don't get why there seems to be a sense of "I have more discipline" for eating so little calories. That is eating disorder territory. Being able to eat less calories than you're supposed to doesn't make you better in my opinion. It just makes you quite foolish.
If it works for you, fine, but I'd like to maintain the weight loss for the rest of my life. There's a reason why so many people gain the weight back (and it's not always immediately, sometimes it happens 2+ years later), and I think eating so little calories and expecting your body to be content with it forever is the reason. Our bodies are smarter than we are, and losing weight is not something it likes to do. I don't want to get into the physiology of it, but our bodies have powerful regulators against losing weight. And once you stop eating 1200 calories and eat more for whatever reason (life has a way of doing that), guess what your body will do? That's right, pack on the pounds. Then the cycle starts all over again. I'm totally not for yo-yo dieting.
So did I have success with 1200 calories? Yes I did, I lost 21 pounds. I'm not saying it doesn't work. But I want sustainable weight loss.
Eating 1200 calories for the next (hopefully) 50+ years** of my life? I'll pass.
But even after that long winded speech, it comes down to this: do what you want to do, because at the end of the day, it doesn't affect me personally. But I like to see people succeed and remain successful.
*People with special considerations and health problems. I'm not bashing a VLCD as long as it was recommended by a dietician/physician. There are situations where this is necessary, and I recognize that. I don't think it is for most people.
**Obviously when I become older I'll have to eat less calories. But even as a 65 year old woman with a sedentary lifestyle I'd have to eat 1550 calories to maintain my goal weight. And I don't plan on being sedentary.0 -
DittoI've been at around 1200 calories for the last 9 months. I have lost 70lbs. I'm not trying to "race" or do it fast or anything. I work out almost everyday (running) and try to pay attention to how my body feels. 1200 calories can be a LOT of food if you are eating really clean, and healthy. I really think it should be more about the quality of your food, than the quantity of your food. 0 -
Hmm, 1200 calories works very well for me, but that's probably due to my height (150cm). Usually if I'm to eat over 1200 calories (Pizza Saturday is an unstoppable force :P) I feel bloated.0
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I am 39, 5'9", and I'm fairly muscular already.
I am eating under 1200 calories a day. I love it. I love everything about it. I feel great. I have so much energy and my disposition has improved. I think that also has to do with cutting out sugar and grains. But there is nothing about this that I'm disliking.
I had even decided to quit exercising until I lost the weight. I decided to do it with diet alone then take up exercise again when I was done. But I only lasted a month before I was doing push ups and squats and lunges in my home. I just found I needed to burn off the extra energy.
I'm 7 weeks in, down 13 lbs, over halfway to my goal.0 -
My doctor has me on a 1200 calorie diet.i sometimes go to 1400 when in really hungry but i normaly try to stick to my 1200.i lost 11 pounds from feb.14to mar.7.thats what my doctor said i work out every day.so it can be doable.just have to work on it0
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Some of us are 4'11", and we have to eat 1200 or less...0
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thank you for this post. I lost 9lbs last year staying with the 1200 calorie diet. I uped it and started eating my excercise calories back and I gained all the wieght back! Im going to try it again and see what happens. I think it can be alot of food if you eat healthy0
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