Still think your 1200 or less diet is a good idea?

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Replies

  • lenap73
    lenap73 Posts: 11
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.
  • LeanerBeef
    LeanerBeef Posts: 1,432 Member
    Thank God for the MFP experts......I hope I can be one of those all knowing, smarter than everyone people someday. We should ALL stop researching different programs and just post our start weight and goals in the forum section here and wait for the smart people to tell us how it's done. Because ya know, this fitness thing is one size fits all and if you don't know your TDEE you're just stupid! (Almost 2 years into this and I don't even know what it TDEE stands for, guess I'm doing it all wrong)
  • grim_traveller
    grim_traveller Posts: 625 Member
    My response to all those links:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1454084

    This is why most people fail.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    standing-ovation-o.gif
  • _SABOTEUR_
    _SABOTEUR_ Posts: 6,833 Member
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    So you can become a boydbuilder by eating 1200 cals a day as long as they're 'clean'? Um...no.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Actually, for her age it really is not that low.

    TDEE for a 130 lb sedentary 75 year old female at 66 inches tall is 1405. That's not much lower.

    For someone who is moderately active, it is 1815. Which is higher than what she's eating, and she is a lot more than moderately active.

    Yes, but she will have had a lot of AT for her running. I said it's not *that* low.
  • lenap73
    lenap73 Posts: 11
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    No that's not what I am saying.
    I was responding to an "eating bacon cheeseburger" everyday comment. Somehow I didn't quote and post properly sorry
    So you can become a boydbuilder by eating 1200 cals a day as long as they're 'clean'? Um...no.

    to this comment:
    Where on earth did you get the idea that you can't lose body fat if bacon cheeseburgers are on the menu? Personally, I like bacon cheeseburger pizza.
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
    I have a friend in real life who is almost 40, eats right at 1200 calories daily, along with running 9 miles a day and got to her goal and has maintained for a year with building muscle. It's not always black and white to me when I take her into account...

    BUT with that said, I cannot eat that little without dying LOL. I'm trying to up my calories in order to better lose. I'm at 1500 now on non exercise days and eat back exercise but struggling to do it without junk. Would love to see someone's typical food day that eats a good amount of calories on ONLY healthy food and is losing weight steady. I've asked this in the past and been told to eat ice cream and cake and I'm NOT doing that.

    I think this could be an informing thread for people but disagree in the way it was done (singling out people who have posted for help is not right in my opinion)

    Before joining this site just a little over 2 weeks ago, I lost 50 pounds (primarily in 2012). I ate LOTS of junk, didn't track a thing. As I had so much to lose and felt overwhelmed, I began with small changes. I became more active in my day to day job - going from a sedentary career to a 'on-my-feet and lifting stuff all day long' one. This was an intentional choice and I realize many people cannot make that choice. That was a huge change for me. Toward the fall of last year, I decided to take on exercise. During that entire time, I still was not paying attention to eating or water consumption. I guess you can say it was all activity based.

    It was only when I joined this site that I was ready to tackle my eating habits. So, I have lost 3 pounds in my first two weeks and admittedly, I was following the 1250 recommended by MFP. BUT, I have been following this debate religiously because really - I have done this weight loss thing (the 1200 thing) about 10 times in my adult life. I am fed up with it. I WANT to learn other ways and methods. I WANT to hear about others who have tried things with a different approach and have maintained it.

    KNOWLEDGE IS POWER (not yelling, lol - emphasizing). DUE DILIGENCE IS INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. No harm can come from reading new approaches and weighing for oneself if it is a possiblity that it might be the way to take.
  • nokanjaijo
    nokanjaijo Posts: 466 Member
    Thank God for the MFP experts......I hope I can be one of those all knowing, smarter than everyone people someday. We should ALL stop researching different programs and just post our start weight and goals in the forum section here and wait for the smart people to tell us how it's done. Because ya know, this fitness thing is one size fits all and if you don't know your TDEE you're just stupid! (2 years into this and I don't even know what it TDEE stands for, guess I'm doing it all wrong)

    If you don't know what TDEE stands for, that means the 78 lbs you lost was all muscle and organ tissue and you probably only have a few seconds of life left.
  • DollyPocket
    DollyPocket Posts: 33 Member
    What ever happened to eating what you want but in moderation? That’s what I do and I average around 1200 a day and don’t go hungry. I’m 5 foot and exercise often.
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
    So you can become a boydbuilder by eating 1200 cals a day as long as they're 'clean'? Um...no.

    Are you saying it's better to eat 2000 calories of processed junk than 1200 calories of healthy nutrients?
  • I think this very bizaare anti 1200 thing is a little odd and just not very nice. Instead of attempting to make fun of your fellow fitness pal's why not offer support. This site was created so people on similar journeys could support each other, not poke fun, as fatties surely we get enough of that in everyday life.

    To quote everyone's mother, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"

    Han x
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    don't care about all the posts in this thread

    taso, get ready for this:




    you're so damn right. :drinker:


    26 YO male! What else is new. :laugh:

    A male ob-gyn possibly saved mine and my baby's life. But no, a man can't possibly know anything about a woman's body....

    The fittest, strongest, best looking women I've seen got that way by doing the same thing men do, i.e. eating TDEE +/- whatever percent is right for their goals, and lifting heavy (5-12 reps to failure). There are some differences, i.e. their actual TDEE may be a little lower and the weights they lift may be a little lighter, they may take a little longer to get there, and women carry a little more body fat than men. But as these methods involve adjusting everything to the individuals metabolism and levels of strength, it doesn't really matter whether you're male or female, you eat according to your numbers and lift the weights that are the right weights for you. And in terms of carrying more bodyfat, it means women tend to get visible abs around 16%, while men don't generally get visible abs until 10% or lower. Women are not *that* different to men, and all this "women are totally different so have to do special and very different things to men" does nothing but hold women back. BTW women who don't want visible abs or muscle definition still get excellent results using this method, but they don't cut the body fat below 18-20%.
  • LeanerBeef
    LeanerBeef Posts: 1,432 Member
    I think this very bizaare anti 1200 thing is a little odd and just not very nice. Instead of attempting to make fun of your fellow fitness pal's why not offer support. This site was created so people on similar journeys could support each other, not poke fun, as fatties surely we get enough of that in everyday life.

    To quote everyone's mother, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"

    Han x

    ^^^^Winner!
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
    I should add, to be completely fair, that I think a lot of younger people who are more active in their daily lives are making a big mistake by jumping straight onto 1200 as their total number for the day. But MFP never intended for them to do that. It is for sedentary people and that means it is not for people who work on their feet, students who cross campus with giant backpacks full of books, and those kids trampling across people's lawns. These hoodlums need to eat more than 1200 every day even if they don't make a conscious effort to work out. Now get off my lawn!

    This exactly is the point. Just because 1200 calories a day is the right number of calories for a very petite, sedentary, older woman or someone with a medical issue that slows the metabolism, does not make it the right number of calories for a larger, younger more active person with no medical issues.

    If someone genuinely only needs to eat 1200 calories a day, and they punch their data into a TDEE calculator and subtract ten or twenty percent (depending on how much they have left to lose), then the number they end up with will be 1200 calories (or close to it) and they can carry on safe in the knowledge that it's the right number of calories for them. The problem is, the vast majority of the time when people on 1200 calories a day diets do that, they get a really big number, sometimes well over 2000. Some of them think again and work their way up to eating the higher number of calories, and end up feeling a lot happier, healthier and having a lot more energy, and also experience more steady weight loss as a result. Others freak out at the big number, refuse to eat that much and carry on eating 1200 calories a day. Then there are those who refuse to even try to punch their numbers in the calculators. People who genuinely need to only eat 1200 calories a day will not lose anything by punching their numbers into the calculators to see if they really and truly do only need to eat 1200 calories a day.

    *tiptoes carefully from your lawn*

    This exactly. I see a lot of people asking if they should "follow MFP numbers or TDEE-20%." If you have both set up correctly, they should be about the same. My TDEE-20% would be 1820. As a lightly active person, MFP gives me about 1300 to lose one pound a week, and averaging 400 calories per workout, that puts me at about 1700. Pretty close.

    ^^ yes, when I changed from 1.5/week to 1lb/week, the number MFP gives me and the number TDEE -20% is like maybe 75 calories different...
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    BUT with that said, I cannot eat that little without dying LOL. I'm trying to up my calories in order to better lose. I'm at 1500 now on non exercise days and eat back exercise but struggling to do it without junk. Would love to see someone's typical food day that eats a good amount of calories on ONLY healthy food and is losing weight steady. I've asked this in the past and been told to eat ice cream and cake and I'm NOT doing that.

    Just a little bit more of everything you're eating now. If you want some cake and ice cream... go for it. If you don't, don't. Have a couple extra ounces of chicken at dinner, a larger serving of vegetables, a normal serving of pasta or rice, an extra slice or serving of cheese, an extra egg with breakfast, an extra half cup of cereal, or supplements like protein bars or shakes.

    The biggest thing is to plan your day with the amount you'll burn with exercise in mind, so it's just a matter of "eating," not "eating back." Don't wait until the end of the day to try to make up the difference. Make sure you're using your food diary to plan your meals, not just record them.
  • Jesus with this picture! LOL Trying to give a girl a heart attack!!
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
    I think this very bizaare anti 1200 thing is a little odd and just not very nice. Instead of attempting to make fun of your fellow fitness pal's why not offer support. This site was created so people on similar journeys could support each other, not poke fun, as fatties surely we get enough of that in everyday life.

    To quote everyone's mother, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"

    Han x

    Who is 'MAKING FUN' of those eating 1200 cals??? Jeezus Christ. This is all just information for people to process. If you are one of the people who take personal offense to other ideas being presented - DON"T READ THE THREAD. lol. This is getting ridiculous. No one is forcing anyone here to do anything. It is called debate, people.
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    don't care about all the posts in this thread

    taso, get ready for this:




    you're so damn right. :drinker:


    26 YO male! What else is new. :laugh:
    Want to hear from a 49-year-old woman? I've been netting between 1500-1800 since mid-January, usually eating over 2000 calories per day (and as high as 2400).

    Results so far: I've lost 8 pounds in less than 8 weeks. Maybe we are all different, maybe you've calculated your BMR and TDEE and you genuinely need to eat 1200 to lose weight, maybe you're under a doctor's supervision. But it's not just the young men who can eat more and lose weight.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    That's actually not true at all. Most professional athletes eat high calorie foods in order to *maintain* their weight. There is *nothing* unhealthy about white bread, and who the hell said that I would *EVER* put fake cheese product in my food? I use sharp cheddar TYVM! And there's NO WAY to get enough sodium in one meal to kill a person. That's simply not true. You need to do some research.


    ETA: And FTR, I don't actually eat cheeseburger, but I do enjoy a bacon cheeseburger pizza from time to time. :bigsmile:
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
    Yeah, I do.
  • meeper123
    meeper123 Posts: 3,347 Member
    See i struggle hard with this not sure why any way i can meet my calories and still keep my other macros right please feel free to look at my diary i really need the help i know eating too little is bad
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
    Just a little bit more of everything you're eating now. If you want some cake and ice cream... go for it. If you don't, don't. Have a couple extra ounces of chicken at dinner, a larger serving of vegetables, a normal serving of pasta or rice, an extra slice or serving of cheese, an extra egg with breakfast, an extra half cup of cereal, or supplements like protein bars or shakes.

    The biggest thing is to plan your day with the amount you'll burn with exercise in mind, so it's just a matter of "eating," not "eating back." Don't wait until the end of the day to try to make up the difference. Make sure you're using your food diary to plan your meals, not just record them.

    Thanks! That is deft something I try to do. And I *do* eat cake and ice cream on ocassion just not everyday, but I deft partake if it's a special occassion. I'm working on it tho lol. I got a Bodymedia a few weeks ago and while I have it linked to my phone I can see at dinner time if I need to eat a little more or have a reasonable dessert to try to stay at my suggested deficit.
  • nokanjaijo
    nokanjaijo Posts: 466 Member
    Who is 'MAKING FUN' of those eating 1200 cals??? Jeezus Christ. This is all just information for people to process. If you are one of the people who take personal offense to other ideas being presented - DON"T READ THE THREAD. lol. This is getting ridiculous. No one is forcing anyone here to do anything. It is called debate, people.

    If it were about information, this nonsense wouldn't have appeared on the first page of this thread:
    I wonder how long it will take the "but it worked for me" crowd to jump in and start whining about how we are all mean, judgmental haters who need to stop worrying about everyone else BLAH BLAH BLAH...................................

    See? Do you see? On the first page all we see is cheering for the data that confirms they are right and eye-rolling at the mere possibility of being subjected to data that disagrees with them. Then somebody posted, "But it worked for me," sarcastically and was applauded for the joke.

    Yes, they were mocking us before we even showed up.

    So, no, this absolutely is not an atmosphere of open debate and information sharing. Not even close.
  • Look at how chronic undereating turned out for these people...
    I think you may have missed a few threads. :laugh:

    haha

    I feel bad for these people who ate so little, but it gave me a good laugh too because of how people were saying please eat more, or the 600 calories you ate all day, I ate for just my one meal today! lol
  • lenap73
    lenap73 Posts: 11
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    That's actually not true at all. Most professional athletes eat high calorie foods in order to *maintain* their weight. There is *nothing* unhealthy about white bread, and who the hell said that I would *EVER* put fake cheese product in my food? I use sharp cheddar TYVM! And there's NO WAY to get enough sodium in one meal to kill a person. That's simply not true. You need to do some research.


    ETA: And FTR, I don't actually eat cheeseburger, but I do enjoy a bacon cheeseburger pizza from time to time. :bigsmile:

    I personally know professional athletes. They both have a cheat day where they indulge in the real yummables :drinker:
    But for the rest of the time, white bread is bad for your glycemic index. it's made of simple carbohydrates which digest quickly, giving you a burst of insulin which if it is not used up as energy will quickly turn into fat.
    Thumbs up on eating real cheese!!
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    That's actually not true at all. Most professional athletes eat high calorie foods in order to *maintain* their weight. There is *nothing* unhealthy about white bread, and who the hell said that I would *EVER* put fake cheese product in my food? I use sharp cheddar TYVM! And there's NO WAY to get enough sodium in one meal to kill a person. That's simply not true. You need to do some research.


    ETA: And FTR, I don't actually eat cheeseburger, but I do enjoy a bacon cheeseburger pizza from time to time. :bigsmile:

    I personally know professional athletes. They both have a cheat day where they indulge in the real yummables :drinker:
    But for the rest of the time, white bread is bad for your glycemic index. it's made of simple carbohydrates which digest quickly, giving you a burst of insulin which if it is not used up as energy will quickly turn into fat.
    Thumbs up on eating real cheese!!

    Glycemic index is irrelevant to someone with no insulin resistance issues, like myself.
  • Well, if you like the fact that 3 eggs and a piece of toast is already 1/4 of your daily calories then by all means continue eating 1200 calories. If you HONESTLY think you can live like that FOREVER then go for it. You have been informed and directed to look into an alternative way to arrive at your goal--the choice is yours BUT I am pretty stoked that a holiday meal won't do me in and a birthday party isn't a source of anxiety. Life is about balance and 1200 calories doesn't offer you much of that--that's why you have the freakout threads when someone has a celebratory dinner and cannot for the life of them figure out what to do. Eventually most people will want MORE...when your social life becomes adversely impacted by your fixation on adhering to what is generally not enough food then you might reconsider.
  • NZhellkat
    NZhellkat Posts: 355 Member
    To the OP, thanks for the collection of testimonials of people who tried the 1200 calorie "diet" and came to the realization that there was a better way to achieve what they needed that actually worked. Did I think you were preaching? Um...NO. Just highly informative. I have learned to take what I need from an article and apply it to my life if it is a good fit with what I am doing. The rest is just food for thought and is easily put aside. I have found that if I close my mind to new things then I will not grow. Being open to them does not equate with incorporating them into my life.

    I find it fascinating to see so many people get so defensive about their 1200 calorie diet. If it's the right thing for you to be doing then there is no need to defend it. How much I eat is my business. How I choose to change my life style is also my business. I do read the posts in the forums to better educate myself but I see no reason whatsoever to defend what I do. I just do it. I adjust it when I need to. I try different things to see what effect they have on me. And I just do it.

    From the many posts I have read I have come to some conclusions about myself. I am not naive, I do not have a love-hate relationship with food, I do not and have not looked at my body with disgust - more a disappointment that I didn't take better care of it, I am not chasing a number - I just want to be fitter than I was, and that I can trust my own judgement. I do not look to others for validation, I am more compassionate about other people's struggles hence the reason I do not reply to all of posts I read - I keep my big mouth shut. My opinions about other people are my business, I do not need or want to air them to the world unless they are positive. Geeze I finally went and did it, I friggin grew up. Who would have thunk it.

    Well that's my two cents worth.
  • lenap73
    lenap73 Posts: 11
    Are you serious?
    Try profession bodybuilding forums.
    Quality of food matters a heck of alot more than quantity. Professional athletes have proven this.
    For the record, there is no food I don't like which is one of the reasons I am where I am today.lol!
    The bread on a bacon cheese burger, the processed cheese and the bacon are all bad for you. (white bread, fake cheese and enough sodium and nitrates to kill you.
    It's crap crap and crap.

    That's actually not true at all. Most professional athletes eat high calorie foods in order to *maintain* their weight. There is *nothing* unhealthy about white bread, and who the hell said that I would *EVER* put fake cheese product in my food? I use sharp cheddar TYVM! And there's NO WAY to get enough sodium in one meal to kill a person. That's simply not true. You need to do some research.


    ETA: And FTR, I don't actually eat cheeseburger, but I do enjoy a bacon cheeseburger pizza from time to time. :bigsmile:

    I personally know professional athletes. They both have a cheat day where they indulge in the real yummables :drinker:
    But for the rest of the time, white bread is bad for your glycemic index. it's made of simple carbohydrates which digest quickly, giving you a burst of insulin which if it is not used up as energy will quickly turn into fat.
    Thumbs up on eating real cheese!!

    Glycemic index is irrelevant to someone with no insulin resistance issues, like myself.

    I give up...