success stories from 1200 calorie dieters wanted

Since I began fueling my body properly (eating avg 2000 cals/day), I lost weight, stopped meds, and no longer have any sign of Hashimoto's. No symptoms, nada. Cleared by ultrasound and bloodwork for over 2 years now.

Hypothyroidism is often caused and/or aggravated by VLCDs.

I don't know about that. Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease, like type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. etc. I have Hashimoto's. I have never heard of treating it with diet, other than avoiding too many soy products.

That's great that you have gotten rid of your symptoms, but I think we should be careful about claiming that diet can "cure" certain diseases/conditions.

I know what it is; I was the 5th of 5 females on my dad's side of the family diagnosed. Western Medicine is sorely lacking in treating most things; you will rarely find an MD recommend treating anything with diet. Now, drugs and surgery . . . that, they like.

I joined MFP just after xmas and ok im not saying its been easy but I have lost 11lbs since then.

Sticking to 1200 (or 1270 in my case) is hard but I got used to it after a while,I occasionally go over but then I have days when Im under.

I'll go:

I lost 21 pounds between end of November - January 3rd eating only 1200 -1400 calories and NOT eating exercise calories back. Yes, that is a lot of weight lost in a few weeks and this is why: I was doing Insanity, so in reality I was netting ~800-1000 calories a day. I thought I ate my exercise calories back, but I looked at the food journal I had before MFP, and nope, I wasn't. My TDEE at lightly active is ~2400. Insanity is definitely not lightly active.

I also ate "clean" 90/10. Tons of fruits, vegetables, chicken breasts, fish. My "cheat" meal was once a week (meal not day), and even then I rearranged my food so I could fit in a burger and fries and still remain within 1400 the most.

I've repeated this process many times over the course of 3 years. Each time I did, I reached a range of weight where I just stalled. And of course got frustrated and gave up then put all the weight back on. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't keep losing weight. I'm a perfectionist so I weighed everything and tracked every calorie. So from January 3rd - last week I did the same thing every week (plus I added lifting weights along with Insanity, then switched to TurboFire + lifting) and lost nothing, there were some weeks I gained. And no, I didn't "gain muscle". Not even in my wildest dreams. I wasn't even losing inches.

Then I joined MFP, read the forums, figured out my TDEE, subtracted 20% and I feel so much better.

I'm eating 1900 now and I feel great. I jumped on the scale last week and lost 2 pounds. I'm not going to step on the scale again until April 1st and I'll report back how it has been. Hopefully I won't be made out to be a fool :laugh:

If 1200 works for you, great. Seriously, it worked for me for a while. But I really want to have an active lifestyle and I want to not just lose weight, but also change my body and put on muscle, keep some of my curves, etc. I know loose skin may be a problem but by filling it in with muscle, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Eventually I'll be eating more than 1900, but that's okay. It's what I want. Plus I like going out with my friends and stuff, and do you know how hard it is to stick to 1200 that way? Studying already keeps me indoors a lot, I didn't want my dieting to cause me to lose the friends I had left.

Oh and I'm 23, 5'7 and my highest recorded weight is 218.

If you're only eating 1200 calories and exercising then you are not even getting the 1200 calories. It's common sense. I don't care if you only want to eat 1200, but you NEED to be eating your exercise calories back...

Maybe you do, but everyone's body is different. Some people don't lose if they eat back all their cals, some people lose just fine if they do. Do what works for your body.

If I ate 1200 calories and ran 13 miles (did that last week for a race) I would be at a net of around 150 cals. That would be bad.

I'm 52 and I'm full and losing the weight. I only consume mostly plant based foods..I feel fine! Pilates, yoga and walking are my routine.

I have been eating 1400 calories and have consistently lost 1 lb a week.

Why would I just eat 1200 calories when I can have more and lose. In fact as from this week I am increasing my calories to 1750 on lifting days to give me more energy to complete my workout and I know I will still lose weight and in particular inches as the weights I lift get heavier.

People may be able to lose weight on 1200 calories, I just cannot see why, when it's not necessary.

That's all......

I have always been told take the weight you want to be and multiply by 10. I want to be 128 again....so ideal for me is 1280 calories. But going below 1200 can be counter productive because your body thinks it is starving at that point and will slow your metabolism to compensate.

You must TAKE IN 1200.
If your calories burned through exercise is 300, you would not be required to eat more even though it brings your net cals to 900 because....you have already TAKEN IN 1200.

Give or take a couple hundred calories is not going to hurt you.

However....if you are 160 lbs and want to be 120......eating back your calories to bring you back up to TAKING IN 1600 calories is only going to maintain the same weight. 160 X 10 = 1600

SMH.

I guess I ought to be somewhere bt 200-230 lbs. then.

And I'd be gaining 2 pounds per week. Wow. That recommendation is so far off it's unreal.

so far off what? My TDEE is 2241. Do you know what yours is?

I was talking about the initial poster--yes, I know what mine is. The 10 calories per pound is crap. I was quoting you for emphasis.

I am so confused by this thread! I am trying to lose this weight and the calorie thing is the most confusing for me. I have been recommended by MFP to eat 1200 a day. I am doing ok with it but I have not seen much progress... I just get aggravated with myself. so many different suggestions and to tell ya the truth im scared/nervous to eat more cause I cant afford to gain more weight. I am 5'1 and am 220...my goal is to be 140. I do the treadclimber every morning and burn about 270cal...i did one week of eating the calories back that I burned and gained .5lbs. I would love to see the photos as well and know How long they have keep it off.

My personal opinion, being that I weigh 110 and would lose the will to live on 1200 (I have eaten at that level, lost weight, became ill), is that you probably need to eat more. But even if you chose to follow the mfp 1200 (I'd query the activity level as hardly anyone is sedentary as per the levels here unless they really move *very* little) you would still be needing to eat your exercise cals back. That's how mfp is set up to work. That's why it lets you add your workouts and then it adds it to your cal allowance. Not eating them back is going to take you to such a low net amount of cals you'll be going way below bmr. Also, the medics would give you more than 1200 if you were lying down in a coma (by drip) and you would not gain weight.

EDIT to give better detail... "became ill, plateaued, began cycle of eating disorder, ate even less than 1200 by eating less than that AND exercising, became more ill... Recovered, ate more, got back to healthy weight, had more fat % than pre illness, became depressed, began what I thought was a sensible 1300 diet plus exercise, took ages to shift anything, triggered relapse of illness... Etc. now eat 1800-2200 and exercise 3-5 times a week and staying in the same range around 110."

I'm a 1200 gal I'm 25, 5 feet tall and need to lose around 100lbs to be where I want to be. I find eating 1200 cals a day easy and so far I have lost 20lbs in around 10 weeks so an average of 2lbs per week. It's working wonders for me and I feel like I'm losing at a realistic weight. It's staying off and there's nothing drastic about my eating or exercising habits! SUCCESS!

1200 calories IS drastic.

Ive been sticking to 1000 calories for the last 10 weeks (from Jan 3rd) the odd saturday i may have a treat but usually making it about 1,200-1,500.
I do not take away excersise calories and will burn atleast 600 calories a minimum of 4 days per week. Mainly from running, also from circuits, elliptical, rowing and stationary cycling.

I have lost 16 pounds so far, taking me from 11 st 6 lbs (160 lbs) to 10 st 4 lbs (144 lbs).
Some days I struggle but overall it is fairly easy and I am yet to plateu after 10 weeks, I aim to get around 9 st 10 lbs then up my intake to between 1200-1600 per day to maintain depending on what works

p.s I excersise regualarly so this could be why i have not plateued as I am not letting my motabolism slow due to probably buiding more muscle and strength x