success stories from 1200 calorie dieters wanted

Ok, OP. I challenge you to show me where anybody said that nobody has had success on 1200 calories a day.

Great job '1200 calorie ladies!' Wooh hoo! Love the thread keep doing what works for you! Don't mind the people who think they know YOU better than YOU know you. It works for some, but not all. Congrats ladies!

Amen!

I am female, 38 years old, 5'6 - SW 177, CW 170, GW 135. I work a desk job, work out 6 days a week for an hour, 3 cardio, 2 resistance, 1 yoga/pilates for recovery.

Since February 1st I have been on 1200 calories a day. I eat back my exercise so my net goal is 1200. Some days I am over, most days I am under. I have a cheat meal once a week (on my yoga/recovery day) that can bump me as high as 2000 that day.

I got my dieting advise from a certified nutritionist & coach. She does believe that a weekly cheat meal can help boost metabolism and move weight loss along in low calorie diets. Plus it keeps you from just saying forget it and going back to the old ways of 3000 calories a day everyday.

I try to get at least half my body weight in protein everyday, eat as many whole foods as I can throughout the day but I don't stress out over every single piece of food I eat. If I did this wouldn't last for me. Most days I am not hungry & 1200 net is plenty of food. If I am hungry then I eat something & don't stress about going over as long as it's not by more than 300 or so calories. Last night is a great example. It's Walking Dead night so we don't cook & my teenagers want to order pizza. I ordered thin crust veggie but processed foods (like cheap pizza crust) are never satisfying so I end up overeating. I don't kick myself over it, I just come to terms with it and move on. I am not trying to be a body builder, I just want to be healthy and happy.

So far I have lost 7 pounds which is about 1.5 pounds per week. I am not fatigued at all, in fact I feel great. At some point I will plateau & that's when I will seek advice to make it to the next level. I will also listen to my body - it will tell me the right thing to do.

Just my success story so far on 1200 net cals, I am looking forward to posting my before & after pics in a few months

Ok, will try to upload some photos. See if this works.

My highest weight of 237


I didn't take any pics when I started here in Aug at 228, but this one was taken about 6 weeks later when I was about 12 lbs down and really happy about that!


Today, at 190. Still a ways to go, but definitely getting back to the me I haven't seen in over 12 yrs!




Sorry the pics are so huge. Don't know how to fix that, but will work on it.

I'm eating between 1200 - 1250 and not eating my calories back....I will do this until I begin to stop seeing results and then I might change it up. I am also lifting heavy weights and doing cardio.

I eat 5 times a day, about 100 g of protein and no more than 35 g of fat. I feel amazing!

I've been on 1200 for 15 months now and have lost nearly 20 lbs. I am 5'6" and am at 146 but would like to be 135. My problem is that I go over my sugar allowance pretty much every day and I don't eat my exercise calories back for the most part. Maybe it is time to readjust the calories because I have not lost an ounce in about 7 months now.

I've been on 1200 for 15 months now and have lost nearly 20 lbs. I am 5'6" and am at 146 but would like to be 135. My problem is that I go over my sugar allowance pretty much every day and I don't eat my exercise calories back for the most part. Maybe it is time to readjust the calories because I have not lost an ounce in about 7 months now.

I think it's awesome that it's working for you... but you don't have 100lbs to lose like the person in the post you're quoting. According to your ticker, your goal was less than 20. Some of us are facing 5x that goal or more. I've been directed to the eatmore2weighless site whose logo is in your ticker more times than I can count and it honestly disturbs me that people take this site as fact. The "facts" are that the 2 women that run that site aren't medical or fitness professionals, they have zero credentials.

Women athletes burn more calories because they have more muscle mass and burn more throughout the day, so they can maintain their weight with much higher calorie intakes. Obese people that need to lose large amounts of weight have different needs than someone who just needs to lose 20lbs, and they shouldn't be constantly attacked for "eating too little" because of it. Not attacking you personally, just sick of seeing this EM2WL propaganda and its formula promoted as gospel all over the forums when it's truly not a formula that is one size fits all.

1. Those two women ARE fitness professionals.

2. Just because my ticker says that doesn't mean that I started at a much higher weight before I joined MFP. You don't know what my journey has been.

3. People with lots of weight to lose actually need to eat much more to start. A 5'7" female at 250lb actually has a caloric need of 3300 calories per day. Three times what most of you are eating.


The point is that you all are pulling 1200 out of thin air without calculating how much you need to maintain muscle mass and your activity level and your goals.

The point is NOT how much an athlete eats or how much the people on EM2WL eat..... the point is that they're informed and you're not. They take time to read the information and make well-informed decisions. They're calculating their needs for their activity and their goals. And voila, they're being successful.

At my highest weight of 237, and 5'6", I NEVER ate anywhere near 3300 cals per day. I think this is one of the biggest myths for some people that assume that obese people eat tons of calories. At 237, I was maintaining around 1800 a day. At my fittest and most active time of life, when I was 30, working an extremely physical job and lifting weights 3 days a week, I maintained around 2500. What a lot of people don't realize is that BF% makes a huge difference in your metabolism. A 250 pound weight lifter needs considerably more calories than a 250 pound sedentary middle aged woman with a BF% of 60%.

I just want to clear up a misconception about EM2WL and IPOARM. "Eat more" is a nice little catch phrase, but it's not about eating MORE, it's about eating RIGHT for your body, your age, your weight, your activity, etc.

It's just math. Calculating what your body burns in a typical day, or what it will burn at your goal weight, and taking a reasonable percentage off that amount. Typically 20% below is recommended, sometimes 30% if you have a lot to lose, or 10-15% if you're closer to your goal. All you need to lose weight is eat less than your TDEE, and not a HUGE amount less.

My TDEE is about 2300. If I were to eat 1200 calories, that would be about half of what my body burns in a day. I don't need a ~50% deficit to lose weight. No one does.

I like thinking of losing body fat like being a merchant selling clothing. Because I like shopping and it's something I can wrap my brain around. If I want to sell a lot of shirts, I might discount the price. If I offer 10-30% off, it's going to be a lot more enticing for those shopping. But if I sell it at 50% off, people will surely buy it, but it doesn't leave me, as a merchant, enough of a profit to live on.

If I only give my body 50% of what it needs, I'm not giving myself enough nutrition to live on. I might be able to get by for a time, but it's going to have negative consequences long term. Just like not making enough profit.

Now, I've noticed that a lot of the success stories in here (and congrats, BTW!) are from women who tend to be around 45 and up, and many admit to being fairly sedentary. Some of you are very petite, too. In your cases, you might plug all your numbers into a TDEE calculator and find out that 1200 calories IS the right amount for you. And if that's the case, great!

But pretty please, with sugar on top, don't go into a thread from a much younger, much more active person who's struggling to lose weight and suggest that "1200 is just fine" because it's fine for you. Please at least state your stats to that person, so they have some kind of perspective.

Lorina, I have never done this, nor have I really ever seen anyone else do this. I will defend a person's right to eat at a calorie level that is right for them, and is working for them. Whatever that level is. I would never tell you that you are eating too much, because what you are doing is working for YOU.
What most of us are seeing on here, is whenever someone says they are trying to eat 1200, then a bunch of people jump in and start bashing the 1200 number, stating that it isn't right for ANYONE, not just the OP. Then that will bring out some people who say, "wait a minute, 1200 is working for me, so you can't say that it isn't right for ANYONE. "

Most of your posts that I have seen, is simply you jumping in and saying that you are over 40 and you eat 2300 a day, without saying that you work out 6 days a week, or sometimes not even pointing out that you are on maintenance. Or the fact that you were never Obese, which can change the whole situation as well.

You are a great poster child for older women lifting. You look great, and many women are impressed with your pictures. For someone needing to lose 25 pounds and wanting to get a tighter, leaner body, I would certainly point them in your direction.

But for someone needing to lose 100 pounds, who is fairly sedentary and has a junk food addiction they can't get under control, you would not be the one I would send them to. I have several other ladies as friends who have succeeded in breaking their food addictions, learned to eat healthier, and have lost well over 100 pounds and are maintaining, or are still progressing toward their goals, and thriving. Doesn't mean that person will have to eat at 1200 to lose, but most likely they will not be able to eat at 1800, like so many people insist that they can. Just because someone is 100 pounds overweight, doesn't mean that they ate 3000 cals a day to get there.

I agree with everything you have just written. Now please take your above post, and change it to the other side perspective.-

But pretty please, with sugar on top, don't go into a thread from a much older, much less active person who's struggling to lose weight and suggest that "2200 is just fine" because it's fine for you. Please at least state your stats to that person, so they have some kind of perspective.

I will agree to not do this, and would like for you and others to do the same.