1200 Calories

For those of us using the 1200 calorie model provided my MFP, do you plan to stick with that after you reach your goal? Or gradually up your calories to what is required for the weight you are? If you're going to increase your calories, are you afraid you will start gaining weight or that it will all even out in the end?

did you choose too aggressive a weight loss rate? MFP will give people 1200 calories as their goal, even if it's really too low for them.

for example, if you are a woman trying to lose 20 lbs and you choose a 2lbs/week rate of loss, MFP will return 1200 for you. that's too low. make sure you choose your loss rate appropriately.

As a rule of thumb, the following weekly targets would give a balance between minimizing these negative side effects and seeing a reasonable weekly weight loss:
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

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

did you choose too aggressive a weight loss rate? MFP will give people 1200 calories as their goal, even if it's really too low for them.

for example, if you are a woman trying to lose 20 lbs and you choose a 2lbs/week rate of loss, MFP will return 1200 for you. that's too low. make sure you choose your loss rate appropriately.

I put in my weight and age and height and activity level (sedentary) and it gave me 1200. This past week was the first week I didn't eat my exercise calories back and I lost weight after a 2 week plateau. It may have been a fluke. I'm going by trial and error right now. But I don't get hungry or feel the least bit deprived eating 1200 a day. Yesterday I went over a bit, but I had some exercise in the bank.

yes, but what weight loss rate did you choose? the problems with 1200 can be a couple. if 1200 is a large deficit from your actual TDEE and close to your resting BMR, then over time you may find that you reach a plateau you have trouble breaking. prolonged under-eating can lead to changes in your hormones that cause your body's metabolism to slow down a bit. you can find countless examples of women who struggled for months and months at 1200 calories, only to find that after bumping up to 1400 or 1500 started losing again after a couple of weeks. the other problem with 1200 is that it doesn't leave you much wiggle room in your diet to get adequate nutrition.

there are some, but not a lot, of women for whom 1200 is fine and they won't affect their metabolism if they stay that low for a prolonged period of time. these are women with low BMRs to start with. however, they still have to be careful to get the proper nutrition at that calorie level.

if you chose 2lbs/week as your loss rate, that's a 1000 calorie deficit per day. as a sedentary woman, MFP will almost certainly give you 1200 as your goal no matter how much or how little weight you have to lose. that's the problem with the calculator... there is no sanity check on the resulting number based on current weight and goal weight. so YOU have to make sure you haven't set too aggressive a goal for yourself.

OP, 1200 is fine for you for now. As you get closer to goal, you WILL have to raise calories by quite a bit. Don't worry, you're not going to be on 1200 for long. It works well when you have a lot of weight to lose, but closer to goal, you've got to eat more or you'll be miserable and you'll plateau.

Worry about it later. Just keep working hard and logging your food for now.

OP, 1200 is fine for you for now. As you get closer to goal, you WILL have to raise calories by quite a bit. Don't worry, you're not going to be on 1200 for long. It works well when you have a lot of weight to lose, but closer to goal, you've got to eat more or you'll be miserable and you'll plateau.

Worry about it later. Just keep working hard and logging your food for now.

"quite a bit"? It depends on the individual.

Where on MFP can I read about there recommended 1200 daily calories?

Not sure what you mean.

MFP does not have a recommended 1200 diet, but 1200 is the lowest calorie goal it will allow.

It has to set a lower limit somewhere, so they have chosen 1200 as this is the minimum recommended intake for females.

MFP is only a fancy calculator, it still needs truthful accurate input from the members.

that is a common fear for many - that adding more calories = weight gain when in fact, can be quite the opposite. what i mean is, if you have been working out and progressing with your fitness level, you actually WILL need to eat more because:

1) your body needs it. when your body becomes more efficient in delivering the proper nutrients etc to your organs/muscles, you burn more cals doing so
2) the more (lean) muscle mass you put on, the more fuel your body needs to maintain the muscles

when i first started my journey, i was at 1500-1600cals/day. now, 1yr later i'm in great shape (after completing many beachbody programs) and i'm now eating 1900-2000cals/day. if i ever went back to 1500cals, i'd be starving every hour!

so never be afraid to eat your calories; your body will tell you when it needs more. the numbers are there for your reference to help you from going over but also listen to your body.

I did that a couple of months ago and lost 4 pounds the following month, i dont think you are supposed to eat your full activities worth to lose weight.

For those of us using the 1200 calorie model provided my MFP, do you plan to stick with that after you reach your goal? Or gradually up your calories to what is required for the weight you are? If you're going to increase your calories, are you afraid you will start gaining weight or that it will all even out in the end?

Everything is individual, of course, but the idea is to go to the amount of calories your body needs to keep in the same weight range. That amount of calories can vary a lot from person to person.

from my experience: I got to my goal at the end of last year, and according to various calculators I need to eat about 1550 kcal per day in order to keep in my weight. I first increased my calories to 1300 and left it like that for about a month, to get my body to get used to the new amount of cals. Because, let me tell you, that extra 100 kcal per day, it made me RAVENOUS. I was moody, bloated and, most importantly, hungry the whole time. But, eventually everything stabilized and my weight started sliding down again, which wsn't the idea so I upped my cals again to 1400 - repeat the same process but with even more panic. I was so hungry... I'd never been so consistently hungry during the time I was at 1200, not even when I first started! And of course the weight wandered all over the scales, 4 lb up, 3 lb down, 2 lb up, 3 lb down. it's now stabilized again and I think soon is the time to take that last step and up my calories to 1500 - that way I can have a little splurge of 250 "extra" kcal every weekend

and if it doesn't work, I'll tweak it until it does.

Note: there are plenty of people who do the transition from caloric loss to maintenance in one go. It's a personal preference. I liked having that knowledge at the back of my head that *technically* I was still eating at a loss.

I think some people are confused on the idea of the 1200 calorie diet. 1200 is a deficit. After you hit your goal why would you continue to eat at a deficit?

If you need 2200 calories to maintain

Eat 1700 = 500 calorie DEFICIT

Once you hit your goal you readjust your calculations but it will be closer to 2200 to maintain.

Anyway I'd google TDEE and figure that out and eat at TDEE -20% unless you're 4'8 its going to be a lot more than 1200.

Yeah, I'm really confused. That's why I've never been overweight, have maintained, and now with more effort, have been losing some stubborn pounds.

I eat at the deficit that yields results for me.

I'm eating at 1200 calories right now. I've lost 24 lbs since the first of the year. I have 15 more to go. I've been keeping really good track of my calories and weights so I have a pretty good idea of where my maintenance calories are. Once I get about 5 lbs away from goal, I'll start increasing my calories by 100-200/week until I hit maintenance. If I increase my calories by 100/week it should give me 9 weeks of increasing until I hit maintenance. That should put me actually hitting my maintenance calories right around the same time I get to my goal weight (with a built in possibility of overshooting by a few pounds which won't hurt me at all).

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Where on MFP can I read about there recommended 1200 daily calories?

1200 is not the overall goal, but the NET goal. If you eat 1600 calories, exercise for 400, your net goal will be 1200. Most people think the 1200 is an overall goal minus their exercise burned calories and usually have a deficit lower than 1200. That's not the objective.

Partially right. Net goal for some people. MFP has me at netting 1500 or so. Depends on each person. As someone said, it's just a calculator and you need to be honest about activity levels and realistic about goals. (I can't believe the number of people who only have a few pounds to lose who want to lose 2 pounds per week).

One point to make, once you've reached your goal it's not always easy to change your thought process. A lot of people often continue losing weight past their goal because it's very difficult to accept that you're no longer overweight. Once you get close it helps if you start adjusting BEFORE you reach your goal so you're not working so aggressively.