1200 Calories

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  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member
    Thank you all and congrats to everyone who's lost weight and those of you that are super close to your goal!

    The last time I got fit (man, those free weights tightened me right up!) I was following this plan and will likely follow it for my maintenance calories. - http://www.stumptuous.com/part-2-learning-the-basics -

    For fat loss, you want to aim for a range of daily calories that is calculated based on your bodyweight (in pounds) as well as other factors.

    To lose fat: 8 to 12 times bodyweight
    To stay the same, neither losing nor gaining (also known as maintenance): 13 to 16 times bodyweight
    To gain mass: 15 to 20 times bodyweight
    You will notice that these are fairly broad ranges. This is because the precise intake will depend on other factors besides your general goals.

    Aim for the LOWER end of the range if you are:

    female
    older
    less active
    starting out at a fairly high level of bodyfat
    Aim for the HIGHER end of the range if you are:

    male
    younger
    more active
    starting out at a lower level of bodyfat (e.g. only a few pounds of fat to lose, or trying to get from “normal” to “lean”)
  • corneredbycorn
    corneredbycorn Posts: 267 Member
    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.
    I'm 5'0 and TDEE-20% without ANY exercise for me is still around 1500 calories. I figured out how much I should be eating yesterday using heybales' spreadsheet and the calorie intake for my activity level and to lose .5lbs per week (since I'm close to goal), even being so short, is 2150. It was really eye opening.
  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member
    I'm 5'0 and TDEE-20% without ANY exercise for me is still around 1500 calories. I figured out how much I should be eating yesterday using heybales' spreadsheet and the calorie intake for my activity level and to lose .5lbs per week (since I'm close to goal), even being so short, is 2150. It was really eye opening.

    That number just seems unreal to me. 2150 for a 5' woman? Wow. Everyone seems to say we need 2000 calories a day! (give or take)
  • angefoster2
    angefoster2 Posts: 2 Member
    Is it just me or do others struggle to eat enough to get up to the 1200 Calories each day? I have only been using the app for a few days and quickly falling in love with it.

    I feel like I am eating constantly all day and I still have 200 -300 left over each day. I have 3 meals a day and snacks in between. The calories left over are from the original 1200 not ones I gain through exercise, which has been about another 300 a day. This is leaving me with 500 - 600 calories a day left over and I get the message about my body being in starvation mode.

    Could this be why I have struggled to loose weight? I always knew it wasn't what I ate (being a vegetarian it reduces a lot of the crap from ones diet. Before anyone jumps up and down about this being vegetarian is not by choice it is a medical condition) but thought it was how much I ate. Sitting at a desk all day I thought I needed to reduce my portions as I am not burning off the excess.

    Three months ago I reduced my portions and increased my exercise and have only lost 4.5 kg's. Maybe I have been off track the whole time?
  • HaleyxErin
    HaleyxErin Posts: 94 Member
    Mine is set to 1400 but I try to stay between 1200 and 1400 once I get to my GW I plan on upping my calories to like 1800 but I'm not going to get back into eating unhealthy crap like I used to. I'll still eat healthy just more so that I stop losing but don't gain.
  • corneredbycorn
    corneredbycorn Posts: 267 Member
    I'm 5'0 and TDEE-20% without ANY exercise for me is still around 1500 calories. I figured out how much I should be eating yesterday using heybales' spreadsheet and the calorie intake for my activity level and to lose .5lbs per week (since I'm close to goal), even being so short, is 2150. It was really eye opening.

    That number just seems unreal to me. 2150 for a 5' woman? Wow. Everyone seems to say we need 2000 calories a day! (give or take)
    I was pretty astonished. Heybales breaks it down by type of exercise and regular daily activities. I'm a lot more active than I really thought. The goal is to get the most fat loss with the least amount of muscle loss.

    I decided to give it a shot like so many others on the site have done. I know there is usually a metabolism "reset" which can cause gain, so, to give it a fair shot, I've put the scale in the closet and am measuring every other week instead. I'll keep doing this for at least a few months. I would rather be 130lbs, toned, and full than 120lbs, jiggly, and hungry.
  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member
    Is it just me or do others struggle to eat enough to get up to the 1200 Calories each day?

    I do as well. Not even counting an exercise deficit. Exercise quells my appetite.
  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member
    I would rather be 130lbs, toned, and full than 120lbs, jiggly, and hungry.

    And you'll probably look 120.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    Is it just me or do others struggle to eat enough to get up to the 1200 Calories each day? I have only been using the app for a few days and quickly falling in love with it.

    Nope, no problems eating more than that. I'm losing on 1900 a day and usually hit that (been going over lately because I've been going out a lot. Whoops) Feel free to check out my diary, it's open. But, I tend to eat the same thing most week days.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
    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.


    IN THE BEGINING..... I was 190 pounds. I told MFP I wanted to lose 2lb a week and it told me to eat 1200 calories..... Breastfeeding, pumping 30oz a day ment I needed to eat an extra 600 calories. Then I threw in the 200 or so the pedomoter told me I burned each work day= 2,000 or so a day..... and I lost 2 pounds a week.....

    NOW I weigh 135ish, but no longer breastfeeding. MFP still says to eat 1200 calories to lose weight..... 1400 to maintain. I still eat back the exercise calories, so I'm not worried about changing anything.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/908271-when-is-1200-calories-appropriate-hint-almost-never
  • laurainvt
    laurainvt Posts: 7
    I think if you are having eating under 1200 calories AND exercising then you are most likely not getting enough fuel in your body. Weightless is part of the goal, but so is creating healthy habits to get US out of the bad ones we created. (Like eating potato chips at 10:30 at night...) If we all had good eating habits then we probably wouldn't be trying to lose weight to begin with!!

    Calorie intake is important! Eat less calories, lose more weight... I'm not an expert, but you also have to make sure you are feeding your muscles lean proteins and other nutrients to get to a long term goal. Being 200-300 calories UNDER the 1200 goal isn't going to get you there. There are days that we are busy and maybe miss a meal, but consistently being there isn't going help long term.

    I am 5'5" and 169lb down from 179 in about 6 weeks. I net an average of 1500 calories a day. I also use a fitbit which I like to think "rewards me" by not taking away my calories when I don't move enough (I have a desk job). My diet is full of healthy snacks, lean meals, and yes...the occasional cheese and crackers or piece of chocolate. To loose weight you have to eat the right choices. In the long term, it will help us all keep the weight off and feel better.

    There are great calorie choices you can make like peanut butter (About 190 cal) with carrots or edemame (a good serving is 150 cal or so). I changed my meals on here to be named Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening. That also helped me spread my calories during the day!

    I guess I am just saying, it is OK to eat! Look at the choices you make and the long term effect of your weight loss!
  • ficbot
    ficbot Posts: 3 Member
    When I first started, I put in moderate activity level (I am a teacher) and did it for a month and barely lost anything. Took a break, gained enough pounds that I started to get serious about taking it off again and now am back for round 2. What I did differently this time is, I did not put in ANY activity multipliers. I put in the most sedentary couch potato setting. It gave me 1230 as my goal. BUT I have been adding back the exercise calories. So on a typical day, I am eating 1500-1600 calories, earning the extra calories through walking and the occasional cardio DVD. And I am averaging 1.5-2 pounds a week for the last 3 weeks. I am happy! I don't think I could stay at 1200 and be active though. I think the key to losing, for me, has been to properly balance everything so that on days I am less active, I eat less and on days I am more active, I eat more. What I think stalled me before was that there were some days I got a lot less activity than others (or else the tracker over-estimated how active it thought I was being based on what I put in) so I didn't have enough of a deficit. This way, it's more clear.

    The other thing I have been doing, learned this trick years ago in Weight Watchers, is counting from dinner to dinner instead of breakfast to dinner. So, last night's dinner is today's meal 1, breakfast is meal 2, lunch is meal 3, afternoon snack if I have room for it, then at dinner it all resets. This has been working for me because dinner is usually the more unpredictable meal. Sometimes, we go out, sometimes, we order in, sometimes I eat more. I can't plan that at the beginning of the day and leave space for it since the BF is not a planner and a lot of this stuff happens for us spontaneously. So what I do is count it as meal 1 and then I can adjust tomorrow's breakfast and lunch, which I 99% of the time pack from home, accordingly. So for instance, let's say I go over my plan and have a 700-calorie restaurant dinner. That leaves me 550 for breakfast, lunch and a snack. I usually have 300 or so for breakfast, so if I knock that down to 250, that leaves me 300 for lunch. I usually have 400 for lunch, so I have to either choose a lower-calorie lunch or else do a 30-minute walk (totally do-able now that the weather is nicer! I can just get off the bus at the station on my way home and walk from there) and I will be even. That is just with cutting 50 calories off my breakfast and keeping my lunch the same. And then if I want an afternoon snack, all I have to do is fit in a workout DVD before dinner and I am set! At dinner, it all changes over to tomorrow's calories. So, I over-indulged by 300 calories at a restaurant meal, but still balanced out. I never would have if I had left myself 400 calories for dinner, then eaten out and been 300 calories over.
  • hilldiggity
    hilldiggity Posts: 166 Member

    The other thing I have been doing, learned this trick years ago in Weight Watchers, is counting from dinner to dinner instead of breakfast to dinner. So, last night's dinner is today's meal 1, breakfast is meal 2, lunch is meal 3, afternoon snack if I have room for it, then at dinner it all resets. This has been working for me because dinner is usually the more unpredictable meal. Sometimes, we go out, sometimes, we order in, sometimes I eat more. I can't plan that at the beginning of the day and leave space for it since the BF is not a planner and a lot of this stuff happens for us spontaneously. So what I do is count it as meal 1 and then I can adjust tomorrow's breakfast and lunch, which I 99% of the time pack from home, accordingly. So for instance, let's say I go over my plan and have a 700-calorie restaurant dinner. That leaves me 550 for breakfast, lunch and a snack. I usually have 300 or so for breakfast, so if I knock that down to 250, that leaves me 300 for lunch. I usually have 400 for lunch, so I have to either choose a lower-calorie lunch or else do a 30-minute walk (totally do-able now that the weather is nicer! I can just get off the bus at the station on my way home and walk from there) and I will be even. That is just with cutting 50 calories off my breakfast and keeping my lunch the same. And then if I want an afternoon snack, all I have to do is fit in a workout DVD before dinner and I am set! At dinner, it all changes over to tomorrow's calories. So, I over-indulged by 300 calories at a restaurant meal, but still balanced out. I never would have if I had left myself 400 calories for dinner, then eaten out and been 300 calories over.

    I really like that idea. I have unpredictable weekend dinners, usually last-minute invites to the in-laws, and I never know what to expect. Or my husband cooks 600+ calorie burritos! :noway:

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