Success stories eating 1200 net calories

It's not about "liking" or "wanting" to eat more every day for me. It's about what my body NEEDS.

I lost 30 # on 1200cals/day.

Did I look amazing? Well, I looked better than I used to...but not amazing.

Did I look good naked? Not really. Not until I started weight-lifting and eating 1600+ calories a day did I start looking amazing.

Every body's different, yadda yadda. But 1200cals/day is not going to work out for me and the needs of THIS body.

The most confusing thing on MFP is if you should eat back your exercise calories or not. Sometimes I will read an entire thread on not eating them back, and other times threads like this that say you should. I have been sticking to eating only 1200 cal in a day, but last week I went over on quite a few days, and not with junk food but with clean good food and I lost, so I am going to try the net calorie thing. Here's to hoping this works and I don't gain a bunch this week.

If you read the stickies (the instructions on how MFP works) then it wouldn't be confusing at all. Also, it would not be confusing if you used your common sense and noted that MFP increases your calorie "goal" when you do exercise. Now why do you think MFP would do that? Just to trick you into eating more? No...it's a goal...it is something to be achieved. It is really not the least bit confusing at all.

Some of you need to google BMR and photos of people who regularly net below their BMR (ie people with eating disorders) and see how "awesome" they look...also do a bit of research on adverse health effects as well. It's one thing to lose weight...but it's completely meaningless if you are unhealthy and your body is malnourished.

I'm training for my first fitness competition and what worked for me was a 500-700 calorie deficit each day. I work out 5 days a week (5 days of cardio and 3 days of weight training) unless I'm training for a show like I am now, and then I work out 3x/day some days.

I just realized the difference between eating 1200 calories and NETTING 1200 calories.... I definately thought 1200 a day was way to little... I was working out hard (burning at least 500) a day and netting about 700 calories a day. I was getting really mad at the scale because I wasn't losing much... I mean I know its good to lose slow but it was crazy slow... so now I make sure that I net 1200 calories a day and this seems to be working.

Ya!! That is why I wish people would use the words NET and GROSS when in discussions on the message boards. It gets confusing if all people are reading is a topic on 1200 calories. 1200 calories NET and 1200 Calories Gross are two different things. I know it was very confusing for me when I first started MFP and thought I was going to die on just 1200 cals a day. When I figured it out the weight started coming off.

umm if you set up MFP properly and logged the exercise as you should have you could see it adding calories to your initial calorie goal why wouldn't you realise that you needed to eat them back also. It's really not that hard to follow.

Um... I thought that 1200 was too low... so I set mine at 1500 and didn't eat back my exercise calories.... but I was still eating too low because I was having like 500-900 calorie burns. I kept seeing people say that MFP give too low of calories (not understanding the difference between "net" and "goal".... so I assumed MFP was giving me really low calories so that I could lose weight really fast.
I think it's pretty easy to misunderstand if you are new to MFP. I "set up MFP properly" and still had to adjust my macros. It's not hard to follow.... but if you are new to this stuff, it's easy to misunderstand... especially when people are posting about 2 extremes... "so and so eats 5,000 calories a day and loses weight" or "so and so eats 1200 calories a day and loses weight"....

I was very confused by this Goal/Net business. Now that I've read this thread, I'm pretty sure I get it, but I'm still kind of weary of following it. MFP gave me a Goal of 1400. Yesterday I ate 1596. I was not hungry at all. No need to eat anything else. Using an app on my phone (Striiv) to measure my exercise (it only measures steps), I had an exercise calorie count of 987. This put my net at 609 leaving a remaining 791 to meet my goal. There is NO WAY I was going to eat another 791 calories! I had already eaten dessert! So according to this thread, I had an extremely unhealthy day yesterday? I just don't get it.

I liked your post! Will consider the weekly total...I too am on 1200 calories Thanks!

I was very confused by this Goal/Net business. Now that I've read this thread, I'm pretty sure I get it, but I'm still kind of weary of following it. MFP gave me a Goal of 1400. Yesterday I ate 1596. I was not hungry at all. No need to eat anything else. Using an app on my phone (Striiv) to measure my exercise (it only measures steps), I had an exercise calorie count of 987. This put my net at 609 leaving a remaining 791 to meet my goal. There is NO WAY I was going to eat another 791 calories! I had already eaten dessert! So according to this thread, I had an extremely unhealthy day yesterday? I just don't get it.

What is there not to get? netting 609 calories is not good. Its not that hard to understand really. If your BMR is 1500 (from just living, breathing, blinking, you name it), plus you exercised 900 calories, that is a total of 2400 calories a 500 calorie deficit would put you at 1900 calories for the day. A couple days at 600 calories wont kill you but it will slow your metabolism down over time and eventually stall your weight loss, and pretty soon you wont have the energy for a 900 calorie burn.

Just to verify:

I calculated my BRM to about 2000. If I exercise 900 calories, it gives me a total of 2900. If I want a deficit of 500, I need to eat 2400 calories a day. So in MFP, I set my goal to 1500 (Food = 2400, Exercise = 900, Net = 1500). Is that right?

By the way, I'm not an idiot. I've just never tried anything like this before. Be patient with me.

I was very confused by this Goal/Net business. Now that I've read this thread, I'm pretty sure I get it, but I'm still kind of weary of following it. MFP gave me a Goal of 1400. Yesterday I ate 1596. I was not hungry at all. No need to eat anything else. Using an app on my phone (Striiv) to measure my exercise (it only measures steps), I had an exercise calorie count of 987. This put my net at 609 leaving a remaining 791 to meet my goal. There is NO WAY I was going to eat another 791 calories! I had already eaten dessert! So according to this thread, I had an extremely unhealthy day yesterday? I just don't get it.

What is there not to get? netting 609 calories is not good. Its not that hard to understand really. If your BMR is 1500 (from just living, breathing, blinking, you name it), plus you exercised 900 calories, that is a total of 2400 calories a 500 calorie deficit would put you at 1900 calories for the day. A couple days at 600 calories wont kill you but it will slow your metabolism down over time and eventually stall your weight loss, and pretty soon you wont have the energy for a 900 calorie burn.

Just to verify:

I calculated my BRM to about 2000. If I exercise 900 calories, it gives me a total of 2900. If I want a deficit of 500, I need to eat 2400 calories a day. So in MFP, I set my goal to 1500 (Food = 2400, Exercise = 900, Net = 1500). Is that right?

By the way, I'm not an idiot. I've just never tried anything like this before. Be patient with me.

I totally understand I was there too and completely confused. You know 600 calories a day isn't good regardless of knowing or understanding anything else.

Go to iifym.com. It allows you to precisely calculate your entire day to get a true measure of how active you are (it even lets you put in the hours that you are sleeping, working, exercising etc. It is the most helpful calculator I've found. Once you get that number deduct 15 or 20 % from it to have your deficit, it'll probably end up being around 500 calories. Then that is your goal (for your workout days) sincei t takes into account your exercise and activities you will not eat back your exercise calories at that point.

I am having some slow success - lost 3.5kg in 2 months on 1200, not doing much exercise, but generally I do eat back my exercise cals.

Also would just like to comment that I am always amazed at how many people say theye struggle to eat their exercise calories back, if thats the case, however did we get fat!!!!

-I apreciate that not everyone on here is over weight, just super into their fitness!

For the past couple months I have been eating 1200 NET calories and losing slowly. Then recently I started eating 1200 GROSS calories and I've lost 10 lbs in 5 weeks.

Because I'm eating on the low-end of the calorie spectrum, I carb-cycle once every 3 days to prevent a stall via my metabolism from adapting to my low intake. You can't cut down from 1200 calories, so I'm careful not to let my body get too comfy, because if I get stuck I've pretty much backed myself up into a corner eating that low of an intake.

I also pre-plan my meals to ensure I'm getting the nutrients I need. The less you eat the more at risk you are for malnutrition. Eating low calorie (along with carb cycling for that matter) takes precise planning. If you leave your diet up to 'whatever you feel like that day' and you're eating 1200 calories, chances are you will fall short of a laundry list of nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.

1200 calories IS NOT for everyone, but for some it works.

For the past couple months I have been eating 1200 NET calories and losing slowly. Then recently I started eating 1200 GROSS calories and I've lost 10 lbs in 5 weeks.

Because I'm eating on the low-end of the calorie spectrum, I carb-cycle once every 3 days to prevent a stall via my metabolism from adapting to my low intake. You can't cut down from 1200 calories, so I'm careful not to let my body get too comfy, because if I get stuck I've pretty much backed myself up into a corner eating that low of an intake.

I also pre-plan my meals to ensure I'm getting the nutrients I need. The less you eat the more at risk you are for malnutrition. Eating low calorie (along with carb cycling for that matter) takes precise planning. If you leave your diet up to 'whatever you feel like that day' and you're eating 1200 calories, chances are you will fall short of a laundry list of nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.

1200 calories IS NOT for everyone, but for some it works.

did you ever read tortoise and the hare when you were a kid?

Yes, and just because my diet may not work for you doesn't mean I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

It works for me and I'm losing weight. Everyone is different. End of story.

If that's where you were headed....

I've been eating Net 1200 (or actually slightly below 1200 NET--I'm eating the majority of my exercise cals back) for the past three weeks and not only am I seeing consistently 1-2.2 pounds loss per week/6 pounds of FAT in 3 weeks--I say fat loss (not water) because my body fat percentage has dropped THREE whole percentage points in the past 3 weeks--(according to my body fat scale)my inches are decreasing very nicely all over my body, my energy, attitude/mood and stamina in exercising is better/higher and the weight is coming off (dropping especially inches off) of my tummy, waist, butt and face first and I LOVE THAT!!!!!

ETA: I'm purposely NOT working out hard...but moderately to lightly 7 days per week--as my body requires me to bump it up a notch, I will--until then, I'm just making sure to move my body moderately everyday and thru out the day:

I'm working out 7 days per week/EVERYDAY, but it's moderate to light working out. I'm doing outside walking at least 30 minutes per day and usually 45 minutes to 1 hour going about 2.5-3.0mph (leisurely walking and dog walking pace). As well as moderate stretching for about 5+ minutes everyday

*6 days per week I'll also include 10-20 minutes of my stationary bike and/or treadmill
*5 days per week doing a Leslie Sansone Walk Away The Pounds dvds (my favorite is Walk Strong) 30 minutes of brisk walking
*3-4 days per week I'll do 10 minutes or so of light-moderate rowing with 10lb weights on my home gym machine
*1-2 days per week I'll do 10-20 minutes light to moderate upper and lower body weight lifting (w/10lb weights) on my home gym machine.

I don't do ALL of these things one after another...but thru the day. My mind, body and soul loves this and it's something I'll continue to do for the rest of my life along with eating to live, rather than living to eat and I'm seeing and most importantly, feeling fabulous results! I'm purposely NOT following "the experts, "the stats", "the rules"--but instead I'm going against "the grain and the crowd" and eating and exercising as I am so Led of The Holy Spirit/God.

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Please please please someone answer this question for me:

How did you become overweight if you CANNOT net 1200 calories in 24 hours regularly?!?!

I DO NOT get this problem AT ALL!