Is 1200 Daily Calories Too Low?

At 1200 calories a day goal I would recommend eating back most if not all of your exercise calories, then when you get closer to your goal slowly increase the calories a day closer to maintenance levels.

losing more than 1 lb per week is very unhealthy and you will most likely gain that back

i maintained an average of 1250 for about 2 months. the only thing that made me amp up my intake a bit was that i would begin to feel faint. listen to your body. if you feel OK with that amount, keep it up. if you feel dizzy, faint, hungry, get headaches...take care of it. don't ignore it or fill up on fluids instead. THAT is unhealthy. just try to keep the foods you do eat as high in nutrience as possible (fresh greens and meats instead of processed stuff.) *shrug* or, in doubt, set up a consultation with a nutritionist to see if they can give you a ballpark figure to work with.



take care

(ps. the 1250 average was NET intake after workouts were calculated in.)

from experience, i lost a lot of weight for my body eating 1200 calories a day. In the end, i regret it. I lost a lot of muscle and now am 25% body fat and don't look nearly as good as i thought id look at my goal weight.

so now im trying to reverse it by strength training, but its still sad to me that for months i ate too little, and lost muscle and not nearly enough fat.

Thank you very much for all the quick replies.
A 1200 calorie debate it is. I'm scared of eating more now since I've been doing well on the 1200, but I completely understand where everyone is coming from and realize I may have to make that change. Not too sure what to do yet.

Suggestion as a reformed 1200-er. Switch up your days. So decide your weekly calories and eat 1200 on one day then 1500 on another and then 1300 etc. For me this worked well because it adjusted with my daily cravings and exercise goals. For example: I know that I will on average eat 300-500cal more per day on the weekend because that's just how life is. Instead of over-lmiting myself on these days, I shave off calories during the week when I find it easy to eat at a greater deficit to compensate. That way I am always happy. I am never forcing myself to eat or guilting myself because I ate "too much."

Read this

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/943139-weight-loss-cheat-sheet-ipoarm

I was doing the 1200 thing for a while and realised that it left me hungry and fatigue which pushed me away from working out.
I was in the same dilemma as you 2 weeks ago and decided to try a new diet plat with the help of some calculations from http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Since then I eat 1400 calories on rest days and upto 1800 on the days I work out with a carb/protein/fat ratio of 40/30/30.

I have seen very good results in the last weeks and I am more satisfied with my food too. I think 1200 is way too low and though it might give you the results you are looking for - its not healthy. I do not want to comment on how it affects your metabolism because that can be debated but it is common sense that you cannot meet your nutrition needs.

Try calculating your calories through a deficit of 10 - 15% from your TDEE. That includes your exercise calories.
If you want to discuss on this more - you can message me and I can speak in detail.

Good luck !!

It saddens me every time I read one of these threads. It seems everyone wants to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible so they start out on these incredibly low calorie diets. Will a person lose on that? Of course!! But at what cost? Is it worth potentially ruining your metabolism and losing precious lean body mass? So you manage to lose a decent amount on that... but what happens when you plateau? Where do you go from there? You can't go LOWER with your calories. A smarter and more healthy approach is to start out at a smaller deficit... lose weight on as much food as possible. If you can lose 1/2-1lb per week on 1800 calories why not? If you plateau then you can always go down and/or add a bit more cardio. The point is... you keep more "cards in your deck" to play for later. Starting at 1200 calories is like playing all your best cards right up front.

Don't forget that the body likes homeostasis. It adjusts. It "gets used to" whatever you feed it and how you train it. I NEVER want my body to "get used to" 1200 calories. I would never survive on that little. I cut my body fat down to drastic levels for a figure show last year and never ate under 1600 calories. I started my diet 20 weeks before at 1800 and slowly dropped calories and added cardio. Slow... steady... little changes at a time is the way to do it.

So... my advice to you OP is to reverse diet. Add calories little by little and continue your training/exercise until you are back to a reasonable caloric intake. You may gain a little back but it will be temporary and you should eventually plateau. Get your body used to "normal" calories again.

from experience, i lost a lot of weight for my body eating 1200 calories a day. In the end, i regret it. I lost a lot of muscle and now am 25% body fat and don't look nearly as good as i thought id look at my goal weight.

so now im trying to reverse it by strength training, but its still sad to me that for months i ate too little, and lost muscle and not nearly enough fat.

^^ agree with this. I lost weight on the 1200 but at 110lbs (underweight for my height) i still wasnt happy with how I looked. Now strength training and eating at least 1500 net

It is for me... I can't go much lower than 1500 calories... otherwise I get cranky, tired, and end up binging....

If you're feeling good about 1200 then continue, if not then base the caloric needs somewhere else. I'm also on a 1200 diet, I'm trying to hit 1800, I'll lower down if I feel bloated or I feel it's too much. Just started with mfp.

Depends on your height and other information. For a petite person, it may not be too low. I would make sure that all the information is correct in MFP and let MFP set the Calorie goal or use one of the calculators people have linked. I do think losing more that 2LB a week is overly aggressive but that is just my opinion.

Personally, I LOVE to eat. I'd rather eat a higher calorie diet with nutrient rich foods and lose weight slower (and hopefully have more solid, lasting results), than practically starve myself to lose weight more quickly. Starve may be a strong word, but it's true! I LOVE FOOD.

Taking into consideration that I already have a slow metabolism and reflecting on my previous attempts to lose weight, I have noticed that I wasn't eating ENOUGH. My body was retaining ever morsel in which I ate and, in return, I'd maintain/gain weight, rather than lose.

With experience, time, and plenty of failed attempts, you can begin to listen to your body and see what works for YOU. After all, what may work for others, may not work for you; vice versa.