1200 cals/working out/not eating back calories. Wrong?!

You need to make a long term experiment with your calories in vs calories out. Stick with a regimented schedule. If you are burning 300cal a day in exercise... try and maintain a similar burn every day. Don't workout to the point that you feel burnt out. THEN...

...the thing you must do is experiment with your 'calories in' each day. Stick with 1200 a day for a while and closely monitor your weight (yes, I know, we females sometimes have that added bonus of fluid retention). Long term you'll see a pattern though. If you are losing X at 1200cal a day and want to slow it down, add 100cal a day for a week or so and see what your body does. Move up or down by 100 calories a day gradually til you find the set point you want to remain at. Don't alter your calories in frequently. Give your body a week to react and give you the feedback you are looking for.

Rule of thumb for maintenance (esp. for females). If you are hovering within 2 kg or your desired set point, you are maintaining. Work with that. Hope it helps, hun. x

PS. Keep in mind if you are under-eating you may be holding onto what you've got. I'm very tall for a female, so I struggle with the fact that I need closer to 1500 cal a day. Some days I just can't do it without resorting to eating crap, which defeats the purpose.

So I have come to this conclusion. Calories are just a number and they are different for everyone. What I have come to realize if that if you are fueling your body with the right nutrients you won't go hungy. For example, my lunches are made daily and I have finally after 2 yrs of the change stepped away from the frozen meals. What we do is we go to our local BJs and buy two rotiserre chickens and shred them on Sunday. We then put them on a food scale and I weigh out mine and my boyfriend weighs out his. We put each daily serving into ziploc bags in the fridge for the upcoming week. He takes a little more for the day then I do. I then buy a box of quinoa from Near east from Walmart and get the blend that has the brown rice and in Walmart I also buy a bag of salad greens and a big bag of the normandy veggies (yes frozen but for me that is just how I do it). My food diary basically is oatmeal in the morning to feel full or oat cereal with berries, I have either almonds (back to nature brand - california almonds) as a snack. For lunch during the work week I mix it up between wild alaskan salmon burgers with a side salad (with some added chick peas and beans if needed) or for the other days I do the chicken (about 3 oz), 1/2 cup of Quinoa, and veggies. Afternoon snack is either greek yogurt, banana, or a gala apple. I am not hungry throughout the day with this at all. I also do a protein shake after my morning workout so with the almonds it normally goes with it in the mid morning. I don't spend alot on food and I am satisfied throughout the day.. I also try to drink water or vitamin water zero. Hope this helps. I try to do one night a week of allowing what I want to eat. I also found great soups at Target from Archer farms that I want to start doing for dinners...they have a great variety and alot less sodium then the canned soups I have been seeing at Walmart. I do like the Progresso Garden Vegetable low sodium soup, it's really good.

Again, hope this helps, , I just recently started adding in the fish for lunch with veggies (normandy) and the quinoa as of today, but I will do that 2x a week during the workweek and then the other 3 days with chicken and quinoa. I should mention I too have a hypothyroid condition and my endo doctor has told me to stay at @1200 calories to lose weight if not lower as well. That's why I am trying to eat clean so that I feel full and my body gets what it needs.

Best of luck!!!

One thing is unclear, here. So I figure out my TDEE, eat around 20% below that, and that's it? I don't additionally eat back calories, cuz the TDEE was figured based on my active lifestyle, right? I just wanna make sure I'm doing this the best way for optimal health.

There are two methods

1 - calculate your TDEE based on absolutely no exercise (sedentary) - in this case you DO eat your exercise calories back

2- calculate your TDEE including your presumed level of exercise - in this case you DON'T eat additional exercise calories back as they are already factored in and spread out equally into your daily calorie goals.

I personally use method number 1 as my exercise can sometimes be sporadic based on what work I have on, plus I find it motivates me to get to the gym so I can "earn" more food!

#1 is what MFP does, so you if that is your choice just follow MFP (which means eat exercise cals back)

Google TDEE and see how many sites have these calculators? Well just for fun I used three of them. Entered the exact same info in all of them and came up with 3 totally different numbers. So how can TDEE be accurate if the calculators don't even agree? I don't get it.

Has anyone here mentioned lower carb/higher protein and healthy fat eating habits?
Before you guys get furious, Id like to say Im in no way Atkins supporter! That guy was too extreme.
Im not saying to get rid of fruits and veg and eat steaks all day.
Im saying get rid of most breads, pasta, rice, grains - save those for special occasions and cheat days.

Try eating unlimited (within reason of coarse) amounts of veg like salad, tomatoes, asparagus, anything green and colorful (limit your yams, corn and starchy veg), good portions of lean meat, chicken, sea food moderate portions of fat like avocados, olive oil, cottage cheese, fish, small portions of fruits, nuts, seeds and healthier sweets like honey and dark chocolate?

Ive found personally that eating like this you dont necessarily need to count calories, and ive been in a healthy range of 156-158 pounds for my height of 6"1

I get alot of info from these guys http://www.marksdailyapple.com if that helps?

This sight is so full of information. I have been doing Weight Watchers and never thought about what I should really be eating or doing or why I just count points. Well this point counting is not working for me. I guess I need to get educated on what works and why and how!!!! Thanks for all the great info...

#1 is what MFP does, so you if that is your choice just follow MFP (which means eat exercise cals back)

Not exactly - since MFP put me at 1200 and using TDEE-15% + exercise I eat 1400.

Hey all. I consider myself pretty educated as far as what the "right" foods to eat are. I also know that there's a TON of
controversy out there about the best and most healthy way to lose weight. I went to my doctor just to be sure, and sure enough, he said to cut my calories to less than 1200 every day, work out, and don't eat back the calories I burned. So, I've been doing this and successfully losing weight, fairly quicker than I'm
uses. Obviously. I'm like staaaarving! Here's some details:

I'm 29
5'3"
175 lb

I'm not cutting carbs, or eating clean. I'm drinking only water, no juice/soda etc. I chose healthier foods the majority of the time, but don't limit myself to only whole or fresh. I heat up the occasional Smart One or Lean Cuisine for convenience. I workout every day but Sunday. Lately I've been running, 2.5-4 miles a day. Slower pace, around 3.5/4.0. I also have 3 beach body programs I do from time to time; Insanity, Turbo Fire, and Chalene extreme. I've only completed the insanity program. The other two I recently purchased.

So, how should I figure out what my optimal calorie intake should be? I don't wanna starve my body, or have it eat muscle, etc. I wanna be healthy, and I have about 50 lb to lose. Help!!!!!

I think you should go to the doc and ask for them to test your resting metabolic rate. That way, you know for sure how many calories you burn while your body is at rest. The "normal" person my age burns about 2400 calories, however after being tested, I only burn about 1700. That's a huge gap. I haven't found a website that lets you customize that part. If you know that information, you can calculate how many calories you should eat per day to lose the weight at a safe rate. I can consume 1200 calories/day and lose about 1lb per week. It is important to at least get 30% of your body weight of protein a day so when you're exercising, you're not depleting your muscle, but losing fat.