1200 Calories (NOT about hitting this #/starvation mode)

Do you have less than 5% body fat? If you don't then you are not in true starvation mode!

You are losing weight on the calories you are eating, what is the point of upping them? No you are not in starvation mode at all. Just continue to do what you are doing, it is working a treat, why spoil it by changing it??

thanks, I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing....slow but steady wins the race (or in this case the skinny body back :laugh: )

Absolutely, you are doing great! :flowerforyou:

I think this all makes sense but unfortunately my doctor does not so has put me on LESS calories i.e. 1000 with no exercise calories!!!!

Which is fine as you are under doctors control. Which I have read that if you drop your calories to 800-1500 a day you should only do so under medical advice.

Wanted to add. I see alot of "I am on 1200 a day AND losing weight" of course you will lose you will continue to lose too. BUT what happens when you reach your goal weight are you going to carry on at 1200??? From my understanding if you eat so low cals then when you go back to so called normal cal intake you are going to gain weight you lost and then some. My cal goal each day is 1520... I reach that and do go over which is made up from exercise calories. I feel this is something I can stick with for LIFE!! I am losing a pound + a week as well.

Of course you don't carry on, if you did you would continue to lose weight.

It all depends what the "so-called calorie intake" includes. Personally, I will be eating exactly the same foods as I do now except more of them. This is because the foods I am currently eating are my new life-changer, no chocolate, no cakes, sweets or crap. No, I do not miss any of them in the slightest, I feel tons better. Normal calorie intake varies from person to person and it is finding that and keeping to it that will include the most work and dedication in my opinion.

On another note, if you say about gaining weight and then some, that goes for ANYBODY that has lost weight and then goes onto the maintenance in that case, but as we all know, thousands keep their weight off. As you rightly state, it is indeed, a life-changer, not a "diet to lose weight and then go back to eating what I used to".

The reason why people who have lost weight and then gain it all back is absolutely nothing to do with the amount of calories it took to lose the weight in the first place, it is to do with what the person eats afterwards - it usually involves returning back to their old eating ways that got them overweight in the first place.

A massive education is needed regarding losing weight and then maintaining it and for a start, all fad diets and any "get slim quick" scheme should be the first things that are warned against. Unfortunately, those exact same ideas are the ones backed by celebrities that put their names to the products in return for cash.

It is a dog eat dog world out there, I, for one, do not intend to feed their coffers and will continue to lose the weight with common sense and will do the same with maintenance.

I am losing weight on 1200 calories per day, I rarely eat any of my exercise calories, I exercise four times per week and am not losing muscle but fat. My inches are decreasing, my dress size is almost on the next one down, I feel fit, healthy, alert mentally and full of enthusiasm for life and long may it stay that way. When I eventually have lost all my weight, I will be eating all my exercise calories, weighing and measuring myself once per week to keep tabs on what is happening. I will always log what I eat and drink, but most importantly I will never revert back to my terrible eating habits that I possessed before this weight loss journey. My dietary intake in those days were for a fool and I am no longer that person

I wear a Bodybugg, so I'm fortunate to know, within 10% accuracy, what my caloric expenditure is each day. Because of that, I don't use MFP the way most people do (I set my own calorie intake and do not log my exercise calories)...I determine my own deficit each day based on how many calories I've burned.

On average, I burn between 2700-3000 calories/day. If I ate 1200, I truly would pass out onto the ground. Okay, maybe not, but I certainly wouldn't be fueling my body for the work I ask it to do. I do, however, maintain a 500-900 calorie deficit, sometimes eating to my full calorie expenditure on days when my calorie burn is lower (zig zagging calories to keep my body 'guessing.')

I'm also 5'9", and right around 20% body fat. I still have weight to lose, but I am able to eat 2000 calories/day and still hit my 1+ lb/week loss. When I first joined MFP, it told me eat right around 1550 calories. Tried it...way too low...I kept crashing in my workouts.

How do you burn that many calories per day?

I wear a Bodybugg, so I'm fortunate to know, within 10% accuracy, what my caloric expenditure is each day. Because of that, I don't use MFP the way most people do (I set my own calorie intake and do not log my exercise calories)...I determine my own deficit each day based on how many calories I've burned.

On average, I burn between 2700-3000 calories/day. If I ate 1200, I truly would pass out onto the ground. Okay, maybe not, but I certainly wouldn't be fueling my body for the work I ask it to do. I do, however, maintain a 500-900 calorie deficit, sometimes eating to my full calorie expenditure on days when my calorie burn is lower (zig zagging calories to keep my body 'guessing.')

I'm also 5'9", and right around 20% body fat. I still have weight to lose, but I am able to eat 2000 calories/day and still hit my 1+ lb/week loss. When I first joined MFP, it told me eat right around 1550 calories. Tried it...way too low...I kept crashing in my workouts.

How do you burn that many calories per day?

Clover...in general, it's lifestyle. I'm simply one of those people who stays fairly active. During most of the year (not summers), I'm a school teacher, and by being on my feet all day and helping the kiddos, I burn a lot there. However, it's summer, and my typical 'burns' come from a daily dog walk of about 75 minutes (I get right around 500 calories there), and a daily 45ish minute workout (I'm doing a hybrid of ChaLean Extreme and Turbo Fire).

Yesterday, my burn was 3195 calories. My dog walk was short (45 minutes), I did a 45 minute Turbo Fire workout, pulled weeds for about 15 minutes, ran the vacuum, but other than that, didn't do much.

I'm finding that the current fitness rotation I'm doing has increased my daily burn rate by about 200 calories/day as well. There is a so-called 'afterburn' effect from HIIT training...I suppose that could be it. I strength train 3 days/week and try to carry as much lean muscle mass as I can (which will increase your metabolic burn rate).

A year ago I was doing P90X doubles (I added an extra cardio workout in 3 mornings/week), and would get similar 3000+ burns on those doubles days as well. I'm also 5'9" and 170 lbs....interestingly, I'm a good 2 sizes smaller (pants size) than I was 5 years ago when I got married and weighed 165 lbs.

Sooooo, now I CONFUSED.....I have been eating the 1200 calories that MFP recommends and am SLOWLY losing weight. I just calculated my BMR, right here on MFP, and it comes up 1,602.....so should I be eating 1.602 calories plus my exercise calories? Will that make the weight come off faster because I'm really in starvation mode now and just don't know it????

Do you have less than 5% body fat? If you don't then you are not in true starvation mode!

You are losing weight on the calories you are eating, what is the point of upping them? No you are not in starvation mode at all. Just continue to do what you are doing, it is working a treat, why spoil it by changing it??

Please provide a source for this "statistic".

I think there is an awful lot of mis-education going around about what "starvation mode" or nutritional deprivation (which is what I'm going to start calling it) is. In my opinion it is just as irresponsible to tell people there is NO such thing as it is to tell them they'll go into it after a mere 6 hours of not eating. Unless someone is a licensed dietician, in which case, I defer to their greater knowledge.

To get more information on the Minnesota Starvation study - read http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/6/1347 (Journal of Nutrition) and another very informative post on this study and starvation in general - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/81391-starvation-mode-myths-and-science

Hi I'm new here but I wondered about the 1200 calorie per day total too. I have noticed that when I put in my exercise, I'm allowed more calories. So since I burn between 500-700 calories per day, it's added to the amount I can eat. That helps me a lot because I do go over the 1200 but I've never gone past 1700.

My job is pretty sedentary plus I eat every hour and half/two hours. But now it's a handful of almonds, yogurt or an apple instead of the candy, chips, etc.

I also write out my menu for the day in advance and that's what I take to work. It's when I get home is the toughest time to stick to it but so far I stick with my menu.

Wow I hope that wasn't to repetitious of what others have said. I guess I just wanted to put my two cents in :-D

Belina...By the way...I don't mean to be negative or anything, but it is ALWAYS possible to gain the weight back...trust me..ten yrs ago, I said the SAME thing, and I did a good job at keeping it off for awhile....but, life happenes and things change. Once you are overweight, that person is always inside you and can always creep her lil ugly head back up! I hope you are able to keep it off and congrats on your weight loss.

I think people need to worry less about starvation mode and think more about increasing their metabolism the natural way. Following this plan to the letter has allowed me to increase my metabolism. I am actually eating more calories now than I did when I was overweight. The difference is that I'm exercising and eating healthy calories most of the time.