1200 Calorie Question

As long as you are eating over 1200 you will be fine. You have a fairly substantial weight to lose, so it's ok to have a bigger deficit... when you get closer to your goal weight you will want to re-evaluate and you might need to start eating more then to see the weight continue to come off, but at this point, when you are trying to lose over 50 lbs, you have lots of fat stores available to burn off, so if you are eating your target calories, and aren't letting yourself go hungry, then you are fine.

Remember that the 30DS is interval training, and you will continue to burn calories long after you have completed the work out, so if you find yourself hungry after, eat the calories back. Try to opt for more protein so you can build up your muscles faster.

perfect!

You are going to get so many answers to this from people who truly have faith in what they're saying.

Long story short (minus debating):

Do what works for YOUR body. If you are feeling great like this, then that's wonderful, but eventually you may stop losing at all, in which case I would suggest slowly (and I mean 100 extra calories per week) raising your caloric weight until it picks up again.

ONLY YOUR DOCTOR can really and truly tell you if what you're doing is healthy for you. This required money and time, but it is worth it to get an opinion. Sometimes a nutritionist can also give you good insight, but they won't necessarily be able to tailor diet plans to your personal medical needs. Neither of these people are promised to know 100% the right answer, but generally this is about the way it works.

When you are heavier (which I would say that you aren't THAT heavy, even though you are in a heavier BMI range) it would be easier to sustain a 1200 calorie amount for a little longer because there is so much fat (I know this from experience).

And LASTLY there is a big difference between 1200 cals of processed low calorie foods and fresh low calorie foods. Obviously you can eat a lot more food for few calories when eating healthier.. which helps to contribute to the satisfied feeling.

I always think to myself "If I want to look like a healthy (insert age here) female, I need to do what they do and eat what they eat" (emphasis on HEALTH) lol

Good luck!

its hard being this fit though. It took me a lot of work.

No matter what, make sure you net 1200 calories! I dont necessarily eat back what I've burnt but I typically watch what I eat, and making sure I hit my macros everyday. If you eat less, you will only gain as your body will go into starvation mode. You need to add energy to your body. So don't skip out on food, but make sure its good quality food!

this is just dead wrong...

you can't eat 1200 calories a day be in starvation mode...you have to eat nothing for 72 hours to be in starvation mode..

OP - if you are feeling good on 1200 and are steadily losing then stick with it..if you start to plateau then bump up your cals by 100 a day ...

thank you! I am so SICK of people talking about starvation mode????????what the F anyway it annoys me and I thank you for clearing that up!

That's pretty much what I do, eat around 1,400 & exercise about 300 so net around 1,100. I eat well & not usually hungry & have a little less than 40lbs to lose on my 5'2" self.

Wait, is it bad to net below 1200 if you are not trying to lose a lot of weight?
Why?
I am netting just under 1000 for the day... I ate a lot, and did some light exercise.
This is the first time I am counting calories but I ate pretty much what I think I would eat in a normal day and I am in good health.

Sorry, I thought I was good today until I read this thread and now I'm confused.

If you only have a small amount of weight to lose, you should aim for a deficit of no more than 500 calories a day. When you are close to your ideal weight, your body is going to fight back because it's programmed to store fat.

1200 is not a magic number, you need to find your BMR and TDEE (A google search will bring up several easy to use calculators). BMR is the amount of calories you burn merely by existing, if you never moved. You don't want to eat below that number, because you need that amount of calories. TDEE is the amount of calories you burn on an average day. Now what you want to do is take your TDEE and subtract 500 calories, to create a deficit. Don't aim for any higher than 500 by eating alone. If you want to create a bigger deficit, that's where exercise comes into play. But keep in mind that your body is going to want to store fat, so at least try to net your BMR most of the time. Having only a little weight to lose means your body wants to avoid burning fat, so you want to do it slowly at that point. This is where people get confused and think eating too little will make you gain weight. That's not true, but eating too little will make you lose weight slower.