If you are on a low calorie diet, READ THIS!!!

Remember that study that showed that people who ate low calore/huge deficit amounts, they began to show the same symptoms of eating disordered people?

Also, the minimum is 1200 for women, and 1800 for men.

inb4 WELL MY FRIEND EATS THIS MANY CALORIES & IS DOING FINE.

Assuming you are referencing the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, It was NOT a low calorie/large caloric deficit diet. The men in this diet were quite literally STARVED under medical supervision, just as most anorectics do (minus the supervision, obviously). Those running the study wanted to conclude whether or not it was the physical conditions of starvation that 'cultivated' the Anoretic mindset, or whether the mindset was always the primary problem, with the nutritional deprivation, weight-loss, etc. being secondary results.

*I was not capitalizing to come off as snippy or rude. I just wanted to emphasize my response, since it was only different from your opinions by a few mere words. Why the heck does MFP not have the option of bolding text yet?!

Letter b in brackets to begin, and /b in brackets to end bold.

Minnesota experiment most rigorous phase entailed 1560cal/day and walking three miles per day. The other phases were control, controlled refeed and ad libitum refeed.

The 1560 cal phase was only 24 weeks and those men were in rough shape.

Just... For context.

I want to know WHY is it that MFP seems to default to 1200 calories for so many people? I religiously stuck to that for 8 months - it worked, I lost 2 stone, but then hit a plateau. Now I'm eating 1500 net and losing again.

I changed because when I tried a range of TDEE calculators I got various numbers ranging from 1400 to 2100 - so I worked out the average and worked from that. Seems to be working for me.

But NONE came in as low as MFP - and whenever I changed my settings on MFP - whatever I changed - activity levels, how much I want to lose, etc - the most it did was add 40 calories to my daily allowance - 1240! :noway:

Is there some problem with MFP? Why? Why don't they sort it then?

There's no problem with MFP. In fact, it works great if you use it correctly. So many people get a 1200 calorie goal because:

1) 1200 is the minimum amount that MFP will assign anyone
2) Everyone goes crazy and puts in ridiculous goals (ie: losing 2lbs/week). This results in MFP giving a bottomed-out goal of 1200.
3) MFP adds back your exercise calories, unlike a TDEE-style approach. Too many people don't eat back their exercise calories resulting in a dangerously low intake.

Long story short, using the TDEE method or the MFP method should actually give you the same amount of overall calories if you're doing it right. I've calculated it both ways and it gives me the same amount. MFP only gives a too-low goal if you're choosing an unhealthy or unsustainable loss rate. This is the end-users fault, not MFP's.

The only thing I think MFP could be doing better is providing better guidelines around recommend loss rates depending on how much you have to lose. Although now that I think of it, I think it does do that to at least some degree - most people just ignore it and shoot for the moon.

Well, I started with a 2lb/week weight loss, and sedentary activity (according to the guidance, that was me), but that's my point, even when I changed to 1lb/week and raised my activity level it still only gave me a maximum of 1240 calories.

As for "doing it right" - what do you mean? I followed the guided settings when I started, told it my age/weight/activity etc and that's what I got. And there are cautions about using the manual options, don't do it without consulting medical etc practitioners etc etc. Given that I'd never even heard of TDEE or BMR before enrolling on this site, as I guess is true of lots of new users, what should I have done differently so that I wouldn't have been at fault? (I'm asking because I genuinely would like to know )

(Ed) BTW why do you think 2lb/week is "ridiculous"? This is what guidance the NHS gives:

Evidence shows that the best way to lose weight is to make long-term changes to diet and physical activity that result in a steady rate of weight loss. Aim to lose weight at around 0.5kg to 1kg a week (1lb to 2lb), until you achieve a healthy BMI

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/start-losing-weight.aspx

so you can see why people think 2lb a week is reasonable not ridiculous. That's certainly what was in my head when I joined MFP.

Thank you! For some reason, I've never learned that.....even after being on MFP for quite some time. -_-

Really? I could of sworn that when I studied the topic that the men's net caloric intakes were below 1,200 calories. Thank you for the clarification though.

Thanks for this.. What are your thoughts about a 1,200 calorie diet? That's what was set for me by MFP. On days that I workout, I still try to stay at 1200 cals. Is that unhealthy? I've been losing .2 - .8 lbs a day, weighing myself every morning at the same time. And I'm currently obese at 181 lbs, and I'm 21. Is my calorie goal okay?

How much have you lost per week for the last 4 weeks? I'd shoot for 1lbs/week with your current goal in mind. If you're losing more than that I'd scale the calories up a bit as you've probably got too extreme of a deficit going.

I just started being "serious" about my diet and exercising at the beginning of September. So it has almost been 3 weeks and I've lost around 6 lbs. I've been steadily losing, and I'm happy about it, but I want it to be healthy.

I didn't see where you ever got an answer to your question. IMHO 2 lbs per week is too aggressive. Reduce it to 1.5 or 1 lb per week and either up your activity level or eat back exercise calories. No damage done but what you are doing is not necessarily optimum for overall health. Too aggressive an approach.