1200 Cals minimum?

Yeah, 1200 minimum, anything less and it can be hard to get all the nutrients you need. Also, we don't want to starve while we're trying to lose a few pounds, because it can lead to rebound weight gain when you stop restricting. Also, most people have a BMR (basal metabolic rate) in excess of 1200 cal / day, and it's definitely not recommended to eat under your BMR. Also, 1200 cals / day usually leads to rapid weight loss, including loss of lean body mass as well as fat.

I don't know anything about your wife (height, weight, age, activity level, current intake), so there could be any number of reasons why she hasn't lost much, including:
- she is teeny-tiny and 1200 + exercise cals isn't creating much of a deficit (unlikely; 1200 is usually a pretty big deficit for anyone)
- eating more than she thinks she is (does she weigh, measure and log everything accurately? Have cheat days?)
- over-estimating calories burned (MFP is generous with calorie burns - is your wife using a heart rate monitor?), so reducing her deficit too much by eating back too many cals.
- water retention from recent increase in exercise intensity, TOM, etc.

Also, what is your idea of not losing much? A pound or 2 a week is quite a rapid rate of loss. Are her goals realistic?

Hope this helps.

I've always heard that ur supposed to consume 1200 cals minimum + whatever exercise cals u earn. I have one question though, my wife has been doing it for about a month and hasn't lost much, does the 1200 cal minimum apply no matter how much u weigh or how tall u are?

Absolutely not. Unless your wife is very, very short 1200 is probably an unnecessarily large deficit for her. She could be eating more, felling better and still losing weight.

I've always heard that ur supposed to consume 1200 cals minimum + whatever exercise cals u earn. I have one question though, my wife has been doing it for about a month and hasn't lost much, does the 1200 cal minimum apply no matter how much u weigh or how tall u are?

What is her BMR? I am 5'3" and mine is 1175 calories a day. I'm Maintaining at around 1800 Calories a day.
I weighed 190 when I started and MFP assigned me 1200 Calories a day. ( I was eating around 2,200 after Breastfeeding and exercise)

How much is "not very much lost"? How much water is she drinking? How much exercise? How much does she need to lose?It's hard to give any definite answer without seeing the diary.

I will just stand in the corner by Sjenny and nod vigorously.

Now have a question. I am sedentary, so MFP set me at 1260 calories when I started at 178 lbs I am now at 162 and my BMR is 1425. I feel I need to boost my calories to at least my BMR, but when I do it in MFP everything gets screwed up. I ride my bike and burn off from 300 to 500 calories a day, and I feel that 1260 cals is not enough. Should I boost to my BMR?

I want to weigh in to the first question and say that my experience was much like his wife's until I ate all my calories (or WW points ) per day. I had been on several diets and I thought eating under my limit would make me lose faster. And I couldn't seem to lose a thing. But when I consumed more, but within my calorie limits, the weigh came off about a pound a week. It didn't come off in an easy linear fashion either. I would go down, then back up a bit, down three pounds... But the trend was downwards and I reached the goal. Eating high calorie foods like chips doesn't work, it had to be high protein, low carb food. At some point there is only so much broccoli and fish a girl can stand!! But I got used to it. Hope this helps.

What????

The only food that will suspend weight loss is the food you eat too much of...

and the starvation mode thing really...yah no that is a myth

To the OP if your sure of her intake...what about output...you mentioned housework...she has done that while gaining weight so don't use that as exercise. Possible her burns are over estimated.

I agree tho 1200 is hard to maintain long term...

That is incorrect, if you have a metabolism like mine where carbohydrate intake causes hard insulin spikes then the food choices you make are far more important than the amount you eat. Insulin has been shown time and time again to be the centre point of a number of metabolic disorders that are linked together (heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia). Insulin spikes will halt all weight loss because of the way the hormone works in your body. Food allergies will also cause water retention and weight loss halting as well, so if a person has gluten intolerance (mild allergy) then they can experience weight loss stalls or reversals.

Ultimately your metabolic rate will balance too your caloric intake, this is why calorie restriction alone is not a viable weight loss method. You have to figure out what is causing your metabolic imbalance and deal with that underlaying issue. For me it was changing to a low carb/high fat diet and increasing my caloric intake. I went from struggling with 1800 calories a day and weighing 305lbs to eating 3000 calories a day and dropping down to 230lbs, at which point I started having to drop my caloric intake. Low carb/high fat doesn't always work for some people, it just depends on the metabolic problem causing the weight increases.

1200 calories might be too low, my BMR is already 1800: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
Check this, see how much she burns with doing housework, and try to put calories somewhere in between those numbers.

1200 calories might be too low, my BMR is already 1800: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
Check this, see how much she burns with doing housework, and try to put calories somewhere in between those numbers.

The 1200 is before the cleaning and the exercise. It would be closer to 2000-2200 if my estimate is right. ( I get 250 for 2 hours of cleaning and 450 for an hour of Zumba and she would get at least 200 more than me) assuming she does both every day.

What????

The only food that will suspend weight loss is the food you eat too much of...

and the starvation mode thing really...yah no that is a myth

To the OP if your sure of her intake...what about output...you mentioned housework...she has done that while gaining weight so don't use that as exercise. Possible her burns are over estimated.

I agree tho 1200 is hard to maintain long term...

That is incorrect, if you have a metabolism like mine where carbohydrate intake causes hard insulin spikes then the food choices you make are far more important than the amount you eat. Insulin has been shown time and time again to be the centre point of a number of metabolic disorders that are linked together (heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia). Insulin spikes will halt all weight loss because of the way the hormone works in your body. Food allergies will also cause water retention and weight loss halting as well, so if a person has gluten intolerance (mild allergy) then they can experience weight loss stalls or reversals.

Ultimately your metabolic rate will balance too your caloric intake, this is why calorie restriction alone is not a viable weight loss method. You have to figure out what is causing your metabolic imbalance and deal with that underlaying issue. For me it was changing to a low carb/high fat diet and increasing my caloric intake. I went from struggling with 1800 calories a day and weighing 305lbs to eating 3000 calories a day and dropping down to 230lbs, at which point I started having to drop my caloric intake. Low carb/high fat doesn't always work for some people, it just depends on the metabolic problem causing the weight increases.

Losing weight is done one way and one way only proven in science.

calorie deficet period. What you chose to eat has nothing to do with it as long as you are in a "REASONABLE DEFICET"

It will be harder but not impossible with thyroid issues or PCOS but other then that when I hear "oh it's my metabolism" I laugh because that is rare as well and often used as an excuse. I am not saying "slow metabolism" doesn't exist but ....

There was a discussion here on the forums about that and a study done that showed people who claim slow metabolism etc are "secret eaters" who don't record everything.

If she is not losing weight she is eating too many calories.

She is either underestimating her intake or overestimating her calories burned. Invest in a digital food scale.

Of course this kind of post will attract the people that will say "increase her calories" which is RIDICULOUS!!! :explode:

A caloric deficit is needed to lose weight. If she is not losing weight she is not in a caloric deficit.

Ignore any post that mentions starvation mode, jump starting her metabolism, or anything regarding eating more calories to lose weight. It's nonsense.

This x1000!