1200 Cals minimum?

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robertgal74
robertgal74 Posts: 20
in Health and Weight Loss
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?




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  • michable
    michable Posts: 312 Member
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    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.
  • kinzieplatt
    kinzieplatt Posts: 81 Member
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    The same thing happened with my mother-in-law, and a dr told her that maybe she wasn't eating ENOUGH calories for her personal weight loss goals. He suggested trying to eat 1600 calories a day and she saw more success that way.

    Kinzie
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
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    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.
  • chandanista
    chandanista Posts: 986 Member
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    Wonder if she's mis-estimating her burned calories and overeating those?
  • robertgal74
    robertgal74 Posts: 20
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    She's 4' 11'' , and I'm weighing her food, one thing she's not doing is logging for house cleaning, but everything else is pretty accurate.
  • j6o4
    j6o4 Posts: 871 Member
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    Maybe shes eating too much exercise calories back becuase the caloires burnt are inaccurate.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    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.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    How much is much? Can't expect more than 1 or 2lbs a week staying healthy about it.
  • chandanista
    chandanista Posts: 986 Member
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    I will just stand in the corner by Sjenny and nod vigorously.
  • naturalstyles
    naturalstyles Posts: 8
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    Hi. Everything depends on her metabolism, and what kind of foods she is eating. There are different foods that can suspend weight loss, and that some that can cause an adverse effect. Artificial sweeteners may cause her to actually crave more sugar and salty foods. I've heard that diet soda may actually cause you to gain weight, but I don't know.

    There are also foods, like wheat, rye, barley (Gluten foods) that inhibit weight loss. Myself, I don't eat meat of any kind, but am eating more fruits and vegetables with occasionally having some light ice cream or frozen yogurt. I'll eat oats, but nothing with gluten in it (mainly because of gluten sensitivity), and if I want a treat, I do all my baking from scratch, so I know what is in it. I mainly eat "whole foods" with an occasional treat.

    is she drinking enough water? Water plays a huge part in weight loss.

    A person should not lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, and sometimes there are plateaus. The important thing is if she is eating healthy, and there is weight loss, and that she is staying healthy. The body will go into starvation mode if not enough is eaten.

    I don't log my exercise when I am doing house work either, because it is hard to do. I am staying pretty close to 1200/day.
  • anaconda469
    anaconda469 Posts: 3,463 Member
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    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?
  • marcusriedner
    marcusriedner Posts: 16
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    In my opinion highly restricted calorie diets are not a sustainable lifestyle change, nor a sustainable way to lose and keep off weight.

    The human metabolism matches caloric inputs and outputs once you sort out your hormones, particularly insulin. I dropped from 305lbs to 230lbs in six months eating 2800 calories a day without any change to my exercise routine. The entire issue of weight loss revolved around my insulin levels being too high.
  • vanillatrim
    vanillatrim Posts: 4
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    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.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Hi. Everything depends on her metabolism, and what kind of foods she is eating. There are different foods that can suspend weight loss, and that some that can cause an adverse effect. Artificial sweeteners may cause her to actually crave more sugar and salty foods. I've heard that diet soda may actually cause you to gain weight, but I don't know.

    There are also foods, like wheat, rye, barley (Gluten foods) that inhibit weight loss. Myself, I don't eat meat of any kind, but am eating more fruits and vegetables with occasionally having some light ice cream or frozen yogurt. I'll eat oats, but nothing with gluten in it (mainly because of gluten sensitivity), and if I want a treat, I do all my baking from scratch, so I know what is in it. I mainly eat "whole foods" with an occasional treat.

    is she drinking enough water? Water plays a huge part in weight loss.

    A person should not lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, and sometimes there are plateaus. The important thing is if she is eating healthy, and there is weight loss, and that she is staying healthy. The body will go into starvation mode if not enough is eaten.

    I don't log my exercise when I am doing house work either, because it is hard to do. I am staying pretty close to 1200/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...
  • marcusriedner
    marcusriedner Posts: 16
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    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.
  • robertgal74
    robertgal74 Posts: 20
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    She has lost 2 lbs and gained 1 lb back, she does about two hrs worth of house cleaning and sometimes and tae bo, she has even started taking thyroid supplements thinking it might have something to do with that. Thanks for all your responses. MFP has worked for me ( I'm the biggest skeptic ). I keep telling her to give it time.
  • fushigi1988
    fushigi1988 Posts: 519 Member
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    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.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    She has lost 2 lbs and gained 1 lb back, she does about two hrs worth of house cleaning and sometimes and tae bo, she has even started taking thyroid supplements thinking it might have something to do with that. Thanks for all your responses. MFP has worked for me ( I'm the biggest skeptic ). I keep telling her to give it time.

    ^^^BINGO!!! ^^^
    The Thyroid controls the hormones that control your metabolism. It is going to be hard to get the results you are looking for until it stabilizes. I had a friend that was put on them and it took almost a month for him.

    I would suggest talking with a Nutritionalist. I don't know enough about it to help.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    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.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    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?

    When you exercise you add that to your calories so you would end up eating 1560 to 1760 calories a day.
    I set myself at Sedentary when I started. I got a pedomoter to track what I walked at work- and logged it. If I spent more than 30 minutes cooking or cleaning- I logged it. I played with the kids- I logged it. I breastfed- I logged it. MFP gave me 1200 a day and I ended up eating closer to 2000-2200 after everything... and lost about 1.5lb a week.

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