When is 1200 calories appropriate? (hint: almost never)

Yawns. *eye roll*

I'm always amazed at the amount of people so focused on what other people are doing and eating....

Less to do with focusing on what other people are doing and eating and more to do with having fallen into that trap ourselves, learning the science, climbing back out and back on track... and wanting to pass on that knowledge.

Don't like it? Then don't read it!

Agreed, and also because the forums are flooded with people posting threads that are something along the lines of Help I'm Only Eating 1200 calories a day Why Can't I lose Weight?
I agree, if someone wants to only eat that little, or do a starving diet, it's their bodies they can if they want, but if it doesn't work don't ignore all of the good advice on the forums about better alternatives for fat loss.

I just wanna say, i havent read all these but im 5' 2, 38, weigh 111lbs and am maintaining on 1900+ whilst lifting heavy and 3 x HIT spinning

Been doing the 1200 ish for so long having to set my base again. Love eating more, and its doing nothing but wonders for me.

Love eating

Hi there,

I would really appreciate if you could give me what my numbers should be. I lost 30kg in 2011 doing optifast 800 and then fell pregnant, which has made everything different, so while this year I have lost around 9kg I still have so far to go, and just need a definitive answer because my instincts and information are all screwy.

I am 35, 5'3, 196lbs. my workplace is sedentary but I have 3-40 minutes PT 3 times a week, and 1 spin class as well.

can you pretty please tell me what calories I should be eating to ideally drop 1kg a week (sorry I am actually an aussie but converted all my figures above) thanks so much in advance!

Spreadsheet on my profile page.

I'm guessing 40 min PT sessions are equal in effort to say walking 3-4 mph?
And spin class is 45-60 min long?

Correct me if wrong above, or use the spreadsheet actually, to also get a decent bodyfat % estimate, and get better figures to use. This BMR is likely inflated, therefore the numbers are too. And log your progress in inches and lbs.

Mifflin BMR - 1553 (Katch based on BF% likely lower)
TDEE for 120 min medium cardio and 52 min high cardio - 2128
Total Daily Eating Goal - 1553 (thats 27% deficit for now, but that will creep down as you have less to lose).

Carbs - 45%, prot - 30%, fat - 25%

Eat that daily, if you log exercise, do it after meeting your goal, or log as 1 calorie burned, or memorize 1550 as goal to hit. 50 over is better than 100 under.

The goal here is to retain muscle mass, so the TDEG wouldn't go down that fast as weight went down and fat is lost.

THIS is what I want help with. I've been trying to do 1220 calories per day as calculated by MFP but I have been reading a bit and I think it might be too low? According to MFP I should be losing a kg per week on that alone, and I'm not. Plus I'm exercising 3-4 times per week. Getting so frustrated. I have a lot of weight to lose and I want to feel like it's actually working.

So you accepted MFP calc of 1220 per day net eating goal.

Which was actually based on your selection of non-exercise activity level (honest on that?) and weight loss goal amount, did you use recommended 1 lb weekly?

Are you accepting MFP method of doing it, namely you log that exercise and eat back those exercise calories?
You follow their calorie recommendation, make sure you follow their method too.

Working out that decent amount, you'd probably like to benefit from the exercise, right, see improvements? Fuel those workouts by following the prescribed method.

And if the calories seem inflated on the workout days, who cares, it'll hopefully make up for it being to small on non-workout days.

Is this still a reliable calculator to determine intake??

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Hi there,

I would really appreciate if you could give me what my numbers should be. I lost 30kg in 2011 doing optifast 800 and then fell pregnant, which has made everything different, so while this year I have lost around 9kg I still have so far to go, and just need a definitive answer because my instincts and information are all screwy.

I am 35, 5'3, 196lbs. my workplace is sedentary but I have 3-40 minutes PT 3 times a week, and 1 spin class as well.

can you pretty please tell me what calories I should be eating to ideally drop 1kg a week (sorry I am actually an aussie but converted all my figures above) thanks so much in advance!

Spreadsheet on my profile page.

I'm guessing 40 min PT sessions are equal in effort to say walking 3-4 mph?
And spin class is 45-60 min long?

Correct me if wrong above, or use the spreadsheet actually, to also get a decent bodyfat % estimate, and get better figures to use. This BMR is likely inflated, therefore the numbers are too. And log your progress in inches and lbs.

Mifflin BMR - 1553 (Katch based on BF% likely lower)
TDEE for 120 min medium cardio and 52 min high cardio - 2128
Total Daily Eating Goal - 1553 (thats 27% deficit for now, but that will creep down as you have less to lose).

Carbs - 45%, prot - 30%, fat - 25%

Eat that daily, if you log exercise, do it after meeting your goal, or log as 1 calorie burned, or memorize 1550 as goal to hit. 50 over is better than 100 under.

The goal here is to retain muscle mass, so the TDEG wouldn't go down that fast as weight went down and fat is lost.

thank you for this! I have jumped in and am using your spreadsheet and its a bit daunting but it is also helping me focus. so I should just aim for TDEG as 1550 but its better for me to be just over it than to not eat enough calories? I hope I understand that correctly. thanks again!

I'm on 1250 calories at the moment and I am not sure if I should increase it- I know everyone here seems to be saying that I do have to.. But I am stuffed? I am logginf correctly and my stomach is chock-a-block full on 844 cals right now.. That's with eating a good diet of veggies tuna and eggs mostly today. Surely if I eat healthily enough then this number of calories is fine?

No.

Your body can be starved for nutrition (vit and min) and eat a bunch of junk food eating your caloric needs for maintenance and keep your weight.

How long does it take your body to show the signs of vitamin or mineral deficiency?
Does your body feel like it needs it while it's lacking it?
What are the outcome symptoms when it finally shows up you've been missing those needed things, and how serious then?


Your body can be starved for energy (calories) and eat a bunch of very nutrition foods way under your caloric needs for maintaining weight and lose weight - muscle mass actually.

How long does it take for your body to adapt to not getting enough calories for basic functions of human life, let alone growing new hair, skin, nails, such that it just slows you down to compensate?
Will you body always show that it needs more by being hungry or a shrunken stomach?
What are the eventual symptoms of eating like that?

OK...I"m wayyyyyy confused now. MFP has set MY calories to be 1200. How do I find out how many calories I'm supposed to be eating???

MFP did the math on the options you selected, so really you made it come out to 1200.

Really sedentary in daily life?
Select recommended 1 lb loss weekly?

Are you logging and eating back exercise calories?
Which can balance many times the MFP recommendation being too low for most.

I'm 24 years old, 5 foot 8 inches, and a female and I've been eating 1200 for about 6 weeks now and have been losing weight pretty slowly. I just bumped my calories up to 1300 but I feel like I should even be eating more than that. I was able to eat at 1200 calories without getting too hungry because I was working out.

I'm thinking about bumping up the calories to 1450. hmmm

Ok, confused now, I to was set to 1200 cals a day, and was working through the summer for me, losing about 2 pounds a week. But I ate my 1200-ish, going over slightly sometimes, and I would work off sometimes over that. Farm work, and workouts. Now I've been stalled for months. The last 5-10 won't come off. So what I'm reading is say I worked off 1300 cals, would I then need to eat 2500 cals in that one day, eating back what I worked off too?

2 lbs of what? Only fat? Water weight? Muscle mass?

Correct on principle, didn't you wonder why when you added exercise it increased your eating goal?

Are you aware that the 1200 was already less than what you burn daily - not even including exercise?

If you literally ate only 1200 or slightly above, total, no extra on exercise days, then you likely burned off a decent amount of muscle mass.
Now your metabolism has been shot down for that reason, compared to what it could be anyway.

In addition to that, it's probably been suppressed an additional amount - studies have shown upwards of 20%, which may never come back. Happy lowered eating levels forever.

So for farm work, did you select an activity level that was NOT sedentary, as farm work is hardly sedentary?
Probably Active or Very Active would have been honest. Then you don't log those kinds of activities, it's included already.

Also, with last 5-10 to lose, you should be selecting the goal loss of 1/2 lb weekly.

Also, any sloppiness with logging food eaten correctly can still show results when you have a lot to lose, you probably were eating more than you thought, and still are. Probably not enough to prevent muscle loss, but more.

Now with so little to lose, you have less room for error to still see results.
Need very accurate logging, especially following recommendation to eat more to keep the deficit reasonable for the amount you have to lose now.

Ok, confused now, I to was set to 1200 cals a day, and was working through the summer for me, losing about 2 pounds a week. But I ate my 1200-ish, going over slightly sometimes, and I would work off sometimes over that. Farm work, and workouts. Now I've been stalled for months. The last 5-10 won't come off. So what I'm reading is say I worked off 1300 cals, would I then need to eat 2500 cals in that one day, eating back what I worked off too?

2 lbs of what? Only fat? Water weight? Muscle mass?

Correct on principle, didn't you wonder why when you added exercise it increased your eating goal?

Are you aware that the 1200 was already less than what you burn daily - not even including exercise?

If you literally ate only 1200 or slightly above, total, no extra on exercise days, then you likely burned off a decent amount of muscle mass.
Now your metabolism has been shot down for that reason, compared to what it could be anyway.

In addition to that, it's probably been suppressed an additional amount - studies have shown upwards of 20%, which may never come back. Happy lowered eating levels forever.

So for farm work, did you select an activity level that was NOT sedentary, as farm work is hardly sedentary?
Probably Active or Very Active would have been honest. Then you don't log those kinds of activities, it's included already.

Also, with last 5-10 to lose, you should be selecting the goal loss of 1/2 lb weekly.

Also, any sloppiness with logging food eaten correctly can still show results when you have a lot to lose, you probably were eating more than you thought, and still are. Probably not enough to prevent muscle loss, but more.

Now with so little to lose, you have less room for error to still see results.
Need very accurate logging, especially following recommendation to eat more to keep the deficit reasonable for the amount you have to lose now.

I'm sure I selected active, as I am. I never really looked at what was happening as I logged. But am not sure what I have lost, maybe some of all, fat muscle and water. It was a loss of 22 pounds. My clothes fit smaller. I did notice gain in muscle in my legs and arms, and starting to form in abs area. I think if I was unsure of this then how many are there out there not knowing this. It's a learning process. Thought I did enough research...*facepalm*

I keep telling my friends this and they just keep ignoring me and getting angry. Le sigh.

I'm 5'3, I don't exercise (one change at a time for me) and I weigh around 160. My TDEE alone is 1800 when I don't do any light exercises, so I think 1,200 is ok for me. When I add exercise I will definitely up the cals.