Who can stick to a 1200-1350 calorie diet/lifestyle?

I average around that. Sometimes you go over that, sometimes less. But I exercise at least 4 days a week too. Feel free to add me as a friend and my diary is open too.

I think any lightly active person can lose weight eating at least 1500 calories, there's no need to eat any less than that.

Allow me to introduce myself as someone who CANNOT lose weight on 1,500 calories a day, no matter how much I exercise.

But it's nice to know you know my body better than I know my body. :flowerforyou:

me. Some days are more challenging than others. My diary is open, if you want to take a look. I've learned to just not eat that much and to incorporate more veggies and less meat and less sugar. It's not perfect, but most days, I'm within calories. Also, if I know i'm going to splurge, I try to incorporate some dancing or a walk or just not eat as much a few days before the splurge.

Hope this helps. Also, this isn't a lifelong thing. You'll hit goal weight and be able to eat more during maintenance.

I stuck to it for a while. So did my sister. We weren't exercising so we thought it was ok since we weren't burning a lot of extra calories. We ate mostly lean meats and a lot of vegetables, and took multi vitamins. Things like chicken spinach salads with various vegetables like tomato, peppers, onions, mushrooms, a occasional sprinkle of nuts and beans. I felt full when I got use to it (as anyone would). I thought I was eating healthy. Our hair started falling out. Her teeth started getting lose. We stopped. Be careful. It's hard to absorb nutrients in a low fat diet. It's hard to feel full eating high fat on a low cal diet. Just remember a lot of nutrients are fat soluble so even if you're getting them, you're not absorbing them as well. I started eating more (I eat about 2000 now but I try to move more) and noticed that a lot of the low cal friends I accumulated at the time started running into stalls when I didn't.

This stuff seems to be lost on so many people, it's sad really...no concept of what actually constitutes proper nutrition.

+1

Tried it many years ago, lost the weight and and gained it all back plus more. Now I lose consistently at 1700 to 2000 depending on whether I'm working out that day or not. I maintain at 2500 or so which is great when we go on vacation and I cannot always log. Last year we went on a cruise and I threw caution to the wind. When we came back I was up 5 lbs. Two days later it was gone plus one more. there was just so much salt in the food, it was all water weight. Point is, I have learned great portion control with this site, and I never have to feel as deprived as I did during my VLCD days:)

Being 5 ft 9 there is no way I would be happy living on that amount of calories a day, and that's it!!!

I love my food way too much. I eat what I want, then burn it off at the gym!

I would probably end up binging where I am sooooo hungry!! Yikes!

My calorie allowance was 1200 from October to mid March and I've recently upped it to 1350. At first it was difficult, but you get used to it. On exercise days I eat more, so my average is probably 1400-1500, but net calories is lower.

I was going over the T25 diet (and I know people will have something to say about this), if you're a sedentary female (NOT active) and weigh under 130 lbs., it recommends a 1,200 calorie diet: 3 meals of 300 calories each and 2 snacks of 150 calories.

I can't say anything positive or negative cause I haven't tried it yet, but obviously the quality and combination of those calories is important.

I was at 1200 for a long time here and struggled with it. I *can* do it; I just don't enjoy it.

Since I re-started MFP in January, I've done a lot of experimenting with macros and have also changed up exercise (tried different types and amounts of resistance-based training). I really haven't lost much. Down 6 lbs since early Jan but 4 of those were in the first few weeks. I do find it tough to stick to 1350 and 1200 is crap. I do eat back a good 75% of my exercise calories when my goal is set in that range. I don't have much to lose at this point (3-7 lbs, somewhere in there, left to goal) so to some extent I'm just playing around, trying to hit the right balance of fueling my body and my workouts (lifting and training for my first 10K), not feeling hungry all the time, while actually losing a bit more weight. There have been a fair number of days I end up eating closer to maintenance but for now I'm OK with that since I'm focusing more on fitness/training and really want to make sure I preserve LBM as mine is on the low side to begin with.

I was going over the T25 diet (and I know people will have something to say about this), if you're a sedentary female (NOT active) and weigh under 130 lbs., it recommends a 1,200 calorie diet: 3 meals of 300 calories each and 2 snacks of 150 calories.

I'm a sedentary woman under 130 lbs and that's typically what I do on the days I'm not working out. Those who think you can't sustain a 1200 calorie diet are either larger, more active, or not eating the right things.

I eat more than 1350 by noon--there is no way I could live on that few calories for an entire day.

^^ This.
I net 1500 and eat a total of 2200 - 2600 a day to lose.
And 80% is nutritious, healthy food, not junk.

Just looking at my reports for the last week, and I wanted to weigh in on the "gross vs net" thing again, cos I still feel like it's getting confused.

My NET goal is 1360. I have been averaging that easily over the last week or so. However, my GROSS calories varied between 1502 and 2475 (varying with A: exercise and B: greed).

So when I say "my net goal is 1360" and you say "I can't eat less than 1500" - we're not disagreeing, we're agreeing. Like I said, on no-exercise days, I always go over, because yes, for me, 1360 GROSS is way too little.

I just think there's a lot of cross-purposes talk on these sorts of threads.

If you like to keep a steady calorie level and not eat back your exercise, great, seems to be a common approach that works for a lot of people, BUT it's worth remembering that that's not the way mfp works by default.

New users especially will be likely to stick to the default method, which is to follow the net goal and eat back 100% exercise calories. The way mfp works, the net goal will be low, and the exercise calories will be high. The combined upshot is that their gross calories are probably pretty close to what everyone's recommending, but because everyone goes on about "1200 is too low!" without clarifying whether they mean net or gross, people get confused and worried unnecessarily.

You can definitely stick to it, but you should allow yourself to eat back at least half of the calories lost from exercising if you're hungry. Right now I'm on a 1200 calorie net diet and jesus I feel so healthy. I feel full too, because I eat LOTS AND LOTS of fruits and vegetables, salats with cottage cheese, eggs, no bread and pasta after 12pm.
The 1200 calorie diet forces you to look for foods that keep you full with low calories - which is amazing.
I have never felt healthier before and I can run faster than ever. I am never stuffed full and I never feel tired after eating anymore. I feel great. You can add me if you want to.