Who has been able to lose with 1200 calorie diet?

sorry if I'm being rude but I am so tired of the whole 1200 calorie argument. eat what you think is right for your body. if 1200 is too low., raise it 100-200 more calories. there must be 30 threads a week on the 1200 calorie question. but to answer your question, yes, I did! I'm 59 years old and 5'2 so 1200 works just fine for me. best of luck to you

sorry if I'm being rude but I am so tired of the whole 1200 calorie argument. eat what you think is right for your body. if 1200 is too low., raise it 100-200 more calories. there must be 30 threads a week on the 1200 calorie question. but to answer your question, yes, I did! I'm 59 years old and 5'2 so 1200 works just fine for me. best of luck to you

And that's great. At your age and size, 1200 is fine.

The debate comes up when you have 18yr old women, or young men that have BMRs between 1800-2200 that are saying "I'm doing 1200 calories, it works, but I'm so tired". Forget the "starvation mode" myth....or whatever...1200 calories is too little for people who get too aggressive with their weight loss goals and in turn sacrifice nutrition, and (especially for males) muscle mass.

Look at the first post, it's a 34 yr old male, 1200 is far to little for a male to be eating unless they're 3ft tall.

I've lost around 20 pounds so far, keeping up with a 1200 calorie diet (I've cheated a few days, but I digress). I think the most important factor in this is staying true to the percentage values of Carbs, Fat, Protein for the day - whenever I'd eat more of one then I was supposed to, I normally saw a shift in the scale. I started on 1200 in mid January, and then started exercising along with the calorie intake when I hit a plateau in May. I've been steadily losing every week since. Maintaining has been relatively easy.

If you get very tired or hungry, I'd suggest upping your count!

I've lost 17 pounds on a 1600 calorie diet..... id probably hate my life on 1200.

I have lost about 70 lbs. in 12 months, as I lost, the calorie limit dropped till it hit 1200 calories and has stayed there. I also eat low carb, but only every other day. The high/low carb keeps my body guessing & helps me to continue to lose weight. I do ride my bike 30 minutes 6 days a week, walk my dog 60 minutes 6 days a week & strength train 2-3 days a week, but unfortunatly I have noticed that the more I lose, the slower it drops. I need ideas to power through the dreaded plateaus I am just now hitting.

You eat in total about 1200 calories while doing all that exercise?

Wow, that is perfect example of the body forcing slower weight loss on you because of your choices, rather than purposely making wise decisions to lose slowly and make it sustainable to goal weight.
Hope you don't have far to go, because that will make for an interesting maintenance level requiring that or more exercise to keep losing.

Think this is starting to happen?
http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/truth-about-metabolic-damage

sorry if I'm being rude but I am so tired of the whole 1200 calorie argument. eat what you think is right for your body. if 1200 is too low., raise it 100-200 more calories. there must be 30 threads a week on the 1200 calorie question. but to answer your question, yes, I did! I'm 59 years old and 5'2 so 1200 works just fine for me. best of luck to you

And that's great. At your age and size, 1200 is fine.

The debate comes up when you have 18yr old women, or young men that have BMRs between 1800-2200 that are saying "I'm doing 1200 calories, it works, but I'm so tired". Forget the "starvation mode" myth....or whatever...1200 calories is too little for people who get too aggressive with their weight loss goals and in turn sacrifice nutrition, and (especially for males) muscle mass.

Look at the first post, it's a 34 yr old male, 1200 is far to little for a male to be eating unless they're 3ft tall.

of course it is too little for a 34 year old male. every body/person is different. MFP is not an individual's nutritionist/physician guide it is a generic weight loss/fitness site. sometimes we have to use a little common sense and not rely on a website/application to determine what works for us

So then you understand the argument and see why many of us tire of explaining why such a calorie restriction isn't for everyone, when really for many on this site it is an extreme and no sustainable?

Well this was my first week doing 1,200 calories, +/- some. I'm using my FitBit to see how many calories I'm burning daily. Before this I was doing 1,500 a day and most of the cals I got from my Fitbit adjustment and for a solid 3 weeks I lost next to nothing. Now when changed to this amount the weight is FLYING off!

I find that intermittent fasting is super helpful. On weekdays I do 10PM - 3PM. Like everything else it's not going to work for everyone. But I really like the fact that I can have a few snacks, a large dinner and desert without having to worry about going over b/c I 'saved' them during the day.

My best advice for you is to listen to your body. If your cranky, exhausted, whatever, then bump it up to 1,300 and see how you do. I agree with the poster above; you have to figure out what works for your body because everyone's different. It might take awhile until you find your 'sweet spot' but Rome wasn't built in a day!

Good luck! :flowerforyou:

Thanks for the response, I'll check it out. I do have to say that at 60 yrs. old, I have more energy now than I have had for years.

You look fabulous I know people in my age group (mid 40s) who look older than you!

On topic:
As others have mentioned, calories:exercise is intensely personalized and depends on you-your genetics, your environment, your behaviors, how your body responds. That said, there is value in learning from others and I'd rather others learn more quickly than I did, soooo:

SW 228 GW 128

I've yo-yoed a couple times. Previously I've used the Tap and Track app. only switched to MFP this month, as the food logging is much easier and uses bar code tech. Also, I am enjoying the community...anyway, I learned during my last two bouts of weight loss that 1200 works well for me, when I need to lose 60 lbs +. Once I got within 30-40 lbs of my goal weight I plateaued. Without the exercising, the weight loss started fast, 3-4 lbs per week, then slowed over time to a few ounces a week the closer to the 50 lbs loss mark I got.

What I learned was I needed to add a couple hundred calories a day at that point, or add one cheat day or meal (depending upon how I felt) a week, and exercise, 3-5 days a week of cardio/strength mix.

This time I am taking what I learned, and doing the following: I did approx. 1000 cals per day for the first 6 weeks with no exercising to jump start the weight loss. After losing about 25 lbs, I began to plateau. I increased to1200 cals per day, and added one hour of exercise 3-5 days per week, and as my endurance increased I am now at one hour of cardio/strength a day. I have about 75 lbs to lose at this point. (Please remember to take into account I had 100 lbs to lose. That is why I felt safe drastically cutting my caloric intake in the beginning for a short period of time.)

I expect, once I lose another 20-25 lbs, I will have to increase my caloric intake again to closer to my maintenance diet in order to keep losing. I will also have to make certain I switch up my exercise routine every ten days or so, to keep challenging different muscle groups, and make certain I am exercising at the correct intensity. But I will wait until the next plateau to make that decision.

I've been on 1200 then 1300 for three months. I've lost 27 pounds. I eat back half my exercise calories. If the loss plateaus it is always because I've eaten badly for a few days or I've not drunk enough water and have been storing water weight. If my weight goes up at all I remind myself to be stricter on the calories and drink lots of water and it starts dropping off again.

I lost my first 5 lbs on 1200 calories. I was always hungry. I've moved my calories up and am losing at a slower pace but a manageable pace for me.

I lost 4Kg. started 30 Dec and today 26 Apr, nearly 5 months, I lost 4KG so yeah, I am so excited, it works.

I do 1200, BUT, I do average that throughout the week. Soooooo, some days it might be 15-1500 others it may be 800. This helps with my rotating work schedule and family dinners. It's working for me so far, down 6 lbs. in 10 days (I've been doing it for about a month but only tracking for 10 days). You need to figure out what works best for your lifestyle and schedule.

About to get crucified here, but I'm a guy doing 1200 calories.

>your body can't function on that
>you can't sustain that

I started on Christmas day at 321 and about 44% bodyfat, I'm down 70 lbs down in 4 months, feel great, plenty of energy, walked/jogged 5 miles yesterday. Obviously I can't do 1200 forever, so probably another month of this then I'm going to start upping the calories a little.

What happens when you start to eat a more reasonable amount and the scale jumps up? Will you go back to 1200 or persevere?

I am at 1200 calories, I have lost 52lbs in the last 3 months since I had my daughter! Most of that was with dieting alone and now I am on the "21 day fix" program and I am still seeing great results. I was stuck up in the 200lb range for YEARS..I would say since after I had my son 7 years ago. I struggled to lose and never got below 185 no matter how hard I tried..Today I am 155lbs and only 25lbs away from my high school weight and ultimate goal!!

I tried to do the 1200 for the first four weeks and in the first two weeks I dropped 8 pounds. In the third week I dropped 1. In the fourth week I actually gained back two. And I was cranky and miserable and hungry. I know it works for some people but for me personally 1200 was too low. I calculated my BMR and my TDEE and using those two numbers I set myself at 1650. I usually don't get that high, though. I tend to stick around 1500. I've been doing that for about five days and I am hoping it helps (haven't weighed in yet). I definitely feel less cranky though, haha

I'm doing the same thing!
It has been just 8 days for me. I have still lost 1kg in the past week! but feel like I'm stuffing food in to even make 1500 lol (big mistake not eating til midday!) It's certainly a lot better than being hungry, though.