Folks who have lost 50+ pounds

I was eating 1200 calories for a few weeks and continued losing weight. My consumption was between 1200-1500 with only a few exceptions. My base level of exercise was 10,000 steps a day.

My weight loss seemed to come in steps. I would stay the same weight for a few days and then my weight would go down for a few days. The plateaus could be frustrating from time to time but would end if I stuck to the plan without wavering.

I have heard people that have had success with a bigger day of eating each week in an attempt to fool their metabolism into a higher gear.

"did eating at 1200 calories help me when i stalled?"

nope.

I've lost 50 pounds in the past year and am also looking at figuring out maintenance. However, after well over a year at 1200 cals plus up to 800 cals of exercise, I've found out that:

a) I *like* the exercise and won't be stopping anytime soon, and

b) I definitely prefer the smaller portion sizes.

What I'm doing is setting more fitness goals: a 5k race, a jeans size, etc. I'm now working towards THAT, now that I've attained the number on the scale that I've been chasing. However, so far I've kept to the 1200+exercise number on my MFP, and am simply not worried whenever I go over by a few hundred. I hope to use this to gain a useful baseline while I change my workouts to get going on these NEW goals.

Three weeks in my 145-150 pound range and counting...

Mark

I also increased my calories the further I got along. I actually started out at 1200 which I eventually realized was probably too low. After several months, I slowly started increasing my calories and still lost weight. The loss did slow down, but i did still lose and I was not in any hurry.

I've lost 65 pounds since September, going from 240 down to 175. My daily goal for the first couple of months was around 1800 or something like that. {I had lost 40 pounds before finding MFP} Now it's 1840, but I do 500 to 1000 calories worth of exercise most days, so it's rare for me to eat less than 2300 calories. I only stalled out once, and that was around Christmas. I work in the hospitality business and my customers always bring me food, so I think it was more about off the books snacking than anything else. I was late starting weight training, and had lost a lot of muscle along with all the fat. If I was you I would start doing strength training. It will turn fat to muscle faster than anything else. And it makes you feel so much better walking down the street.

It is time for me to start maintenance. I don't want to exercise less, so I will have to eat more calories. I had cut out almost all milk and bread, so that will be where I make my first increases.

I've lost nearly 100lbs and never needed to get down to 1200. The lowest I ever went was 1500 for the first 3-ish months that I used MFP. I've never stalled more than a couple of weeks and when I did stall is was because I was getting lazy with weighing my food and probably eating more than I thought.

No. I lost over 70 pounds and each time my weight loss started to drastically slow, I'd INCREASE my intake and the weight would start dropping again.

I really hope the same thing happens to me

That happened to me as well, my weight loss was slowing to .05 but I wanted 1 lb. so I went to 1500, still the same, then 1600, started losing more than I want, almost 3 lbs. one week, so still trying to figure out where to land but probably going to 1700 after the next weigh day, depends on the results. I do feel like I am still losing a little to fast, time will tell. You just have to work at it till you figure out the place you need to be, then don't worry, because it will change as you lose more weight.

Exercise was the only thing that helped. Diet is great, but after a while, you need the muscle gains to help with metabolism.

Instead of decreasing calories, try more low-intensity cardio in addition to whatever exercise you're doing, like walking/standing more. Worked for me when I took off my initial 50lbs.

Personally I find eating 1200 calories recently stupidly hard. When I first started in September last year I went by eating 500-700 calories a day, since February ive pretty much been hovering around 1000-1500 a day. I find that some foods just dont fill me anymore and the motivation went. However that being said recently I found exercise really helps, not only does it stop me from even wanting to eat food but it also allows me to eat more earlier in the day if I feel like it.

So far I've lost about 130 lbs, the best thing to do is the weight loss trifecta - calorie reduction, cardio and weight training. Muscle helps maintain a constant burn in the body and no as a woman you will not bulk up unless you are taking hormones and actively training to bulk. Make sure you aren't going too low in your calories or your body will go into survival mode and hold on to everything. Also watch how many calories you burn as that can throw you below your allotted amount. A slow loss of weight is much healthier than a rapid drops. Don't look at shows like the biggest loser for inspiration, they are destroying the bodies. It has taken me two years to lose this much and I still have another 100 to go. You WILL have plateaus and slow periods (I've had about 5, one of which lasted 5 months). Just keep at it, use the weight loss trifecta and you will lose weight.

I've lost 45.6 lbs altogether and 14.5 lbs since using this site. I eat 1200 calories daily. I switch up my workouts every day. No two days are the same in any given week.

Weight loss may not have slowed down. I think one of the things that can be over looked is % weight loss. When I weighed 297 a 2lb weight loss would have been .7% of my total weight. Now that I am 239 it would be .84%. Just something to keep in perspective.

I set a 1 year plan in place to lose 137 lbs. That is 2.62 lbs a week. At the start that was only .88%. If I could maintain that rate through to the end (doubt it) it would be 1.61% which is almost doubling my weight loss %. Just a little something to keep in mind

It really depends on your exercise. If you do not eat enough calories it can actually hinder your weight loss.