Might have to stay at or close to that 1200, unless you're pretty active and or taller/bigger, in which case you could have a couple hundred more per day. Usually for active people there's more leeway than that, but for menopause and post-menopause, it seems that one has to automatically deduct 200 calories a day beyond what would have been fine for a deficit pre-menopause. This is what makes it hard, along with the fact that many women become carb-sensitive to one degree or another. This is also why the advice that younger people give one that it's simply calories in, calories out isn't the whole story, although how much one is eating definitely does come into it. It's also WHAT one is eating! At menopause and after, there's really not much room for junk because one's nutritional needs might increase, but one's caloric needs decrease with each decade. Some women only have to fine-tune carb intake to less-processed ones in general, others really do have to give up starchy carb intake altogether, including perfectly healthy whole-grain foods. Unfortunately one can't know until one tries different things. Everybody's system is different anyway - best of luck!

I am new here but I stay between 1200 and 1300.

Has anyone here tried Estroven -- the weight management version?