700 caolries to 1200 calories?

You need to eat small amounts every 3 hours to keep your metabolism revved. Eating only twice a day makes your metabolism crash and your body goes into starvation mode which in turn causes your body to store calories as fat. Eat up, girl!

I feel the need to say that that is a myth.

Not a myth. DEFINITELY true.

Eating under calories and only two meals a day WILL cause your body to store calories as fat because it is afraid it will not get enough energy to make it through the day. Eating little snacks often will do you wonders. When fit people hit plateaus, it's often because they are not eating enough, not because they need to cut down more. There are tons of articles about this. http://www.beachbody.com/product/newsletters/nl_437.do

Anyway, I have NO idea how you could possibly have a hard time eating 1200 calories a day, because there is no way I could ever eat within 1200! I have a hard time with 1200 cals plus a 500-1000 exercise calorie count! Not the point -- regardless of whether you are going to hit your calorie count or not, eat MORE often than twice a day!! Spread out your calories or eat a banana or an apple between meals, that's an easy 100 calories each. Eat breakfast ALWAYS, and try to do it within 30 mins of waking up. Don't eat a second dinner, if you're going to cut any eating time, cut the food before bed. Don't get caught up on your calorie count - get caught up in eating little snacks more often - you will find the number of calories will come easily when you are eating 5+ times a day.

Why do you say that is a myth? I have read a lot on this subject and there is research and evidence supporting what I said.

. What is an issue of course is that your caloric needs decrease as your weight goes down. So, what was maintenance at 1200 Calories, like MFP advises them, may be too much to maintain if you have lost a lot of weight and have simply become smaller. It is true, that as you ingest fewer Calories, your metabolism may slow down. However, this is not enough to offset the reduction in caloric intake.

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35501

Also- NO ONE has 1200 calories for maintence - not without being 3 feet tall. There is NO REASON to ever go under 1200 calories. NONE. Stop telling people that this is OK

Could yo sneak a granola / protein bar in there some where? That would give you an extra 100 calories and another meal.

I second this. I make protein shakes and breakfast bars a snack. I find it keeps my levels more stable, and keeps me eating regularly (every 2-3 hrs).

DUDE she said she was eating 700 calories in a day. 700. Even you should be able to agree that is low enough to warrant bumping up caloric intake. WHY are you on all of these boards telling people who are basically starving themselves that they need to eat less? You are helping perpetuate a myth yourself- a myth that food is the enemy of weightloss.

PS- Nuts do have fats in them. ESSENTIAL fats. Things your body needs. There is nothing wrong with eating more of them especially if you are having trouble meeting your calorie goal.

Indeed.

First of all: most people underestimate the number of calories they are eating, and they may be off by 300 calories easily, unless they weigh all food they eat, over a given day.

And yes, I agree that she needs to eat more calories. I merely question whether "take another granola bar" is sensible advice as far as getting sufficient nutrition is concerned.

I'm not here to tell people who you think are starving themselves to eat less, but I do get irritated at the factoids thrown around here about "starvation mode" when that is largely a misconstruction of what the term means. Once again: MFP is a great tool but it's based on averages and those don't exist, in people, or anywhere. I would advise anyone who wants to lose serious weight to seek the help of a nutritionist, so that one can determine what is right in one's personal situation. It may really be true that light women, with less fat to lose do need to be at 1000 Calories/daily to maintain. If that is the case, then the task is to find out how to get adequate nutrition within that allowance, not advise people to eat more granola bars (or even nuts). I hope that makes my position a little clearer for you.

Actually muscle burns more calories so if she has a low body fat % most likely that "woman" would actually need more than a woman with a higher BF% to maintain, if they weighed the same. In order to only need 1000 to maintain a woman would probably be 4'5" and 75lbs. If you do eat too little food you will lose weight, but you will burn off more muscle than fat, which would further slow your metabolism down.

Not eating the calories MFP suggests is like going to WW and not bothering to count points, they are essential to the programs the way the are structured. If you don't agree with the program then maybe MFP is not the place for you, but I can assure you that it works for the majority of people.