Does everyone get 1200 calories????

How do you determine what works best for you? how did you decide on 1480?
i am wondering what my proper number should be. i am 155 lbs 5'4 wanting to drop to like 125

1480 was my BMR... which is the minimal amount of calories needed to survive if I were in a coma... or sleeping all day... its your survival calories.... you can go to tools and click on the BMR and then figure out yours. and adjust it up to your BMR levels... this is still below your maintenece... and any deficit below your maintenece will make you lose wieght...

Thanks, i changed mine to 1430..

Great info everyone - thanks for all the replies and helpful tips. I didn't realize you could manually input your calorie consumption. Someone tell me how to do that?
For now I am going to leave it at 1200 because I have been able to achieve it or get very very close. I did set my weight loss to be 2 lbs per week and eat all my exercise calories so as long as I meet or just go slightly over 1200 I should be able to reach my goal of being in ONE-der-land in 10 weeks! Yes yes I know that's 3 lbs a week but with a BMI as high as mine, I am told by my Dr. that it is still in a healthy range.

go to GOALS, CHANGE GOALS... MANUALLY ENTER... then change your net calories consumed. then click save!

My BMR is 1270 calories and my maintanence is 1590. Which means 1200 is only a 390 calorie deficit, so I don't always eat back all my excercise calories. As I understand it both calorie totals drop as I lose weight, so this also means when I decide to switch from "lose 1 lb a week" to "maintain my weight" I won't get to eat much more :frown: Guess I can't just stop execising and coast for the rest of my life. :ohwell:

I manually set mine to 1300, which i lowered from 1400 for the month of march. (trying to meet a goal) . I am 52, and burn less calories than a 25 year old overall.

I could NEVER stick to 1200. To be honest, 1300 is next to impossible unless i exercise daily. I have been losing 1 - 1.5 lbs a week.

I think a lot of people try to lose as much as possible as quickly as possible, and set their calories as low as MFP will allow them. For me, this doesn't work, simply because I can't stick to it.

One of the hardest things for me to is to use others as inspiration, not as competition. I drive myself crazy seeing people getting in 2 workouts a day, an hour each time, and losing 4 lbs a week. I just can't do that - i have a business and kids and ailing inlaws.

Do what feels the most comfortable for you. The only thing that will work is whatever you can stick with.

Like a lot of things in life you have to worry about what you are doing, and let other people do their thing. Yes. it's a good idea to take suggestions from other people that have been successful at this. But after the trial and error you have to do what works for you. And what works for you for a little while may stop working. It's a fluid situation.

1200 calories is essentially the min MFP sets. If you're setting yourself up for a 1000 daily deficit, and your maintanence is less than 2200, you're going to get 1200 calories. It's all in a mathimatical equation. 1200 calories comes up a lot based on the formula.

Me? Right now I'm set to 2350 and have been debating on weather that's enough. I seem to be awfully hungry on non-workout days.

I changed mine to 1300

After reading this thread I went onto my Goals and asked MFP to recalculate my calories, based on a 1lb a week loss (recommended)

I am currently on 1200 (which I struggle to stick to without exercising for extra calories).

With the "new" calculation - guess what?


1210!!!!!!! Whoop whoop a whole extra 10 calories per day.


Bahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

LOL, ten calories! You're in the money!

You must be really close to your goal, though, if 1210 is a 500-calorie per day deficit for you. When I get to maintenance, my maintenance calories will be 1700 calories per day, which would put my 1 lb per week weight loss calories (500 cal per day deficit) at 1200.