Minimum of 1200

I work out 5 times a week and usually keep it around 1200 calories, with the exception of one cheat day a week. I am losing about 0.5 pounds a week but I need to eat lean meat, keep the carbs/sugars/sodium down. Working out is a must. I am no dietitian but I'd say 1000 cals is pretty low even for a very petite woman ; you still need all your nutrients. I'd increase the intensity of your work outs before cutting on the cals, but again I may be wrong, I'm suggesting what's working for me.

I work out 5 times a week and usually keep it around 1200 calories, with the exception of one cheat day a week. I am losing about 0.5 pounds a week but I need to eat lean meat, keep the carbs/sugars/sodium down. Working out is a must. I am no dietitian but I'd say 1000 cals is pretty low even for a very petite woman ; you still need all your nutrients. I'd increase the intensity of your work outs before cutting on the cals, but again I may be wrong, I'm suggesting what's working for me.

Yes!! Agreed, you'd be better off getting your cal deficient from working out than cutting out foods.

I think UneJolieFemme said it best with " work out 5 times a week and usually keep it around 1200 calories, with the exception of one cheat day a week" ...your body is constantly working to achieve homeostasis (or balance) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_homeostasis). There is a body of literature (most recently popularized by Tim Ferris) that says this applies to metabolism as well. Eventually your body gets used to a calorie intake (I.E. 1200) and your metabolism "down regulates" to account for the low intake. However if you were to spike you intake once a week (say about 1800 calories in your case but I would say one day a week don't even count calories) your metabolism will follow suit and spike for the rest of the week. The result is you lose more fat at 1200 calories a day than you are now. I'm currently eat this way and it really does work. Over the past two months I've gotten down to my lowest body fat percentage eating about 1900 net calories a day (usually about 2500 real calories after working out) for most of the week and 3000-5000 calories on Saturday (I'm 192 lbs, about 11% body fat). If you want to read more check out Tim's blog http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/ .

I know many people will disagree but I don't eat my exercise calories. In the end, you should do what's right for you. If you feel you get better results eating a bit less than 1200 cal, and you are not hungry or tired, then that's what works for you. After all we are all different... so not the same thing works for everyone. I hope you get better soon :flowerforyou:

most of the time I have no issue eating 1200 cal but today was the first day that I had to make an effort to get close to it. I've eaten 1,086 cal today and my net cal is sitting at 967 and I am full. I've eaten 3 meals and a snack today. I purposely ate an egg and bacon after work and still I need more. I went over my fat by 1 gram and over my protein by 10 everything else I am tracking, I'm under and except for calories and fiber its a good thing.

Do you use a gym? May be worth it to talk to a personal trainer that can give you strength training exercises designed for a six pack. Also be aware that six packs take a lot of maintenance. I went on a trip in college with a bunch of friends. At the start one guy had a six pack he had been working on with his trainer for a month. Having fun on the trip and not maintaining his exercises and eating habits and the is pack was almost non existent by the end of the trip.