The most common mistake women make!

Well said and thanks for the information. I am not offended at all it's good information.

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VERY well said, though I have to disagree. It is not the most common mistake "women" make, but is it the most common mistake "PEOPLE" make.

Unfortunately, it is women that seem to make a bigger deal AND marketing ads out there seem to gear to a higher percentage of a female audience. That women "should" be a certain way. SO not true.

I am probably in the 10% of women not offended, but at least state the facts correctly.

I find this topic very interesting .. just marking it for later reading.

Why is it such a problem that this post was written by a man? I was thinking the exact same thing -- would you have been as offended if I had written the post as a woman? It's true. When men want to lose weight, many of them want to build muscle, so they go that route, where women just want to lose weight, period. Of course it's not true for ALL men and ALL women, but it is a noticeable trend. I notice a lot more of my female MFP friends working out too hard and not eating enough, where most of my male MFP friends are more balanced about it. It's not because they're smarter or anything, it's just because we have different viewpoints -- men want to be beefy and strong, where women want to look like slender supermodels without bulking up. So the men do strength training and eat more, and the women do cardio all day and eat less. It's pretty common around here.

Lay off the guy. He's not wrong.

Perfectly explained why he addressed the post to women and not men. It's true. Many, many more women have eating disorders than man. Society is far more cruel to fat women than fat men. Probably a good 50-60% of my female friends have a 1200 calorie goal here on MFP. He is absolutely correct and so are you to point that out.

Everyone that was so worked up its really not a big deal.if you find it offensive click the back button its pretty easy.
And really they are just words , words only have the power we give them.
:flowerforyou:

Amen

My only criticism would be that you suggest that we 'choose' 1200 calories as a goal when in fact for the most part MFP has made that decision.

You do "choose" 1200 calories. It's all in how much weight you "choose" to lose per week. Of course, I fell for the same thing. Who wouldn't want to lose 2 lbs a week? When I put in 2 lbs a week, it automatically gave me 1200 calories. Yikes! I wanted to lose weight, but I DO like to eat and 1200 calories wasn't going to cut it for this girl. I actually turned away the 1400 calorie setting, too, and settled on a much more reasonable 1660 to start. I wanted to be successful at this, not miserable. I know there are plenty of women who set their daily calorie goal for 1200, exercise and burn 300-600 calories or more, then end up consuming 1400-1700 calories if they eat back even some of their exercise calories. I'd be willing to bet those are the women who are more successful at weight loss than the ladies who barely consume 1000 or 1200 net calories every night, and those are the people Dan was addressing, I'm guessing.

i totally agree.

other women are always telling me to eat less calories because they think 1500 calories is WAY too much to be eating in order to lose weight. i used 1200 as my goal once, and i lost a lot of weight, but it messed my body up really badly and i gained it all back plus more. when i tell other girls that i eat 6 times a day, they're like "REALLY?? and you're actually LOSING weight??" the guys get it for some reason. my dad and some guy friends are like, "don't starve yourself! you'll lose muscle!!"

some people (not always women) just can't get it into their heads that eating less calories won't help you lose weight. sometimes i'm guilty of it too, sometimes the days before weight in's, but i try really hard not to do it very often.

anyway, i don't think that this post was sexist or offending anyone. these message boards are just about people talking and expressing their opinion. if you don't like a post, just move on. don't take it personal

Great post! Thanks for the info. and this is my problem, but I'm not hungry all the time I have been under 1200 Calories and 120 Carbs a day. However, I have not lost a pound. I work out at least 3x a week and do Zumba at least 2x a week. WTH very upsetting, my goal is to lose 20 lbs and I want to do it slow but I am getting discouraged without seeing any results!!! And yes I am a FEMALE, but your info was helpful. Danyelle

I'm sticking with the such loved 1200 mark. It puts me at 500 calorie deficit. I try to workout nearly every day and am getting increasingly toned. I always get right up to the 1200 mark and always eat back All my exercise calories easily, no matter if they are 200/300 or 800/900. I try to eat constantly throughout the day to keep my metabolism up. Getting a steady zig zag down is my next goal. And I do find it hard to take a post too seriously when it starts out with such a wide-sweeping title.

Sweet! Loved the analogy! Thanks!

Ignore the crazies on here. They probably have nothing better to do than to count wrongs and breed animosity! I'm a chick and took your advice as it was meant, for ANYONE it is applicable to. The "mistake women make" was enough to get my attention. I would have probably ignored it otherwise.

So again, thanks!