1200 Calories a day. Good or Bad?

bumpo!!!!

MFP set my cals at 1250. Your net intake should be at least 1200, if its under that is when your body goes into starvation mode. You can go over 1200 but dont go over what MFP set as your goal or you will gain weight. Also eat back your exercise calories or you will get stuck. I wasnt eating them back and when I started doing that I lost 2 pound in a week.

Depends on your body size and how much working out your doing, basically your activity level.. You definetly don't want to be in the starvation mode on a regular basis. As a Paramedic/RN it was always said that no one should really be under 1400 calories a day. But MFP had me beginning at 1220 and I changed mine, cause I knew it was to low for me....

I've been told that while losing weight its ok for me to have net calories at 1200, but that once I'm at goal, in order to maintain, I'm probably going to be around 1500.

I would not go below 1200....thats the absolute minimum I've gotten from my Dr. and many other resources.

I think you need 1400 calories/day to stay at max BMR. I am doing this MFP with 2 other women in my office, and we have all adjusted our calories to 1400 (per MD's orders!) because 1200 is really too low to consistently maintain. If we exercise, we ADD that to the calories per day, to end at zero. Good luck!

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Eat your NET. MFP calculates a deficit for you.
If you are eating below your NET you could be creating a deficit too large to do you any good.

RatBoyGL broke it down nicely here :
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196238-frustrated-consuming-all-of-my-calories-too-many?page=2#posts-2598718

here is what he said:

I will use my numbers for an example of how this works.

My BMR (Daily Burn Rate at REST) is roughly 1900. If you click on Tools at the top of this site, there is a BMR calculator there. These are the amount of cals I will burn in a day if I do NOTHING, as in, sit in a chair. My brain burns this running my body, keeping my heart and lungs going, etc.

My MFP Daily Set Goal the Site gives me is 1400.

The 500 calorie deficit is how I lose weight.

So, now, lets work out! I used an elliptical today and burned 450 calories.

1900 BMR + 450 Elliptical = 2350 calories I burned today.

So MFP sets my daily goal at the BMR - 500 + Work Out

So my daily goal would be 1850 Calories, still 500 below my burn rate for that day.

That is how it works. This site strives to keep you at the same deficit no matter how much exercise you get.

Now, the question is, what happens if you eat less than the site tells you? You will hear terms like starvation mode, losing weight took quickly causing loose skin, etc. They are all valid concerns but it is not an exact hard science.

As long as you are eating more than 1200 calories a day, starvation mode is highly unlikely.

One suggestion would be to not enter in calories burned for daily things like making the bed. I basically put anything I eat in the site, and then my actual exercise in the site. But I don't try to put every little thing I do in to get max calories.

Maybe I could be doing better if I did, but I really don't think so. Putting that stuff in would just make my daily goal higher, and I think I am eating plenty.



Again not mine but I think it explains it better then I ever could!

Okay....just so I'm understanding....My goal is 1620. I've burned 720. Even though I've eaten 2165, my net is 1445, and telling me I have 175 calories left to eat. So should I eat those calories? Or should I try to make the net lower by burning more throughout the day?

It might be different b/c you want to lose more, but for me, I don't eat my exercise cals back UNLESS I'm hungry and even then I only eat as little as possible or half. I also leave it low, incase I'm off in counting. Also I have one day week, whatever day I want where I don't count cals. Sometimes I binge and sometimes I do great. Try searching for friends who have started out at your weight and have accomplished their goals, and follow them.

btw eating 1200 for me, I don't get hungry as long as I eat small things often, only whole grains, no salt, 70 oz of h20, LOTS of protein. Keep up the good work! Do you wear HRM, it's better so you know exactly how much you've burned, I think MFP lies.

It's been crazy, because even though I've been doing this for only 2 days, and I'm eating good for breakfast and lunch, I feel like by dinner I still have SO many calories left. And by exercising, I'm just adding to those calories. Like tonight, I had a big dinner and ate things I shouldn't have eaten, and I still have some left, so I'm confused. I guess I'll just continue to exercise and eat only the 1600 and see where that gets me.

Thanks for that link. It does explain a lot. I know when I was doing Weight Watchers, they always let you have extra points for the day when you exercised, but they never made it a big deal if you actually added them in or not.

Also I TRY TRY TRY to only whole fresh foods, (not on cheat day of course), nothing processed, nothing in a box. Only the first two tiers. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Thanks for that link. It does explain a lot. I know when I was doing Weight Watchers, they always let you have extra points for the day when you exercised, but they never made it a big deal if you actually added them in or not.

I haven't done WW but I think the biggest difference between MFP and anywhere else is that when you set your goals here MFP automatically creates a deficit so if you logged food and never exercised you would still lose weight because that deficit is there. Once you add exercise you are increasing that deficit, if it is too much of one then you can run into issues with starvation mode and such but it sounds like you are doing well with your intake.

If i get to a point where I stop losing or a plateau I will try upping my calories, but it seems scary bc I don't want to gain weight.

This post might help then: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/202205-undereating