New here and constantly under calorie goal

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Michelle_stt
Michelle_stt Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Iv been losing weight since jan 2010 and currently to date have lost over 5stone.
Iv recently started using my fitness pal to help me lose the last stone.
It says I need to eat 1200 calories a day.
I do 3 jogs a day and lose roughly 500 calories. My net calories are usually between 800 and 900.
Do I have to eat the 1200 calories no matter what?

Replies

  • petithamu
    petithamu Posts: 582 Member
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    You'll get a lot of mixed comments about this...I really think it depends on you. Most people would say you need a minimum of 1200 daily to function but when you work out a lot, it's super difficult to eat all of it back. You can eat items with higher calorie count like olive oil and nuts and such but even for me, I don't use anything non-fat or low fat, on days where I burn 500kcal or more, I find it difficult to get over 1000kcal a day.

    I tend to mix it up in the week, so maybe 800 net on Monday and 1200 net on Tuesday and 900 net on Wed...you get the idea...

    So my own personal opinion is you don't HAVE to meet that 1200 net everyday...again, that's just what's worked for me...
  • Fattack
    Fattack Posts: 666 Member
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    You should try eating as close to 1200 net as possible, or you risk running too low a deficit, and stalling your metabolism which will make it harder for you to lose weight and maintain. If you were burning a very large amount of calories then I wouldn't worry too much about it (when I have high burn days I still find it hard to eat over 2k cals, and don't sweat about it). Just make sure that you're not eating less than 1200 calories a day at any point.
  • zenfocus
    zenfocus Posts: 106 Member
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    At the level of calories you're eating it's imperative that you eat all your calories every day. If you don't do this unfortunately your metabolism can actually slow down, so if you start eating more food than this (like maybe only 1400 calories a day) you will gain weight. BUT! Don't worry! This can only happen if you've eaten under 1200 calories for a very long time. If you've only done it short-term don't do it any more... no worries necessary. :) Nutritionists don't recommend anyone eat under 1200 calories a day at the least for this specific reason. Are you eating the calories you're exercising?
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
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    Firstly - congratulations on your progress so far.

    My advice would be to eat the calories- if only because when you loose that last stone you will want to go into maintenance mode which will involve increasing your base intake AND eating your exercise calories - and its really easy to move to filling those calories with junk if your not used to filling them with something healthy.

    Additionally, from a training perspective, if you want to improve your performance you will need the energy and the strength to do it - and that definitely means feeding your muscles properly.

    That said - in my opinion 1200 as a base is quite arbitrary - you need to find something which is right for you - so a couple of hundred either way is OK - just see what works for you. I would say though, if you hit a weight loss 'wall' you might benefit from increasing your intake: a lot of people have posted that this fixes the problem for them - especially as they approach target.
  • lcorteville
    lcorteville Posts: 2
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    I am supposed to eat 1200 calories a day also, and have yet to do that since I started my diet and it has not effected my weight loss yet. I still lose 2-3 pounds a week. I also don't worry about eating the calories I burn from exercise.


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  • fitnessjch
    fitnessjch Posts: 449 Member
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    I'd love to know what you guys eat under 1200 calories a day that gives you enough energy to then burn 500 of them! I struggle to be under 1200!
  • Michelle_stt
    Michelle_stt Posts: 2 Member
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    Im confused with all this!
    Take today for example. Iv just logged everything I will have and it says I will have had 1063. But as I have lost 107 calories briskly walking with the pram my net is 956.

    I usually do two 20min jogs a day so this would cause my net to go down by another 300 ish calories.

    So do I make sure my net calories is 1200?
  • zenfocus
    zenfocus Posts: 106 Member
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    It is debated but IMO it's important to eat most of the calories you're exercising off.
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
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    Im confused with all this!
    Take today for example. Iv just logged everything I will have and it says I will have had 1063. But as I have lost 107 calories briskly walking with the pram my net is 956.

    I usually do two 20min jogs a day so this would cause my net to go down by another 300 ish calories.

    So do I make sure my net calories is 1200?

    In theory - yes - BUT:

    ....actually so long as you average 1200 over a week you should be fine.
    ....if you are feeling healthy at slightly less I wouldn't worry about it.

    Think of it this way ..If you were doing, say, 2000 Cals of exercise (like a whole day gardening) and did this every day and only ate 1200 calories then you would get seriously ill / literally starve!
  • CassandraD82
    CassandraD82 Posts: 71 Member
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    From what I understand the advice is that you eat (in food!) at least 1200 calories per day, every day. Don't worry too much about your NET amount (the final quota of calories once exercise is taken into account).

    And I agree with the advice above that you should nourish your body if you are exercising like mad. You want to make sure that you have enough energy to build up some muscle from all that jogging! I know that at the moment you're seeing great weight loss but I've found that after a while it's important to also see some fitness improvement ... otherwise you might find yourself sluggish and unwilling to spend as much time working out.

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