I'm only 5'0 and can only have 1200 calories. Any other short girls out there with the same goals?

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Move more, then you can eat more. My wife is 5'2" and loses on 1800ish just fine. Also, you probably got 1200 because you went with the most aggressive approach possible and you're not factoring in exercise...and you probably also put yourself as sedentary and you're probably not actually sedentary.

This.

Im 4ft 11in..1200-1600 for me I keep a range and alter it as I need ....feel free to add me.

5'4" been eating 1200 calories for the past 9+ months. You get used to it and it's enough. I am nearly 62 yrs old so not nearly as active as most of you - but the weight loss has been slow and steady until the last two months. I am within 3 lbs of the goal weight and it's not wanting to come off. But I will stick with the 1200 until I lose these last 3.
Hang in there!

So I'm almost 5foot. I eat 1500/day. Weight training is essential for those of us who are height challenged. It builds more muscle mass (not bulk) which in turn means you burn more calories/day. Use weights, heavy weights, and keep reps 8-12max each set. Complex exercises that use more than one muscle group at a time will burn more calories during your workout as well. Cardio is for fitness, weights give you a longer burn :-)

MFP alows me to eat 1200 calories too. But I walk and run every day so I eat around 1500

I am 5 feet, almost 50 years old and sedentary, so yes I need to average 1200-1300 to lose.
I think it is hard to do and so easy to go over - but I would love to get suggestions from all of you of what makes it work

Yep. 5'1" and losing verrrry sloowwwwly on 1290 calories here. I maintain at 1600 calories/day with my normal activity level, so 1290 is only about a 20% reduction or a little over a half-pound a week. Considering my goal is to lose 40lbs, if I used the recommended 1lb/week target, I'd have to set my daily calorie goal to 1100, which is just far too low.

It does get a bit frustrating when you can't eat most of what's on your plate because serving sizes are meant for people eating twice what you are. It also does get a little tiresome to hear so many people (usually taller, bigger men) deride us shorties for eating an appropriate amount for our weight, or telling us we must be overly aggressive in our goals (not true) or mistaken (also not true). And certainly, losing at that slower pace can be a bit frustrating, too, since the numbers on the scale move so slowly.

But it can be done.

5'3" 48 yrs old, still have 40+ lbs to lose. I've figured out that I can't net over 1350 to lose weight, so I have to exercise on a regular basis or be hungry all the time. Even at 1350 it's SLOWWWWWW and frustrating, but I can't go lower, leads to binging.

Isabelle_1929 wrote: »

I am 5'4, 123 pounds, after losing 7 pounds, I started gaining weight (at 1200).
So I reduced to 1100, and now I am maintaining.

I suppose I would have to go down to 1000 to lose weight, but this is very difficult. At 1200 I was not hungry. At 1100, I am often hungry, especially between meals or in the evening, but it's tolerable.

At 1000, I know I would be hungry most of the time, and that is not good.

But this struggle is everyone's, I suppose, not only the shorties !

At 5'4" and 123, you're right in the middle of a healthy BMI.

Of course, this varies person to person based on body fat percentage and bone structure. But in your case, you may want to be looking less towards losing more weight -- you're already basically at your goal weight, give or take -- and more towards body composition if you're still unhappy with how the weight is being carried on your frame. In other words, upping the strength training to gain lean muscle mass.

At some point, though, if you're cutting to something like 1100 calories before you lose weight, it's probably your body telling you that there's no more weight to lose.

segacs wrote: »

Isabelle_1929 wrote: »

I am 5'4, 123 pounds, after losing 7 pounds, I started gaining weight (at 1200).
So I reduced to 1100, and now I am maintaining.

I suppose I would have to go down to 1000 to lose weight, but this is very difficult. At 1200 I was not hungry. At 1100, I am often hungry, especially between meals or in the evening, but it's tolerable.

At 1000, I know I would be hungry most of the time, and that is not good.

But this struggle is everyone's, I suppose, not only the shorties !

At 5'4" and 123, you're right in the middle of a healthy BMI.

Of course, this varies person to person based on body fat percentage and bone structure. But in your case, you may want to be looking less towards losing more weight -- you're already basically at your goal weight, give or take -- and more towards body composition if you're still unhappy with how the weight is being carried on your frame. In other words, upping the strength training to gain lean muscle mass.

At some point, though, if you're cutting to something like 1100 calories before you lose weight, it's probably your body telling you that there's no more weight to lose.

I was 10 pounds lighter last year, and most of my adult life I was around 115. I would be surprised that all of the sudden, my body "decided" that I could no longer be that weight.
I gained weight because I ate too much (not because of hormones etc.)

As for muscle mass, my legs, buttocks and arms are already so big and muscular, NO WAY IN HELL I am to increase it. However I was thinking to try to increase the muscle mass of my abdominals, but if I exercise, I am afraid that 1200 cals daily will leave me starving.

Anyway, I am stuck here and don't know what to do. I suppose I will get used to eating 1100 cals, then I will start exercising my abs, and see what will happen then.

I'm 5'0" and 120 lbs. (30 years old). To lose .5 lbs/week, my goal is set at 1900 calories! I strength train 4-5 days each week for about 45 minutes per session.

OP - not sure what your current stats and goals are, but I agree with posters above that often people who are given the default 1200 cals/day by MFP have entered in too aggressive of a weight loss goal. I think people also often find that if they are being meticulous with their tracking (weighing and logging all foods and using reasonable activity levels and exercise counts) that they can consume considerably more than this.

I'm 5'2 and when I first started MFP gave me 1200 as well. I ate back my exercise calories and still exceeded my net goal fairly often. I started reading the forums and realized I needed more reasonable goals, upped myself first to 1400, then to 1500. I still kept losing at about a pound/week. I got a FitBit and used that to help track my activity and calorie burns, and after losing about 20 lbs I changed my goal to 1650 and was still losing about a half pound/week. I eat around 1900-2000 cals/day and maintain pretty easily now.