1200 Calories

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i'm 5'3 and weigh about 132, but was 126 this summer (work/family issues brought the weight back on).

1200 is do-able if you eat at home every meal, but if you try to eat out, this will go out the window. need to add exercise or watch your macros. more protein in the diet does help keep appetite down.

hngui wrote: »

When did everyone start seeing results? I know I need to be patient but I've been doing ~1200cal for about 3 weeks and haven't seen anything. I've been working out and eating half my calories back. Wondering if I should start considering changing something. (i'm 5'2" 24yo female)

Advice: Stop eating your calories back! The Purpose of counting them is to limit them. If you eat them back are you really eating 1200 calories as prescribe? Eating them back just undoes your accomplishment regardless of what MFP says about eating them back. Make sense to you? Eating calories back occasionally for some decadent desert or other food or beverage is cool and human, but fitness goals require discipline. That's my 2 cents.

TwizzlerGirl13 wrote: »

hngui wrote: »

When did everyone start seeing results? I know I need to be patient but I've been doing ~1200cal for about 3 weeks and haven't seen anything. I've been working out and eating half my calories back. Wondering if I should start considering changing something. (i'm 5'2" 24yo female)

Advice: Stop eating your calories back! The Purpose of counting them is to limit them. If you eat them back are you really eating 1200 calories as prescribe? Eating them back just undoes your accomplishment regardless of what MFP says about eating them back. Make sense to you? Eating calories back occasionally for some decadent desert or other food or beverage is cool and human, but fitness goals require discipline. That's my 2 cents.

I've read a bunch of posts on MFP about eating back calories from exercise and the consensus I see is to eat back half of the calories burned. So I still net about 1100-1200 calories a day. I'm not sure where from my post I said I was eating back calories for dessert or drinks?

TwizzlerGirl13 wrote: »

hngui wrote: »

When did everyone start seeing results? I know I need to be patient but I've been doing ~1200cal for about 3 weeks and haven't seen anything. I've been working out and eating half my calories back. Wondering if I should start considering changing something. (i'm 5'2" 24yo female)

Advice: Stop eating your calories back! The Purpose of counting them is to limit them. If you eat them back are you really eating 1200 calories as prescribe? Eating them back just undoes your accomplishment regardless of what MFP says about eating them back. Make sense to you? Eating calories back occasionally for some decadent desert or other food or beverage is cool and human, but fitness goals require discipline. That's my 2 cents.

Wrong.
You eat 1200 calories. You burn 400 in exercise, this means you have a net of 800. There is no way your body can sustain on that.
I have eaten back 1/2 my exercise calories and I have lost 34lb

TwizzlerGirl13 wrote: »

hngui wrote: »

When did everyone start seeing results? I know I need to be patient but I've been doing ~1200cal for about 3 weeks and haven't seen anything. I've been working out and eating half my calories back. Wondering if I should start considering changing something. (i'm 5'2" 24yo female)

Advice: Stop eating your calories back! The Purpose of counting them is to limit them. If you eat them back are you really eating 1200 calories as prescribe? Eating them back just undoes your accomplishment regardless of what MFP says about eating them back. Make sense to you? Eating calories back occasionally for some decadent desert or other food or beverage is cool and human, but fitness goals require discipline. That's my 2 cents.

That's not how it works. If you eat 1200 calories, and burn 200 from exercise, then you're down to 1000 calories. If you eat back the 200, you're back to 1200. 1200 calories is already more than enough for a deficit so anything beyond that is extra - even excessive and unsustainable (at least without the supervision of a doctor under specific conditions). I'm 5'3", less than 100lbs, fairly sedentary and 1200 is not even enough for me maintain to my weight.

Now, MFP is known for overestimating calories burned so that's why people suggest only eating back half to be safe. But there's no reason not to eat any of them back.

I did it for a few weeks, and I just did as much cardio as I could so that I could eat more. Since then I've found that I'm actually losing more weight, more regularly, eating 1350 to 1450 instead.

eating 1200 calories is dangerous. MFP calculations are quite off. Many people can't live below their BMR. You're starving your organs, your brain!
Here’s how it goes: your body needs a certain amount of calories to work. This is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate. This differs from person to person based on how active you are. A person who has a desk job will have a lower metabolic rate than, say, someone who works in a machine shop and is constantly moving. Generally speaking, you need between 1600-2200 calories a day, unless you’re an athlete, in which case, you are undergoing training and know all this stuff already.
BMR is the calorie used by one’s body even if they lay in bed all day long. It’s the calories needed to be alive (breathing, heart beat, digestion etc..). Since most people don’t do nothing all day long, their body uses more calories. To know that amount, you have to multiply your BMR by a coefficient depending on your activity level.
You should never go under your BMR because it basically means your body don’t have enough calories to function normally so your metabolism slows down and you get energy from your muscle instead of fat (fat main usage is protection. when starving, it gets used after muscle).


Anyway, your body needs these calories to work. If it doesn’t get them, you’ll feel tired. If you get too much of them, they’ll be stored as fat. Quite a dilemma isn’t it? When you eat foot, your stomach digests it’s components. However, different components are digested at different rates. Carbs are digested the fastest, while fat is digested the slowest. Now, while it’s being digested, blood is flowing in and out. The food that’s in your stomach is being deposited around your body. Since fat is stored the most in your stomach, it is the most that gets deposited around your body. There is another factor in the equation, and that is your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is how fast you burn calories. The faster your metabolic rate, the faster you burn calories, the less fat gets deposited in your body. Are you seeing a pattern here?

jakeysnakey83 wrote: »

Hi all -

I'm wondering if anyone is a) actually able to eat only 1200 calories a day, and b) if so, is it really successful? How have you done it?

I'm finding that I am pretty hungry with only 1200 calories; I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and I'm already over 1200.

I'm 5'3 and 135 lbs, wanting to lose about 15lbs. I'm starting to get a little demotivated and am looking to hear your success stories.

Thanks!
Jaclyn

Some days I find it hard to eat 1200 cal total!! I eat really healthy and make all my meals so its hard for me. Today I plan on eating 10 times and Im not even hitting 1200.

what you eat makes a big difference. For me, a breakfast of meat/eggs/veggies and a fiber one bar, and then a dinner of meat and veggies with a Skinny Cow ice cream cone for dessert usually comes to 1200, sometimes 1300 if I have a little snack. I dont feel starved, and I'm losing weight. But the key (for me anyway) is lots of protein, fiber, and good fat. On a carb heavy 1200 cal diet I would lose my mind.

fatcity66 wrote: »

TheCherryMama wrote: »

eating 1200 calories is dangerous. MFP calculations are quite off. Many people can't live below their BMR. You're starving your organs, your brain!
Here’s how it goes: your body needs a certain amount of calories to work. This is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate. This differs from person to person based on how active you are. A person who has a desk job will have a lower metabolic rate than, say, someone who works in a machine shop and is constantly moving. Generally speaking, you need between 1600-2200 calories a day, unless you’re an athlete, in which case, you are undergoing training and know all this stuff already.
BMR is the calorie used by one’s body even if they lay in bed all day long. It’s the calories needed to be alive (breathing, heart beat, digestion etc..). Since most people don’t do nothing all day long, their body uses more calories. To know that amount, you have to multiply your BMR by a coefficient depending on your activity level.
You should never go under your BMR because it basically means your body don’t have enough calories to function normally so your metabolism slows down and you get energy from your muscle instead of fat (fat main usage is protection. when starving, it gets used after muscle).


Anyway, your body needs these calories to work. If it doesn’t get them, you’ll feel tired. If you get too much of them, they’ll be stored as fat. Quite a dilemma isn’t it? When you eat foot, your stomach digests it’s components. However, different components are digested at different rates. Carbs are digested the fastest, while fat is digested the slowest. Now, while it’s being digested, blood is flowing in and out. The food that’s in your stomach is being deposited around your body. Since fat is stored the most in your stomach, it is the most that gets deposited around your body. There is another factor in the equation, and that is your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is how fast you burn calories. The faster your metabolic rate, the faster you burn calories, the less fat gets deposited in your body. Are you seeing a pattern here?

My BMR is 1700. I can certainly eat less than that to lose weight and not starve.

That's what our fat cells are for. What she said is right in theory - if you have very little fat left to be used for energy. I find most things related to diet, food, or health in general to be largely exaggerated. That "do this or you die" mentality disregards millions of years of evolution. We're not that fragile. We have amazing coping mechanisms for nearly any food situation.

Oh I missed your question. Yes, it has been very successful for me. I dropped thirty kilos on it in about seven months to start with. I put the weight back on, not because the diet isn't sustainable, but because I got into a job I hated and fell into old habits of rewarding myself with food.

Back on 1200 again (started 17 days ago) and I've already dropped 4.1kgs again.

I eat 1800 calories a day, and I've lost 45 pounds since February doing this. Your body needs energy to function, and 1200 calories a day is for a child. Not a grown woman. Please please please please please treat your body the way it deserves to be treated I always thought that I had to eat little to lose weight. Then after reading the above blog, and from someone who lost over 100 pounds, I took her advice and followed what she said and the weight has been coming off. It's been a slower process but that's because I am making lasting changes instead of starving my body (unintentionally) to lose a great amount of weight in less time.

And I'm hardly ever hungry. And I can eat out this way, because losing weight isn't a punishment. You're nourishing your body and giving what it needs to function fully.

// the end

When I started on this site in 2010/beginning of 2011, I was at your weight. I ate 1200 calories, had completed the C25K program, and fell head over heels into fitness. By summer of 2011 I was down to 125, and by the next year 120. It was the best shape I've ever been in. I eventually had to up my cals to 1300-1400 the closer I got to goal. But I did it, and like some said, it's what my body became used to eating after time. The more you work out, the more you get to eat!

Starting all over again now because of bad breakup & depression. Booo

I manage to stay at 1200 most days but not always. I'm not generally hungry at this. I am 3 inches shorter but I don't know how big a difference that makes. I find that if I plan and have lower calorie snacks I make it. I also exercise and eat back those calories on those days. I drink water during the day and often snack on veggies. I cut down on whatever condiments/sauces I have, I still have them just in smaller quantities. If I go over because i'm hungry I try to make better choices the next day. Also if you take in most of your calories from food and not drink then I find it make a difference. I have coffee with cream and sugar but I limit it to one usually, sometimes two in a day. Yesterday for example I was over by nearly 200 calories but most days I can stay on target. If I think I will be over I try to burn those calories off.