Foodies on the 1200ish calorie restriction...

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  • Horsejumper1
    Horsejumper1 Posts: 25 Member
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    I'm ~1500 baseline, but I'm a food blogger so I come up with new meals all the time. My diary is open if you'd like to add :smile:
  • captjac97
    captjac97 Posts: 17 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Kruggeri wrote: »
    CountessKitteh wrote: »
    I try to stay at 1200 even when my Fitbit earns me extras. It's no small accomplishment!

    Everyone does realize that MFP is designed to calculate your calorie goal excluding exercise, and that any exercise that you do should be tracked and at least a percentage of calories eaten back in order to preserve lean muscle mass as well as other negative changes that can result from too large of a calorie deficit (hair loss, fatigue, etc). Not to mention that the additional calories help fuel the exercise, contribute to sustainability of the program, etc?

    When I first started I too was set at net 1200 calories and was losing, but was not satisfied. I read more about TDEE and reasonable calorie deficits, increased my goal to first net 1400 then net 1500 and continued to lose about 1 lb/week. Once I had only about 10 lbs to lose I changed my goal to close to net 1700 and continued to lose about 0.5 lb/ week. I got a FitBit about midway through my first year on MFP and ate back those adjustments and continued to lose - have now been successfully maintaining for the last 8 months or so using FitBit, eating back those calories, etc.

    quote]






    Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?
  • captjac97
    captjac97 Posts: 17 Member
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    Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    captjac97 wrote: »
    Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?

    I'm not sure how long it took me to figure out the magic numbers, I don't know that I still have the magic numbers to be honest. One thing I didn't do, which I'm not advocating, just being honest, is that I didn't weigh and measure my food when I logged. I didn't start it up front, and I was losing without it, so I never really started doing that. I know now from being on here for almost 2 years and seeing so many, "why am I not losing" threads, that this simple step is critical for many people to be successful.

    I do rely pretty heavily on my FitBit for estimating my daily calorie burns, which are pretty consistently around 2100 cals. A 10% deduction from that puts my calories at around 1900, which is almost exactly what MFP estimates my maintenance calories to be (without exercise). That seems pretty accurate, when I adhere to that I lose pretty predictably, so I have found FitBit to be pretty reliable for estimating my TDEE. I actually am planning to increase my calorie goal in the next few weeks, I had purposely kept it at a deficit for the holidays to keep things in check.

    The best way really is trial and error, and patience. Give the FitBit at least a few weeks to get used to it, watch your daily burns, see if they are consistent or if they fluctuate, and then consider if you need to adjust your goals accordingly.

    Good luck!

  • chocolatexxmintt
    chocolatexxmintt Posts: 85 Member
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    I'm at 1210 calories and workout almost every day lets be friends
  • Angel_Grove_
    Angel_Grove_ Posts: 205 Member
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    I'm not a foodie, but my husband is and he does most of the dinner cooking, so there's always something interesting going on in my diary. Cabbage Lasagna or Creme de Maripois soup, anyone?

    My net is 1200, but it's hard to hit that, especially since I haven't really had time to exercise (but we cleaned all the crap off the treadmill last night, so hopefully...)

    I will say, though, that when I first did food logging abut 4 years ago, I had been counting calories I ate, but not counting back in what I burned. I lost really fast for a while, but hit a major plateau. Found My Food Diary (basically a paid version of this site) and learned about minimum intakes and such and found out that I actually needed to increase my calories because my body had basically gone into starvation mode.

    After I started logging my food/workouts, I ended up eating about 1700-1900 calories a day when I worked out (burning 500-700 in my workouts) and the rest of the pounds melted off. If you eat TOO little, your body will try to conserve every little bit it can.
  • Angel_Grove_
    Angel_Grove_ Posts: 205 Member
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    *Obviously all those pounds are back now... hoping to make it stick this time :-)
  • jmoulder
    jmoulder Posts: 7 Member
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    add me! I am around the 1300 goal mark though
  • Brunette_H
    Brunette_H Posts: 18 Member
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    I love cooking and make dinner from scratch every day. I'm on 1200 although I do eat back at least some exercise calories on top as most days I'm too hungry to get by on 1200!

    I'm back at this after a 3 month hiatus and looking forward to making more healthy things now that we've finally got through all the Christmas food!

    Feel free to add me anyone.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,660 Member
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    I don't know what you mean by "foodie." A foodie is usually someone who is a gourmet cook or has gourmet tastes. Anyway, I'm at around 1200 most of the time, with some added calories for exercise. I find that you have to be more of a "foodie" preparing more of your own meals and making sure everything is nutrient dense and good quality at that low a calorie level because you can't afford to fill up on junk.
  • CountessKitteh
    CountessKitteh Posts: 1,505 Member
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    Kruggeri wrote: »
    CountessKitteh wrote: »
    I try to stay at 1200 even when my Fitbit earns me extras. It's no small accomplishment!

    Everyone does realize that MFP is designed to calculate your calorie goal excluding exercise, and that any exercise that you do should be tracked and at least a percentage of calories eaten back in order to preserve lean muscle mass as well as other negative changes that can result from too large of a calorie deficit (hair loss, fatigue, etc). Not to mention that the additional calories help fuel the exercise, contribute to sustainability of the program, etc?

    When I first started I too was set at net 1200 calories and was losing, but was not satisfied. I read more about TDEE and reasonable calorie deficits, increased my goal to first net 1400 then net 1500 and continued to lose about 1 lb/week. Once I had only about 10 lbs to lose I changed my goal to close to net 1700 and continued to lose about 0.5 lb/ week. I got a FitBit about midway through my first year on MFP and ate back those adjustments and continued to lose - have now been successfully maintaining for the last 8 months or so using FitBit, eating back those calories, etc.



    In by defense, I did say TRY. If I'm feeling hungry/weak/like I want to indulge, then I absolutely eat back my exercise calories. But I eat plenty of lean meat and veggies, so while I'm hitting all my macronutrient requirements and feel full, I'm not necessarily eating a crapton of calories. I use exercise to create my calorie deficit, since I'm under 5'2", making losing weight at more than a snail's pace very hard when I don't want to drop under the 1200 intake mark. I shoot for 1150-1250 each day, so I'm not overdoing, but I'm also not undoing my hard work.

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