Calorie target for the day

Yes you should eat to your calorie target. Under 1200 is not healthy and under 1000 is dangerous (without medical supervision). edit: Also should add, less than 1200 is not recommended because it is very hard to meet your Macro & Micro nutritional needs on less than 1200 calories (less than 1000 it's almost impossible and people who are medically supervised have to be monitored closely by a doctor to make sure they don't start suffering from malnutrition).

MFP gives you a goal so that you lose weight without exercise. If you exercise, you get to eat a bit more.

An example:
MFP estimate without exercise & sedentary: 1700 calories burned for the full day
Select to lose 1lb per week: -500
Goal to eat when you don't exercise: 1200 calories

Now lets say you workout-
MFP estimate without exercise & sedentary: 1700 calories
Exercise burn: 500 calories
Total estimated burn for the day: 2200
Select to lose 1lb per week: - 500
Goal to eat with exercise: 1700 calories or 1200 NET

Justthisgirl1994 wrote: »

I have 1200 a day too. I don't always reach 1200, but I make sure that my macros, especially my protein goals (at least 120g) are met. If you're getting the right amount of protein and healthy fats, then that's fine if you're under 1200. It's just that to actually reach your macro goals you're going to end up eating more calories.

So basically, look at your macros. Are you getting enough protein and fats? If not, that's bad. You're going to end up skinny fat.

No. It doesn't matter what your macros are, if you are not giving your body enough fuel it is not healthy. Calories are fuel, and one way or another your body will get fuel. Whether that is your body cannibalizing itself or forcing you to binge, it will get its calories from somewhere. No one can live a long healthy life on under 1200 cals.

Absolutely - especially if you plan to set a very low goal like 1200. Eat them all - plus at least some of your exercise calories. MFP already figured it your deficit. Its very unlikely you're getting all the nutrients your body needs to function properly if you eat so very little.

mamasmaltz3 wrote: »

Justthisgirl1994 wrote: »

I have 1200 a day too. I don't always reach 1200, but I make sure that my macros, especially my protein goals (at least 120g) are met. If you're getting the right amount of protein and healthy fats, then that's fine if you're under 1200. It's just that to actually reach your macro goals you're going to end up eating more calories.

So basically, look at your macros. Are you getting enough protein and fats? If not, that's bad. You're going to end up skinny fat.

No. It doesn't matter what your macros are, if you are not giving your body enough fuel it is not healthy. Calories are fuel, and one way or another your body will get fuel. Whether that is your body cannibalizing itself or forcing you to binge, it will get its calories from somewhere. No one can live a long healthy life on under 1200 cals.

Macros and micros are everything lol. How do they not matter? You make it sound like calories are the only thing that matter. Yes calorie deficits are the only way to lose weight etc, but they're not the only thing that should be considered. If she wants to lose weight from fat and not muscle, water etc, she should be tracking and getting sufficient amounts of macros esp protein.
She could easily eat 1200 calories of ice cream or something of that nature with little to no nutritional value. I agree that no one can live a long healthy life under 1200 calories. However, going under on occasion won't kill anyone, and on top of that, there's also the very real possibility that she is underestimating the calories she's consuming by a lot.

This is what is healthy:
Eating 1g of protein for every lean body weight you have
Having 20-30% of total calories coming from healthy fats (you should be taking omega 3, most people don't get enough of that)
Whatever amount of calories you have left over should go to carbs.

If I meet my macro goals and have 200 or so left over, but don't feel hungry, then I won't eat the 200 calories worth of carbs. Instead, I leave those for the next day or whatever. Those days aren't frequent, but they do happen!

You're most likely fine then! You didn't mention in your original post that you were exercising so much, and that's why you're under. You don't have to "eat back" all of your exercise calories if you're not hungry. You also don't need to exercise that much, since you're able to make a deficit with just your diet. You could very easily just do strength training and little to no cardio (unless you're training for a certain sport, want to work on your endurance or you just like cardio).

ChelleE31 wrote: »

Justthisgirl1994 wrote: »

You're most likely fine then! You didn't mention in your original post that you were exercising so much, and that's why you're under. You don't have to "eat back" all of your exercise calories if you're not hungry. You also don't need to exercise that much, since you're able to make a deficit with just your diet. You could very easily just do strength training and little to no cardio (unless you're training for a certain sport, want to work on your endurance or you just like cardio).

Ahh sorry, forgot I hadn't added the exercise bit until after. I guess I will lighten up on the exercise, it may sound odd but I find it hard to go in a gym and not do cardio. I feel like I need to work off as many as possible, I was unhappy that I only managed to burn off 400 today

:flowerforyou:
If you like to exercise that much it's fine, but there really is no need. It takes me 40 mins to get to 400 calories burned on cardio days and it would take 2-2 1/2 hours of lifting to hit that on weight days (I lift for 60-90 mins). And those are gross calorie burns for me. If I was logging them here, I wouldn't want to log the full amount; maybe 80-90%.

Now, in your original post you made it sound like your total intake isn't close to 1200; Are you talking about your NET intake not being close to your goal?
If that's the case, it's probably not that big of a deal. I don't know how your coming up with your exercise calorie burns, but I'll just add that MFP and cardio exercise machines tend to overestimate.