Is a 1200 calorie day really realistic???? Is that what most of you are doing????

It REALLY DEPENDS. I'm a personal trainer and I have a client on 1200 cals/day, but that's because she WAS eating 600-800 calories. We are slowly moving her back up to normal calories. She's already lost 5% body fat at those calories. But if you're used to eating 3000 cals/ day, moving it down to 1200 to lose weight is ridiculous and you will not stick to it. I never go by the recommended. I always make my own goals and my clients' own goals.

I'm a 43-year-old female trying to lose 100 pounds. I am sedentary because of a stress fracture, so the only exercise I am getting is my physical therapy exercises. I am eating 1300 calories a day and it took a while to get adjusted to it, but it's working well for me. I eat three meals and I eat light snacks in between meals (80-calorie yogurt, 60-calorie half-cup of Fiber One). I get hungry at the times I should get hungry. I am sure that as I am able to exercise more, that I will up the calories a little.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

Actually due to a medical condition I am doing a rotation of calories 900, 1000, 1200 and 900, 1000, 1200 but this is under medical supervision so I would not advise it. Usual recommendations would be no lower than 1200.

I eat between 1600 and 1800 calories a day and I am losing slowly. I've eaten at 1,200 calories a day and it takes a great deal of focus, dedication, and measuring not to go over.

I too am on 1200 calories, have been for 2 months. I find that its what I have been eating that is taking me off my goal to lose weight. My dietician told me I needed to lower my calories, eat more nutritious foods, not skip meals or breakfast. You do not have to eat 3 huge meals a day. Its the lighter flair during the day, smaller meals with exercise of some sort. Also with the exercise (mine is walking because of back surgery a year ago, and I am building muscle mass which weighs some, while loosing fat which weights also.,my clothes are looking better on me, and my legs are not jiggling when I walk, as my husband tells me LOL.
I see pounds lost on the scale, but if I gain a few here and there .. Well, that's ok because like I said muscle also weighs. I am glad my dietician turned me on to this site. I enjoy reading everyone's goals and situations. Please, I would like to befriend many of you for motivation and push toward my goal...... To get the weight off my back so I can move around and walk easier for longer periods of time. Thanks Everyone for sharing.......

I'm at 1200...some days are hard but most are just fine!

I did 1550 to start and as MFP lowered my calories, I always went over. Lost what I wanted. I couldn't do 1200. I'm finding it hard to do even 2000 now while trying to lose a little bit.

No, not realistic for people of average height. Not even realistic for me, and I'm just under 5 feet.

Machka9 wrote: »

I started at about 1275 or so ... lost some weight and MFP lowered my max calories ... lost some more weight and MFP lowered my max calories ....

Eventually I was lowered to 1200. I tried that for a few days and just found it a tiny bit too difficult. So I manually raised it to 1250. Those extra 50 cal give me a little bit of flexibility.

Therefore, on a day when I don't do any exercise (very rare), my limit is 1250.

But on a day when I do some exercise, I aim to eat about half my exercise calories back. So there are days where I'm eating 1600 or 1800 cal ... because of the amount of exercise I do.

Yesterday was a hungry day for me for some reason ... so I rode my bicycle on the trainer for 50 min to give myself some extra room for food. I also walked about half an hour at lunch.

For me, 1250 isn't bad because of the exercise I do and the fact that the exercise I do allows me to eat more.

The 1250 limit forces me to think about what I'm eating more than I would if I were at a higher limit. I have to think ... will this particular food leave me feeling full for a little while, or will I feel hungry again in 30 min? Do I really want this particular food? I now eat only the foods I really like ... no sense wasting calories on foods I don't like! And I choose foods with some staying power.

Interestingly, I'm actually eating a wider variety of foods than I was before I started on this mission. I've taken this opportunity to explore grocery stores and markets for options and alternatives to what I was eating before.

The 1250 limit also encourages me to exercise. I do get hungry, but happily exercise allows me to eat more. So if I'm feeling a little bit lazy ... but I'm also hungry ... I'll get my butt off the sofa and go for a walk or bicycle ride or something so that I can eat more. I've even been motivated to take the stairs to my floor at work a few times because it gives an extra approx. 30 cal to work with each time I go up. I did it again this morning, and plan to do it again at lunch.

And it's working ... amazingly well. I've been surprised how well this is working. If I had known it would work this well a year ago, I'd have started then!


(BTW - just thought I'd add ... when I set up my profile/goals/etc. I chose to lose 0.5 kg/week, and was given the 1275 I mentioned in my first post. It wasn't long before MFP had dropped me to 1200 which was just a bit too low for me. Since I manually raised it to 1250, MFP tells me that I should lose 0.4 kg/week. As it happens, I am actually losing more than that and I'm happy with the progress so I'm leaving it as is for now )