Devil's advocate: 1200 calories for petite/short women?

I'm 5'9" and when I started losing weight, putting my goals into MFP gave me 1,200, and I had no experience to know any better. I lost about 5 stone by doing that, and then increased because it was getting too long term and I just felt miserable with it all.

I think weight loss is much better if you lose it as slowly as you can, so towards the end I was eating 1,800 cals per day, more when I exercised, and losing the last few pounds very slowly.. which is much better!

I have to say that even though I met my goal yesterday on MFP, I was still hungry. I am at just over 1200 calories (and I try to eat my exercise calories back)... I may be an exception to the rule as far as being little and calories go? I am a vegetarian (nearly vegan due to lactose intolerance)

I only really gain weight when eating too much:
refined sugar
processed food
oily food
gluten or processed gluten substitutes

OR

not eating enough - before I started working out more often, I would forget to eat all the time and just get caught up in other things. Hunger would hit me but I would put it off for too long until I wasn't hungry anymore, so I gained weight that way too since my metabolism went way down.

I'm sure that I would definitely be "over calories" if I ate meat too though.

Interesting thread. Im 4ft 11 and a HALF. Dont forget the half!

Im doing 5.2 and then attempting 1200 cals remainder of the week, I also do 45 mins exercise per day - some days though I find that im full after about 900 calories- I dont want to 'top up' to 1200 just for the sake of it, but also worried that if I dont- then I wont lose weight in the longer term.

Its all so confusing!

the danger isn't that you won't lose weight in the longer term, because as long as you're eating at a deficit, you'll lose weight. The dangers from eating too little are as follows:

- it's unsustainable in the long term (who wants to feel hungry and deprived for the rest of their life?)

- undereating can trigger binge eating. This is a normal physiological response to eating too little. In fact you can call it a basic survival instinct. How did our palaeolithic ancestors know how many calories to eat each day? They didn't. But if they ate too little they got mega hungry, obsessed about finding food and when they got it they ate as much as they could. In modern people trying to lose weight, this is called "binge eating" (i.e. incontrolled eating of large amounts of food) - in palaoelithic people in a food shortage, it's what kept them alive to survive the food shortage... we inherited the genes of survivors, hence why we still have this same survival instinct.

- undereating will make you lose weight, but there's a question of whether the weight lost is muscle, bone density or fat. You want to lose fat while preserving your muscle and bone density. That requires 1. adequate calorie intake, 2. adequate protein, 3. adequate exercise. Eat too little and you'll risk losing lean mass even if you're doing the other two. Also, the less fat you have to lose the more risk of this there is. So someone with 100lb to lose will probably be fine on an aggressive deficit, provided they don't feel deprived and struggle with binge eating. But someone with only 10lb to lose needs to be a lot more careful about this, too big a deficit and they'll lose muscle and bone density along with the fat. Loss of muscle means your BMR goes down (i.e. you'll maintain your weight at a lower number of calories, because there are fewer cells inside you burning energy)

- long term undereating (e.g. for weeks and months) can cause the metabolism to slow, aka adaptive thermogenesis. This is your body saving energy, same as if someone was struggling to pay fuel bills would save energy by turning off lights when they're not in the room or turn down the thermostat a couple of degrees..... except in the body, energy gets directed away from non-essential functions, so the result is not only a slower metabolism, it's also dull hair, nails and generally feeling run down and looking ill. A calorie is just a unit of energy, so if your body's burning less energy, it means it's burning fewer calories, that means the amount of calories you'll maintain your weight at is lower. So you won't have to eat as much to be in energy surplus and gain the fat back. Except this time the lean mass you lost + adaptive thermogenesis means that if you end up back at your starting weight, your body fat percentage is worse than before.

Anyway, that's a summary of the main dangers of undereating when trying to lose weight. It's counter-productive. Adaptive thermogenesis doesn't kick in unless you've been undereating for a while, it's the binge eating/excess hunger thing that screws most people up if they undereat.


My advice:
- eat less than you burn off. If you do 5:2 this should do that for you *without* the need to eat only 1200 cals/day the rest of the time. If you're doing that, you're creating a deficit twice, and as your ticker suggests you're only looking to lose about 15lb or so, this would be undereating. So do one or the other.... 5:2 or daily deficit. And most people can lose weight eating more than 1200 cals/day as a daily calorie goal.

- aim for slow and steady weight loss... this way it's far more likely to be just fat that's being lost. Plus you get to eat more and actually enjoy your fat loss lifestyle because you're still eating the foods you enjoy, just in smaller serving sizes and some foods less often. Slower weight loss = bigger daily calorie goal = less hunger = more foods you love = still succeeding at fat loss without it being torturous or very difficult.

- do any kind of exercise that you really love and will be able to stick to in the long term. Eat back exercise calories if you're using the MFP method (if you're doing the TDEE - x% method then don't, but be realistic about your activity factor when you calculate your TDEE)

- think long term and be patient. what do you want, to get to your goal weight quickly, or to get to your goal weight and stay there for life? If you're going to succeed at staying that weight for life, does it matter if it took you longer to get there? Because once you're there, you'll stay there for life.

Interesting thread. Im 4ft 11 and a HALF. Dont forget the half!

Im doing 5.2 and then attempting 1200 cals remainder of the week, I also do 45 mins exercise per day - some days though I find that im full after about 900 calories- I dont want to 'top up' to 1200 just for the sake of it, but also worried that if I dont- then I wont lose weight in the longer term.

Its all so confusing!

I agreed with what neander said and just want to reiterate that you are doing 5:2 WRONG. You are suppose to do 500 cals 2x a week and maintenance cals 5x a week.

Just because you feel full doesn't mean your body is getting enough calories and macros to function properly. Try eating more calories dense food like nuts etc.

THANK YOU!!

massive thnaks for the advice here. going to stop doing 5.2 diet and stick with 1200 and be sensible with it.

thanks again

I'm 5'4", neither petite nor tall. LOL. Too tall for petites, too short for average.

I've survived off of lower than 1200 calories for a time. Longer than I might wish to admit to. My doctor has me on an ultra low calorie diet plan (like 700-800 calories a day), but I was finding I couldn't exercise doing that. She says I must exercise, even on that few calories. I don't think her idea of exercise and my idea of exercise are the same thing! Me, exercise is 30-60 minutes of giving every thing I've got at least twice a day. I don't think that's what she meant! I have upped my calories to 1300, and am finding that I can really see the improvements now. My weight isn't dropping as quickly, but I'm also not ravenous all the time. I am even considering going up to 1500 calories in the near future, because I want to seriously start lifting but still keep running as well. Gonna need more fuel for that! I stalled for a long time because of trying to stick with the doctor's food plan and getting all that exercise. Just couldn't do both!

I understand your top sentence. I'm 5'3 and I can't buy "petite" jeans because they are a little too short, and I can't buy regular size cause they are too long. Anyways, I lost 30 pounds in 3 months eating 1200 calories a day and walking 30 min a day for 5 days a week. This time around, I'm upping my intake to 1400 calories, and burning 200 calories doing 20minutes of Wii Zumba, all because I want to enjoy a pack of doritos or a candy bar at night.

It's interesting to hear this on countless "1200 calories" vs. "eat more to lose weight" discussions... people often say, "unless you're a dwarf" or "unless you're 4'8" " you really need at least 1200 calories a day. Well guess what? I happen to know that there are quite a few "dwarfs" :-) and petite women posting on MFP, me being one of them! (No offense taken to the "dwarf" comment, we're all just fun sized!) :-)

This isn't really a question for calorie advice for me personally, but for all smaller ladies out there. Do smaller women really need more than 1200 calories? Surely if you're less than 5' and pretty sedentary, you won't need as much as a 5'7" woman, right?



******FYI, I'm 4'10" 105 lbs. and my mantra is that women in general should eat more and be more active. I personally can not live off of 1200 calories a day. I am waaaay too active (am a long distance runner) and love food and exercise way too much, but I realize not all women are training for marathons like I am.

Thus, I welcome the different opinions, what do y'all think??

My sister is petite, 5 ft 2 wears a size 2...here maintenance is 2300 calories...

I do not think for one minute that even petite woman can only lose weight on 1200...or should eat that. If you think that you are eating 1200 or less start weighing your food you will get a surprise.

Petite

Bump

I am 5'1", 61 years old. I want to eat higher than 1230, but, like another OP, am scared to try, worried about halting at loss. Haven't had much luck losing on more. Should I experiment by adding 100 cal. for a few weeks at a time?

I am 4' 8", that's right ladies, I officially fit in that dwarf category, :-) I agree that everyone should do what works for them. You know your body and you know what works for you (while still feeling good and having energy). Do you know what 4' 8" is? It is the average size of a 9 y/old, just to put in perspective of those that don't realize how small that actually is.

I'm in the process of losing weight and have been doing 1200 (net) for a few months threw MFP and have not lost any weight...have actually put some back on.

I was steadily losing weight slowly over a couple years when I was just exercising and eating healthy without stalking my calorie intake. To be honest, since I have been tracking, I feel like I am eating more because I see I have room to eat, whether or not I actually need the food. When I just do what my body asks for (seemingly less than 1200), I lose weight and feel great.

By the way, I would also like to point out that most standard health charts don't go down to 4' 8". I believe they do not go below 4' 10", so the "standards" don't even include us little ladies.

Hello!

I am SOOOO glad I am not the only petite female out there! I am 4"11 and 110 pounds. I "try" to stay within the 1200 calorie range, but lets be honest.. I LOVE TO EAT!!~! So I just consume as many nutrient dense foods I can before giving into my beloved chocolate and beer so that I can even the score (balance the good calories from the empty ones) on my nutrition side. I weight lift/run three times a week so I am confident in not gaining too much weight. In fact, I don't mind if I go over a little on the caloric side, especially when I eat loads of protein. As far as my diet is concerned (regardless of how much calories I consume - if I even remember to count them), my diet is "normally' squeaky clean. I am the gal that prefers fruit over cake; meat over pasta, and veggies in between meals. As long as I keep craving those types of food, I don't keep track too much about my calories. As long as my muscles keep building, I am happy. My body really does tell me when I've had enough and my heart tells me I am staying healthy. Healthy heart = happy me!

P.S. I love carb cycling if I do need to loose a couple pounds. I have found this really works well for me. Read the book Carb Cycling by Chris Powell or look it up on the internet if you are interested. Basically it is a cycle of high carb and low carb every other day to throw your body off so that it doesn't get used to one diet plan. The high carb days gives your fuel and energy while the low carb days (aka high protein days) are the days that really burn the fat. It's actually quite interesting and it works if you work it. There is one cheat day a week and his meal plans are very easy with lots of different options to choose from. Anyhoo, just thought I'd share the only diet I have successfully been on. It has worked for me in the past and it works on every successful Extreme Weight Loss contestant Chris and Heidi Powell has had on their ABC show. I'm not a paid promoter, just a fan of the show and their workout ethics!

I am 5ft 2 activity setting very active to maintain I actually lose on 2000 calories I need to be mindful to eat back 1/2 my excersize calories.. myfitnesspal gives me 2010 to maintain and then on top of that I have my calories burned am generally eating anywhere between 2200 calories and 2700 calories more than that on a night out obviously!!

2013 THREAD

I use this calculator to gauge my calorie intake and am also using it to try to help my wife who is 5'0 and 104 lbs.:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calrmr.htm

If MFP gives you that warning that looks like an error when you're under 1200 calories then oh well. Everybody (every body) is different and petite women definitely can't follow the general guidelines set by MFP.

Good luck to all!