Should you always aim to have you kcals every day

1200 is the min for women unless you are under Drs orders. Can't see your diary so not sure where you are low but would say you may need to add more lean protein.

I would say don't eat if you are not hungry, and who knows how accurate your recordings are, we ALL do a pretty bad job of estimating things and it adds up. Just try to eat well and get your protein. You don't have a lot of weight to lose so it takes longer being consistent to get results because the deficits are smaller when 1200 is as low as you can go.
Good luck and be good to yourself!

If it's late at night and you are about to go to sleep I wouldn't eat any more. If your not hungry, don't eat! And calories aren't like rollover minutes. If you don't use them that day they are gone... lol For future ref. though I would def try to eat at least 1200 for health reasons.

Why can't she eat at night?

Why can't she eat under 1,200 calories?

less than 1200 calories could send your body into starvation mode if its done on a consistent basis.

Depends on her current maintenance, body weight, LBM, etc.

Do you know how long she would have to consistently eat 1,200 calories in order for her body to drop her maintenance to drastically low levels?

In my nutritional science classes, every professor and every textbook has emphasized not eating less than 1200 calories a day. I'm sure if you went to your local library or searched for a meta-analysis through Google scholar you would find good scientific data to this effect. It's only ever recommended under severe circumstances as an alternative to surgery, and then your diet is carefully managed and observed by a dietician and your primary care doctor.

There are a number of reasons for this, but it's just simple to call it "starvation mode." Your body needs a certain number of calories EVERY DAY to perform basic functions like beating your heart, running your immune system, filtering toxins and wastes (many of which are the byproduct of the anabolic processes responsible for weight loss), digesting food, storing and utilizing nutrients, etc. When your glycogen stores are gone, which happens quickly when you're in Calorie deficit (i.e. burning more than you eat), your body turns to alternative sources for energy. Namely, fat and lean muscle mass. The first part may sound good, but your body uses ketogenesis to get energy from fat. This means that there are toxic ketoacids- one of the few types of acid that can cross the blood-brain barrier. This is how a lot of anorexics die- ketoacidosis. It's ok in moderation, because your lymphatic system can filter out some ketones every day. But, this process is regulated by active transport- meaning that your body needs protein to build the transporters and energy to transport the ketoacids. So even under the best conditions it can only be done so much in a day, leaving many ketoacids in your system, which will work their way to your brain, damaging everything they meet.

Another anabolic pathway your body utilizes during starvation or "very low calorie diet" is proteolysis. Your body will catabolize your muscles, including your heart, to make precious glucose to feed to your brain and blood cells (which don't contain the mitochondria necessary to use other forms of fuel). Many people who are starving wind up dying of a heart attack (kind of like the founder of the Atkins diet). So you need a certain number of carbohydrates per day to keep your body from eating your muscles, including your heart.

I would actually love to see scientific literature that says 1,200 calories is sufficient for everyone. ESPECIALLY regarding the maintenance of lean body mass.

And again, "starvation mode" won't occur if you eat 1,000 calories for a day, a week, maybe not even a month (depending on the person's weight, lean mass, and subsequent maintenance).

Sorry about the Atkins mistake- I heard that from several people and didn't bother to fact check.

Regarding the 1200 Calorie minimum daily requirement- that information was taken from Perspectives in Nutrition, 8th ed, Byrd-Bredbenner et al, McGraw-Hill Co. The textbook for Nutritional Sciences 332 at UW-Madison.

"Starvation mode" isn't a black and white thing. It's not like one day you wake up and your body says "oh, I'm in starvation mode." It's a gradual thing. Most of what we know about starvation is taken from the Keys starvation study that took place during WWII. The book is called "The Biology of Human Starvation" and was published in 1950. For the men that took place in that study, 1500 calories was low enough to cause symptoms of starvation.

Most nutritionists agree that 1200 calories is the minimum amount your body needs to perform basic physiological functions. One day of eating that few calories certainly won't kill you, but neither will a day of heavy drug use or binge drinking. It's not a magic number, but it's a guideline for those of use who can't afford to see a dietician and have expensive tests done to determine the exact number we need for our physiological processes. I don't see the point in risking lasting damage to your body- changing your diet should be about making yourself healthier.

On such a limited diet, your body will start to prioritize what it will and won't do. There is no magic "starvation mode" button, only a series of gradual changes where your body prioritizes, giving up long-term maintenance for short-term survival. Even one day of severe calorie deficit can result in the production of excess ketoacids that can damage your organs. The difference may not be noticeable, but it's still deleterious to long-term health.

Aside from your energy needs, it'll be hard to get the macronutrients you need on such a restricted diet. Without enough fat, you won't be able to get and store vitamins A, D, E, and K- crucial for immune health, eye health, and bone health to name a few. By eating less food, you'll be taking in less nutrients in general.

I'm just trying to caution you from doing harm to yourself when you're trying to do good. If you feel that a Very Low Calorie Diet is the right choice to you, I would urge you to consult with your primary health care provider.

I didn't start losing weight until I started using all my calories every day. Before that I would never use them all and wondered why I wasn't losing weight. Thanks to MFP for helping me!!

I read about this last night. Banks does a pretty good job of explaining why.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

I've gained weight not because I eat too much, but because I've thrown my body into starvation mode and have been there for years. When I was at my healthiest weight I remember I was eating several times a day and eating a lot of raw fruits and veggies in addition to nuts, string cheese and whatever else I felt like throwing into my lunch cooler for that day. I did not exercise during that time. It's the only time I remember being slender and it being effortless. I was a size 6. Normally, I was a 10 or 12. I frequently stopped at the grocery store on my way to work and picked food out of the produce section for the day. It worked fabulously. On another note, I've also experience doing high intensity workouts (step aerobics when it first became popular) while on too little caloric intake and found I wasn't losing any weight. I was totally frustrated and confused by this and simply gave up. So that being said, It's been my experience that severely limiting your calories will actually sabotage your efforts to losing weight. As I read his posts I had several light bulb moments of "oh that's why". Now I'm wondering how I'm going to get that much food in me while keeping it healthy and balanced. Especially since I want to add exercise to the mix. It's going to take some practice and time to get it down. I've been so use to not really eating much until dinner for so long that this is now A LOT of food for me.

Good luck to you. I hope it sheds some insight for you as well.