But I don't WANT 1200 calories

I have dieted most of my life and found the diet I fail on is 1 that doesn't allow treats. We can program ourselves to eat healthy, organic, clean food like caveman plan but most people I know have broken it in favour of a mighty big pizza, beer and chocolate. If it is working for you then you have answered your own question and it doesn't matter what we say you are going to do what you feel is best - of course. Good luck and please try the nuts/avacado

I would suggest going to a gym and getting your BMR tested and see really how many calories you burn a day. The one on here is just a calculator and is just an average amount. Yours could be different.

Instead of finding ways to defend what you are doing.. if it works do it... when it stops working try something else.. Eat a few more calories when you stop losing.. You will stop at some point as everyones body adapts and needs change to continue losing the weight. Now if you dont have a lot to lose then it may work differently.
I change what I do almost weekly whether it is the type of amount of exercise. Types of foods.. started out eating healthy then started not eating processed food then went to not eating foods high on the glycemic index. I have yet to hit a plateau and I have been on this new lifestyle for 4 months. Last week I lost 5 lbs... why? I have no idea.. but I have been losing 4 lbs a week since the beginning.
Also I only drink water.;. no flavored water no soda nothing but water.
Some people zigzag their calories.. check into it as it seems to work for some.

Good luck!! seems different things work for different people and you have to do what works for you. Just please make sure you check your nutrients to see you are getting enough.
I didnt get enough potassium for 2 months. I mean I was getting 1/3 was is recommended and I started getting muscle cramps. Not fun and I have to check to make sure I am getting enough and its a struggle with 1200 calories.

Yes, I've cranked my exercise way up...almost every day and while, yes, I feel tired after a good workout, I'm not tired in the sense of not having energy.

I guess what I'm having trouble understanding is why it would be UNHEALTHY to not eat 1200 if I feel good and the food I eat is good, clean, food. I'm definitely not PURPOSELY trying to deprive my body of food....I like food and if I was hungry, I'd eat it...but it seems I'm usually pretty content around 1000 calories.

Since other than telling us you are small boned, you have not told us anything else. How tall are you? If you are really short (at or under 5' or so) and small boned, 1200 may be too much, then again it might not. It could be that your metabolism has slowed, especially if you ate really low calories before. That, BTW, is not a good thing. You will want to speed it up, and if you have lots of energy that will be easy enough.

The other problem is figuring out how many calories you ate before. Sure the volume of what you ate might have been smaller, but junk food is usually packed with calories. For that matter, unless you charted it, you are likely similar to many people with bad eating habits and ate much more than you remember because of occasional little bits and bites here and there. You say you didn't eat 1200 before, but you may have eaten that and even more. The problem for your hunger is that "healthy" food is much bulkier, and generally contains much more fiber than junk food. That means it fills you up physically more than junk food, and it is harder to eat a lot of it. Just compare say 100 calories of a veggie like broccoli and 100 calories of potato chips for how big they are and you can start to see what I mean.

For most people who have weight to lose, trusting their hunger to guide them is not a good idea, because for the vast majority it is their messed up sense of hunger and fullness that got them where they are now. I know I can't trust my sense of hunger even after re-training it for over a year. It is accurate most of the time, but there are times when I feel full and have not eaten nearly enough, and other days where I have eaten lots of healthy food, but my body still is telling me to eat more. I would never just trust my sense of hunger to decide how much to eat (or not to eat for that matter.)

I also have issues with the concept of "starvation mode". I'm not sure I buy into this notion that if you don't lose weight, you should up your calories. If it wasn;t possible to lose weight from eating less, Auschwitz victims would have been fat, right?

Interestingly, I googled to see if it was a myth and I found this:

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2009/03/mtyhbusters-starvation-mode.html

Thoughts?

This is sooooo true. Too many people are listening purely to numbers and not to things like this and our bodies!

I don't understand how 1200 can be the minumum for a 5'8 person who weighs 135, and a person like me who is 4'11 and 116. I makes sense that I would need less right? I get what you mean about being smaller and not needing as many calories. I'm not sure where that specific number came from , but I would like to know the mininum calories i could be eating and still be getting the right nurtrients.

I agree - the 1200 cal/day is an estimate developed by nutritionists who are trying to come up with a number that will be a bare minimum for most people. Most and bare minimum are the key words. The idea that everyone needs 1200 calories a day is pure and utter hogwash, and as a scientist a can't stand the number being tossed around willy-nilly by everyone on here. Guess what - a 6'0" man needs a lot more than 1200 cal/day to avoid being unhealthy or going into starvation mode, but I see know-it-alls on this site telling men or large women that as long as they eat 1200 cal/day they'll be fine. Bullsh**. By the same token, a very petite woman may not need 1200 (assuming the foods she is eating are nutrient dense (and 1200 calories/day of junk food doesn't mean they are getting enough to be healthy).

Seriously, do you really think someone who is 6'3" can get by with the same amount of vitamin c, or iron, or selenium, or protein or what have you as someone 4'11"? Does this really make sense?? Seriously?? 1200 cal/day was likely derived looking at a large sample size of average people, and taking the median or mean that would be sufficient to keep them going, and allowing a few standard deviations of that figure to capture much of the population - but there are still outliers who that number doesn't fit - and in a numerically large population, the number of outliers is likely also to be large.

Everyone needs to figure out what works for them - some calorie levels are really outside the acceptable range (too low, like 600 cal/day; or too high - most of the US), but around the 1200cal/day figure, it is a gray area that each individual needs to determine rationally, through experimentation and looking at data (like BMR), for themselves.

I don't understand how 1200 can be the minumum for a 5'8 person who weighs 135, and a person like me who is 4'11 and 116. I makes sense that I would need less right? I get what you mean about being smaller and not needing as many calories. I'm not sure where that specific number came from , but I would like to know the mininum calories i could be eating and still be getting the right nurtrients.

I agree - the 1200 cal/day is an estimate developed by nutritionists who are trying to come up with a number that will be a bare minimum for most people. Most and bare minimum are the key words. The idea that everyone needs 1200 calories a day is pure and utter hogwash, and as a scientist a can't stand the number being tossed around willy-nilly by everyone on here. Guess what - a 6'0" man needs a lot more than 1200 cal/day to avoid being unhealthy or going into starvation mode, but I see know-it-alls on this site telling men or large women that as long as they eat 1200 cal/day they'll be fine. Bullsh**. By the same token, a very petite woman may not need 1200 (assuming the foods she is eating are nutrient dense (and 1200 calories/day of junk food doesn't mean they are getting enough to be healthy).

Seriously, do you really think someone who is 6'3" can get by with the same amount of vitamin c, or iron, or selenium, or protein or what have you as someone 4'11"? Does this really make sense?? Seriously?? 1200 cal/day was likely derived looking at a large sample size of average people, and taking the median or mean that would be sufficient to keep them going, and allowing a few standard deviations of that figure to capture much of the population - but there are still outliers who that number doesn't fit - and in a numerically large population, the number of outliers is likely also to be large.

Everyone needs to figure out what works for them - some calorie levels are really outside the acceptable range (too low, like 600 cal/day; or too high - most of the US), but around the 1200cal/day figure, it is a gray area that each individual needs to determine rationally, through experimentation and looking at data (like BMR), for themselves.

Just so you know the 1200 is for women and 1500 is for me. I believe the numbers have to do with what is considered by aid organizations and WHO as the point where people are starving. There are problems with those numbers in some sense, because the people in question would not be in a situation where they are largely sedentary like most people in the developed world are and the like, but they are good average minimums. However, if you are really short or tall they will not apply. A very sedentary female who is 4'11" and has a small frame could probably survive, but maybe not, on 1200 calories, and a 1500 minimum for a male at 6'10" would be way below any acceptable low end of calories at 1500. If the OP is very short, 1200 might be too high, but hunger levels are not an accurate gauge of that. If they really want to know go to one of the places that have the devices to measure ones metabolic rate. Then they have hard numbers to work on. Or they could experiment seeking to find the point where they are maintaining their weight. In the case of the OP it sounds like she is losing weight at the point she is currently at. The problem is a point will come where she needs to stop losing and start maintaining. If she feels she can't eat more now, that will be a problem then because to maintain she will have to eat more.