Can I lose weight eating 1200 calories

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aniamanning
aniamanning Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey so I am 24 years old female and 5'9 and 155 lbs will I lose weight eating 1200 calories without exercise? If so how much?

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Yes, but with your stats you can easily lose eating more. You're already at a healthy weight, so you probably shouldn't be aiming for more than half a pound a week. Log accurately and honestly and it'll happen
  • Grrlonamission94
    Grrlonamission94 Posts: 18 Member
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    Of course you can! I started at 237 lbs and I'm now 197 lbs - all through 1200 calories a day and gentle exercise such as walking or yoga
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
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    Opinion: Exercise has very little with losing weight. I do it for heart health and energy.
    Eating right is 90% of the battle.
    Log absolutely everything you eat.
    I would honestly suggest 1,300. At 1,200 I looked at my cat and thought how to grill it.
  • hollen_carol
    hollen_carol Posts: 121 Member
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    JanetYellen wrote: »
    Opinion: Exercise has very little with losing weight. I do it for heart health and energy.
    Eating right is 90% of the battle.
    Log absolutely everything you eat.
    I would honestly suggest 1,300. At 1,200 I looked at my cat and thought how to grill it.

    Thank you very much for that morning laugh!!! I'm pretty sure I can totally relate to that even if I don't have a cat :)
  • rsleighty
    rsleighty Posts: 214 Member
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    Yes. You can. The question is, can you sustain that low a calorie intake. The answer to that is, probably not. Most people can't unless they are very tiny and their maintenance calories are very low.
    It depends on what your goals are. If you want to lose 10 lbs quickly and don't care what happens after that...go for it. If you want a lifestyle change that will lead to better health over all and long term, you are better off to eat more and lose more slowly.
  • BoaRestrictor
    BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
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    Yes you'll lose weight, just beware that 1200 calories diets are hard to stick to for some people. If you start getting irrationally hungry or have mood swings I'd suggest eat more like 1400, but if not you should be fine. You'd lose weight eating under 1500, so eating 1200 you'll definitely see some fat slide off.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    Yes, but with your stats you can easily lose eating more. You're already at a healthy weight, so you probably shouldn't be aiming for more than half a pound a week. Log accurately and honestly and it'll happen

    This 100%...you're already dead center of a healthy BMI so if you cut at too steep a deficit you'll lose weight but your body composition probably won't change like you hope.
  • EddieP50
    EddieP50 Posts: 192 Member
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    Yes you can. I have a desk job, so not a lot of physical activity. MFP shows my daily goal at 1500 and my calorie burn from just sleep and rest is around 2500. So that gives me a 1000 calorie per day deficit which is the amount needed to lose 2 pounds per week. The only exercise I have done so far is just walking that occurs throughout the normal day (average about 2000 to 2500 steps per day, yesterday I got in 5700). I started five months ago and have lost 42 pounds so far.
  • aniamanning
    aniamanning Posts: 18 Member
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    EddieP50 wrote: »
    Yes you can. I have a desk job, so not a lot of physical activity. MFP shows my daily goal at 1500 and my calorie burn from just sleep and rest is around 2500. So that gives me a 1000 calorie per day deficit which is the amount needed to lose 2 pounds per week. The only exercise I have done so far is just walking that occurs throughout the normal day (average about 2000 to 2500 steps per day, yesterday I got in 5700). I started five months ago and have lost 42 pounds so far.

    Wow congrats!!
  • aniamanning
    aniamanning Posts: 18 Member
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    RGv2 wrote: »
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Yes, but with your stats you can easily lose eating more. You're already at a healthy weight, so you probably shouldn't be aiming for more than half a pound a week. Log accurately and honestly and it'll happen

    This 100%...you're already dead center of a healthy BMI so if you cut at too steep a deficit you'll lose weight but your body composition probably won't change like you hope.

    Ah this makes sense thank you!
  • ptsmiles
    ptsmiles Posts: 511 Member
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    hollen_carol wrote: »
    JanetYellen wrote: »
    Opinion: Exercise has very little with losing weight. I do it for heart health and energy.
    Eating right is 90% of the battle.
    Log absolutely everything you eat.
    I would honestly suggest 1,300. At 1,200 I looked at my cat and thought how to grill it.

    Hahaha! I often think my cat is trying to find a way to grill me. 1200 is rough to stick to. For me at least. It might be easier for some people.
  • duril64
    duril64 Posts: 5 Member
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    I've found I don't have any problem sticking to 1200 a day consistently, no cravings or hunger pains. For me, it's all about eating clean, non-processed foods. I find that when I'm off sugar and processed foods, a lot of my cravings for food go away. I stick to normal cuts of meat, I don't really worry about grass fed, organic, etc. I find that it's enough to stick to chicken, beef, pork, fish, eggs, veggies for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and nuts and fruits for snacks. Again, I don't get very complicated with it, if it's not processed, I eat it, in controlled portions, and I don't bread and fry things. That took some work learning how not to cook like that, I'm from the south and we fry everything. Fried okra, fried meats, lots of gravies and sauces, ribs with lots of sauce. The other day here in Georgia, I ordered the chicken fajitas and asked the waitress to not bring the tortillas, just the sizzling plate of chicken and veggies. In California, a waitress would not have blinked an eye, here, she physically hesitated, looks at me quizzically and asked me to repeat my request. You would have thought I asked her to serve it to me naked or something..

    Oh, and I don't drink my calories, just water, coffee, unsweet tea, Pellegrino.

    I also find alcohol is my number 1 weight loss buster personally. I can have a couple of scotches on the rocks and it seems to stop my weight loss cold for a few days. I've read that's because when you consume alcohol, your body stops everything else and makes burning off that alcohol its number one priority.

    So, to sum it up, keep it simple. Stay off the processed, or very minimally processed foods and you won't crave a lot. Watch your portion control, stay off the alcohol. Exercise as you want for health, but 90% of weight loss is how you eat.

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