Can I eat LESS than 1200cal??
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mpryce15
Posts: 3 Member
I am 5"0 and am wondering if I pull eat around the 1000-1100 calorie mark because of my height...yesterday I had 164 calories left over and didn't really feel like I needed them. Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Replies
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How much weight are you trying to lose?
What do you have your goal set to (lose 1 lb/week, 2 lb/week, etc)?
Are you exercising? If so, are you eating back some of those calories as well?
Have you read the stickied Most Helpful posts at the top of the Getting Started section?
1200 is the minimum recommended in order to ensure people have the best chance to get enough calories and more importantly, enough nutrition to do this in a healthy way. Being at too big of a deficit for the amount of weight you have to lose can increase the chances of loss of lean body mass.
Most people, even petite women, can lose weight eating more than 1200. I'm 5'2 and lost 30 lbs rarely eating less than 1500 cals.
That said, one day under your goal isn't a big deal, you may have a day later this week where you are hungrier and go over, but what matters for long term success is that you maintain a modest deficit over time.9 -
I would encourage you to eat as much as you can while making progress towards your goal. The issue with really low calorie eating is that it's not sustainable. It also will make your metabolism drop more than it should during your calorie deficit, which makes maintaining any fat loss much more difficult. If you can make progress on 1200+, I would highly encourage you to do so.3
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Why would you?0
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Given your height, I suppose you could, but why would you want to? To lose an extra 1/2-1 pounds a month? Reaching your goal weight 1-2 month earlier hardly seems worth the deprivation.
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You have only just started and you have only done one day at 1026 calories. In a couple of weeks or months continuously eating so little you will probably start cheat meals, feeling hungry all the time, be too lethargic to complete your everyday activities, and perform sub par when exercising.
Eat to 1200 cals and eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories.
@winogelato has given good advice which I will second. Most petite women can l eat at 1200 + cals plus exercise cals and still lose.
I am one of the petite, older, sedentary women that 1200 is suitable for, but even I, with a BMR probably 100-150 cals lower than yours because of age, still lost eating 1200cals plus 150-175 for each hour of exercise. I am 5'1 and went from 130-100lbs. I most certainly couldn't have done it in a healthy way eating less.
Eat all you can. A weight loss calorie goal needs to be healthy and sustainable over the length of plan, not short term.
Cheers, h.3 -
From personal experience Id say it is ok.
I usually spend my free days at home literally only laying in bed and gaming so Im doing nothing whatsoever and I usually dont reach my goal calories, other days when I had a 10hour shift Ill have pizza or toast and may be over my calories.
As said already, you shouldnt deprive yourself, its going to get frustrating. I caught it quite early and said "ok today screw it, I dont care if Im 200cal over Ill have my pizza!" as long as there is a balance and you feel alright it should be ok.
It should be about feeling good (not by looking in the mirror or at the scale) but making sure you arent supressing that stomache growl! So 100-200 above or below can be just fine as long as you feel healthy and happy and not tired and hungry!1 -
Don't eat fewer than 1200 calories. Please don't do that to your body. I suspect you could still lose with a higher daily calorie limit--the weight comes off more slowly, but it is also more sustainable. Just my $0.02.
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I am 5"0 and am wondering if I pull eat around the 1000-1100 calorie mark because of my height...yesterday I had 164 calories left over and didn't really feel like I needed them. Any thoughts or suggestions?
You are petite.....but you are also young. A 5' tall senior lady? Yeah, 1100 would work. But you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass to support. Don't eat fewer than 1200 calories. The trade-off isn't worth it.0 -
I am 5"0 and am wondering if I pull eat around the 1000-1100 calorie mark because of my height...yesterday I had 164 calories left over and didn't really feel like I needed them. Any thoughts or suggestions?
You are petite.....but you are also young. A 5' tall senior lady? Yeah, 1100 would work. But you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass to support. Don't eat fewer than 1200 calories. The trade-off isn't worth it.
Heck @teabee, at 62yo, 5'1, 100lbs, 1200 on a sedentary day will have me losing over time. 1100 would have me losing close to 1lbs a week and miserable.
Cheers, h.
(Yes I do realise there are women with my basic stats that would need under 1200. Lifting helps me support a slightly better metabolism than the 960 the calculators show, and retain muscle)0 -
Personally, my advise to that question would be, "Ask your doctor."4
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I don't see why you can't. If you're satisfied, why should you force yourself to eat more, simply because of some generally accepted standard 'rule' of 1200 minimum? If 1200 is the minimum for the average 5'4" woman, why should it be the same for 5'0" and 6'0" women? That's ridiculous. Just use your common sense and listen to your body's natural hunger and thirst signals. Force feeding is as stupid as starving oneself.
And remember there are hundreds of millions if not billions of healthy people who manage to be of normal weight and couldn't tell you how many calories they eat and just eat and drink according to natural hunger and thirst ie. normal. Following arbitrary calorie guidelines is silly, just make sure you're mostly eating a variety of nutrient dense whole foods (to cover essential vitamins and minerals) and you'll be fine. Use cronometer.com for this purpose.1 -
Considering you said you just weren't hungry anymore by the end of the day I say don't force yourself to eat if one (or 2) days you aren't hungry for more AND you feel OK. If you go over your calories another day (or 2) you've given yourself a cushion simply by following your body. I'm guessing your body isn't directly connected to the FDA or whatever super power (*cough* industrial agriculture lobbyists *cough*) decided no woman of any size should ever go below 1200. You'll know right away if you're dragging - then you should definitely eat more. You did not say you were forcing it or even choosing to be below, it just happened.
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I think you may be fine honestly. I have eaten 1000 calories in a day and wasn't hungry at all and I'm 5 ft 6. A few days below is probably fine, it's just probably not advisable to keep at it. You may want to speak with a doctor to know for sure.
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Traveler120 wrote: »I don't see why you can't. If you're satisfied, why should you force yourself to eat more, simply because of some generally accepted standard 'rule' of 1200 minimum? If 1200 is the minimum for the average 5'4" woman, why should it be the same for 5'0" and 6'0" women? That's ridiculous. Just use your common sense and listen to your body's natural hunger and thirst signals. Force feeding is as stupid as starving oneself.
And remember there are hundreds of millions if not billions of healthy people who manage to be of normal weight and couldn't tell you how many calories they eat and just eat and drink according to natural hunger and thirst ie. normal. Following arbitrary calorie guidelines is silly, just make sure you're mostly eating a variety of nutrient dense whole foods (to cover essential vitamins and minerals) and you'll be fine. Use cronometer.com for this purpose.
^ this.
Just eat more or less, mainly following your body's signals (no adverse health symptoms) and the bathroom scale's weekly result. It's also natural since life is fluctuating, the body is capable of managing surplus, deficit. If you can do this, there's no need for weighing, worrying about calories.0 -
Yes. But don't because apparently bad things happen.0
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What is your physical activity like? Do you workout?0
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I really wouldn't go below 1200. If you've got calories left over like that every day, add a snack in somewhere like some nuts/Greek yogurt/protein shake just to get yourself hitting that 1200 mark.0
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Are you sure you only ate 1000-1100? Did you weigh all foods that aren't a liquid (incl oils?) on a food scale?0
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middlehaitch wrote: »I am 5"0 and am wondering if I pull eat around the 1000-1100 calorie mark because of my height...yesterday I had 164 calories left over and didn't really feel like I needed them. Any thoughts or suggestions?
You are petite.....but you are also young. A 5' tall senior lady? Yeah, 1100 would work. But you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass to support. Don't eat fewer than 1200 calories. The trade-off isn't worth it.
Heck @teabee, at 62yo, 5'1, 100lbs, 1200 on a sedentary day will have me losing over time. 1100 would have me losing close to 1lbs a week and miserable.
Cheers, h.
(Yes I do realise there are women with my basic stats that would need under 1200. Lifting helps me support a slightly better metabolism than the 960 the calculators show, and retain muscle)
I'm also short (about 5'1.5) and I eat 1400 on a sedentary day. Even short women can eat more than 1200 and still lose weight0 -
Forty6and2 wrote: »middlehaitch wrote: »I am 5"0 and am wondering if I pull eat around the 1000-1100 calorie mark because of my height...yesterday I had 164 calories left over and didn't really feel like I needed them. Any thoughts or suggestions?
You are petite.....but you are also young. A 5' tall senior lady? Yeah, 1100 would work. But you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass to support. Don't eat fewer than 1200 calories. The trade-off isn't worth it.
Heck @teabee, at 62yo, 5'1, 100lbs, 1200 on a sedentary day will have me losing over time. 1100 would have me losing close to 1lbs a week and miserable.
Cheers, h.
(Yes I do realise there are women with my basic stats that would need under 1200. Lifting helps me support a slightly better metabolism than the 960 the calculators show, and retain muscle)
I'm also short (about 5'1.5) and I eat 1400 on a sedentary day. Even short women can eat more than 1200 and still lose weight
But that's losing half a pound a week...patience is a virtue!
To the op: I eat at least 1200 calories every day but then make up more of a deficit through exercise.0
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