Anyone 5ft eat fewer than 1200 a day
mari5466
Posts: 137 Member
I am 5ft tall and I usually eat around 1,000 calories a day because I'm worried because of me height I won't lose weight eating 1200. I excercise 5 days a week and I have been trying to add more muscle to my body and I'm now getting toned. I have 5-8 more pounds to lose but im not sure if I should start eating 1200 or stick to what I've been doing and I want to know what other people my height do.
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Replies
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You aren't going to gain muscle in a deficit. Go with the 1200 so you can fuel your body.7
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I'm 5'1 went from 130 lbs to a maintenance range of 100-105 lbs eating 1200 plus a minimum of 150 cals for each hour I exercised. (Usually in the 175-225 range)
There should be no reason (except medical) for you to eat under 1200 cals. Eating lower, even when exercising will have little effect on muscle development, you are probably losing more than needed. The toned look is because you have less fat covering the muscle, not that you have grown new muscle.
Up your calories, get plenty of protein (treat the MFP goal as a minimum), and eat back your exercise calories.
You may lose a little slower, .5 lbs a week on a good week, but you will like the results so much more.
Cheers, h.8 -
I'm 4'10" and have no trouble losing on 1200 calories a day. My maintainance cals are around 1600-1650, so 1200 gives me a nice deficit.6
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middlehaitch wrote: »I'm 5'1 went from 130 lbs to a maintenance range of 100-105 lbs eating 1200 plus a minimum of 150 cals for each hour I exercised. (Usually in the 175-225 range)
There should be no reason (except medical) for you to eat under 1200 cals. Eating lower, even when exercising will have little effect on muscle development, you are probably losing more than needed. The toned look is because you have less fat covering the muscle, not that you have grown new muscle.
Up your calories, get plenty of protein (treat the MFP goal as a minimum), and eat back your exercise calories.
You may lose a little slower, .5 lbs a week on a good week, but you will like the results so much more.
Cheers, h.
My boyfriend has been telling me the same for a few weeks now. I am kinda going through the same journey you are, I was at around 130 and I've gone down to 120 and I want to be between 115-110. I was at one point 105 a few years ago. I dont think I could go back down to that weight. I was wondering approximately how long it took you? I get very discouraged losing .5 pound a week.0 -
Instead of making your weight your goal, switch it up to making your body composition your goal.
I am assuming you want to look good as well as feel good and unless you get your weight tattooed on your forehead no one knows how much you weigh.
I'm not sure what you are doing for exercise, but think of starting a weightlifting programme. Don't be intimidated- you can start with Dumbbells, machines, or body weight and progress to a barbell if, or when, you are ready. Read through the programmes here and see if one fits your goals.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1
You can do cardio on your alternate days if you wish.
Just remember for a strong, healthy body that looks good - you need to fuel it.
Eat as much as you can to reach your goal. With proper nutrition you could reach your goal weight at an average loss of .5 lbs a week in 3-4 months.
Cheers, h.
Wow, I used up my daily allowance of the word goal in this post. Sorry- pre glass of wine fuzziness.5 -
1200 calories is what a toddler eats, even at 5' you shouldn't have issue losing weight only eating 1200 calories a day.6
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middlehaitch wrote: »Instead of making your weight your goal, switch it up to making your body composition your goal.
I am assuming you want to look good as well as feel good and unless you get your weight tattooed on your forehead no one knows how much you weigh.
I'm not sure what you are doing for exercise, but think of starting a weightlifting programme. Don't be intimidated- you can start with Dumbbells, machines, or body weight and progress to a barbell if, or when, you are ready. Read through the programmes here and see if one fits your goals.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1
You can do cardio on your alternate days if you wish.
Just remember for a strong, healthy body that looks good - you need to fuel it.
Eat as much as you can to reach your goal. With proper nutrition you could reach your goal weight at an average loss of .5 lbs a week in 3-4 months.
Cheers, h.
Wow, I used up my daily allowance of the word goal in this post. Sorry- pre glass of wine fuzziness.
Your right. I don't have it tattoed. Sometimes I get very OCD about my weight loss. I also do cardio and weight lifting and I've started trying different work outs.
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So glad you didn't get the tattoo @mari5466.
Eat more. Keep up the work outs, and put the scale away for a few weeks. If you can't put the scale away get a weight trending app. It will even out your weight trends, TOM bloat etc.
Cheers, h.3 -
I'm 5'0". When losing weight I eat between 1600-1700 calories a day. I am pretty active. I would be very grumpy and possibly homicidal eating 1200 calories a day.
If you only have a couple pounds left to lose do it slowly like @middlehaitch suggested.3 -
You should never ever eat below 1200 calories because it'll cause metabolic damage which will eventually lead you to having difficulty with losing any weight at all and your weight will stall. I'm 5'2 and even though MFP tells me to eat 1200, I don't follow that guideline. I used a professional website to calculate my calories and now I eat 1500 and am successfully losing weight.4
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I'm 5'1". I don't lose weight by eating 1200. I don't eat more than 1000 and still there are weeks I don't lose, but then again I also don't exercise.0
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Just to be clear, this is what 1260 calories look like. You can find lots of examples of 1200 calorie meals by looking up appropriate diets for toddlers
http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-education-printables/511-chef-solus-1200-calorie-menu-plan-for-young-kids
It is hard for me to picture any adult eating that little. I mean look at the portions.
1 8oz low fat plain yogurt
1 oz of granola with 1/2 a cup of strawberries
1 oz of wheat crackers with 1 oz of carrots
Turkey sandwich made with one slice of bread, 1/2 a cup of chopped broccoli
1 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup banana.
1/2 cup rice 2oz of chicken breast
That is 1262 calories right there. That is basically 1/2 a small unadorned sandwich, a handful of granola, one yogurt and 1/4 of a plate of rice and chicken plus like one or two fruits or your entire day. I mean I get that makes sense for a 5 year old but for an adult?
I mean those are tiny portions and only of fairly low calorie fibery foods and fruits.
To people who say they eat 1000 calories a day I am really curious as to what you are eating because 1000 calories is like a sandwich and a glass of milk. My suspicion would be that you are under counting. Unfortunately I can't tell because I have yet to see anyone eating 1000-1200 calories having their diet public and open.7 -
I'm hearing ya @Aaron_K123 , My dessert tonight is 771 calories I can only get away with it because my dinner has pitifully low calories, and I'm taking full advantage with a bumper dessert!1
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I'm 4'11 my mfp daily goal is 1200 if I go over I just workout a little extra that day only on week 3 & I hv lost weight each week. I know it feels discouraging to lose .5 a week but you're so close to your goal and you gotta keep yourself healthy too because that should be 1st priority and it's true, you won't gain muscle in a deficit as someone else mentioned.1
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I'm 5'2" with an unusually small frame and low metabolism. I used to eat 1000 calories a day with a doctor's permission - it was totally doable, but apparently made me grumpy. Right now, I eat 1200 calories a day along with a reasonable amount of exercise.
My diary isn't public, but here's a place where you can find a lot of 1200ish-calorie days:
https://www.reddit.com/r/1200isplenty/
Also, just as an example, here's today's under-1200 meals for me:
- Breakfast: 2 Weetabix with milk and caramel syrup, vanilla meal replacement shake* with half a frozen banana blended in, strawberry jelly
- Lunch: broccoli soup, seeded flatbread with cream cheese and chargrilled peppers, raw snacking vegetables
- Dinner: vegan red lentil stew, buttered oven bottom muffin
- Snack: hardboiled egg with mustard (for protein after aikido class)
- Drinks: tea (I don't like coffee), no-added-sugar ginger beer, fruit squash, fizzy vitamin C tablet
*The meal replacement shake isn't because I need the nutrition - I could easily have something else for the same calorie value, like a couple of eggs or some avocado cheese toast or a bagel thin with butter or jam or a sultana scone. I just really like the flavour of these particular shakes!0 -
@Aaron_K123. There are valid reasons for people eating 1200 cals.
I know you love to tell people it is toddler food but please be respectful of us more petite women who really do eat 1200 cals if we are sedentary.
MFP gives me 1200 for maintenance!
(No that isn't the amount I eat. I reverse dieted and exercise but there are some that do)
As a petite woman who successfully lost, and has been maintaining for over 6 years I am constantly talking to the more petite women about suitable calorie intake goals and exercise calories- and never advise under 1200 or not eating exercise calories
I am fully aware that losing 10lbs at 5' and 128 lbs can take 6 months of meticulous calorie counting, eating back 150-250 per hr of exercise and then seeing the scale move only 1 lbs in 6 weeks. It can be frustrating.
Please, give us some respect and don't refer to our diet as toddler food. It is insulting. It would be much better if you could offer help in solving issues with logging or exercise or activity levels.
None of the regular posters on these boards encourages under 1200 that is why you never see a 1000 cal diary.
Sorry for the rant. I am a non confrontational poster who has felt belittled twice in this one thread by your posts.
Cheers, h.24 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Just to be clear, this is what 1260 calories look like. You can find lots of examples of 1200 calorie meals by looking up appropriate diets for toddlers
http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-education-printables/511-chef-solus-1200-calorie-menu-plan-for-young-kids
It is hard for me to picture any adult eating that little. I mean look at the portions.
1 8oz low fat plain yogurt
1 oz of granola with 1/2 a cup of strawberries
1 oz of wheat crackers with 1 oz of carrots
Turkey sandwich made with one slice of bread, 1/2 a cup of chopped broccoli
1 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup banana.
1/2 cup rice 2oz of chicken breast
That is 1262 calories right there. That is basically 1/2 a small unadorned sandwich, a handful of granola, one yogurt and 1/4 of a plate of rice and chicken plus like one or two fruits or your entire day. I mean I get that makes sense for a 5 year old but for an adult?
I mean those are tiny portions and only of fairly low calorie fibery foods and fruits.
To people who say they eat 1000 calories a day I am really curious as to what you are eating because 1000 calories is like a sandwich and a glass of milk. My suspicion would be that you are under counting. Unfortunately I can't tell because I have yet to see anyone eating 1000-1200 calories having their diet public and open.
1200 calories can look like a LOT more food than that. I never eat granola. It has too many calories for such a small volume of food, and is usually full of empty sugar calories. IMO it's junk food. I also would never do something like wheat crackers and carrots--there's nothing there that's satiating. I might do crackers and cheese, or carrots and hummus--something with some protein and/or fat. Yes, a smaller volume of food than the crackers and carrots but much more satiating. I'd take out the rice and replace it with a plateful of veggies with a drizzle of olive oil or butter.
I assume you're a man and likely a lot taller and more muscular than us petite women, so it's understandable that it's hard for you to grasp that we really don't need all that much food. My DH had a hard time understanding how much less I need to eat than he does when we first started dating (many, many years ago!). It really isn't hard for me to do a 1200 calorie a day diet or even less. Give me 1100 and I can do quite well. Yes, I'll be hungry. But not starving or hangry.
As far as comparing it to toddler intake -- I don't know that that makes much sense. Despite raising two children to adulthood, I don't actually know what the recommended calorie intake is for toddlers. But I do know from experience that toddlers are usually very busy (active) and I'm guessing they need a relatively high number of calories just to support their little bodies' growth and development. That's a stage us adult ladies have long passed.7 -
I can see that 1200 is suitable for some adults - usually females who are small, short, older, inactive.
When I was losing weight I lost steadily on 1460 - I was 50 years old, 5ft 4 and lightly active.
It is not difficult to find someone shorter, older, less active than me and I can see that they would be right eating 260 calories a day less than me
(that was net calories)2 -
Yup, I am 148cm or about four foot ten. I ate around 1140 calories of food today, am not hungry, and am about to go to sleep now. Usually I'd eat a little more, but usually I'd also go for a walk or two and I didn't get to do that today because the weather's been utterly miserable. I'm not shocked that toddlers need a lot of food relative to their size either, since they're constantly running around and their life is like a neverending growth spurt at that age.5
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http://www.losertown.org/eats/cal.php
Put your details into this calculator and it should tell you a projection of future weight based on your caloric intake. I found it helpful3 -
middlehaitch wrote: »@Aaron_K123. There are valid reasons for people eating 1200 cals.
I know you love to tell people it is toddler food but please be respectful of us more petite women who really do eat 1200 cals if we are sedentary.
MFP gives me 1200 for maintenance!
(No that isn't the amount I eat. I reverse dieted and exercise but there are some that do)
As a petite woman who successfully lost, and has been maintaining for over 6 years I am constantly talking to the more petite women about suitable calorie intake goals and exercise calories- and never advise under 1200 or not eating exercise calories
I am fully aware that losing 10lbs at 5' and 128 lbs can take 6 months of meticulous calorie counting, eating back 150-250 per hr of exercise and then seeing the scale move only 1 lbs in 6 weeks. It can be frustrating.
Please, give us some respect and don't refer to our diet as toddler food. It is insulting. It would be much better if you could offer help in solving issues with logging or exercise or activity levels.
None of the regular posters on these boards encourages under 1200 that is why you never see a 1000 cal diary.
Sorry for the rant. I am a non confrontational poster who has felt belittled twice in this one thread by your posts.
Cheers, h.
I have to agree.
@Aaron_K123 Your knowledge is vast and commendable, but when it comes to the diet of a ~5' female, you haven't got a clue. Leave the advice to folks who are going through the experience, who understand the balance between appetite, activity level and relatively low weight goals (compared to one such as yourself). Comparing us to toddlers is condescending and rude6 -
I just wanted to chime in as a petite (5'2) female over 40 who tried 1200 net to lose initially and found it to be far too few calories for me to be sustainable. I started reading the good advice on these boards that most people, even petite women, can eat more and still lose. I raised my goal first to 1400 then 1500 NET, and was still losing. I worked on steadily increasing my activity/step count and lost most of my weight eating between 1600-1900 cals and am now maintaining that 35 lb loss with a TDEE of 2100.
Yes there are some extremely petite, extremely sedentary women for whom it may be required to max out at 1200 cals but OP it doesn't sound like you fit that bill. It sounds to me that rather than focusing on losing the last few pounds you may benefit more from focusing on strength training and body recomp as @middlehaitch suggested above.
Also one additional detail of my own story, I initially started out with a goal of 125, down from a start weight of 153. I hit that pretty easily within a year eating at the calorie levels I mentioned above. Then I thought I would change my goal to 120, but I stalled out at 123 and couldn't for the life of me go lower (without reducing cals which I didn't want to do at that point). So I decided to switch to maintenance. I didn't add many cals at that point since I was already not losing and by definition eating at maintenance. But I changed my mindset and started focusing more on weights ( circuit with light weights) and just eating to my FitBit cal burn but no more. After about a month I started losing again and now I maintain my weight range between 118-121. For me the attitude shift was critical.
Good luck.7 -
I would argue (and have) that in order to lose weight, some of us HAVE to go down to 1200 or even below in order to lose weight IF you are sedentary...but you're not, you exercise quite a bit and are trying to build muscle. Maybe consider body recomp. Eat at maintenance and lift heavy weights...you'll(hopefully) lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
Good luck.3 -
Also, my toddler and I have vastly different body goals...while he is growing rapidly, I am doing my best to shrink which ends up with us having similar food intake.4
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Thank you everyone for the advise. The reason I was curious mostly about going up to 1200 is because since I've been weight lifting I've become a lot hungrier. I know muscle helps burn calories at rest so I've been trying to bulk up. I work out 5-6 days a week. Usually 4 days of lifting. Also I agree I don't eat like a toddler. I am the size of a 6th grader, of course I don't eat like a normal sized adult. I also don't shop for normal size adult clothing or take medication at the same amount as an adult because I'm a petite woman. Not everyone is built the same.1
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I'm 5'5 and was eating on average about 800 calories a day (reallyyy terrible I know. I've been meal skipping since I was a kid), I was gaining weight because my body was stuck in starvation mode. To top it off I was doing 1-2 hr weight lifting sessions about 5-6x a week and eventually my body gave out and my health went to crap. I actually listened to my husband and started eating 1200 calories a day or more to see if it really made a difference and have lost 13 lbs in 6 weeks. I'm no expert but maybe up your calories to 1200 for a few weeks and see how your body reacts. I feel much stronger and have upped my weight and reps at the gym thanks to the extra fuel. Might work for you also.1
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If you want to bulk, then your calories will need to be upped even further, as you need a calorie surplus0
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People need to stop being offended by the idea of eating like a toddler...they pack it away! Remember that they are not at maintenance for their size, they eat at a massive surplus to fuel rapid brain and muscle growth....And they run from sun up till sun down.1
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People need to stop being offended by the idea of eating like a toddler...they pack it away! Remember that they are not at maintenance for their size, they eat at a massive surplus to fuel rapid brain and muscle growth....And they run from sun up till sun down.
It's being told that it's wrong and that I need to "eat like a grown-up" (not his words, just the sentiment) that bothers me.2 -
I know, I just actually know how toddlers eat0
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