Feel light headed on 1200 calories.

MFP started me on the same amount of calories and I was starving and cranky. SO CRANKY. I upped my calories a bit and feel much better and have more energy. Maybe you can try more calories for a little while and see how that goes.

I might be wrong but are you staying hydrated? A common cause of low blood that can lead to dizziness pressure is dehydration.... just a thought. Are you spacing out your calories thru the day or are you only eating a couple of times a day?

My advice is if you are hungry, then please eat more (but choose something healthy). Always listen to your body over what MyFitnessPal says. You don't have to starve to lose weight. I've lost over 100 pounds without feeling weak or deprived of food.

Quilty60 wrote: »

Calorie intake goal 1107?

No! You already feel lightheaded on 1200, do not go lower!! Stay above BMR

So, if this helps - there is disagreement in the medical community, world wide, about how many calories people should eat to lose X amount of weight. Different countries have different standards. I've noticed that MFP seems to take the lower end of calories recommendations.

The thing is, PEOPLE are quite individual, and what may be healthy for one person may be far too few calories for another. It's often best to see how YOU feel, and if you are not feeling good on the amount of calories you are eating, I would eat more, you know?

Re: losing weight as someone with health issues - in my experience (as someone who has a few chronic illnesses, and is on support groups for them so I talk with others who have these, too), don't approach it like a healthy person.

Because losing weight is a stressor on your body. And due to your illnesses, you ALREADY have numerous stressors on your body. Losing weight at 1 pound a week, while fine for someone healthy, may be excessive strain on YOUR body, you know?

Many chronically ill people I know try to exercise or lose weight in a much slower manner than those who are healthy (if, of course, they don't have doctor's advice to do so in a different manner). And from a different, well, perspective, I guess.

Healthy folks can start at a higher level of exercise/weight loss and if it's too much, not a big deal. Easily remedied. But if you start doing too much when you are already ill, it can really knock you down. It can be better to, instead, start small and work your way up slowly, so you start getting hints when things are getting too much and you need to slow it back down.

As an example, when I started walking exercises, I tried at first to walk 15 minutes at a time a few times a day - such a bad idea. My illness flares due to exercise, too, and holy cow, everything just nose dived!

So to combat it, I literally started with 3-5 minutes a day, and I increased my time by 1 minute every 1-2 days. And I had to make sure to time it, and even if I felt 'ok' when I walked, I kept it to that tiny, incremental increase. And I WAS able to slowly increase my exercise, even though it felt like I was moving at a glacial pace. And when I hit the point where my body was just doing too much, I was only BARELY doing too much, with that small increase in exercise times, so the flare was tiny, and I was able to go back down to a safe exercise level without so many health problems.

Weight loss can be the same, for us less healthy folks. Starting really small, like 1/8 or 1/4 of a pound a week, and then if that feels good, increasing the amount little by little, until it is in a 'good' range for you, you know?

Wishing you well, hon!