1200 calories per day not enough????

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kschwab0203
kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Today is my first day back after gaining back about 25 lbs of the weight I lost several years ago.

MFP says I'm supposed to eat 1200 calories per day in order to lose approximately 2 lbs per week. Now I know the object is to lose weight which of course means cutting back in calories, however I was just wondering in anyone thought that 1200 per day was a little low. I mean, at this point I will do what needs to be done, but I don't want to set my self up for failure either.

I do have a tendency to binge eat and my fear is that eating only 1200 calories per day may not be reasonable as my fear is that I will just binge eat because I feel like I'm starving.

Any suggestions???
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Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    1200 is too low for most people. Change your weight loss goals to 1lb a week.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,991 Member
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    If you only need to lose 25 pounds then 2 pounds per week is too aggressive. Change your goal to 1 pound per week and you should get more calories.
  • Clawsal
    Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
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    Suggestion: eat more than 1200 kcal a day, even if that means losing less than 2 pounds a week.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    kschwab0203 wrote: »
    Today is my first day back after gaining back about 25 lbs of the weight I lost several years ago.

    MFP says I'm supposed to eat 1200 calories per day in order to lose approximately 2 lbs per week. Now I know the object is to lose weight which of course means cutting back in calories, however I was just wondering in anyone thought that 1200 per day was a little low. I mean, at this point I will do what needs to be done, but I don't want to set my self up for failure either.

    I do have a tendency to binge eat and my fear is that eating only 1200 calories per day may not be reasonable as my fear is that I will just binge eat because I feel like I'm starving.

    Any suggestions???

    If you have a tendency to binge eat, aiming for 2 pounds likely is not a good goal for you. If you were to change your goal to 1 pound per week, your daily goal would increase to somewhere between 1201 and 1700 calories. This may be more sustainable in the long term.
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    Agree this is too aggressive and 0.5-1 pound per week is more reasonable. Make sure you are weighing your food in grams or oz. Avoid using spoons/cups/eyeballing. Log everything and use correct entries (no homemade or generic). If you lost 25 pounds once you can do it again!
  • CindyFooWho
    CindyFooWho Posts: 179 Member
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    That's what MFP set me at just over a year ago. I stuck to it pretty well, with some exceptions of course. I lost slowly - less than a pound per week. So I'm sure that number was right for me. I'm not really young and I wasn't really heavy, so I guess that's what that number was based upon.

    But I ate back my exercise. I didn't care about the precision of the calorie burn estimates, I ate them. I treated 1200 calories as what I should be eating if I did no exercise. But when I worked out - which is often - I fueled myself properly.
  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
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    Thanks yall! I was worried that I may just be jumping off a cliff by trying to stick to 1200 right off the bat. I've changed it to 1 lb. per week and my intake has gone up to 1450, which certainly seems way more reasonable.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    CindyFooWho wrote: »
    That's what MFP set me at just over a year ago. I stuck to it pretty well, with some exceptions of course. I lost slowly - less than a pound per week. So I'm sure that number was right for me. I'm not really young and I wasn't really heavy, so I guess that's what that number was based upon.

    But I ate back my exercise. I didn't care about the precision of the calorie burn estimates, I ate them. I treated 1200 calories as what I should be eating if I did no exercise. But when I worked out - which is often - I fueled myself properly.

    Which is how it's supposed to work :)
  • beautifulswimmer5713
    beautifulswimmer5713 Posts: 1 Member
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    Does anyone have the opposite problem? I'm trying to lose weight and it's my first day here. I input my food for the day and I'm apparently under eating and not getting enough nutrients. I only logged 1158 calories and that's truly all I ate. Are the calories for the foods I ate wrong or am I doing something wrong?
  • DresdenSinn
    DresdenSinn Posts: 665 Member
    edited October 2016
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    beautifulswimmer5713 wrote: »
    Does anyone have the opposite problem? I'm trying to lose weight and it's my first day here. I input my food for the day and I'm apparently under eating and not getting enough nutrients. I only logged 1158 calories and that's truly all I ate. Are the calories for the foods I ate wrong or am I doing something wrong?

    MFP considers anything under 1200kcal to be under or malnourished and won't let you complete your daily food log unless your at least at 1200kcal

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    DresdenSinn wrote: »
    beautifulswimmer5713 wrote: »
    Does anyone have the opposite problem? I'm trying to lose weight and it's my first day here. I input my food for the day and I'm apparently under eating and not getting enough nutrients. I only logged 1158 calories and that's truly all I ate. Are the calories for the foods I ate wrong or am I doing something wrong?

    MFP considers anything under 1200kcal to be under or malnourished and won't let you complete your daily food log unless your at least at 1200kcal

    It won't let men complete their diaries under 1200 calories total...for women, that number is 1000 calories.

    OP, 1200 is the absolute minimum MFP will give you, meaning you would not have met your 2 pound a week goal without dangerously undereating (since it bumped you to 1450 for a pound a week, losing 2 pounds a week would mean only eating 950 calories a day, which is not safe).
  • kirstenphill
    kirstenphill Posts: 1 Member
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    Do any of you utilize the ketogenic method of eating?
  • DeviatedNorm
    DeviatedNorm Posts: 422 Member
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    1200 calories is low, but it just means you have to be mindful of what you eat. People on here like to argue that you can lose weight eating whatever you want as long as you keep the calories low, which is true, but if you don't eat the right foods you'll be miserable and will be more likely to binge or give up entirely.

    I do a 1200 calorie diet pretty easily, but I am super careful about what makes up those 1200 calories. Generally I just follow a diabetic-friendly, high-protein diet and I'm reasonably satiated without hunger pangs.
  • DeviatedNorm
    DeviatedNorm Posts: 422 Member
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    beautifulswimmer5713 wrote: »
    Does anyone have the opposite problem? I'm trying to lose weight and it's my first day here. I input my food for the day and I'm apparently under eating and not getting enough nutrients. I only logged 1158 calories and that's truly all I ate. Are the calories for the foods I ate wrong or am I doing something wrong?

    How do you know you ate 1158 calories? Are these all prepackaged foods? Are you weighing things?
  • mylanaqua
    mylanaqua Posts: 10 Member
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    I do agree with most you have posted, that 1200 cal is way too low. Unless you're under 5 feet and you're very petite and also you have a sedentary life. If you have a tendency to binge try to substitute, and also target for 1 pound per week. Once you get the hang of it you'll start realizing that when you eat healthy options with more calories you will burn much more weight.
  • jo_nz
    jo_nz Posts: 548 Member
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    beautifulswimmer5713 wrote: »
    Does anyone have the opposite problem? I'm trying to lose weight and it's my first day here. I input my food for the day and I'm apparently under eating and not getting enough nutrients. I only logged 1158 calories and that's truly all I ate. Are the calories for the foods I ate wrong or am I doing something wrong?

    Based on one day, it's a bit hard to tell. Some days I eat slightly under and feel full, other days over. I try and hit my goal as a weekly average.

    With time you will know how accurate that is - if you are losing weight as expected, you are golden.
  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
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    Thanks for all the feed back! I changed my goal to 1 lb per week and figured once I get into a groove with logging my food and knowing what to eat and really establishing an exercise routine then I'll shoot for the 2 lbs per week. Like I said, I don't want to set myself for failure. I'd rather baby step it in the beginning if I have to than to try to go balls to the wall and it be a bust because it was too much all at once.
  • redperphexion
    redperphexion Posts: 193 Member
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    Don't forget! MFP is suggesting 1200 -NET- calories!

    If you put in a good day/workout, you will likely need another few hundred in order to stay over the 1200 net minimum for an adult.

    Example: I am 5'1" and have my settings on "sedentary", so MFP recommends 1280 NET calories a day for me. I work a desk job but go for the mail, do housework, the occasional workout, and walk my dog. Most days my FitBit corrects my calorie burn by +200 to 500 a day, depending on my activity level. That means I eat 1400-1700 a day to maintain 1200 net. If I lie in and lounge all day, I won't get extra.
  • kschwab0203
    kschwab0203 Posts: 610 Member
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    That's good point! Although I am mostly at my desk all day, I do a ton of moving a round once I get home. 3 kids!!! LOL!
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,949 Member
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    I usually set my activity level to "lightly active" which gives me a maintenance closer to what other calculators will give me. I based mine off the Scooby Calculator which assumes 1 - 3 hours of light exercise a week. Which is a couple sessions of yoga or some lunchtime walks or some cleaning. So I set mine to "lightly active" and only log moderate to intense exercise (kickboxing classes, running, etc). It helped me get a number I thought was more appropriate for myself. I also only eat back 50% of the calorie burn the MFP says. So say I run for X minutes and MFP says I burned 300 calories. I overwrite it before adding it to my diary with 150 calories for the same X minutes.

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