Is 1200 Calories To Little?

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Replies

  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    I'm tall and very heavy (5'8" and a little under 270 right now); I stick to 1200 during the week, but mostly so I can have more on the weekends. I don't find it particularly difficult, but it does take a lot of careful meal planning and shopping. I'm also pretty sedentary, and I imagine an active person would struggle a lot more.
  • rps2595
    rps2595 Posts: 7 Member
    Yeah. I find that if I plan my meals ahead it's not so bad eating 1200, but if I don't plan I almost always will go over.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    avskk wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Every one of these threads includes so many people who are eating way lower than they need to be for their height, goals, and activity levels. It never ceases to amaze me how many people could be eating more, still losing, and reach their goals without having to "get used to it" or "take careful planning" or manage to get by".

    It's just a shame.

    I respect that, but for me personally (I was the one who mentioned careful planning), this is what works. I need the careful planning to keep me from bingeing, to keep me thinking about making good, nutritious choices, and to allow me the freedom I enjoy on the weekends. I've tried a higher calorie limit during the week and, while I still lost weight, I found it much harder mentally and emotionally. I now focus on my weekly goal and deficit; I eat very low-calorie during the week when it's easy for me to do so because I'm busy with work and school, and on the weekends when I want to drink and snack and relax I can do so without worrying about it.

    The important thing, and what I probably didn't make clear in my original post, is that I'm not eating 1200 calories or less every single day and I'm not generating an unusually high overall deficit. My daily average over a week is very close to the ~1700 calories MFP has set for me, which I feel is a good and healthy goal. I agree that sticking to a 1200-or-less daily average is an unsustainable plan for most people (who aren't extremely petite, older, or very sedentary), and can lead to unhealthy behaviors and damage physical health.

    Funny, I actually thought maybe I should leave out the "careful planning" comment because I don't actually see that as a bad thing. Most of us who are successful on MFP or with weight loss in general rely on careful planning.

    It sounds like you have a very pragmatic approach and I respect that and think there are certainly some instances where 1200 cals can be appropriate, the way you are doing it with balancing cals over the week is similar to my approach with banking cals during the week for higher cals on the weekends.

    However there are always so many people who think they have to eat at 1200 or under to lose, just because MFP says so, or because they have their goal set too aggressively, or they just want to lose faster than they were. As you mentioned, for extremely petite, older, sedentary women it might be appropriate but for the majority, it is likely not necessary...
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    I think we totally agree and I just overthought my response to your comment. I definitely agree that too many people are cutting to 1200 or below when that's not an appropriate goal for most of us, and I hope the OP and anyone else reading this and struggling takes that to heart.
  • Michael190lbs
    Michael190lbs Posts: 1,510 Member
    If you ask don't you know already?
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
    edited November 2016
    i think a lot of people under eat when they first start out. I live for the days i burn 2000-2500 cals and get to eat more. Unfortunately there are days i am legit sedentary and dont burn anything. Its my choice i could take breaks from school and go do stuff but i actually enjoy the days i lounge around. Wednesday I had 3 papers 2 finals and 2 discussion posts to do for school. I literally got 980 steps.. for the whole day. i basically hit my bmr.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,281 Member
    avskk wrote: »
    I'm tall and very heavy (5'8" and a little under 270 right now); I stick to 1200 during the week, but mostly so I can have more on the weekends. I don't find it particularly difficult, but it does take a lot of careful meal planning and shopping. I'm also pretty sedentary, and I imagine an active person would struggle a lot more.

    Well, not really - if they are doing it via MFP they should be eating back their exercise calories -1200 is the NET minimum.
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    Oh, definitely, but I think an active person would have a harder time sticking to a 1200 net -- even if it was 1600-1800 total -- than a super-sedentary person like me. When I'm more active I find this way of eating no longer works well for me, even if my total calories are higher to account for the exercise. It's just because 1200 is so very low, I think; adjusting net calories to 1400-1800 makes a big difference.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,281 Member
    yes I agree a couple of hundred calories more really makes a difference - I first started on 1200 and lasted about a week before adjusting it to 1460 (by changing rate to 1/2 lb week)

    Again though it depends on your stats and whether1200 is appropriate in the first place.

    I was 5 ft 4 in (well , I still am!) 5o years old and lightly active with 10 kg to lose.

    Lost it slowly and steadily at 1 kg per month or about 1/2 lb/week.
  • starryphoenix
    starryphoenix Posts: 381 Member
    edited November 2016
    When I'm on track I eat 1500 and burn 300. Therefore I net 1200 which is practically the same. I just don't go hungry.
  • Pierre_is_a_cat
    Pierre_is_a_cat Posts: 89 Member
    edited November 2016
    I shoot for 1200 a day, before exercise.

    To be perfectly honest, I reckon I am skating pretty close to the line and I absolutely have found I am hungry some days. My solution has been similar to what @successgirl1 up above says -- choose really fibrous foods and get plenty of water. :) It's what's worked for me. I do all my food prep for a week (or three) in advance. I will say, the week I didn't have fresh fruit and veggies to supplement my prepared rice/quinoa meals I snapped by the time did I get to a supermarket and went WILD on fruits. Hahah. I binged on about 1000cals of them. That's a literal account, 1000cals... oops...

    I am still learning how to fuel my body appropriately and trying to listen to what it's telling me. So far I would say 1200 is fine. :)
  • chewyjello
    chewyjello Posts: 6 Member
    I just got myself a personal trainer and told him I was struggling staying at 1200 calories (that's what it was telling me to stick to also) and he said "No wonder! That's not enough! You need 1500-1600." Granted I burn about 350 exercising daily (and one I start training im sure it will be more than that), but I had not been subtracting my calories burned by entering my exercise (read something that said that could sabatage you). So I started eating 1500 and I feel much better and I'm losing weight again! If you're not active at all I suppose 1200 could be necessary...but for me it was really hard and I would end up binging at night or giving into temptations because I was hungry.
  • successgal1
    successgal1 Posts: 996 Member
    Yes I'm 95% not active at the moment. Not that I don't have the occasional active day. I have my fitbit tell me when that is. I've struggled in the past trying to lose and workout at the same time. I did lose almost 20 lbs, but its frankly too hard for me, takes too much time in my day and too much to think about. Plus while my body did reshape, I find it demotivating to never see the scale move down because of post workout water weight. I'm sure many of you are laughing right now. Me too. But anyway, I decided this time I'll just work on calories and fat loss. Underneath my fat I'm sort of fit, will just keep doing what I do, live my life, to maintain that. When I can lose the 7 lbs I put back on and drop another 20 I'll worry about upper body strength. And my fitbit HR will inform me of days I might want to eat a little more, if I did some yard work or something.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,746 Member
    How many lbs did you set to lose a week? when I started I set it at 2. My friend, who lost 70lbs here said that's too little & I should eat 1600/day, so i set it at 1lb/wk. It gave me 1440, as I lost 20lbs, it went down to my current cal at 1340, which is doable, however about 2 weeks ago I got more of an appitite due to the cool weather i'm sure so i set it at 1/2 lb/wk. Even though I try to have calories left at the end of the day, I can eat 1600/day. I'm still loosing at 1600
  • MFPelr
    MFPelr Posts: 3 Member
    I've been doing 1200/day since July 25 (with the obvious odd days where I'm above or below).

    I'm 5'9", start weight 255, current weight 217, goal weight (for now) 175.

    So in 105 days I've lost 38 pounds. Exercising slightly (10km stationary bike ride in 28-30 minutes 3-5 times a week and just started strength exercises).

    I feel fine. Normal. Like I did when I was eating 3,000+/day. Except I feel lighter now ;)

    But I do take the following supplements:

    * breakfast is a meal replacement shake (Vega All-in-One or Isagenix, JUST the shakes not the entire program)
    * B12 sublingual
    * B Complex
    * Vitamin D
    * Turmeric (for my knees ;)
    * Curcumin (again, joints)
    * Calcium/Magnesium before bed
  • jcraig10
    jcraig10 Posts: 477 Member
    1200 is enough for me most days that I don't exercise. When I do exercise, I have found that I need around 1500-1600 to feel happy. If you plan your meals and snacks, 1200 isn't really that hard of a range to stay in.
  • MiniMansell1964
    MiniMansell1964 Posts: 188 Member
    Its all down to the calorie content of what ever your eating.

    for eg. One mars bar at 260cal would not leave me feeling as full of 250g of 250gram or mushrooms which is only 55cal

    I can really feel full, with a plate of salad, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, grilled Salmon. and still come in less than a choc snack

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