1200 calorie intake and burning 300-400

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ankachinu
ankachinu Posts: 23 Member
in Getting Started
I am 25 F, 5'6. I am presently 79 kg which is over weight. After putting all my info and goals (lightly active, goal weight 57kg by end of this year ) on MFP, the calorie calculator showed that my intake should be 1200 cal.
So from past one week I am consuming min of 1200 cal, along with that I am burning approx 300-400 cal by exercising but by end of the day it's not always that I am able to cover those cal.
My husband says that I am depriving myself.
Truthfully I don't feel so, even after working out ( which in jogging at approx 8kmh for 40 mins) I don't feel tired or hungry.

Is anyone following a similar routine ? Any tips ?
Or if someone who has but have changed the routine?

Replies

  • mom22dogs
    mom22dogs Posts: 470 Member
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    You are depriving yourself, and you will eventually feel it. Eat at a net 1200 calories.
  • ankachinu
    ankachinu Posts: 23 Member
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    I was exactly 64 last year, have been pretty bad with my eating past one year.
    Had been doing extremes, on some days I would only be having one meal and on others I would be hogging food all day ( it wasn't because I was trying to loose weight and then binge, it was just that my lifestyle had changed and I wasn't able to give thoughts to what and how I was eating )

    Have this app from quite some time but only started being serious since last week.
    On days when I work out in the morning, I manage to cover the cal, but when I work out in the evening it's then that I miss my cal goal by few.
  • nikkireynolds969
    nikkireynolds969 Posts: 1 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Hi. We all have a baseline calorie intake, one where we don't gain or lose weight. This is done through a trial and error period of recording exactly what you are eating for a few weeks - 1 month to see what happens to your weight. I am 35 yrs old, female, 69kgs, 5'8", and, again the same as you, I have a sedentary job, MFP said 1200cls per day would be sufficient. But what my body will do is to hold on to whatever I am eating and store this as fat, as I will not be fuelling my body the way it should be. I have increased it to 1800cls per day and am trialling it. FYI, I train 6 days a week, 30-60mins of cardio and strength train 3 times a week. I will keep you posted on how I get on. Good luck and keep me posted with your progress. B) ps - my goal is to lose body fat %, currently at 28%, want to drop to 20%. Clothing size 12, want to drop to comfortable size 10.
  • lesita75
    lesita75 Posts: 379 Member
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    Your goal should be to NET 1200 calories per day; not only consume 1200 calories per day. So if you are burning 300-400 calories daily you should be eating 1500-1600 calories per day. When I started I was stuck on 1200 calories per day. In the beginning it was okay, but as time went on I found that I was irritable and hungry.
  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    You didn't get to 79kg by not being able to eat more than 1200 cals.

    Eat your exercise cals back.

    This!!!
  • ankachinu
    ankachinu Posts: 23 Member
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    Hi nik
    My aim is to reach training similar to yours, it the first week of workout so I was trying to warm up my body before directly jumping into it.
    Once I increase the workout intensity I am sure 1200 would not be enough
    Thanks and all the best for your goal,will update you in a month.
    With some trial and error maybe I will be able to balance things out
  • ankachinu
    ankachinu Posts: 23 Member
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    Surprisingly for now I am not feeling cranky by end of the day. ( this isn't the first time I am giving this a try, the max I have gone is for 20 days or so)
    This time I am eating lots of veggies and protein and making my food interesting, like by making oats pancakes.
    But I don't want to risk of ending it again, so as you said would now divide my meals for 1500 cal so that when I sit to eat I don't have to think about covering the burned cal.
  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
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    Ive alway been told eat the 1200 and about half of your excercise calories back because the amount burned may not be right
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    At 5'6" as a young female most like your calorie needs to stay the same is 1800-1900 calories.

    Anything under that will cause fat loss if done consistently over time.

    You don't have to worry about starvation mode until you get to 12% body fat (the Army doctors proved that in a human study). However if you internet search "Minnesota Starvation Study" you will find that your metabolism slows down when you drastically cut calories.

    For you, 1200 is pretty far down from 1800 for a deficit, so I could see why your husband is concerned.

    Your body can adapt to too many calories and also to too little. In other words you can feel hungry when you eat way more than you need, and you can also feel fine when you eat way to little - for a short while and then you won't feel well all of a sudden and you will binge. When that happens to you then you will know it's time to bump it up.

    Things to ask yourself (not others as they can't feel or know)

    How is your general feeling of well being?
    How do you feel working out?
    How well do you recover from workouts?
    Do you have the energy to complete your daily responsibilities?
    How well do you sleep at night?
    Are you binging?

    Usually it's the answers to those questions that tell you if you are too high or too low with your daily or even rolling daily average over time.

    Also if you truly eat 1200 for a long time and you seem to plateau, than that's what the Minnesota study mentioned above was all about.

  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    nikkireynolds969 wrote: »
    Hi. We all have a baseline calorie intake, one where we don't gain or lose weight. This is done through a trial and error period of recording exactly what you are eating for a few weeks - 1 month to see what happens to your weight. I am 35 yrs old, female, 69kgs, 5'8", and, again the same as you, I have a sedentary job, MFP said 1200cls per day would be sufficient. But what my body will do is to hold on to whatever I am eating and store this as fat, as I will not be fuelling my body the way it should be. I have increased it to 1800cls per day and am trialling it. FYI, I train 6 days a week, 30-60mins of cardio and strength train 3 times a week. I will keep you posted on how I get on. Good luck and keep me posted with your progress. B) ps - my goal is to lose body fat %, currently at 28%, want to drop to 20%. Clothing size 12, want to drop to comfortable size 10.

    no your body wont hold on to it as fat(old myth). you store fat in a surplus not a deficit.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    californiagirl2012 wrote: »
    At 5'6" as a young female most like your calorie needs to stay the same is 1800-1900 calories.

    Anything under that will cause fat loss if done consistently over time.

    You don't have to worry about starvation mode until you get to 12% body fat (the Army doctors proved that in a human study). However if you internet search "Minnesota Starvation Study" you will find that your metabolism slows down when you drastically cut calories.

    For you, 1200 is pretty far down from 1800 for a deficit, so I could see why your husband is concerned.

    Your body can adapt to too many calories and also to too little. In other words you can feel hungry when you eat way more than you need, and you can also feel fine when you eat way to little - for a short while and then you won't feel well all of a sudden and you will binge. When that happens to you then you will know it's time to bump it up.

    Things to ask yourself (not others as they can't feel or know)

    How is your general feeling of well being?
    How do you feel working out?
    How well do you recover from workouts?
    Do you have the energy to complete your daily responsibilities?
    How well do you sleep at night?
    Are you binging?

    Usually it's the answers to those questions that tell you if you are too high or too low with your daily or even rolling daily average over time.

    Also if you truly eat 1200 for a long time and you seem to plateau, than that's what the Minnesota study mentioned above was all about.


    1800-1900 is not a number for everyone that height and weight(and age) it depends on her activity. you have to eat less than your mainteanance to lose fat/weight.as for starvation mode at 12% body fat, where do you get those numbers? There are people out there with less than 12% body fat and they arent starving. body builders are one type of people who have low body fat numbers and arent starving. if someone is eating 1200 calories and hits a plateau it doesnt mean they are starving,

    it could be due to many factors. The whole point about the minnesota study was that even eating in a low calorie diet the men still lost weight/fat. did you see any fat on them? they didnt retain fat.The study was the effects on starvation,not starvation mode.They volunteered to starve so others were better fed and they were put through rigorous activities,which meant they were netting really low calories.so they were actually starving their bodies,no fat was being stored.
  • ankachinu
    ankachinu Posts: 23 Member
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    Thanks for all the insight

    So by end of the day I have decided to stick to NET 1200 calories for now

    Once I increase my workout I would automatically be eating more (e.g. if I start burning 500, I plan to consume 1700 cal)

    Down the line if I feel uncomfortable with Net 1200 I will think of increasing the net calorie intake but i will wait till my body gives me those hints.

    FYI today I weigh myself and had lost 3.3 kg in 28 days, I am kind of happy with it

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