1200 calories a day
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This has been a really useful conversation. I have recently started MFP again after a long break, I had set at 1200 but have amended it to 1500 purely as at the moment I want to re-educate myself about calorie control rather than actual weight loss - I'm hoping this will be a side effect of eating healthily rather than the end goal. I want to reduce my body fat more than anything. I do little exercise but regularly hit 12,000 steps running round after my very active toddler, so 1500 seems about right - I'll try it and see!!12
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hydechildcare wrote: »I eat between 1200-1300 calories a day. Here is how to do it with out feeling hungry. Vegs lots and lots of vegs. Limit bread, rice, potatoes and you will be fine. My doctor told me 1200-1500 calories are what women need. She also told me to limit and very small quantities of starches. Before eating the starches on my diet of 1200 calories I would be hungry all day. Now I eat most veges and protein and do not feel hungry all day.
No offense, but your doctor was wrong. There are plenty of women on here (some in their 40s and 50s, btw) who have reached their healthy goal weight and maintain on over 2000 calories a day. I'm 44, 5'4" 130 lbs and I maintain on 1800 per day and lost weight on 1500.
Not directed at you but just in general, we need to stop perpetuating this myth that all women need to be borderline hungry while eating like little fragile birds to be a healthy weight. Your body needs fuel, fat, protein, and fiber to be strong and healthy and active. And the majority of women will need more than 1200 to achieve that, even while they are trying to lose weight.
I'll get off my soapbox now
Have to agree, I'm a 5'2" female, 150lb and lose 1-2lb a week eating 2000-2500 Calories. I'm attempting a few months at maintenance right now and although you do have to take my very high activity level in to account, I need anywhere between 3000 and 4000 Calories a day (depending on what I'm doing that day) and that's just to maintain.
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Is there anyone who is losing weight who are surviving off of 1200 calories a day and when I say surviving I mean feeling full and satisfied .Also are you dropping two pounds a week from doing this ?
If you're the same "Gibby" I knew from a while back, you have a very "all or nothing" attitude and want to diet in order to get the weight off as fast as possible so that you can go back to "eating normally".
I'll tell you again now what I told you then - if you're overweight, you CAN'T go back to eating how you used to eat. Eating that way is what gave you the excess weight, so you need to learn to think differently about food and make some sustainable changes to help you keep your weight down in the future. Struggling to stick to 1200 calories for long enough to lose your excess weight so that you can then go back to eating in your previous fashion is a sure fire way to put the pounds back on and have to do this all over again.
You can still go out with your friends, eat pizza, and whatever else you love... you just can't do it all the time, or in as much volume as you used to. If you really want to keep the weight off, you have to be ready to change some things permanently, not just for a few weeks or months. Stop "dieting", and learn to eat a suitable amount for the weight and activity level you want to maintain.
If you're a different Gibby, then by all means ignore this advice and carry on!
Yeah I know the last time I lost some weight I slipped back into not watching what I eat without even noticing .I went back to not counting and watching what I ate .Also eating takeout again whenever I felt like one but no this time I aint gonna make that mistake again because I was very dissappinted when all my progress went down the drain.This is my 3rd time losing some weight off myself and it will be the last .Goodbye to yoyoing because I am simply not allowing it to happen anymore.The last 3 or 4 weeks I have not been counting my cals and I am down 7 pounds I am just watching how much I eat and thats working for me but when my loss starts to slow down or stop then I will bring counting calories back into my daily life.Also if you think I am eating 1200 cals a day you are wrong because I am asking this question out of curiousity as I have ate that little before in the past but not this time I am doing it the right way this time.And yes I know this time everything isnt going to go absolutely perfect I will be up a pound one week and down one the next thats normal as life events happen but I will have it under control when that does happen6 -
It's very easy to survive on 1200 calories if you follow the low-carb diet. It's the carbs which make you feel hungry. Once your body learns to burn fat, you'll feel just fine. The problem is maintenance. Once you hit your target weight, you'll have to learn to eat high-fat food for energy.20
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chesstauren wrote: »It's very easy to survive on 1200 calories if you follow the low-carb diet. It's the carbs which make you feel hungry. Once your body learns to burn fat, you'll feel just fine. The problem is maintenance. Once you hit your target weight, you'll have to learn to eat high-fat food for energy.
While some people find that eating carbohydrates makes them hungrier, this isn't true for everyone.13 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »deannalfisher wrote: »hydechildcare wrote: »hydechildcare wrote: »I eat between 1200-1300 calories a day. Here is how to do it with out feeling hungry. Vegs lots and lots of vegs. Limit bread, rice, potatoes and you will be fine. My doctor told me 1200-1500 calories are what women need. She also told me to limit and very small quantities of starches. Before eating the starches on my diet of 1200 calories I would be hungry all day. Now I eat most veges and protein and do not feel hungry all day.
No offense, but your doctor was wrong. There are plenty of women on here (some in their 40s and 50s, btw) who have reached their healthy goal weight and maintain on over 2000 calories a day. I'm 44, 5'4" 130 lbs and I maintain on 1800 per day and lost weight on 1500.
Not directed at you but just in general, we need to stop perpetuating this myth that all women need to be borderline hungry while eating like little fragile birds to be a healthy weight. Your body needs fuel, fat, protein, and fiber to be strong and healthy and active. And the majority of women will need more than 1200 to achieve that, even while they are trying to lose weight.
I'll get off my soapbox now
I think it depends on your body. I can not eat that many calories and lose weight. Eating meat, vegs, nuts, and high fiber bread. I fill up and feel full faster and longer than when I eat pasta and other carbs. I know that if I eat 1500 calories per day. I will feel sick from eating to much or will end up eating junk food to meat those calorie goals of 1500. It depends on your needs, like everyone else has said listen to your body. I listen to mine and this is what it is telling me from years of trying and failing. I have finally found something that works for me that I can manage with out the hungry feeling that normal is there.
you don't need to eat junk food to hit 1500cal - I avg 2600 a day and aside from a cookie or cupcake the vast majority of my food is healthy grains, lean proteins and fat - and i'm 5'3". 148lbs
I sometimes wonder if people who complain about not being able to eat an extra couple hundred calories have ever heard of cheese.
Or peanut butter. Mine is 100 cal per tablespoon, and 1 T is not a lot of PB.6 -
chesstauren wrote: »It's very easy to survive on 1200 calories if you follow the low-carb diet. It's the carbs which make you feel hungry. Once your body learns to burn fat, you'll feel just fine. The problem is maintenance. Once you hit your target weight, you'll have to learn to eat high-fat food for energy.
While carb-rich foods like ice cream do indeed make me hungry, I find foods like rice & beans very satisfying. Also, studies that tested different kinds of foods to see which was the most satiating found potatoes to be the winner.5 -
hydechildcare wrote: »I eat between 1200-1300 calories a day. Here is how to do it with out feeling hungry. Vegs lots and lots of vegs. Limit bread, rice, potatoes and you will be fine. My doctor told me 1200-1500 calories are what women need. She also told me to limit and very small quantities of starches. Before eating the starches on my diet of 1200 calories I would be hungry all day. Now I eat most veges and protein and do not feel hungry all day.
No offense, but your doctor was wrong. There are plenty of women on here (some in their 40s and 50s, btw) who have reached their healthy goal weight and maintain on over 2000 calories a day. I'm 44, 5'4" 130 lbs and I maintain on 1800 per day and lost weight on 1500.
Not directed at you but just in general, we need to stop perpetuating this myth that all women need to be borderline hungry while eating like little fragile birds to be a healthy weight. Your body needs fuel, fat, protein, and fiber to be strong and healthy and active. And the majority of women will need more than 1200 to achieve that, even while they are trying to lose weight.
I'll get off my soapbox now
I will take your place!
I'm 5'2 and over 40 with a desk job and maintaining my weight under 120 lbs with a TDEE of 2200. I lost my weight (> 30 lbs) eating between 1600-1900 calories/day. The simple fact is that most people, even petite women, don't need to go as low as 1200 to lose. They either buy into that magic number, or they've chosen too aggressive of a goal for themselves (2 lbs/week is not realistic for someone with less than 50 lbs to lose) or they aren't eating back exercise calories.
What happens time and again in these situations is that people think they have to go all out with a big calorie deficit, they convince themselves jay dieting is supposed to be miserable and it's ok to be hungry, and they end up not sticking with it.... perpetuating this yo yo cycle.
As the wise rabbit once said, "the winner is one who eats the most and still loses the weight"14 -
What if I was to tell you the RD's I work withhave petite women who are sedentary for health reasons losing weight on 2000+ cal a day....10
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. Also please keep in mind that MFP expects you to log your exercise and eat back at least some of those calories. So even if your starting goal is 1200, you should be eating 1200 plus exercise calories.
This is something I can't figure out with the program. It seems that if I don't log enough exercise, it subtracts (a lot) from my daily allotted calories. But it does this even when I log something like 120 minutes of tennis. I feel like MyFitness is conspiring with my fitbit to punk me.0 -
If I was put on a 1200 calorie diet, I'd just work out a *kitten* ton and make more calories for myself lol. See if that works if you eventually start to feel hungry and unsatisfied.1
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I'm five foot and do 1200 calories a day. I have enough energy to work out daily and I lift weights too. I am no where near cutting 1000 a day doing this. Due to a low maintenance calories for my height I cut about 500 through diet on 1200 calories and burn some exercising (additional 200-300 a day). I don't eat those back. I'm not hungry but I do high protein and I think that's why. My goal is 100 grams a day which is very manageable with egg whites, chicken, and I even squeeze a protein shake in there. I have recently taken up making sure I get lots of fiber and that helps too. You can find lots of items with high fiber in them. I do have one cheat meal a week. I go out to lunch on Fridays with my friends. FYI I weigh everything and still get all my daily nutrients plus some4
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. Also please keep in mind that MFP expects you to log your exercise and eat back at least some of those calories. So even if your starting goal is 1200, you should be eating 1200 plus exercise calories.
This is something I can't figure out with the program. It seems that if I don't log enough exercise, it subtracts (a lot) from my daily allotted calories. But it does this even when I log something like 120 minutes of tennis. I feel like MyFitness is conspiring with my fitbit to punk me.
@splinker there are probably two things going on - your Activity Level is set to higher than Sedentary and you have Negative Adjustments enabled.
Make sure your Activity Level is appropriate for how you spend your day outside activities like tennis and considering unchecking Negative Adjustments.
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Lillymoo01 wrote: »For the most part, this thread makes me really sad. It seems people are being overly restrictive, not getting enough nutrients (and by the time you see/feel the effects, the damage has set in and takes so much time and effort to fix) and have no where to go down, calorie-wise, as they lose weight and need to drop the ceiling a bit. I mourn for all the lean mass being lost along with the day and water weight.
It just seems like folks take the most extreme and restrictive approach and that's usually not necessary. The weight didn't come on overnight, and it's not coming off that way, either. Weight-loss is a marathon, not a sprint.
Someone in here said once, "Whoever eats the most and loses weight wins."
I'm 5'3, lost almost 120 pounds and have been in maintenance for almost three years. At 46, I'm in better shape now than I was at 30. Please take care of yourselves! It's worth it in the end to get there and be able to hold on to what you've lost.
If it makes you feel any better, I still contend that easily half of the women who say they are eating 1200 and feel great and it's plenty of food... aren't using a food scale and aren't actually eating 1200 cals. The rest are divided between, smaller older women who really do have lower calorie needs and are appropriately eating that little, and unfortunately the rest are the women you are speaking to. I just wish people weren't as fast to encourage other women to eat so little. Like you, it makes me sad
What makes me sad is that as one of these smaller women I had to stick to 1200 before exercise to lose weight. I'd do enough exercise just so that I had enough to eat while losing at a faster pace than 1 pound a month. No way would I have restricted myself so little if I didn't need to. I enjoy eating too much for that.
I'm short, too, 5'3. Now at 115-120. I maintain with at least 1900 a day. I didn't have the leeway until I really tightened up my logging and had reliable CO information as well. I have a desk job, but I make sure I take walk breaks to keep my activity level up (and my brain from frying by staring at a computer screen).2 -
I'm fine on 1200 cal and some days I don't even make it to that. I don't have a problem overeating anymore as long as I'm making healthy choices and drinking enough water. I work a desk job and the only snack I keep in the office is peanut butter and a box of unflavored oat/quinoa packets for days I don't have time to grab lunch or didn't bring anything with me.
I've got about 20# I'm looking to lose still but it's coming off and I feel great lately.2 -
Ah man...I'd love to lose weight on 1800 cals. I gain so easily if I head towards an average of 1900 3
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Ah man...I'd love to lose weight on 1800 cals. I gain so easily if I head towards an average of 1900
You might initially but with your level of activity you may start to see a downward trend soon after but you would need to be ok with the scale going up briefly
Mine went up about 5 when I started increasing calories and then slowly trended down - trick was minor bumps (10g carbs or so after it leveled out)3 -
I started out at 1200 as a sedentary 5'1" woman in her 50's, and lost about 1.2 pounds a week eating that plus half my exercise calories the first year here on MFP while I gradually increased my activity the whole time.
I have since become incredibly active and am nowhere near sedentary any more. I'm still fiddling around with body composition and vanity weight, and my current TDEE is somewhere around 2000 - 2200, so I lose eating 1700 - 1800 calories.
1200 would no longer be doable for me because it wouldn't support my current activity level.
I was 52 when I joined MFP. I'll be 55 on Monday. I weigh 120 ish. I'm fluctuating all over the place due to starting a new lifting program.
Editing to add that I share the concerns raised by some of the other posters about the subset of people on threads like these who aren't miscounting, and who aren't older sedentary short women. I think that subset of people buy into a punitive model of weight loss or fall into a trap of dieting as something you "do" and then stop "doing" and as a result, they rush through the process and choose the most reckless method of restriction possible, and it's really counterproductive to any prospect of long term success to lose weight as quickly and painfully as possible.13 -
I had originally had my goal set to 1,300 calories a day and just switched it to 1,200 because I kept having a deficit any way. I've only been doing this a week though and I feel completely fine. I actually have more energy than I did when I was stuffing my face with *kitten* food. Everyone is different though with different circumstances.
I currently have 120 pounds to lose. So maybe all this extra fat somehow offsets hunger feelings? But I also eat protein with every meal which is supposed to make you feel fuller and it has proven to do so for me. I have also been doing intermittent fasting along with this 1,200 daily caloric intake. I do my workout always around 1-2pm before I've even eaten anything and I do it with plenty of energy. As much as I can muster with my out of shape butt lol! But every day I have progress so I must be doing something right.6 -
I had originally had my goal set to 1,300 calories a day and just switched it to 1,200 because I kept having a deficit any way. I've only been doing this a week though and I feel completely fine. I actually have more energy than I did when I was stuffing my face with *kitten* food. Everyone is different though with different circumstances.
I currently have 120 pounds to lose. So maybe all this extra fat somehow offsets hunger feelings? But I also eat protein with every meal which is supposed to make you feel fuller and it has proven to do so for me. I have also been doing intermittent fasting along with this 1,200 daily caloric intake. I do my workout always around 1-2pm before I've even eaten anything and I do it with plenty of energy. As much as I can muster with my out of shape butt lol! But every day I have progress so I must be doing something right.
Do you use a food scale?
With 120 lbs to lose, 1200 cals is extremely low and would be for sure underfueling your body. It is very typical for people to be in a "diet honeymoon" and not feel hungry regardless of how they eat. Undereating can be just as harmful as overeating over the long term.
If you aren't using a food scale, I'd urge you to get one and get used to using it now while you still have lots of wiggle room where being inaccurate isn't a concern. I'd bet you will find you're eating more than that. Logging is a skill that requires practice, and most of us started out logging inaccurately and learning as we went.10
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