what's your experience with a 1200 calorie diet or less?
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Are you weighing your food and how do you know diabetes is coming in 3 months?
I've already gotten the diagnosis but if I can lose 30 lbs in 3 months it's proven it can reduce or erase diabetes. Fortunately this diagnosis has only had me as diabetic within the last year. My blood test results from the previous year were clean albeit close to pre diabetes so I know I've only had the condition for no more than 12 months. I have a chance to reverse it.
Sorry but No, you dont have a chance to reverse it - you have a chance to get it under control and possibly to manage it without medication ( ie diet controlled diabetes)
Losing weight often enables type 2 diabetics to reduce their medications requirements (sometimes to nil) , that is all - it does not make them non diabetic.
But there is no magic formula for this, 30lb in 3 months or anything else - it applies to losing any significant amount of weight in any time frame.
and, yes, like most type 2 diabetics you went from glucose impairment (ie your earlier blood test results) to diabetes - that is the usual progression unless one significantly loses weight and improves diet at the first stage.
It is also important for diabetics to have adequate nutrition.
Like everybody, eat a sensible balanced diet, avoiding high sugar products due to your body's inability to process same and eat at an appropriate calorie level.
Either do the calculations with MFP and eat that amount, whilst adhering to principles of foods suitable for your medical condition, or see a dietician or diabetic educator and formulate a diet plan with him/her.
But do not aim for unrealistic targets and do not eat the calorie level suitable only for small sedentary older women - if you are not one.
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I was diabetic (type 2) and after weight loss I was not. I did not lose fast however. I took my time. I think if your doc sees improvement in 3 months he/she will be happy. I would take my time for several reasons. First off you can't maintain that strict low calorie diet for long. I did the Dr. Bernstein diet several years ago and the only thing that stayed lighter was my wallet. I was eating around 600 calories per day. They wanted us to lose 4 pounds a week. I never did. My hair started falling out after 4 months and I quit. I slowly regained all the weight. The other issue I believe is that you lose muscle mass along with fat. Your heart is a muscle! Finally I didn't learn a thing in all that time because I was unable to keep it up permanently. Once I got on MFP and took my time I changed my lifestyle and now I maintain my healthy weight. Don't rush my friend. You want to lose and keep it off and reduce your sugars permanently. I would also suggest walking regularly to help lower blood sugar. It works.13
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When I'm motivated enough, I've found that eating a 250 cal breakfast, two 400 calorie meals and a snack is more than enough to keep me going without being hungry all the time at 1200-1300 calories per day. It really works in terms of weightloss but it's hard to stick to.13
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When I'm motivated enough, I've found that eating a 250 cal breakfast, two 400 calorie meals and a snack is more than enough to keep me going without being hungry all the time at 1200-1300 calories per day. It really works in terms of weightloss but it's hard to stick to.
And unnecessarily low for you given your stats.
1200 cals is too low for most people!16 -
For the first two months on my new eating plan, I only sort-of listened to all the posts here at MFP that caution against going below 1200 calories a day. My emotional state was caught up in how overweight I am, and throwing caution to the wind.
At the same time, I was reading posts about so many of us with the yo-yo dieting syndrome, and even while recognizing my self in the stories, found it hard to connect the low calorie plan to the yo-yo.
Fast forward to the day last week when MFP flashed the "20 pounds lost" banner at me.
I asked myself to seriously consider the question : is this sustainable for the rest of my life?", and the answer was "NO!". So, I did some fresh reading on a bunch of different websites about determining my TDEE and macro requirements in light of my age and activity.
I've increased my daily intake to 1500 calories, so I can continue losing but at a slower pace. I'll be around 1800 or so at maintenance (in another 6 months or so) .
the most difficult part so far has been adjusting portions to get all my calories in before my preferred 6pm cut off for eating. I've found over the last few months that I now prefer 3 sizable meals, with a light post-gym snack, rather than 5 or 6 small meals through the day I used to eat.
My lunch bag is getting heavier! (added workout hahahahah)
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OP is a male....no friggin' adult male should be eating 1200 calories. My 8 year old boy eats more than that.23
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As a 59-year-old, 5'5", 154-pound woman, 1200 calories left me weak and fatigued, even though I was eating back all my exercise calories (300-ish most day) on top of the 1200. Even though I corrected as soon as I realized there was a problem, it took me several weeks to recover from a short period of over-restriction.
For a 53-year-old, 260-pound, 5'9", 260-pound man, 1200 calories sounds to me like a really foolish idea.
If you're only losing 1.5 pounds a week on an already unreasonably low calorie level, consider a couple of possibilities (neither of which is "starvation mode"):
1. A too-extreme low calorie level is putting sufficient stress on your admittedly already non-healthy (prediabetic, pain-plagued) body that you're retaining extra water weight, masking ongoing fat loss. That would be unhealthy. (Notice that you saw the scale drop when you increased calories from the insanely low 900-1000 to 1250. That's a hint of physical stress right there.)
2. You are eating so little, compared your body's minimum nutritional and caloric needs, that fatigue is affecting your daily life energy and non-exercise activity level, and sapping your daily life calorie burn, effectively reducing your TDEE and slowing weight loss. Add that to the water retention from #1, and it can look like you aren't losing fat, even though you're still losing some.
There may be something magical for your prediabetes about losing weight, but there's nothing magical about losing it all in 3 months. Since you're already unhealthy, prediabetic plus whatever is causing your pain and mobility issues, why does stacking more unhealthy behavior (undernutrition, caloric over-restriction) on top of that seem like a path to health?
Please reconsider. I really, really, like to see people stay strong and as healthy as possible while achieving weight and health goals, truly.8 -
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Works great for me. Eat about 1000cals a day, never hungry and have lost 71 pounds since July 18'.
Nobody is denying that people can lose weight on VLCD's if they can sustain them over a length of time.
For almost all people they are not sustainable and for almost all people they are not healthy.
No adult should be eating only 1000 calories a day - unless short term in extenuating circumstances under medical supervision10 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »OP is a male....no friggin' adult male should be eating 1200 calories. My 8 year old boy eats more than that.
Agree 100%. "Starvation mode" isn't a thing - but cortisol increase, fatigue, loss of muscle, etc. certainly are. But it looks like OP is going to have to find this out the hard way for himself.
Making yourself sick/unhealthy while you're trying to "get healthy" is counterproductive. You don't have to make yourself sick or physically damage yourself to lose weight - that's doing it wrong.10 -
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paperpudding wrote: »Works great for me. Eat about 1000cals a day, never hungry and have lost 71 pounds since July 18'.
Nobody is denying that people can lose weight on VLCD's if they can sustain them over a length of time.
For almost all people they are not sustainable and for almost all people they are not healthy.
No adult should be eating only 1000 calories a day - unless short term in extenuating circumstances under medical supervision
Nice.paperpudding wrote: »Works great for me. Eat about 1000cals a day, never hungry and have lost 71 pounds since July 18'.
Nobody is denying that people can lose weight on VLCD's if they can sustain them over a length of time.
For almost all people they are not sustainable and for almost all people they are not healthy.
No adult should be eating only 1000 calories a day - unless short term in extenuating circumstances under medical supervision
Nice.
Realistic objective stating of facts actually.
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Hunger....5
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1200 was okay for me when I first started.
Bear in mind that I was 52 years old when I first started and I am 5'1" tall and was pretty much completely sedentary.
As I started exercising, I needed to eat more.
I'm now 56, 90 pounds lighter, and eating 1800 calories to lose a few vanity pounds. I'm also a lot more active than I used to be. I could never eat 1200 calories.
For anyone who is not a very short, sedentary older female, 1200 calories usually too low. For a man? Definitely too low.11 -
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1200 plus exercise calories worked just fine for me. However, I am a woman under 5 feet tall and I have a sedentary job. If that description doesn’t sound like you, then you can almost certainly eat more than 1200 and still lose weight.4
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I found staying at 1200 calories the pits because there was no room for treats. At 4"11 I wasn't going to be able to eat more and still lose. Fortunately I grew to love spending time outside walking. Those exercise calories taste so much nicer than normal food intake.0
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