Can somebody tell me where this "1200 Calorie" number came from ?

24

Replies

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Age, gender, height, current weight, activity level all need to be considered.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
  • Rayvis1014
    Rayvis1014 Posts: 36 Member
    MyFitnessPal bottoms out at 1200 for women. So if someone picks a weight loss goal that is too aggressive for their activity level and what they have to lose, they will get a goal of 1200.

    Not necessarily. I am 5'2 and weight 140 lbs. and MFP gives me 1200 when I put in a loss of half a pound a week at moderately active.

    However, I ignore MPF an use my fitbit to determine my TDEE, then I eat below that.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited June 2019
    Rayvis1014 wrote: »
    MyFitnessPal bottoms out at 1200 for women. So if someone picks a weight loss goal that is too aggressive for their activity level and what they have to lose, they will get a goal of 1200.

    Not necessarily. I am 5'2 and weight 140 lbs. and MFP gives me 1200 when I put in a loss of half a pound a week at moderately active.

    However, I ignore MPF an use my fitbit to determine my TDEE, then I eat below that.

    For some women, 1200 does legitimately reflect their weight loss goal, even if it is relatively small. However, not everyone finds MFP's estimates for them to be perfectly accurate based on their results.

    However, the previous poster was just pointing out that many women receive a calorie goal of 1200, not because that corresponds to their weekly weight loss goal, but because that's simply as low as MFP will go. If a person's TDEE is 2000 and they choose a weekly goal of 2 lbs/week, the math would give them a calorie goal of 1000, but MFP will only (rightfully) give them 1200.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Rayvis1014 wrote: »
    MyFitnessPal bottoms out at 1200 for women. So if someone picks a weight loss goal that is too aggressive for their activity level and what they have to lose, they will get a goal of 1200.

    Not necessarily. I am 5'2 and weight 140 lbs. and MFP gives me 1200 when I put in a loss of half a pound a week at moderately active.

    However, I ignore MPF an use my fitbit to determine my TDEE, then I eat below that.

    I just ran your stats on my profile and came up with 1440 calories set at lightly active (moderate isn't a choice) and .5 lb goal a week. ??
  • Rayvis1014
    Rayvis1014 Posts: 36 Member
    edited June 2019
    try2again wrote: »
    Rayvis1014 wrote: »
    MyFitnessPal bottoms out at 1200 for women. So if someone picks a weight loss goal that is too aggressive for their activity level and what they have to lose, they will get a goal of 1200.

    Not necessarily. I am 5'2 and weight 140 lbs. and MFP gives me 1200 when I put in a loss of half a pound a week at moderately active.

    However, I ignore MPF an use my fitbit to determine my TDEE, then I eat below that.

    I just ran your stats on my profile and came up with 1440 calories set at lightly active (moderate isn't a choice) and .5 lb goal a week. ??

    I just checked and you're right I had it at sedentary, not lightly active. However, when I set it at 1 lb. a week at lightly active it tells me when I go through my goal setting process that I can only lose .8 lbs. a week on 1200 calories. I changed it to maintenance awhile ago (I eat according to my TDEE).

    My only point was that for many people (especially those shorter, lighter, or older than me), 1200 is not necessarily aggressive.

    However, I AGREE with you that nobody needs to eat that little. My TDEE is anywhere from 2000-2500 and I'm not even that active (I get between 8,000-12,000 steps). It's just that MFP will often give people 1200 calories who are short or sedentary, even if they don't have an aggressive goal.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited June 2019
    Rayvis1014 wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    Rayvis1014 wrote: »
    MyFitnessPal bottoms out at 1200 for women. So if someone picks a weight loss goal that is too aggressive for their activity level and what they have to lose, they will get a goal of 1200.

    Not necessarily. I am 5'2 and weight 140 lbs. and MFP gives me 1200 when I put in a loss of half a pound a week at moderately active.

    However, I ignore MPF an use my fitbit to determine my TDEE, then I eat below that.

    I just ran your stats on my profile and came up with 1440 calories set at lightly active (moderate isn't a choice) and .5 lb goal a week. ??

    I just checked and you're right I had it at sedentary, not lightly active. However, when I set it at 1 lb. a week at lightly active it tells me when I go through my goal setting process that I can only lose .8 lbs. a week on 1200 calories. I changed it to maintenance awhile ago (I eat according to my TDEE).

    My only point was that for many people (especially those shorter, lighter, or older than me), 1200 is not necessarily aggressive.

    However, I AGREE with you that nobody needs to eat that little. My TDEE is anywhere from 2000-2500 and I'm not even that active (I get between 8,000-12,000 steps). It's just that MFP will often give people 1200 calories who are short or sedentary, even if they don't have an aggressive goal.

    Oh, absolutely! For some women, 1200 doesn't reflect an aggressive goal at all. However, it's not like MFP assigns that number randomly to short, sedentary women... it's strictly based on the stats and info the user enters and the math required to achieve the stated goal (with a floor of 1200). Most people, though not all, find MFP's estimates to be quite accurate. If yours is that far off, I would venture that you are much more active than your activity setting reflects.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    I shared this link earlier for a different reason, but for those who are unsure how MFP calculates a person's calorie goal, there is a nice explanation here:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1
  • Rayvis1014
    Rayvis1014 Posts: 36 Member
    edited June 2019
    "You’re 4 pounds above the optimal BMI range for your height. 1 lb/week is therefore an aggressive goal for you. At this point, 0.5 lb/week is generally a healthier choice."

    Thanks for the advice, but I don't actually have a goal set in MFP, I just set it at maintenance and eat according to my TDEE. It's not uncommon to hear that 1lb. a week is a healthy weight loss, so many uninformed people might set their goal at 1 lb. week. I'm not trying to argue, I'm just pointing out that MFP gives 1200 as a limit more frequently than people might think. Let me emphasize once again that I THINK 1200 IS TOO LOW.
  • thanos5
    thanos5 Posts: 513 Member
    try2again wrote: »

    heh i love that site, dude cracks me up
  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    1991court wrote: »
    My weightloss is being closely watch by my Dr first off just explaining that first!!

    He put me on a thousand calorie diet a month ago, I told him I feel more comfortable between 1300-1400 so thats what I started at, and lost 20lbs in May. My loss has slowed down but now I am very satisfied at a 1100-1200 calories a day. My goal from mfp is 1300 something... I don't feel deprived or starving, I am usually very full. Just pushing more protein and usually between 70oz - 100oz of water a day.

    When I go maintenance I am sure my calories will change. Shoot when pain management releases me and I can start boxing, I am sure my calories will change. Meaning go up again.

    My stats:
    Height: 5'5
    Sw:224
    Cw:200
    Gw: 145-130 wherever I feel happy.

    A genuine question - just because a doctor is watching the weight loss, how does that make the calorie deficit 'safe'?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    nooboots wrote: »
    1991court wrote: »
    My weightloss is being closely watch by my Dr first off just explaining that first!!

    He put me on a thousand calorie diet a month ago, I told him I feel more comfortable between 1300-1400 so thats what I started at, and lost 20lbs in May. My loss has slowed down but now I am very satisfied at a 1100-1200 calories a day. My goal from mfp is 1300 something... I don't feel deprived or starving, I am usually very full. Just pushing more protein and usually between 70oz - 100oz of water a day.

    When I go maintenance I am sure my calories will change. Shoot when pain management releases me and I can start boxing, I am sure my calories will change. Meaning go up again.

    My stats:
    Height: 5'5
    Sw:224
    Cw:200
    Gw: 145-130 wherever I feel happy.

    A genuine question - just because a doctor is watching the weight loss, how does that make the calorie deficit 'safe'?

    It's not really that it's safe. It's that there is a doctor monitoring your health so if some damage is being done it can be caught before it gets too bad (when a layperson would notice). Often it also means that Rx supplements are being administered to avoid deficiencies and possibly blood work at regular intervals as well.

    Unfortunately, some doctors simply don't know much about weight management and give patients arbitrarily low calorie targets with no further monitoring, which is no different than a person randomly choosing to undereat and accepting the risks that come with that.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    TomWJD444 wrote: »
    Perhaps age has something to do with it too. I'm male and 59 years old. My minimum it lists for me is 1200 per day or it won't save my diary etc. So that it will save my diary about half the days I end up adding a cup or two of rice and some dates to the list although I didn't eat them. lol When I was a young Marine I could eat all I wanted. As you age though you need fewer and fewer calories. A few years ago there was a guy in Montana in a nursing home that was the oldest man on the planet at 114. In an interview he said he was a wrestler in high school at 132 pounds or something like that and had never been more than 3 pounds away from that wrestling weight since high school. He said not gaining or losing weight is a key to long life along with never eat more than one meal per day as you don't need it. Another tip he gave was to never get married. lol The nursing home confirmed they had never seen his weight vary in years there and he refused to eat more than once per day.

    Sort of scary for me at 54 going on to 55 to think that in 4 years my maintenance is scheduled to drop by over 1500 Calories! Because at 49 I lost ~72.5lbs eating ~2560 a day, and at 50 another ~11.1 eating close to 2915 a day (+/- a calorie or gram or two).

    Absent the inability to do so due to medical reasons, you may want to examine the possibility of both eating more and doing more while losing at a slightly slower rate. It's too late for either of us to worry about never gaining and never losing weight, so I doubt we can emulate the gentleman's example! Take care of yourself and make sure you're not under-eating too much!