How do you do it on 1200 calories?
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justinejacksonm wrote: »Couple additional thoughts here- I don't personally buy into the "eat back exercise calories". The point of working out is to help create more of a deficit like what's the point? ***UNLESS**** you're trying to bulk up and build muscle which is also what everyone is obsessed over these days. I want some lean healthy muscle- but I don't want to look like an athlete. That's just me thought. But I tried that whole approach and not only did I never go down in fat, all I did was build muscle underneath the fat not being burned and was even bigger.
Do you ever workout using Fitness Blender??? You really don't need a gym tbh. FB is free. You may just be getting used to the running. It's important to mix it up and work different areas, strength and cardio.
I agree with others point about exercise as a Good Thing it itself, and possibly additionally as a way to achieve weight loss goals while getting better nutrition (and a higher amount of yummy food) alongside.
I want to quibble about the "it's important to mix it up". For the things that seem to be your key goals, weight loss and appearance, it really isn't particularly important to mix it up. If the overarching goal of your exercise is calorie burn, then all cardio, every minute of your time-budget for exercise, is going to deliver higher total calorie burn.
If the overarching goal of your exercise is appearance (as most people these days would see it), then strength training is your best exercise buddy ever. However, most people these days favor a bit of "look like an athlete" appearance-wise (just not a cartoon athlete, but rather a real one). You say you don't like that look. With those "lose weight, don't look athletic" goals, just do cardio for all of your exercise time budget, at the maximum calorie output per minute you can sustain without creating counter-productive fatigue that bleeds calorie burn out of daily life. That's going to be steady state state cardio, at a personally-tuned intensity, not intervals, certainly not HIIT.
If the implication is that your body "gets used to" certain exercises, and burns fewer calories doing the same thing at the same intensity for the same amount of time (at the same bodyweight), that's incorrect. Yes, with repetition over time, that workout will *feel* easier. Your heart rate monitor device may even give a lower calorie estimate for it, because your heart rate is lower (on account of delivering more blood volume and oxygen per beat, the oxygen factor being what actually correlates somewhat with cardiovascular-oriented types of calorie expenditure, but that can't be measured outside a sports/med lab). Sure, on the strength training side, strength/mass increases will plateau if you stop progressing the difficulty, but you've made it clear you don't care for muscularity for yourself, so that's not a worry.
The "body confusion" or "shock your body" nonsense about switching comes from Beach Body and their ilk, because it helps them sell new programs and equipment.
For well-rounded fitness and best health, a person ideally needs a well-rounded variety of exercise modes, possibly on a schedule that rotates those activity types over time. Fitness isn't about "mix it up" in some put it in your Vitamix and hit "puree" kind of way.
What "gets used to an exercise" is our brain: We can get bored, phone in the intensity, maybe even skip workouts because they're tedious. That effect would be a reasonable rationale for switching workouts.
The part of this that's on-topic for the thread, I think: If a person's only goal is calorie burn, cardio is the game. If it's appearance, in the current culturally common definition, include some strength challenge, to look "toned".
If the goals include health, fitness, and that sort of thing, then "don't exercise just to get a bigger deficit" is 100% on point, and a more nuanced exercise approach is a better idea. But this thread is about coping on 1200 (which I ate myself, plus exercise, losing weight like a house afire, faster than I'd wanted or intended, until it became obvious that for me it was a terrible idea).
Since OP reports not just lower than desired weight loss progress, but also feeling hungry, plus is seemingly still enjoying her running reasonably much, "don't eat back exercise" or "don't run" seem not exactly on point.8 -
My goal in deficit is 1270. I'm petite, looking to cut some fat. I work out about 4 times a week. What works for me is eating at least 100g of protein a day. It keeps me full. Lots of lean meats. I do coffee in the morning and then eat a late Breakfast. I usually do 4 meals at about 300 cals each. Keeps me full. Volume wise, I may eat more than most people but I load up veggies and lean protein.0
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Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.2
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Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.
Active people are going to be more than "a little" hungry on 1,200 calories.8 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.
Active people are going to be more than "a little" hungry on 1,200 calories.
This.
My activity's always been pretty decent. As I've lost weight it's increased. I don't mind my stomach growling or feeling hollow. I do, however, GREATLY mind being light headed, having headaches, seeing my sports and running performance decline sharpl, feeling weak, and feeling like my limbs are made out of lead I have to lug around making daily chores HARD. (Meaning i, of course, then burned fewer calories because 'walked upstairs and did the dishes' was hard and really just let me sit on the couch)
It was like I'd JUST finished a HARD workout for about 3 days in a row.
You're gonna feel a little hungry sometimes eating in a deficit.
When you start UNDEReating you're going to get a lot more than a 'little' hungry.
And that stuff up there? That's 3 days of about 1500 calories. My 'half pound a week' deficit is about 1600 so at lightly active and would have been fine. IF I HAD EATEN MY EXERCISE CALORIES OR BUMPED MY ACTIVITY LEVEL.
But I did not.
And it was not 'a little hungry'.4 -
Re above, immediately though:
This would not have been a massive concern when I was obese or the high end of overweight. I could regularly under eat and not feel terrible. Both because I was less active and, I assume, there was more of alternative sources for fuel (Ie: More body fat). Not sure about the second, positive about the first.
A pound/2 pounds from normal BMI? Different result.0 -
Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.
What Janejellyroll said.
Additionally, I'm one of those people who do not ever workout on an empty stomach if I can help it. It makes me queasy and low energy. I have to eat something or I lose steam. I remember when we'd go away for marching band camp in high school, our band director always insisted on us to doing an hour of cardio and marching practice before we were allowed to have breakfast. There weren't any snack machines to grab something beforehand, either, and it was brutal!
Cardio never kicks up my appetite quite like strength training did, though. If I do Zumba or jog for awhile, for instance, I'm usually thirsty, but not immediately hungry afterward. Weight lifting, however, I felt like a bottomless pit! I was always ravenous!
I think it's just different for everyone.5 -
wunderkindking wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.
Active people are going to be more than "a little" hungry on 1,200 calories.
This.
My activity's always been pretty decent. As I've lost weight it's increased. I don't mind my stomach growling or feeling hollow. I do, however, GREATLY mind being light headed, having headaches, seeing my sports and running performance decline sharpl, feeling weak, and feeling like my limbs are made out of lead I have to lug around making daily chores HARD. (Meaning i, of course, then burned fewer calories because 'walked upstairs and did the dishes' was hard and really just let me sit on the couch)
It was like I'd JUST finished a HARD workout for about 3 days in a row.
You're gonna feel a little hungry sometimes eating in a deficit.
When you start UNDEReating you're going to get a lot more than a 'little' hungry.
And that stuff up there? That's 3 days of about 1500 calories. My 'half pound a week' deficit is about 1600 so at lightly active and would have been fine. IF I HAD EATEN MY EXERCISE CALORIES OR BUMPED MY ACTIVITY LEVEL.
But I did not.
And it was not 'a little hungry'.
I had the light headedness trying to do 1200 calories as an active person years ago, back before I learned better. I didn't stick with it long (probably a couple of weeks, if that) because then the dizzy spells started and it scared me, plus I was tired of being hungry and cranky.3 -
wunderkindking wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Actualyl, feeling hungry a little is very nice feeling . Think positively, you look good, your stomach is inside sucked in, your clothes fits perfect, you are feeling light and can move. Imaging yourself going to gym with full stomach you probably won't be able even to bend. But gym requiers bending, jumping, streaching. Many people prefer to go for physical acivity with empty stomach. Project the identical nice feeling to the, rest of the day. It will take you only few days to start enjoing the emptiness of the stomach. If you going to run, the best thing is have your stomach empty too. One more notice for your quistion: the running is a sort of exercise that prompts your apetite high. From other hand, strength exercises work oposite way.
Active people are going to be more than "a little" hungry on 1,200 calories.
This.
My activity's always been pretty decent. As I've lost weight it's increased. I don't mind my stomach growling or feeling hollow. I do, however, GREATLY mind being light headed, having headaches, seeing my sports and running performance decline sharpl, feeling weak, and feeling like my limbs are made out of lead I have to lug around making daily chores HARD. (Meaning i, of course, then burned fewer calories because 'walked upstairs and did the dishes' was hard and really just let me sit on the couch)
It was like I'd JUST finished a HARD workout for about 3 days in a row.
You're gonna feel a little hungry sometimes eating in a deficit.
When you start UNDEReating you're going to get a lot more than a 'little' hungry.
And that stuff up there? That's 3 days of about 1500 calories. My 'half pound a week' deficit is about 1600 so at lightly active and would have been fine. IF I HAD EATEN MY EXERCISE CALORIES OR BUMPED MY ACTIVITY LEVEL.
But I did not.
And it was not 'a little hungry'.
Yep, there's hungry like the nice feeling of feeling ready for your next meal (and many of us who were overweight have to learn how to recognize that as a "nice" feeling and that's a worthwhile goal). And then there is the hunger of chronic undereating, where you feel the cascade of physical and mental effects of not eating enough to fuel your activity. HUGE difference between the two.4 -
To answer the original question, it ain't easy.
Some days I do fine but some days I stop counting at around 1500. Like yesterday. I had planned for it to be a Ben and Jerry's day but what I didn't plan on were the pretzel rods with peanut butter and all the extra little spoonfuls of this and that. *However* I didn't get into the gobbling down cookies and bread/butter which I get to when I'm having a really weak day. 
The easiest way for me to stay at 1200 is to plump up my lunch/dinner with veggies and fruit. I also try to save 100-200 calories for the very end of the day when I NEED something to eat.
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Strudders67 wrote: »Mine is set at 1240.... I’ve been losing 1.5-2 pounds a week for 8 weeks now eating like this and I am 5’2”
Be aware that too aggressive a weight loss rate can be detrimental to your health. You may well feel fine, until suddenly you're not. Unless you have a lot of weight to lose, losing 2 lb a week is too aggressive.
Two things I used to see regularly in these forums:
1. don't aim to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week.
2. a chart that showed how much might be reasonable, per week, based on how much you had to lose. I think the last 20lbs was 0.5lb a week, 20-40lbs was 1lb a week and 40-100lbs was 1.5lbs a week. 2lbs a week was only OK if you have over 100 lbs to lose.
Hopefully someone will have a better idea on the recommended figures, but the rationale behind this is the impact on your muscles, including your heart.
The chart:
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justinejacksonm wrote: »Couple additional thoughts here- I don't personally buy into the "eat back exercise calories". The point of working out is to help create more of a deficit like what's the point? ***UNLESS**** you're trying to bulk up and build muscle which is also what everyone is obsessed over these days. I want some lean healthy muscle- but I don't want to look like an athlete. That's just me thought. But I tried that whole approach and not only did I never go down in fat, all I did was build muscle underneath the fat not being burned and was even bigger.
Do you ever workout using Fitness Blender??? You really don't need a gym tbh. FB is free. You may just be getting used to the running. It's important to mix it up and work different areas, strength and cardio.
If you use MFP to set your calorie goal, exercise, but don't eat back any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed.
https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.4 -
Not really. When you set your baseline, and say you are active you are already rated for a lot of exercise calories. Eating them back is double dipping and throws off your plan.2
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Just sharing what I do: At the start, I had manually set my calories at 1800, my carbs at 30% and protein/fat at 35%. My goal at that point was to give myself time to adjust to tracking realistically my food intake as I committed to eating healthier--- no processed foods, white carbs (except for veg), or added/hidden sugars. It was very important for me not to be hungry during this time, or I knew I would most likely fail--again. I increased my fiber, protein and water. Exercise is negligible.After noticing that i could lose weight following that plan, and that my calories were averaging around 1500 per day, I re- set my goal to 1500, allowing a high on no more than 3 days per week of 1800 cal. I am 60, limited mobility, other issues, post-menopausal, and 5'-5" on a good day! I weighed 181+ on Feb 22, and started MFP Mar 1. Today I weighed 171 after gaining weight last week. The difference last week? I stayed within my calorie range, but ate processed foods-like McD- and had white bread for several meals. I also struggled with sleep and getting enough protein, and I stopped drinking water as often as I needed. Getting back on track and looking forward to seeing how the scale and tape react.
My reasoning for allowing myself a range for my caloric intake: my thought is that caloric confusion, like muscle confusion, might be helpful for me physically as I try to lose weight. My second reason: If I am allowed a range, then on the days I feel I need 'more', I am still following my plan. Mentally, in the past, I have been my hardest critic and self-talk has played 'failure' tapes. Small 'trick' to set myself up where it is easy to succeed, rather than quit.
Keep going forward! Best wishes:-)
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wilson10102018 wrote: »Not really. When you set your baseline, and say you are active you are already rated for a lot of exercise calories. Eating them back is double dipping and throws off your plan.
It isn't though. Activity calories and exercise calories are separate in the MFP method. Activity in this case is what you do outside of exercise (active job, for instance, or chasing kids all day, or sedentary desk job..etc.) That's why when you input intentional exercise into MFP, it adds calories back to your total. That's not double dipping..that's the way it's designed to work. Kshama is correct.7 -
When you set your goals, the workouts and exercise is a factor. And, if your body knows the difference between activity and exercise that is big news.1
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wilson10102018 wrote: »When you set your goals, the workouts and exercise is a factor. And, if your body knows the difference between activity and exercise that is big news.
Your body does not, but MFP counts what you do day in, day out, separately. If you base your activity on how much EXERCISE you do, you do not then log your exercise calories. If you set your activity on your JOB - like construction - and then also go to the gym, you then get to add the ADDITIONAL calories at the gym. But you don't log your job (day to day activity) if you based your activity level on it. Likewise if you decide to set your activity based on what you do at the gym, you do not then log them again as exercise. Otherwise you are doubling you calories.
This isn't rocket science. This is how mfp is set up and has always been.
READ.5 -
wilson10102018 wrote: »When you set your goals, the workouts and exercise is a factor. And, if your body knows the difference between activity and exercise that is big news.
MFP does ask about how many workouts you plan to do, true, but it doesn't affect your calorie goal in any way. I don't know why it's even a question since it doesn't do anything.
If you don't believe me, change your answer on the exercise question and you'll see what I mean.
But otherwise, no, exercise is not meant to be a factor in MFP's version of "activity", though I suppose if you want to think of it that way, that's your call.
This is the main difference between MFP calculations and a regular TDEE calculator, though.4 -
Also, the link Kshama posted from MFP actually says all of that. It's worth a read.3
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@wilson10102018wilson10102018 wrote: »When you set your goals, the workouts and exercise is a factor. And, if your body knows the difference between activity and exercise that is big news.
No it absolutely does not include purposeful exercise - you are misleading people.
Here's the relevant section for you.....
"We also ask you for your weekly exercise goals (which should not be included in your initial activity level), in order to provide an incentive for you to reach. However, we do not account for additional exercise outside of your reported daily activity level, until you actually perform and log exercise to your diary under the "Cardiovascular" section."7
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