How is 1200 Calories working for you?

I'm set to lose 1-1/2 pounds a week and MFP currently has whittled me down to 1220. I started closer to 1400, but MFP cuts you back as you lose. On rest days when I don't exercise, I fill up with veggies and a little fruit and I don't feel deprived. I do enjoy having a bigger allowance of calories when I exercise - so it's great incentive to be more active. If I decide I can't live with it, I'll reset to 1 pound a week and take the slower pace. I love that we have options.

I started out on 1200 calories...lost 28 pounds since June 1st. I'm about halfway to my goal. I didn't find it hard to stay within the 1200 range if I made good choices, and have felt really great the entire time. But...my weight has been stagnant for about a month now, so I just upped my calories to 1430 a day. Keep in mind I'm older (51), short (5'.1") and have a tiny frame. My activity setting is "sedentary" and I chose "lose 1 pound a week"...even if I choose .5 pounds MFP only gives me a 1200 calorie allowance. I rarely log my exercise...heck, I rarely exercise. That's the next thing that has to change.

To get my stats, I used calculations found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/stroutman81?page=2 and then customized my settings.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks. Hoping for the kind of results I've been reading about from the eat more to lose crowd. What they're saying makes a lot of sense to me.

1200 worked form me the first few months i was here bec i work out 5xs a week i was always allowed to eat back my workout calories, however i dont work out on the weekends and 1200 was not enough for those two days, so i upped them to 1350 and i have been fine ever since, i dont feel hungry or deprived i always drink enough water and shoot for a salad if i want anything more to eat..


but as you can see everyone here is different so you just have to larn to adjust those calories to work for you try doing it for a month at a time and see how that goes.

I would like to know how long 1200 calorie people stuck with their diet and what their results were in the long term?

Anyone reach their goal with 1200 and what happened then?

The thing about the 1200 calorie goal/limit/whatever is that that's what MFP tells a lot of people to do *if they're not exercising at all*. Once you do some exercise and burn some calories, you get to eat more than 1200. My daily goal is 1210 calories, but today I did a total fluke thing and burned a little over 1000 calories. (kind of abnormal for me - usually I'd burn about 400-500, but I worked harder today b/c I wanted dessert! LOL) So today my goal was over 2200 b/c MFP added in that 1000 that I burned off. I think I'm only going to manage to eat about 2000. There comes a point where I just can't stuff anything else into my face that day. LOL I've been doing this for 3 months now and really have had no problems sticking with it b/c exercising means I get to eat more. The very few times that I've had a problem going over it was b/c I didn't have nutritional info in front of me at the time that I had to make my choices (eating at family's house, etc). And even then I managed to go over by less than 300, so I just worked a little harder the next day in my workout to burn a little more than necessary for that day.

I'm about halfway to my goal. When I actually get there (or to a point where I'm happy even though I may not meet the exact 'number' - just based on how I'll look and feel) - at that point I'll switch my goal over to 'maintenance' and follow that plan, continuing to eat my extra calories that I burn during workouts.