1200 calories, is it really enough?

Sounds like you're doing fine. I too have 100lbs to lose and I've lost 26 in about 85 days and according to math, theoretically I should lose all my weight in one year. But I know that the only thing consistent thing about weight loss is that it comes off in it's own time. Feel free to friend me, I'm all for friends with similar goals!! Good luck to you!

Yep, kkarrolle is absolutely correct. 1200 is probably not enough for you. I started out w/ 50 lbs to lose and MFP gave me 1450 or something close to that. Eat the recommended amount, you'll be glad you did in the long run.

Congrats on your weight loss!

Well, 1200 cals are not enough for me, I can tell you that. My base calories are 1390, and if I don't exercise to get more, I am starving. I can never stick to just 1390, so I don't know how people stick to 1200.

I can tell you it is NOT necessary to eat so few cals in order to lose weight, however many people choose to do so. The risk comes when you get so deprived for so long, you are more likely to binge, gain and give up.

If you really feel compelled to keep your cals that low, please be sure you meet that 1200 every day; don't make it 1150, 1100, 1000 . . .

The reason you don't want to restrict severely is bc over time it will actually cause you to GAIN when you have even the slightest bit extra. This is what causes people to yo-yo, stay big, and quit.

Here's a great article about staying obese at only 700 calories a day:

700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing">http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

That doesn't seem like very many. I'm 5'5" 150 and I'm only allowed 1200. You might want to up your intake a little bit. How is your energy level? I'm worried if you get to few calories you may slow your metabolism down in the long run because your not getting enough nutrition.

If it's working, keep doing it. If you are feeling deprived, up the cals. If you start to plateau, up the cals. If you exercise, eat back your burned cals.

I' m really just looking for some advice here. I do my best to stick somewhere between 1200-1300 cals for the day, not matter what I do. I've lost 13lbs in about 26 days or so. I understand that since I have 100lbs to lose, I will lose weight quickly at first. I just want to make sure I'm doing this right. HELP, PLEASE

Thanks!!

Jessie

Hi Jessie!

I am studying to become a dietitian, and from what I know, it is NOT good to only eat 1200 a day. 1. It is VERY hard to maintain that amount all of the time, is that really the amount you want to stick with for forever? 2. It is VERY hard to get the right amount of nutrients you need a day, and 1200 is the MINIMUM you need a day. 3. From experience, from eating a lower amount of calories to eating a normal amount (1700-1500 a day), I gained ALL of my weight back. 4. Since you do have a lot to lose, your body with plateau eventually at 1200 calories, and in order to lose more weight, you will have to eat LESS than that (not healthy) and/or work out more! It's very hard to maintain a lifestyle with only 1200 calories.

Consult your doctor with how many calories you should eat a day! Good luck!

Hi Jessie,
I'm in no way an expert and can only advise from my own experience of losing 125lb and keeping it off for nearly four years. 1200 calories is definitely achievable and you can sustain it until you're relatively close to your goal. I personally didn't cut back on calories but I did up my daily exercise at the end. The challenge is in ensuring that you have enough protein and carbs to sustain your energy over the day. I ate four small meals each day. I made sure that I focused on being healthy, rather than being thin. I cut back on red meat, ate lots more vegetarian food and tried to have more raw and/or unprocessed meals. You'd be surprised how big a 300 calorie salad is when you remove the nasty processed dressings and fried bits. I also had loads of yummy vegetable soups with delicious Asian or Indian inspired spices - so delicious. By the end of the day, I often found I had enough calories for a glass or two of wine or another treat.
I wanted to write and say that it can be done and you really can keep the weight off if you're determined enough.
However if you feel unwell in any way, see your doctor immediately. At the end of my diet my blood pressure dropped and thanks to seeing my doctor for a check up every month, it was picked up and I was advised to return to a higher calorie intake, which I did. I had been feeling dizzy and tired for some time and my doctor was surprised I hadn't fainted. Funnily enough, I even lost weight when I was eating more calories as I kept up with eating more healthily.
All the best,
Linze

so many great posts...I've had good success keeping my calorie intake around 1400. Good foods, esp veggie soups and almonds, kept me from too many cheats. after about a year I had to zig zag my intake to keep up my focus. it has to be something we can carry through the long haul, otherwise those old unhealthy habits creep right back into our lifestyle.

keep it real and you'll keep it off :bigsmile:

Make sure the food you eat is Nutrient Dense and you're body will be pretty good about letting you know what's enough (if you want to listen)

I'd like to suggest that you track your SUGAR... While you are avoiding obvious junk.
I was amazed at how many food that are sold as *healthy* or *real food*s are loaded with hidden sugar.

both sugar and artificial sweeteners increase your appetite.

While it's a rare day that I'm under on sugar. I'm not perfect I'm doing better.
I find that sugar increases my appetite by a lot.! If I have too much I can't stay in my calorie range for the day. I've been meaning to look into the Glycemic Index. to learn more about how the body processes sugar. I come from generations of diabetics I always thought that "sugar was sugar." But I've recently heard about somethings about how your body processes sugar that I want to look into.

Food manufacturers add a lot of sugar under a lot of different unrecognizable names into products, because it's cheap and it increases your appetite, so you eat more.
(I picked up a lean cuisine one evening forgot to check the sugar went to enter it to find out it had 30g of sugar, now

A) I only get 25g a day,
my favorite cookies are 9g for 15 cookies. If I'm going to eat sugar I want to enjoy a treat!!!

Also watch out for yogurts there usually very high in sugar, buy plain and add a little hershey syrup or jam or cukes & dill at least YOU will be controlling your intake.)

BOTH sugar AND artificial sweeteners increase your appetite, so cutting back on them makes weight loss easier, because you are not hungry all the time.

If I have a DIET COKE, no way I can keep at 1200 cal.

Nutrient Dense foods keep you full longer, while proteins and fats (happy fats... plant based) appear to pack a lot of calories for the quantity you get to eat. A small amount will keep you satisfied longer. So it may be a better balance for you .

I've become a little bit of a zealot... Sorry in advance for all the long-windedness

I'm 49 and have struggle my whole life (I have 3 rail-thin sisters who I never measured up to)
I'm all about doing this for the long-term. Doesn't matter how long it takes as long as I can maintain.

Here's how I started:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and I gave myself a range with 1200 as my rock bottom, lose 1 lb/wk as my target*** and maintain my goal weight as the top of my range. As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as acheivable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

I did have to take a break for a month due to a health scare, but otherwise I kept with the slow and steady approach. Took me 9 months (including the month off) At first I lost at the rate of about 3 lbs per month, but the closer you get to the goal the slower it goes. So be patient and hang in there.

***also once my lose 1 lb/week target was down to 1200 calories I switch to lose 1/2 lb/ week (1200 cal rock bottom, 1/2 lb/week as my target, maintain goal weight as the high end of my range.)

Food is not the enemy.
Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occassional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time the occassional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck