Only 1200 calories?

Age plays into it at well. I'm 5' 4", 46 years old and I eat 1200 calories per day. I started by just logging everything I ate and after a week I started tweaking my diet. Replaced ground beef with 99% fat free ground turkey meat. Started grilling chicken instead of cooking in oil. Switched out regular yogurt for greek yogurt. Use cooking spray when making eggs, found a lower calorie bread to replace english muffins, stopped drinking orange juice (high in sugar), basically stopped drinking any calories (only drink water and coffee now). It was a slow process to find an alternative to every food I was eating to get the calories down but now I'm never hungry on 1200 calories and some days I actually have to find other things to eat to get to 1200. I'm now losing 1 lb a week from a 1200 a day calories and one pound a week from exercise. Good luck

A lot of it depends on what you "ideally" want to lose per week. I always suggest 1 lb per week and eat 50-75% of your exercise calories. Also, try to get 70%- 80% of your body weight in grams of protein to help aid lean muscle mass retention. But if you exercise, you can eat more.

I'm 5'6.5", 299lbs & I have my cals set @ 1350, granted I adjusted that myself, but I do fine with that consumption. You won't starve, I promise. Just eat filling cals & make healthy choices., You will be amazed how far healthy calories go!

I am 4'9" and I'm doing the Spike Diet. Three days a week, I eat 800-1200 calories, three days a week I eat 1200-1800 calories, and then I have a free day where I can do 2400 or so. I am also very active, I exercise every day, and I'm training for a marathon, so 1200 seems small to me as well, but I plateaued and really want to lose these last 13 lbs!

I don't drink any sodas or juices, I do have coffee with rice milk once a day. On my low-cal days, I have to be really, really careful.

I'd love advice from others about keeping to 1200 calories or less. Sample meal plans or recipes would be great :-D

Make sure you set your daily activity level to something accurate (chances are you aren't sedentary, right?) and that you eat the calories you burn during exercise. If 1200 is still your magic number (although it will be more with exercise), and you don't think you can stick with it (I know I wouldn't be able to), adjust your weight loss goal to a pound or half pound a week. You'll probably still lose two pounds a week or more in the beginning anyway since they come off so easily early on.

Slow and steady wins the race (when it comes to food--not exercise!!). Eating more and losing weight slowly prevents cravings and you'll be less likely to slow down your metabolism.

Good luck!

I am 5'3 and when I started about a month ago I was 213. My calories according MFP is over 2000 but I was not losing weight so I started eating between 1200 & 1300 calories a day and I am now down to 207. I think it is according to the person.

I am 5-5 and was 196, I started with 1200 calories. Really it boils down to this, if you want to eat more, exercise more. Then you can increase your food intake. Log EVERYTHING and try to make good food choices for those 1200 calories.

1200 calories of lean protein, veggies, etc is much better than a Value meal at a fast food restaurant (around 1200) calories.

Hang in there.

Im 5ft 4, started at 188lbs. I now weigh 179lb after 5 weeks, and im on 1200 cals a day. Sometimes it can be a little difficult, but on the days that i exercise, i like to eat about half them calories back. x

i'm 5'6 and i'm on 1200 calories, i workout every day and eat back all if not most my exercise calories but i could totally make do on 1200.

I did increase my calories for a long time thinking that would be better but it didnt work out for me, i just stopped losing and some weeks i gained so i went back to 1200 and this week, 2.5lbs lost so thats obviously right for me.

i think weight loss is trial and error, if you dont feel your getting anywhere with your 1200 or your just too hungry all the time, increase your calories slowly and see where that gets you

5'5 168, 1200 calories here too.

1200 works for me, but I eat tons of fruits and veggies and whole grains and those are somewhat light on calories and make be feel full for a long while and I get to eat more times a day so that helps too.

I'm 5'5", 204 and it has me at 1200 too.... my food diary is public, I said public, not perfect LOL I'm still new to this journey and looking for friends within the same goals. Feel free to add me.

I'm 5'4/151lbs. 1200 is not enough for me.
If you don't exercise it may be enough but I do around 1550-1700 calories. I'm losing real slow.

Adding exercise means you can add more calories and still lose weight. I try for at least 30 minutes of light exercise six days out of seven. It really helps. Also getting "paid" in those extra calories makes me want to keep exercising because I really do love my food. I've lost twenty pounds so far doing this.

Why do people feel compelled to lose weight so quickly? Unless you're completely sedentary, why restrict yourself to only 1200 calories? Obviously, the weight you are trying to lose did not gain in just a month or two. Personally, I'd rather eat more, lose the weight slowly, and keep the weight off.

I eat close to 1800 calories a day; I'd go INSANE if I was on a 1200 calorie a day diet! I love food!