Has anyone upped their calories from 1200 cals?

A week ago I was feeling the same way! Tired with no energy. I had been exercising, so I was not understanding as I usually feel great when I do that. I decided to up my calories. Changed MFP from losing 2lbs to 1lb a week. I increased my calorie intake by 300. (1200 to 1500) I feel so much better and the scale moved more. Not much, but more than before. I highly recommend it!

I suggest having your BMR done and eating enough calories. 1200 is not enough unless you are super small and since you are exercising, you need to eat more. I aim for about 1500 and I am 5'4" and weigh 147 but I also eat more if I have a good exercise day.

I was down to 1210 calories a day,, but since I started an intense workout program I have been feeling very fatigued. I set MFP to "lose 0.5 pounds per week" and increased my calories. I feel better, and I am still losing weight!

I tried 1200 for a good bit of the month. I was feeling tired and my eye was twitching. I wasn't eating enough calories on top of the exercise. I switched it to only lose 1 lb a week instead of 1.5 lbs a week. I am glad I switched and have more calories, I am starting to feel better.

I just upped mine from 1390 to 1560. I am at a healthy weight--I just want to lose a few more. And I run a lot, so I figured I could. I just changed my goal from a pound a week to a half-pound a week, and the extra calories magically appeared in my daily allotment. I just did it yesterday--I'll let you know how it goes.

They use a formula to decide how many calories you should eat if you want to lose weight. some that don't have to lose as much will be at a higher calorie count per day. I'm also at 1200. 5'1 194 and want to be down at around 130. So I'm in the same boat as you! However, I've stuck to the 1200 and I've lost 22 lbs since November. I don't recommend just adding an extra 300 calories to your diet. 1500 -2000 is a maintain if you are a sedentary so you likely won't lose weight Here's what I recommend.

1. Exercise. - If you exercise you earn more calories. If you burn 600 you get another 600 to eat.

2. It's what you eat - it's not actually the calories that matter as much as what you eat. If you are eating a lot of proteins and carbs you will use up your quota for the day very quickly. If you try to eat lots of veggies you can almost eat them endlessly. I've been trying to eat veggies with every single meal That way you can eat more for less calories.

3. Fiber - I can't stress this enough. The higher the fibre content the slower it digests. This means your body is getting more nutrients out of the food you eat which will give you energy. It will also keep you fuller for longer. An apple for breakfast will keep you going until your snack at coffee break. Whole Grain Toast will make you fuller longer than white bread. It actually has more calories but the fibre offsets the insulin production so you actually store less fat!

So I would stick to the 1200 calories and try to adjust what you eat.

YES! didn't really start losing until I upped my calories to about 1600 per day. It's important (for me at least) to NEVER eat less than my BMR requires (Basic Metabolic Rate, the calories you burn if you lay in bed all day breathing, digesting, etc).

You probably need some protein in your diet

MFP set me up for 1200 cals a day when i first joined, but obviously wasn't enough for me as was constantly feelin tired and hungry and with the excercise ontop i decided to up my cals to 1600, it has worked better, but since i'm constantly increasin workout time i am tempted to push it to 1700-1800... will see what my weigh in reveals on saturday... guess its just a case of changin things untill you find somethin that fits... good luck

Hi Ladies! My range is normally between 1200-1400. I workout regulary (strength training/cardio) and by doing so, I earn extra calories so I don't feel guilty when my total calorie intake for the day is over 1200. So far it's worked pretty good...I joined 1/9/12 and I have lost 10lbs!

Problem #1--considering MFP the gospel. If you didnt see minimal results after 2 weeks, you should have adjusted.

I have lost over 100 lbs doing 800-1200 cals a day. I hit a wall and actually took a few days off then came back and upped my calories and lost 7 pounds in a week.

Play with your numbers...go up 200 a day to see if that helps. Everyone has a different starvation mode set on their body, you just need to find yours.

i'm 5.2 and was put on 1200 a day with mfp too. I was loosing 2 lbs a month, i have lost 6-7 lbs so far. Some days i have a very hard time not going over 1200 as i'm hungry. on exercise days i'm good as i get extra calories to eat As of 2 weeks ago i upped mine to 1310, as i changed my setting from 1 lbs to 1/2 a lb b/c all i was loosing was 1/2 a lb anyway, so i thought the extra calories might help. so far no change, as i also have been stuck for 1 month at 133.2 / 133.4, can't get under it, if i do it's 132.8 and it's for a day then right back up! i always eat my exercise calories and maybe that's my problem, maybe i should go to eating only half of them back? my bmr is 1252, so as long as i get 1250 a day i'm happy and net 1200 if i exercise... we will see what happens in the next week or two, my goal deadline was march 20th for all 15 lbs but i don't think that is going to happen.... ( i have been trying to loose since Oct 22nd.)

A friend of mine is a biochemist.. she is a book of knowledge and I pick her brain all the time. I was on 1200 cals for a long time and lost nothing. She recommended a good rule of thumb.. eat your weight + 0 (so for me, I'm in the 160's weight wise, so I eat 160+0 = 1,600 calories a day. So if you're 170... 1,700 calories would be good, and yes, this is to LOSE weight. Also, she recommended eating 60-80% calories if you do strenous workouts like lifting weights, running, Spin class, etc... in turn, don't document every little thing you do throughout the day like cleaning the kitchen, making dinner, grocery shopping LOL (lots of people log this as exercise but it's just daily living activities).. only gym time should be factored into those calories you "eat back"

Since I've made this switch I've lost almost 10 pounds since 1/1/12.

I upped mine to 1300. I work out around 6 days a week, so I usually eat more than that (since I've earned extra) but on days that I don't work out, I'm good between 1200-1300 calories. My weight loss goal is set at 1lb a week, but as I lose and get closer to my goal weight, I'll probably change that to .5 lb a week just to kinda keep myself balanced. 1200 is good if you're not exercising at all and you have a considerable amount of weight to lose (like more than 50 lbs).

I recently changed my cals from 1200 to 1540. I find this is better and I'm not starving. I generally don't eat back all my exercise cals.

I eat most of my food in the early afternoon-late evening as I workout at say 8pm-9.30pm.

I was hungry on 1200 a day. It is so easy to go over. SOme days still, I would only eat 1200 but at least I have the option of going to 1540 if I need it.

When i exercise alot, a few days later I will be starving. I just eat more dense/slow release foods but would defo go up to 1540.