calorie intake help?

1200 is the LEAST you should consume in a day, and that means 'net' calories, so what you eat minus what you burn in exercise needs to equal at least 1200 calories.

Personally my daily goal is 900/1000 calories. But that's what feels right to me. You have to listen to your body. If I am ever under 600 I eat something right away because I know my body will go into starvation. Plus if you don't get enough food/calorie intake in a day you may gorge yourself with food later. Make sure you get enough protein!

There isn't a magic threshold that means that you are eating too little. Starvation mode is incedibly mis-understood and I imagine in this context you intend it to mean metabolic slowdown. As you lose weight your metabolism will naturally slow down - this is normal and expected. However, the larger the deficit, the larger the amount your metabolism will slowdown in excess of this 'normal' decrease in your BMR. It is also a function of how long you have been on a VLCD.

You cannot look at it as 1200 is OK, 600 is not. It depends on the deficit against your daily calorie expenditure and a bunch of other factors like what exercise you do and your macros.

You need to get enough micronutrients and macronutrients to have your body working effciently and healthily. At 600 calories a day you just cannot do this no matter how healthily you eat. Whether you can do it on 1200 depends on a bunch of factors, including those I noted above and how good the food that you actually eat is.

It is just a question that cannot be answered in a vacuum. However, what can be answered is that you will have more chance of losing weight heathily at 1200 than at 600.

To be blunt. Will you lose weight at 600 calories a day? Yes. Without proper medical supervision, is your hair likely to fall out eating at 600 calories a day for an extended period of time? Yes.


Edited to fix typos