what if i go over 1200?

I eat 2100-3200 calories a day. 5'9" 230 lb male.

Girlfriend, 5'1" 115-118 lb female, eats like 1400-1900 a day... I think you'll be just fine if you go over.

No you would just be eating normally but stressing out over it. IF you are exercising you should eat more than that.

if i go over my 1200 calorie limit would i be over eating?

While the obvious answer is, no, you wouldn't... let's answer this right.
How tall are you?
What do you weigh?
Male or Female?
Do you workout (better be yes) and what do you do?

The site is giving you 1200 to LOSE weight. If you eat over 1200 you just won't be losing.

Not necessarily - I eat well over 1200 & lose pretty steadily. I started by only eating the 1200 MFP gave me, but eventually stalled/plateaued and I was quite hungry all the time. I upped my calories and started losing again. The body needs fuel, and fed properly, it will burn it efficiently and drop the fat rather than storing it.

I have a lot of MFP friends who went through the same thing - up the calories and the weight starts coming off.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less

Gonna have to agree with Amy here. This is a website. It is not an intelligent being capable of making decisions based on the individual person. It calculates out some numbers (rather poorly) and presto, a diet plan. Unless you are about 4'6" and way about a buck, you should go ahead and assume it safe to eat over 1200 cals, especially if you are working out. If you eat 1100 calories in a day, and you bun 500 working out, you just consumed a net intake of 600... it wont be long before your body realizes it is starving and starts to store everything you put in it. The only upside to this is you might get a raise at work for efficiency because you will never have to take a bathroom break....

Figure out what your RMR (resting metabolic rate) and stay under that to lost weight. Of course, if you eat more than just up your activity to burn off the extra calories. If you need help figuring your RMR go to web site WebMDhealthcheck.

DO NOT go under your resting metabolic rate! RMR is the minimum amount of calories your body needs to function. If you were to go into a coma today that is what the doctors would give you.

my heights is 5'3 and i weigh 143, im a femal, and i workout for 2&1/2 hours daily. i go to the gym for an hour and 1/2 and do cardio and weight lifting and ab workouts, and then i do the last chance workout at home, and walk/run at te local collage with my dog for 30-40 minutes.

ok now, 1200 is a crap number in my opinion. i eat 1300 NET! im 5'2 119lbs i burn about 400 a day and eat them ALL back i think u could eat more

Agreed, I would say you need to be AT LEAST 1400-1500 daily, but working out like that you may even need to get a little higher than that! And if you are working out "daily" does this mean 7 days a week? If so that needs to stop. You should have about 2 rest days a week to allow your body time to recoup. Make sure you are getting your calories from good/healthy/clean sources, good %'s of all three macro-nutrients, drinking plenty of water, and you should be fine.

No you would not be over eating. I eat 1450 calories a day plus exercise and am losing weight. 1200 calories is the absolute minimum for girls to sustain life. I tried staying on a 1200 calorie diet before and on days where I didn't exercise, I was pretty grumpy. It's just not enough. You can still lose weight if you net somewhere between 1200 and 1500 depending on your exercise and activity level, and that number can always go up to and still lose weight.

Take what MFP gives you, add your exercise calories and eat that. Try it. You won't be hungry and you'll probably lose weight... maybe even up to 2 lbs/week. No, you don't erase your calorie deficit by eating your exercise calories.

well my family wants me to cut back my exercise to an hour & a half, so should my calories i eat come down? To like 1000?

Seriously? Several people here have already mentioned that 1200 calories is the minimum recommendation for a woman to eat, and if you're exercising, you need more. You're not doing your body any favors by working out hard and then barely feeding it. If you work out hard & feed your body the proper amount of good food, you're giving it what it needs to function well and efficiently burn fat & build lean muscle instead. Working out hard and barely eating is a bad combination, and a lie that we've all been told for far too long.

Go to http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ and use the calculators there to find your body fat percentage, goal weight, your basal metabolic rate (BMR), and how many calories you should be eating. There's a lot of great info on that site and if you plug in all your numbers, you will get a good idea of how much you should be eating based on your body & activity level, and a much more realistic goal for long term healthy weight loss and fitness!

For the love of God. NO.

Drink a glass of water first. If you are still hungry, eat a bowl of soup. Unless you are super tiny, I don't think 1200 calories is enough for anyone. If you are hungry, you should eat.

Height? Current weight?

The site is giving you 1200 to LOSE weight. If you eat over 1200 you just won't be losing. Too high over 1200 and you may even gain but it all depends on your body. So what is your current height and weight?

This isn't the case for most people. I was 1200 when I first joined (because I didn't know any better). I dropped 15lbs pretty quickly but then I bottomed out, felt like crap, was having issues in the bathroom department, wasn't able to workout to the best of my abilities so I INCREASED my calories and immediately started losing again.