Yes I'm 260 does 1200 calorie diet work!!!

I would look at what a normal day used to look like for you and maybe try starting off at 1500 - 1800 calories and dropping down to 1200 after you have lost a bit. Make good food choices and try to get active.

1200 is too low for most people. Plug in your goal weight as your actual and see what the maintenance level is.

1200 doesn't sound like much to me.
Some have lost on even more calories then that.
I eat more but it has helped me a great deal.
You can do it. Just count and stay on track.
Not everyone is perfect so if you go a stray one day, get back on track the next.

Hi, I'm Rita. And as awsome as it is being a BBW, I just simply can't take it anymore. I'm sick and tired of my clothes not fitting. Or feeling uncomportable around certain people. I don't know of being plussize is normal. But I surely feel abmormal most of the time. I decided to try and lose weight the old fashion way. By starting an 1200 calorie diet. And some light exercise. I really need help with this you guys. So stay on me constantly. I really need your support. Oyea if you have and diet and excerise regement would like me to try hit me up.


June,30,2012
Weight:260

Best of wishes as you enter this exciting phase of your life. Making the decision to get healthy and committing to it is the hardest part so congratulations on part 1. My fear for you is that instantly moving to 1,200 calories a day might be a struggle as it's more than likely a great departure from what you're used to eating. To give a little perspective, a Big Mac, small fry and a medium coke at McDonald's is just under 1,000 calories. Now not saying that's you and frankly I love McDonald's from time to time but the point is you need to build out small goals for yourself so that you gradually work into your healthy lifestyle. It's probably the #1 reason most diets fail as they're not often not sustainable. And that's my fear for you if you simply start out at 1,200 calories. I would recommend you log a few days from the past into your MFP so that you can get a sense for just how much you've been consuming. Put all of your favorite staples foods in there that you tend to eat all the time and use that as your starting point. Then start by reducing that by 1000 calories a day (2lbs per week). Adjust from time to time as you start to lose weight.

Diet (Don't even call it that...call it Healthy Lifestyle):
Conceptually eat whole foods as much as humanly possible. What's meant by that is foods that have the lowest possible number of ingredients. An orange has 1 ingredient, chicken has one ingredient, a box of fettuccine Alfredo pasta has many ingredients which are processed. The makers of P90X and other intense workout programs have a food substitution plan called Michi's Ladder. It's not a diet plan but rather a way to learn how to eat food that's very good for you. If you eat from the top two layers of the ladder you'll have near perfect nutrition. Up to you how to put them together for your meals but extremely flexible.

My suggestion would be to use a tool like that and perhaps start your 1st month with the 1st 3 layers of the ladder then eliminate the 3rd after month 2. Immediately eliminate foods in layers 4 and 5 at the start. Don't feel guilty if you fall off the ladder either it's ok. You're human but just don't make a habit. If you want a slice of pizza eat a slice of pizza but account for it as part of your weekly goal. Also don't be afraid of good fats such as olive oil, canola oil, sesame oil and coconut oil. Add great flavors to your meals. Good fats are good for you and they do not make you fat! Too many calories do!

http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/michis-ladder


Exercise:
Like your diet I would suggest starting out small and set reasonable goals. There's a walking program that many overweight people start with called "10,000 Steps" a day. If you can afford it purchase a pedometer or a Heart Rate Monitor that can keep track of the number of steps you take a day. Most sedentary people only take 1,000 - 3,000 steps a day depending on what you do on a daily basis. So the concept of the program is to use your pedometer for a day or two to get your average number of steps. Then begin a walking program by adding 500 steps per day for a week. In week two add another 500. In week three add another 500. Continue doing so until you hit 10,000 steps per day.

With an average of 2.5 ft per stride you essentially walk 1.4 miles if you take 3,000 steps a day and 4.7 miles if you take 10,000 steps. From there you can start to add slowly jogging alternately with walking (for example, run 1/4 mile, walk a half mile, run 1/4 mile, walk back home). Increase as your cardio improves.

http://www.shapeup.org/shape/steps.php


Hopefully that helps a bit and again congrats on taking the 1st step. You can do it and lots of great support on this site to keep you motivated.

Start small, make reasonable goals and increase them as you move forward.

I started at 295 and have lost 12 pounds so far. I am brand new so take my advice or don't. I keep my calories between 1200-1600. MFP tells me to eat 2060. I feel full on 1200-1600 so I stick with that. I eat a ton of fruits and vegetables. I like to eat a lot of food. I want to see my plate full. Makes me feel better. I can eat a ton of produce for a minimal amount of calories. I talked to my doctor about it and he said that as long as you feel full its fine to eat just 1200 but if you are hungry eat more. just don't go over your alloted calories for the day.

At 260, its taking ~1900 a day before exercise just to keep you moving and breathing.. You have room to move higher than 1200 and still lose weight. Remember that yor 'before' diet was probably 2300+ to maintain your current weight so even cutting down to 1900 would be a loss in the near future.

Plug in the numbers and see what it says, but 1500-1600 or so might be a safe starting point to see how you feel in a week or so.. If you are like me, if you go too low too fast your more likely to fail or revert back to old eating habits.

I might say 1500-1600 is a good starting point. feel free to add me!

Hello,
I'm starting at 282, down 4 pounds my first week and did not go that low with the calories. I figured 2 pounds per wk and that put me at 1450 calories. My pharmacist daughter scolded me about the 2 pound rate. Her reasoning being that this is not going to happen fast and I need to stay healthy. I did not want to slow down, so I asked 2 different dieticians, (I'm an RN so have access daily.) a secretary who always seems to be watching out for me, and then my pain doctor (I have fibromyalgia and spinal cord compression) and only one said 1-2 the others told me 1. Honestly I've decreased it to 1 1/2 pounds per week which puts me at 1600 calories per day. We have a long way to go to meet our goal so need to gaurd ourselves from becoming discouraged and quiting/watching our wt. return to 282 or more. I simply worked through the myfitnesspal profile and it gave me # of calories to strive for. I have so many bad habits to fix and would love it if we push each other!

I started my journey at almost 300lbs and 1200 calories per day worked for me until I was able to become more active and I've consistently lost weight....then I moved it to around 1500....

Please feel free to add me....

I just entered my info into the BMR calculator in the tools section and my daily calories to maintain are 1556.
I am 5 feet 6 inches tall and 187. Hope that helps and feel free to add me as a friend for support!

pshhhh 1200 is fine, I started at 1000 and it was fine. You will have to see what works for you. Try the 1200 for a month or so and see what happens. You may be someone who can lose with the have more weigh less crew but you will never know until you start somewhere. I started with 1000 and no exercise just because my work hours was nuts. Now that I'm not working I exercise a lot more. Speaking of which I need to go walk the basement stairs since I didn't go to the gym today.

I tried 1200, but I was just too hungry. I'm feeling good and losing consistently at 1400 - that's less than a half a pound of difference a week and I'm so much more willing to stick with it than I was at 1200 (I'm 150 lbs, so you may need even more than that to feel good on a daily basis). Don't be afraid to up the calories if you don't feel that you're getting enough to eat - this does not happen overnight and it's not healthy to try to make it.

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

My advice to you would be to take that number and subtract -500 calories per pound you want to lose per week. I wouldn't advise going below 60-70% of your TDEE, though, to ensure you are getting adequate nutrition.

1200 seems low, I started on 1/30 at 235 lbs and around 1400 cals and have lost 37 lbs at nice enough pace to keep me motivated. :drinker:

Ok can someone help me too because now I'm confused. I'm at 284 right now and the goals they set for me where 2400 but for the last 3 months that seems like too much. After I had my daughter my doctor put me on a prescription to lower my blood sugar (I had gd while pregnant) but it speeds up my metabolism so I don't eat nearly half as much as I used to. And I'm constantly getting the starvation mode warning...what would be the right way to change my settings to something more suiting for me? I'm really pretty new to this stuff and I really want to do it right. Oh, and feel free to add me, everyone can use some support

I get that to but choose to ignore it. I'd say change it to suit you and your needs