Yep, I agree. I find it more fun to tell people I am NOT dieting and as the pounds wash away, they wonder what's going on! My mother thinks I am hiding an illness lol. She's not too concerned, but she watches me like a hawk to make sure I am eating enough when I visit. Anyways, just look at them and say you're not dieting and all you are doing is cutting down a little bit. Leaves then with nothing to comment on.

BTW, 1200 is my best calorie range to lose weight over a long period also. It has always worked well for me.

The "1-2 pounds a week is safe" talking point is also targeted towards a standard population of semi-healthy people with a little bit of weight to loose.

With many of those here starting at much higher weights, "standard" advice may not apply. While you don't want to be loosing 25 pounds in a week, I wouldn't be concerned about going some over the 1-2.

Just be careful that 1,200 doesn't mentally restrict you too much, and cause you to snap and go off plan.

Try and remember it's about you, not them. People don't know what they're talking about, and they will often say stupid things with the best of intentions.

You should discuss your weight loss plan/efforts next time you see a doctor or nutritionist. Then next time you encounter someone being overly aggressive telling you you're doing it wrong, say "thank you for your concern but my doctor and I are in agreement that I'm going quite well".

And good job with your great progress so far!

I sometimes wish we had a rating system for posts here because this post from Barbcole deserves a thumbs-up. Well said, every bit of it!

I agree that when you are larger, you lose more in the beginning. Add that to 1200 cals daily, and bam, there you go.

The only reason I wouldn't do a 1200 cal limit is because you'd have to reduce calories eventually to be able to continue losing, correct? Anything too much lower, is unsafe. I always thought you'd be able to eat more as your metabolism started to speed up, but everyone still says you have to reduce... I don't know..

All in all, I'd say keep doing what you're doing. You know what's best for you and what's not.

The only problem I see is that with the 1200 calories you're not leaving room for lowering if needed, but there are other ways to shock the system out of plateaus. I agree with barbcole about talking to the doc about it. I made sure I talked to my doc early on. I was concerned since I was losing more than the holy grail 2 lbs/week. My doc said that was silliness and that as long as I didn't have other symptoms of problems (dizziness, rapid pulse, clammy skin, etc.) and my food was adequate and healthy I was not to worry. I don't think I could be happy at 1200, but we are all different and if you can do it and it's workin' for you then tell them to shush. Even before you've seen a doc you can always tell the nosy people "when my doc says it's a problem I'll worry about it then."

UGH I'm totally with you on that! (Congrats on your success so far! Keep it up!)
I hate that everyone has something to say about what "should be done"
For example, my moms best friend and my aunt are both concerned with their own diets and are the typical yo-yo dieters. Ever since I started this journey they both bombared me every chance they got with "tricks and tips" and the "what you really need to do is.."
I love these ladies but if I wanted their advice, I'd ask for it and further more-what I'm doing is working very well so why mess with success. My body is different than theirs so what "works" for them may not be right for me.
I also understand the annoyance of people wondering about me "starving" myself or that I'm sick. I've had many people ask me if I'm okay health wise and if I eat enough but for the first time someone actually accused me of having an ED. They didnt say it directly to me, but made a comment to my best friend within earshot of me. Not only is this offensive because I worked so hard for this, but EDs are serious business, not to be thrown around as accusations.

You do what works for you!

everyone has an opinion and I too get so tired of it! and 1200 is not too little. I was doing 1200 for a while!

It's normal too loose a lot of weight in the first month. I lost about 20 pounds in my first month and then it stalled out from there. A lot of that weight was probably water weight. For your weight 1200 is extremely low and you could easily loose weight at a more comfortable range like 1600-1800. If it makes you feel better to keep it that low and your eating frequent small meals more power too you. I know I wouldn't be able sustain that range indefinitely though especially when exercise is involved and if I dip my calories too low I loose weight more slowly. Don't worry about the haters. People are always going to be hating. Expect a lot of people to "give you advice" as you journey towards goal. I've lost almost 50 pounds and people still tell me I really should do this or that and that I don't know how to loose weight. I usually just glare at them and remind myself I'll be at goal by the end of summer. The sad thing is most of the people who give me advice are around my current weight and can't keep weight off even when they do lose it. lol. Just keep your chin up girl!

Look at people on biiggest loser, heavy, and other shows that document people who are big lose a lot of weight. You make lose 23 lbs in 3 weeks but they can lose that in a week. It's a pain hearing people telling you what to do, but that's on EVERYTHING. There's advice and there's telling what to do with your life.

Yeah, but I think that's more often a good thing than a bad one. I hate that weight loss is such a taboo subject that you can't seem to share any opinion without someone getting mad at you for disagreeing with their views. Personally, I want to hear all the opinions, even the ones that I personally think are stupid. I think opening up the discussion and even debate is a positive step in making weight loss a topic that isn't inevitably shameful to discuss, but on the road to making it an open subject we're going to make a lot of mistakes. People haven't learned to discuss weight loss appropriately because it's still so much of a taboo subject that there aren't established boundaries for what can be discussed and how to go about it.

Most people should learn to be diplomatic and say "It's my personal opinion that...." or "What I've found true for me is...."

but sadly most people don't have the communication skills to be that diplomatic.

For me 1200 calories wouldn't be healthy, because at 1200 calorie I feel light-headed, nauseous, and dizzy. I also feel "rabidly" hungry (so intense that I can't think of anything but food), unless I'm eating almost no carbs. 1200 calories or less of low-carb destroys my hunger, but the lightheadedness, nausea and dizziness are exponentially worse. I can't exercise on 1200 calories at all (I've even passed out when trying).

I think people can easily assume their unique experience is actually universal. Even though I know my experiences aren't true for everyone, sometimes I can forget that. Or I remember it, but don't make it clear enough that I'm offering my experiences, not telling people to do it my way.

hate to break this to you but that show is complete lie. each "week" is more like 2 or 3 weeks, before they do the first weigh in they put on as much water weight as they can, the contestants work out as much as 12 hours a day, and every piece of food they put in their mouth is tailored by a fully trained dietician. NO ONE should ever use shows like that to base what you should be capable of losing EVER.

It always annoyed me when people told me that 1200 calories a day was too low as well...especially when I was a 300+ pound chick. Even though every calorie I put in my mouth was highly nutritious, no junk what so ever, I still got the negative comments. When I consume 1200 calories a day I eat more vitamins and minerals and all the good for your body stuff than I EVER ate when I was eating 4000 calories worth of booze, sugar, flour, butter, bread, bacon and ranch dressing daily. (to name a few of my favorite empty calorie choices)

I would kindly have to remind folks that I had almost 200 extra pounds of Natures most perfect "fuel" stored to keep me going for months. Fat is stored for a purpose...and not to annoy us, but to save our lives when we are faced with famine.

I also never had to worry about "lowering" my calories, because still to this day if I go back to 1200 calories a day I still lose weight. No stalls or plateaus for this chick.

I think the 1-2 pounds a week is based on the idea that it's safe to lose 1-2% of your body weight a week, would would be 1-2 pounds for people in the 100-200 range. If you are starting at 350 that range goes up to 3.5-7 pounds a week.