I have used a bod pod before. I was told that based on my height and muscle to fat ratio, my BMR is 1000 calories a day. So, that's where my target calories are at now.
I've been eating 1200 cals a day for 75 days staright. I up it to 1390 on heavy workout days, but not always. I'm very active, besides just working out. Being SHORT stinks.....to get a big deficit, my plan now has me at 1170 cals/day. But I just can't do it.
1200 is not an outrageous goal for very short women. I work hard to get 99% healthy foods and am still building lots of muscle.
im losing approx 1.5 to 2 lbs a week and i use 10 cal per lb of body weight, so as my weight drops my calories do to. i see these post by people who weigh 250lbs and are eating 1500 cal, when they get to 150 lbs what will they drop their calories to?
I think 1200 is generally considered the "danger line" rather than a definitive number for most women. When I lost 120lbs last time, I quickly learned that my line was around 1350-1400. If I dipped below this, I would generally lose less weight than if I ate more than this.
Weight loss is both an art and a science, so never be discouraged from experimenting. You'll find your magic number.
1200 is useful in the way that a 2000 maintenance recommendation for women is useful: it's an average. If 2000 is a good maintenance figure for you, then 1200 is probably a good minimum (which is NOT the same as ideal number for weight loss, it means that you should be getting more than that on average and never drop below it). If 2000 for maintenance is way off for you, then 1200 will be way off as well. I couldn't possibly eat 2000 calories, for instance, at 4'11 and highly inactive I'd put on huge amounts of weight, and similarly my safe minimum is correspondingly lower than 1200. Someone tall and/or very active would need far more than 2000 for maintenance, and shouldn't go within several hundred calories of 1200 even as an rock-bottom minimum.
If your calorie levels are far too low, you can often tell anyway as you will start getting signs such as severe hunger, dizziness, fatigue and so forth. Calorie calculators which factor in height, gender, weight and fitness levels are a good start, and after that you need to fine tune. When you find the calorie level at which you are steadily losing 1lb/week, add 500 to find your maintenance level. 1lb/week is a good rate to start with, and once you've settled into that, you can maybe increase the calorie deficit if you're heavy enough to warrant it.
I know you are pretty low carb. fwiw, my plan is very low carb (2 tbs of oat bran a day, veggies and carbs from low/no fat dairy but that's it) and I am amazed at how few calories I eat. I'm eating as much as I want, there are no limits on the amount of permitted foods. But even eating until I am totally satisfied, I typically come in under 1000 calories a day. Not on purpose and the only reason I even know is I was putting my food into fitday for a while out of curiosity - now I don't even bother to do that.
the other thing is that I agreed with Kaplods - all of these calculators are just educated guesses and give you a starting point. For some people, they will be pretty accurate but most people end up having to tweak a bit up and down to account for their individual metabolism in order to find the right number where they simultaneously feel good and optimize weight loss.
I can only tell you what I do. And I have all kinds of endocrine wacky.
My endoc suggested 2300 to lose based on whatever formula she uses. I'm guessing Harris-Benedict. I did it. On paper I lost 30 lbs in a year, in real life, nothing. She was baffled, I was annoyed. I know I have endocrine crazy but I should have gone in much sooner to complain.
My GP suggested 1500 calories. I went hunting around online and found that the Katch-McCardle which takes % body fat into acct is more accurate for me. Not just height and activity level but %bodyfat too. You have to click the "advanced" on there.
It suggests 1651 for me. Which is more like the 1500 GP suggested than the 2300 endoc did. So I decided to go with it and try and crank it down to 1500 if need be.
I'm still not totally there, but I AM starting to see things move again. So that tells me that's more ME.
All these guidelines things are just guidelines to put you in the ball park. There's going to have to be some tweaks to make it custom for you.
A.
What is strange about the 1200 calorie number is that my sister-in-law and my brother STRICTLY count calories and never go over. She is like 115 lbs and to maintain weight if she is not exercising she can only eat 1000 calories per day. She ate like this for 3 years without gaining or losing weight. I always felt bad.
I am starving if I eat at the 1200 calorie minimum. I would imagine that if you are truly experiencing hunger around the clock it is not enough food to sustain life!
im losing approx 1.5 to 2 lbs a week and i use 10 cal per lb of body weight, so as my weight drops my calories do to. i see these post by people who weigh 250lbs and are eating 1500 cal, when they get to 150 lbs what will they drop their calories to?
My calorie range average is 1500 a day and I am very satisfied with in the range. For me this is about a change of lifestyle, doing something that I can live with for the rest of my life. So this is also the range that I will be eating at when I am at goal weight. Obviously as I get closer to goal, it will take a lot longer to lose weight then it does now, but I will still be losing weight.
I know this is an oldish thread, but I just wanted to say (instead of starting a new one), I'm really struggling to only eat 1200 calories. When I started, I recklessly did 800 (was losing 1lb a day), then up to 1000 (it tapered, as to be expected with any weight loss). Now I think I get 1400-1800, but I don't exercise enough to get this high and I know I need to come down in order to finally shed these pounds. I have a trampoline, and try to exercise at least 10 minutes per day on it, and then 90 minutes daily on the weekends with weight lifting.
I'm afraid to eat 1200, as I've stated before in other threads, I'm afraid of hunger, afraid of low blood sugar...I've fainted before, but it was unclear why. 1200 calories of healthy (which I eat with ease) food is enough to live, I shouldn't be so scared, but I am.
Panacea - If you don’t feel comfortable eating 1200 calories, then I’d say you should try eating a bit more and see how that works for you. I’m 4” shorter than you, and when I started losing weight, I was eating about 1400 calories a day and not really exercising. And I ended up losing about 1 pound per week. Now I eat around 1300 cals and walk for an hour every day. I tried going down to 1200, but I just feel a bit more comfortable around 1300 and the weight’s still coming off. So only eating 1200 isn’t always necessary.
If you think your 1400-1800 calorie range is a bit high, then you could try eating on the lower end of that range (say 1500-1600, or 1400-1500) and see how that works for you. You’re eating healthy food and you’re getting a calorie deficit, so the weight should still come off.
This was a great thread to read and go through. Thanks! I know for me I need at least 1600 calories to not be be cranky and moody. But I am very active and have a large frame.
Everyone is different. If I went to 1200 someone would toss me into a closet and lock it.
SparkleBE, this is the first time in a while I've tried 1200, and it's just not working. It's as if my body NEEDS 1600 or so calories, because no matter how hard I've tried it seems at the end of the day I'm putting 200-400 calories in my mouth like "haha! you can't win!". Ugh
My weight loss has been incredibly slow with these higher daily calories, one week I gain 1/2 a pound, the next I lose one, then three weeks no loss, then one week 3lbs loss. It's stupid.
I try to zigzag when it gets like this, but I'm having such a hard time coming down from 1600-1800.
I think I need to force it. Maybe snap my wrist with a rubber band if I go in the kitchen to eat after my 1200-1400 calories.
My weight loss has been incredibly slow with these higher daily calories, one week I gain 1/2 a pound, the next I lose one, then three weeks no loss, then one week 3lbs loss. It's stupid.
No, it's not stupid.
You still lost 3.5 lbs in four weeks.
That's great!
Your body is not a machine and you can't force it to lose weight in an organized fashion.
