I've seen quite a few posts from people who are eating 900-1200 calories per day plus working out, and are barely losing. Everything I have seen says that under 1200 is dangerous for your health and can mess with your metabolism. If you're eating that many calories, what are your stats? Height/weight - at my current weight (186) I've been eating about 2200-2500 calories per day and working out (running/elliptical 45 minutes) and lose about 2-3 pounds per month. When I ate about 1800-2000 calories per day I lost about 5 pounds per month. I know my BMR will decrease as I lose weight, but 1200 seems like too little.

I eat roughly 1500 calories a day, I work out 5 days a week for a minimum of an hour and try to always burn 500 calories from that exercise. If I stick to the plan I lose over 2 lbs a week and have been doing that for almost 6 months now. I'd die of starvation at 1200 or less, I try eating a little less on my off days and I really struggle.

If I go over 1500 calories per day weight loss is very slow for me. I think it makes a big difference what those calories include. I believe if you make sure everything you eat has a high nutrition value your body makes better use of the calories and you will have better weight loss. The people who are eating less than 1200 calories may have already lowered their metobolic rate or maybe they are underestimating what they are eating and could be taking in more calories than they think. I have a friend who is very short. She has lost well, but she really has to keep her calories low. I don't think she eats more than 1000 calories per day. We are all different and have to do what works for us.

Both of you have shown a good loss! Keep up the good work, and keep posting to encourage others.

I eat 1200 to 1400 a day and work out 5 to 6 days a week. If I push myself, I can see 1.5 a week in a loss but I've been plateauing. I don't actually believe in the idea the idea that you can "damage your metabolism" any more than I believe in starvation mode. But, I do agree that 900 is too low and is dangerous for other reasons like malnutrition and such. But I've never had an issue with 1200.

I eat 1350+ a day, and if I stick to the way I should be eating, it's pretty much 1350-1500, a half hour of exercise a day. I lose about a pound a week doing that.

I try to stick around 1200 calories and 30 minutes of exercise. I don't know how much I lose a week, because sometimes I stop calculating once in a while and eat more. It helps me to not plateau.

Saturday, I weighed 174, Monday I weighed 167 and today I am 166. I've been working on it really hard. I'm not sure if the 174 was right, or if it was water weight.

It depends on what I eat. I eat every 2-3 hours but most of the things I eat is under 300 calories. I don't really feel hungry since I'm eating throughout the day. I think the 1200 calories is ok.

I tried upping to 1,350 calories and the scale didn't move for a week. Once I went back to 1200 the scale moved fast.

I try to stay around 1400 with 30-40min workouts 6 days a week. I was at 1200 when I wasn't working out. I lost weight quite rapidly at first, but when I started working out I wasn't losing, so I reevaluated and started losing again. Now the loss has been slowed but I'm not starving and some progress is better than none.

I have lost almost 100lbs.I started at 1500 cal though some days I went over to 1800. After several months I dropped to 1200cal though about 2 days a week, I ate 1500cal.Worked out very little.A little walking most days.

I've been averaging 1200 cals and 10g carbs per day and that seems to be the right mix for me to lose about 2 lbs. per week. I haven't added any additional exercise yet (beyond my daily hectic stair-filled commute). Keto is working for me - nothing else has worked as well as low carb. One month in and 18 lbs. down - I will take it!

I am taking 400-600 calories in a day. My body is not fatty. I do exercise at least 2 hours daily and lose 5kg weight within 4 months.

I'm 340 pounds and I eat 1500-2000 calories a day depending on how active I am. If I stick to high protein foods 1500 is enough because I feel less hungry. I can lose around 3-4 pounds a week on 1500 Cal/30 mins cardio daily & meeting my 10,000 step goal.

Wow how can you only eat that much a day... that does not seem healthy!!

Updating my answer...

I still eat 1500/day. I changed my exercise after speaking with a trainer and doing research. I'm doing hiit on my indoor bike for 30 min mwf and doing weights on tues/thurs Apparently long bouts of steady state cardio cause a lot of muscle loss.

I'm 5'8" and in my mid 40's. I think 1600 a day is what I need to maintain my weight and 1200-1400 to loose. If you're young, maybe 1200 is too little and probably too little to eat regularly to maintain healthy weight I think, since I see you're the same height as me. I'm only trying to loose a few pounds and I would still be at a healthy weight according to height/weight charts even if I didn't loose any.

You can use an online calorie calculator (maybe you have already) to see how many calories you would need to eat to maintain your weight at different weights. I try to look for the calculators that let you put in your height, weight, and age, since they should be more accurate.