to think 1,200cals per day should only maintain your weight if you've buggered up your metabolism?

[DottyboutDots]

My friend and I are both trying to lose weight. She does around 800cals a day on the elliptical, while I swim and play squash.

She claimed that a woman approaching 40 can only eat 1200 cal a day and stay slim. I countered with, well I ate 1500 (adjusted with eating my excercise cals) a day on and off for a year and lost 3 stone.

Her examples are a) her mother who has eaten the same exact two meals a day for 20 years with a third option that she changes and is slim and b) our two friends who have openly admitted having food issues and don't eat very much.

She then mentioned that our overweight gynae (we met having our 3rd babies) had agreed with her. I said look to the messanger on that one.

Surely, there are healthy, slim women who eat more than 1,200 a day and stay slim. Please say there are, I need hope that the rest of my life is going to be a gastronomical desert.

Losing weight at the rate of 1lb a week means a calorie deficit of about 500 per day. So if you can lose weight at 1200, someone the same height, weight and activity level as you MrsMelons would technically need 1700 cals a day to maintain their weight. That's the difference.

Assuming that a dinner won't ever be more than 1000cals is a bit silly. Especially if you have something like pizza. You also said that 'everything else' you ate that day was sugary. One biscuit is often over 100cals on its own.

And anyone who has cereal for breakfast and has never weighed it is probably consuming well over 500cals for that one meal. 1200 cals is NOT a lot.

I think MFP suggests everyone sedentary has 1200 calories a day to lose weight - it suggested it for both DH and me in spite of our 6 inch and 3 1/2 stone height and weight difference!

gained weight on paleo. I think it's hard to do if you're veggie. My down fall us nuts and dairy. Hard to limit them if no calorie guide lines.
On the other hand, find it fairly straight forward and pleasant (everything's allowed in moderation) to lose weight on a calorie controlled diet. Around 1400 cals a day makes me lose 1 kg in a week. I'm tallish and of heavyish built. Walk a bit every day with ds, but don't do any other exercise (hate it).

I think the people who live on 1200 or similarly low cals a day to just maintain their weights (like a lot of celebrities on those food diary features in mags) are trying to maintain an unnaturally low weight. Sure it might be ok on a theoretical range (bmi), but might not be right for YOUR biology (regardless of what jeans size you'd like to ideally be).

I stopped losing weight on 1400 cals a day as a teenager, and had to maintain my achieved large weight loss with this low allowance. Clearly unhealthy, although I was still within the normal bmi range. I was skeletal and my periods had stopped for a year. Not a way I want to live nowadays, just to fit in size 8 jeans. Size 14 is plenty svelte enough.

Not all calories are born alike and eating 1200 calories all from refined sugars/carbs will not have the same effect as eating 1400 calories of Low GI food, for example.

Every single Endo consultant I met (and 3 different personal trainers I used) have moved on from this calorie counting approach to a healthy diet (including all WW type deserts full of aspartame) and when I came back to the UK I was very surprised to see most products still target low cal dieters.

*deserts = desserts/puddings

Paleo is fine (I know all the science) if you're a big meat eater (v. hard/ limited for a veggie) an never want to eat pasta, cereal or bread again. I recognise it must be good for some, but definitely not for me. Either a recipe for resentment or weight gain. Plus I like my muller lights and salads WITH a small bread roll with a huge glass if aspartame toxic waste cola

Horses for courses!

It doesn't help that we a very seditary now.
I walk a mile to the station and a quarter of a mile to work (and the reverse on the way home) so 11ish miles a week.
People think I'm mad for doing this.
People need to realise exercise is more than sweating in a gym.
I try to eat 1500 a day, but know this goes goes to pot occasionally

See this really FUCKS ME OFF when other people insist that people are underestimating what they are eating or are just plain lying about their calorie intake.

I have faithfully been doing the 5:2 woe since 1st September last year and in that time I have lost a few lbs, about 4 or 5 (despite having loads to lose). My dh has been doing it the same amount of time as me and we eat roughly the same - although obviously he has larger portions - and he has lost two and a half stone.

My friend started on 31st January and has already lost over a stone.

Some of us really do need very little food/calories to live on. Don't tell me I'm wrong, don't be so fucking patronising!!

Well said Mintyy.

I am not lying or underestimating my calories.

I am very little, I don't need many and 1,300 is perfect for me. Now I am upping my gym usage that may change but for now, leading a pretty active lifestyle 1,300 is my sweet spot and no underestimating as I weigh every single thing I eat.

it is not patronising to disagree with someone. stop being so defensive.

I think you are eating relatively more than your DH or friend.

& the reason why I disagree with you I because doctors don't say some people only need 1200 cal per day to maintain a healthy weight.

This is exactly what I'm wondering about. Do people who eat so little (naturally slim on little food is not naturally slim it is naturally dieting, surely) only need to eat so little because after effectively dieting for so long their metabolism has slowed down?

Also, only one poster (i think) has said they eat the supposed recommended 2,000 a day. Most women on here are eating around 25% less than that.

It is patronising to insist someone is obviously eating more than 1200 just because you couldn't survive on that.

I have a small appetite, always have. It's a pain in the arse actually, do you know how often I've had to leave delicious food on my plate because I simply cant fit a fill portion. I love food, really love it. But apart from when I'm pregnant or breastfeeding my body just doesn't need it.

No matter how calorie laden the food I could never consume over 1000 calories in one sitting as I simply couldn't fit that much food in my stomach. I had pizza last night yes, 2/3 of a ristorante pizza pollo after which I was full. Just over 500 calories according to the packet.

I don't diet, ever. I eat when I'm hungry, eat til full, snack. I just don't require much food to be satisfied.

When I was pregnant and breastfeeding I ate about twice as much and was 15kg heavier. As soon as I stopped feeding my appetite dropped and the weight fell off, no effort on my part.

It is patronising to insist someone is obviously eating more than 1200 just because you couldn't survive on that.

I have a small appetite, always have. It's a pain in the arse actually, do you know how often I've had to leave delicious food on my plate because I simply cant fit a fill portion. I love food, really love it. But apart from when I'm pregnant or breastfeeding my body just doesn't need it.

No matter how calorie laden the food I could never consume over 1000 calories in one sitting as I simply couldn't fit that much food in my stomach. I had pizza last night yes, 2/3 of a ristorante pizza pollo after which I was full. Just over 500 calories according to the packet.

I don't diet, ever. I eat when I'm hungry, eat til full, snack. I just don't require much food to be satisfied.

When I was pregnant and breastfeeding I ate about twice as much and was 15kg heavier. As soon as I stopped feeding my appetite dropped and the weight fell off, no effort on my part.

Sorry, phone rang in the middle of posting and I thought it hadn't gone through

"no doctor ever diagnoses a broken metabolism"

erm, there is a whole range of diseases which come under 'metabolic disorders'

Mintyy I believe you - people have different metabolisms.

Also, calories and portions are just not reliable comparisons at all.

Eating 1,000 calories of bread/donuts/puddings is NOT the same as 1,000 calories of veggies/pasta/pulses no matter how many times organisations like Weight Watchers tell you it is.

Willie - of course I agree that 'metabolic disorders' exist - but I was not aware anyone commenting on this thread had a diagnosed metabolic disorders or was commenting on an actual disorder. rather a 'broken metabolism'.

I could have been clearer.

No idea how many calories I eat a day. Roughly the same as 17-stone DH, I suspect. Both of us seem to fit the same clothes we always did.

But define 'slim'? I'd say I'm normal (weight, that is; not guarantee of sanity) and always have been, barring vast-as-a-house pregnancy.

It's mostly luck, I'd say, given I have one normal-size child, one skinny and one always a bit heavy.

"Almost nine out of 10 GPs believe dieters are vastly underestimating the amount of calories they are consuming, according to a poll."

www.nursingtimes.net/dieters-underestimate-calorie-consumption-say-gps/5014792.article

I never said my metabolism was broken

It works just fine, just at a different level.

is this something a doctor has told you or just a belief?

4 generations of my family have the same build as meand eat small amounts of food just like me. It's obviously just genetics. My dad had tests done once as a doctor as disbelieving as you couldn't believe he wasn't ill, no metabolic or thyroid issues and incredibly healthy. He's almost 60, still slim and never gets ill apart from a sinus infection every year or two.

My mother brought me for tonnes of tests as a teen too (she was convinced I was starving as I never ate more than a meal a day). I was declared perfectly healthy too.

Dd had intolerances when she was tiny, her gut couldn't handle wheat or cows milk protein. Tonnes of tests and 2 years with a dietician, not only was she declared perfectly healthy on a diet absent wheat and cows milk, she outgrew the intolerances at 5 and can eat a full diet now. She has a tiny appetite too, one slice of pizza and she's full. If I give her a bowl of pasta she'll be full after 3/4 bites.

I'm sorry it upsets you so much to hear about us freaks of nature but you can dig all you want, you won't find a simple explanation that makes you feel better. I just don't need much food, its no more complicated than that.