AIBU to ask is it possible to stick to 1200 calories

[mumof2exhausted]

Just that really. I need to lose half a stone to get to my pre baby weight and using MyFitnessPal to track food. Do think I have been mindlessly eating and think. The app is great to log but I’m struggling to stick to this though. Food today - 1 slice of toast, 2 poached eggs and apple for breakfast, M&S soup for lunch (350 calories), quinoa with chicken and peppers, onions and mushrooms for dinner. Snacks banana, bowl of berries with Greek yogurt and handful of cashew nuts. Takes me to 1400. Have really active job and 2 young kids so need my food / energy go to gym 3 times a week. Any thoughts? Or is 1200 too low??

Frosty66612 - I don’t eat out, and where did I say that I binned the food! I have three children if I don’t fancy something that I cook one of them will try it.

GorgonLondon I would prefer people called me ignorant than a liar.

Actually MFP refuses to talk to you is you enter less than 1000 calories gross

It doesn't care about net readings which does confuse me.

Many MFP don't eat back exercise calories (including me) which can lead to fine gross calories but low net intake. But I get a cheery message off MFP, so I will stick with it until I see my dietician next and ask her.

In my opinion, there are a fair few women who hover at the low end of the healthy weight (through having a mostly healthy diet) who are very invested in the idea that they eat like delicate little birds. These women aren't doing themselves any harm, but their confident pronouncements on the subject of healthy eating are incredibly dangerous influences on other people.

I've been doing it since February, it is doable. Not so much when you go out for a meal and alcohol isn't really a feature but over the week it's not too bad and I've had a steady loss of 1.5 to 1lb a week.

Once your stomache shrinks after the first couple of weeks, i'm not really hungry and find that even if I do get a pang, either ignoring it or drinking water makes it go away.

I've recently started eating for only 8 hours in the day (for the blood sugar health benefits) which for me means skipping breakfast. I'm no more hungry than I was when i was having porridge etc. and it leaves me extra calories for the evening time when I'm more likely to want to snack.

As for snacking, it's better for your blood sugars to limit the number of times you eat as much as possible. So it's better to have a larger filling meall than a small meal with snacks either side.

Also Bananas are one of the more calorific fruits (though more filling for sure) berries give you more vit c for less calories.

Substitute your lunchtime soup for 150g low fat cottage cheese and some vegetable crudites. It will be more satisfying than the soup and give you more protein. That should enable you to cut out the afternoon snacks.
Also watch the cashew nuts—very high calorie for the good you get out of them.

1200 Kcals is very low and definitely not advisable as a long term measure.

What you are eating sounds like a nice diet, definitely not too much food. If you have slightly higher calories then you might take that bit longer to lose than cutting to 1200, but 1200 will eventually need to drop to 1100 to provide the same results as you body with adapt to this 1200kcal intake and no longer provide weightloss, this is homeostasis

I would take a previous readers advise and check out your weightloss from an educated and nutritional point of view because some of the advice here is not so healthy and veering towards the 1980s starvation mode that we keep going back to as an ever growing fatter society.

@spraying you still haven’t said why you weight berries each day when you only eat 400 calories as it is and you want to gain weight and you have zero issues with disordered eating?!
I think you’re talking total shite so I’m not going to respond any further.

To the OP - your diet sounds great. When my weight plateaus I find just cutting out another 100 calories helps. So even if you just stop with the bananas you might find it helps.
It does sound like you do a fair bit of exercise though so maybe you’re eating too little and your body is clinging onto any excess weight to make sure you have enough energy?

SprayingMonsters
GorgonLondon I would prefer people called me ignorant than a liar.

OK then, you are ignorant.

And from this position of ignorance, you've confidently asserted completely WRONG information, and advised people to follow a course of action that would be incredibly damaging to their health and could even kill them.

You've continued to do this even when you have been told, over and over again, that there is no possibility that this information is correct, even when you have had it pointed out to you what harm you could cause.

OP asked if 1200 calories a day was enough and from your very first post you said;

Yes it is, I think 1200 calories is more than enough for one day.
My average calorie in take per day is 400-600

You then said that you have eaten this much every day for years and maintained a weight of 113 lbs even when told that this is physically impossible.

If you are so ignorant of what 400, 600, or 1200 calories a day really means, then how could you possibly think it would be OK to TELL OTHER PEOPLE what is OK, claiming knowledge and personal experience that you clearly do not have?

It is one of the most damaging and disgusting series of posts I've ever seen in many years on Mumsnet, and instead of retracting it, you've just doubled down and insulted those who challenged you.

Appalling and shameful behaviour.

Why does your heart go out to the person who's telling other people that they should starve themselves to death?

I think you misunderstand me a little. If you look i have repeatedly pointed out anything under 1200 cals is very wrong and should ideally be deleted, actually I've also said 1200cal is problematic unless you are inactive. There are different ways of challenging things. Telling someone whose is advocating a very unhealthy lifestyle that they ought to seek help isn't telling them they are right or supporting their choices. It isn't telling them they are lying either.

My heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves battling personal demons or in difficult circumstances. That's who I am.

absolutely would not have ever posted RECOMMENDING what I was doing to other people good. But not everyone is the same as you and people do. It's right it's challenged but I think there really different ways of doing it. I do think mumsnet should have a duty to delete

I think accusing people of lying is really unhelpful when they are far more troubling explanations.

@Yokatsu only 5'2

SprayingMonsters Wed 23-May-18 21:20:08melodybirds - I would love to gain weight, but it has just never happened for me.

Gorgon I never commented back as completely agree with you. It's physically impossible to maintain on such a cal deficit. On an ed forum I used to use it would have been flamed to say the least if someone said this as completely incredulous. ( eating that amount, maintaining a weight and wanting to gain)

I'm in my 50s and tall and currently with a BMI of just a fraction under 25. I'm eating 1200 calories a day, give or take. It's actually not massively low even for me as I think my actual requirements are only about 1550 as I am not very active (walk a bit, spend some time on a rowing machine). You need roughly a 3500 calorie deficit over a week to lose a pound (I think). I've seen that that's up for debate but it seems to be more or less accurate for me.

Hear hear, gorgon.

On 400-600 calories a day Spraying would quickly find her weight would rapidly fall away, even if she was just lying in bed. Soon, the lying in bed would be a necessity as she would suffer from dizzy spells when attempting any exertion. Her blood pressure would fall, her circulation would deteriorate, her hair would fall out in clumps.

Then, seizures. Eventually? Death.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. I am furious that Spraying continues to expound the myth that she can live like this.

@RedPony1

I think it's really hard to lose weight if you are small, your maintenance is that much Closer to 1200cal. Do you really need to lose weight is my question. Bear in mind I think BMI is an absolutely shit measure. I think listening to you body is really important

@GorgonLondon

Actually I find HicDraconis posts equally worrying but everyone seems to have accepted those...

@yokatsu yes hicdraconis should also be ashamed advocating eating 1000 calories per day whilst also working out lots. It’s not healthy and no one should be recommending living like that to anyone else. I had a friend who died at the age of 19 because she was going out running every evening but living on 1000 calories per day. She collapsed one evening and her heart stopped. If someone wants to starve themselves then they shouldn’t also be exercising to such an extreme on top of that too.

Actually MFP refuses to talk to you is you enter less than 1000 calories gross

Sorry, that's what I meant because I got my gross and net the wrong way round.

SO

Eat 999 and declare no exercise: stern message and no data.
Eat 1001 and declare a run (net 750): hunky dory!

JamieVardysHavingAParty I really agree with your post. I have read this thread with growing horror. So very many people with absolutely no clue about healthy eating giving out their frankly dangerous 'advice', whilst simultaneously bragging about how their unhealthily low calorie intake. There has always been an element of competitive starvation on MN, "I couldn't possibly eat a whole piece of toast" sort of thing, but some of these posts really take the sugar-free carb-free fat-free biscuit.

I am a half stone lighter than you OP and want to lose another half, same height, and MFP gives me 1460 per day, more if I exercise.. I wonder why that is. Once I'm eating well I can eat lots and still come under calories. No difference on the scales yet but only a few days in...it keeps saying 'in 5 weeks you'll weigh..' so it better work!!

I view excercise as a way to have something else to eat.

If it's the odd thing, I don't deny myself as over a week, the occasional bit of toast doesn't really impact. If I fancy a glass of wine, then I'll go out for a fast walk for a while to "earn" a few more calories :)

Obvs not the ideal way to manage your diet but it works for me at the moment. I think just being more aware has really worked for me.

I think this thread should be reported actually having read through

Yeah it’s derailed wildly from the op.

mikado1 it will depend on what goal you have set and the timescales, weightloss per week wanted. OP maybe has asked for 1.5 lbs per week and you've said 1lb - or something like that.

Seriousquestion I have reported one of Spraying 's posts and hope that MNHQ will consider vaping the whole thread when they read it. It has the potential to be very damaging.