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??

[Yokatsu]

@Seriousquestion09

Yeah I was thinking that. Actually I was thinking of raising it as a site matter that threads advocating a 1200cal diet are deleted

[Yokatsu]

I have raised. I think mumsnet should have a policy. I'd have been reporting if they did

//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3258109-Sub-1200-cal-diets?watched=1

[Babieseverywhere]

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

Yes, MrsHathway. That is weird isn't it. But a lot of the blog posts say that exercise calories are vastly overestimated and a lot of MFPers don't eat exercise calories and are doing fine.

[QueenOfMyWorld]

I do it most days eating little and often, my largest meal being 400 calories for dinner

[RhiWrites]

OP, I aim to eat about 1310 cal a day. In practice I vary between 1000 and 1500. (I wouldn’t eat as little as 1000 on an exercise day, that’s rare.)

It’s perfectly possible. But you have to log everything. A smear of butter, glob of oil or handful of nuts is much more cal than you probably realise.

[Yokatsu]

Advocating a sub1200cal diet

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Actually I was thinking of raising it as a site matter that threads advocating a 1200cal diet are deleted

Did you mean less than 1200? There is nothing wrong with 1200 but going under on a long term basis is not recommended.

[Yokatsu]

I did. Totally that posts advocating eating less than 1200cals a day should be deleted

[WaxOnFeckOff]

sorry crossed Yokatsu :)

[MrsHathaway]

Yes, MrsHathaway. That is weird isn't it. But a lot of the blog posts say that exercise calories are vastly overestimated and a lot of MFPers don't eat exercise calories and are doing fine.

If I select 45 mins circuits on the app, it says it's 350 calories (ish). If I select the same exercise from my "most used" on the web page, it says 550 calories. Um.

One odd thing I've noticed recently is that different shapes of pasta fill you up differently. I can eat a lot of pasta but it is startlingly high in calories even before you put anything on it. However, it appears I'm comfortably full on 75 (dry) g of spaghetti whereas I want more like 100 (dry) g of shapes like fusilli or penne. NO IDEA why that happens but it's been a useful thing for me to notice. Long pasta all the way!

[LagunaBubbles]

I do not have an eating disorder I have always wanted to be bigger but it has never worked for me

Yes you do Spraying, youre in denial, much like the majority of people at least at the start with eating disorders. Now you can or cant eat what you like of course but to come on a public forum and advocate that 1200 is enough and you eat less

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

is disgusting and down right dangerous.

[Yokatsu]

No worries

If anyone would like to support getting a policy in place I've started a post in site matters here

[LagunaBubbles]

Its not rocket science spraying - if you want to be bigger then you eat more. But no you are still weighing out berries.

[WheresYouWheelieBin]

Yes. Loads of veggies and small portions of lean meat. I have oats for breakfast and then avoid grains during the day if possible, dinner is whatever the family are eating.

[Yokatsu]

Generally on the mfp forums I see people suggesting you eat back about 50% of your exercise calories. 50% was about right for me 75% average over the course of the week worked fine too I'm uncomfortable with people eating none.

But I think it's important to listen to you body if you are low on energy, headaches or worse your probably not eating enough. If you are losing higher than 2lbs a week out probably aren't eating enough.

[StormTreader]

A human brain takes about 250-300 calories per day to run. Thats just the brain, before you add in things like your heart beating and lungs breathing. For literally bedridden people, the recommended calories to supply them is their weight in pounds x 10. For someone weighing 8 stones, that's 112 pounds x 10 = 1120 calories per day to maintain that weight with absolutely no physical movement whatsoever.

Maintaining 8 stones on 600 calories per day isn't possible.

[Chickychoccyegg]

Try slimming world, easy to lose 1/2 stone in the first 2 weeks without counting calories/being hungry

[ultrababy]

@socksrocks whIch watch do you have?

[BigFatGoalie]

Cut out one of the eggs, the nuts (!!!) and the banana.
Put your head down and just commit to it for two weeks and see how you go.
I lost almost a stone in two weeks eating similar, but no carbs and no sugar.
Salad every night with steak or a chop.
Grapefruit for breakfast every day.
Feel amazing now, I’m 5.6 and back under 8 stone. Good luck OP!

[firef1y]

1200 is the absolute minimum and really only suitable if you are
Very short,
olderand sedentary.

You sound as though you are lightly active at the very least. Why don't you try upping your Calories to 1500-1600 as you also have so little to lose.

[ibblebibbledibble]

Sorry haven’t read the whole thread but I can’t believe people have said that’s a lot of food! I’d need to be scraped off the floor if that’s all I ate!!

[CiderwithBuda]

I have found this thread really interesting. And scary too. 400-600 cals a day is starvation rations.

I’m trying to lose weight atm. Always! Seem to be in a good headspace and want something sustainable. Am using MFP. I’m 5 ft 7 and weigh 15st 12. MFP recommended 1610 cals a day for me to lose weight. After reading some of this thread earlier I worked out my TDEE and from that th recommended number of cals to lose fat which worked out at 1468. I also looked at the macros as I felt I wasn’t eating enough protein and was eating too many carbs. So I’ve now set my new cals and macros. I have also now set up a notebook to record daily but look at the weekly picture so if I’m slightly under one day but over the next it should work out over the week.

I know I would struggle on 1200. I think going that low for a lot of people will eventually lead to bingeing. The brain is very powerful and is usually more comfortable when we are carrying more weight and will try to get us back up to that. Reading about our body’s set point is interesting.

I think th 5-2 diet can be a useful way of bringing your weekly calorie intake down without being too restrictive every day. Which can lead to problems. And the 5-2 doesn’t have to be the 500 cals a day one. You could do 800 cals a day for those two days only. Doing that using the Blood Sugar Diet recipes which are healthy - low carb and Mediterranean foods - which shouldnt trigger any cravings. Or even 1000 cals for two days.

[Yokatsu]

Cut out one of the eggs, the nuts (!!!) and the banana.

Nono no. Do not just cut down these out, not if it takes you below 1200 cal diet. There os no way of knowing from the op if this is the case, so recommendingredients just cutting out foods is completely irresponsible.

8 stone is not a health weight unless you are quite short, and that's by BMI standards which increasingly evidence says is wrong anyway.

[GaryBarlowsTaxReturn]

Big fat goalie. Under 8 stone at 5'6? You are underweight. I have no issue with you starving yourself but please don't encourage other posters to think it's healthy.

[Armchairanachist]

I have the opposite problem. I'm obsessed with calories because I can't eat solid food due to complications from a gastrectomy.