1200 calorie diets and exercise

[kaykayblue]

Hello ladies,

I'm getting married in early spring next year, and have finally started to panic about my weight sufficiently to start doing something about it!

I'm currently 60.8kg (9.5 stone), which is the heaviest I have ever been. In order to get down to my target weight of 55.5 or 56kg, the internet tells me I need to eat between 1,100 and 1200 calories a day, though I understand it's not recommended to go below 1200.

Does anyone have any good links to suggested 1200 calorie diets? Or general advice about how to keep it up? I don't have very long to my wedding and I'm getting quite depressed about it.

Unless you're a hobbit 9.5 stone isn't fat.

Download My Fitness Pal and log everything you eat. That's the easiest way to stick to a specific amount of calories. 1200 is plenty and you can eat really well on that.

If it's only a short time till your wedding you could low carb. That always kicks my metabolism up the arse and makes me lose weight quickly.

Thanks OHS! No, I am not fat in any shape or form and I appreciate that. However, I can only fit into about four things in my wardrobe at the moment, which is really depressing, and none of the women in my family carry weight very well at all.

I'd like to lose enough so that I can fit back into my clothes, with a couple of extra pounds for safe keeping.

I could try low carb, but as a pescetarian I think it would be pretty difficult. I'll keep looking for menu plans and force myself to start being more active again.

Oh I know what you mean. The numbers don't matter, fitting into your clothes does!

Fwiw I eat a lot of fish and find it pretty easy to low carb (I don't do the full on version, just no bread/spuds/pasta/rice anything else beige).

I usually have eggs or porridge for breakfast, homemade soup or salad for lunch and fish with veggies for dinner. That leaves me with enough calories for some dark chocolate while I watch telly.

Good luck!

I would suggest that if you are going to go as low as 1200 (I find it impossible to keep my calories that low without feeling starved to I stick to 1400-1500 for weight loss), use MyFitnessPal or similar, and make sure you track your exercise too and keep your adjusted carbs at 1200, not your gross intake. You will do yourself damage if you only eat 1200 calories and then do 500 calories-worth of exercise. You also risk not losing any weight at all as your body goes into starvation mode.

Low carb may be tricky as a pescetarian. Simple calorie counting should do the trick, with lots and lots of exercise to boost your metabolism.

Another plug for My Fitness Pal app, this is the only way I have been able to lose weight and keep it off long term. Btw, I feel your pain, I am also around 9.5 stone at the moment (long term illness is preventing me exercising very much) and I just look and feel so much better at under 9 stone. I know I'm not fat, but if you are short (like me), every single pound seems to show.

My fitness pal allows you to log your food intake and also your exercise. You input your current height, weight etc and also your goal weight and it will tell you what you have to do to get there in 6 weeks.

Thanks guys.

I'm quite confused with fitness pal.

It's telling me that if I eat 1200 calories a day (my maintenance is 1600), and with my exercise goals of a very modest 30 mins 4 times a week....

it's saying I could lose 2 pounds for january. That's two pounds in three weeks. What the hell?

No matter what I do to change my fitness goals, it still just completely ignores it. I'm trying to get down by roughly 4 kilograms by the beginning of march, but it just seems to be ignoring that.

I wouldn't worry about how much weight it says you will lose. There's no way it can tell how you burn fat. And the target it gives you varies by day depending on what you eat.

All you can do is the best you can. As all encompassing as your wedding day seems to you right now, it's one day in your life. And you will look amazing, your DFiance will gasp with amazement when he sees you in the dress whether you drop 1kg or 5kg. In 10 years you will look back on your wedding pics and be amazed at how beautiful you were no matter how the dieting goes over the next few weeks.

So, do what you can, accept it might not be what you would ideally like, but it will be enough. It really will. But don't make yourself ill or make life stupidly difficult for the sake of a few pounds.

An alternative might be to do 5:2. I'm only 5'1 and over 50 so my TDEE is very low, so trying to eat below it every day just doesn't work for me. 2 days a week at 500 cals and then 'normal' the others works well - it's sustainable.

Exercise may help you get back into your clothes too, regardless of weight loss (muscle being denser than fat). Be careful if you use MFP not to over-estimate your activity level/exercise cals, people often do.

Thanks all,

Errol - I am positive that 5:2 is not for me. I have a few friends who it has worked out for, but I would quite literally faint eating only 500 calories a day. I have quite a low blood pressure, and am prone to passing out if I cut calories too drastically. I'm also 5 foot 7, so 500 calories a day is a very drastic cut.

For a while I was using the interval training videos on youtube, and always took the lowest calorie burn on the measure they have, so I always try to underestimate rather than overestimate how many calories I've burned through sport.

But thank you for the tip and I'm glad it's working for you :-)

im 4ft11 and 9st 5 so really am 'fat' and in the 'obese' range.

You are 5ft 7 and 9.5stone? you cant be overweight surely?

Tiredemma - No, I'm not overweight. I'm still in the healthy weight category. My target weight is still in the healthy weight range as well. Neither I nor my family are curvy - when I put on weight it really doesn't carry well, and for the rest of my life I've always been at the low end of the healthy weight scale. It's just what suits my body and shape better.

But there are three reasons for the diet really:

Firstly, I don't think it's really necessary to actively wait until you reach the overweight category before thinking "oh I've put on weight, maybe I should lose some", which obviously makes it easier as you only have a few pounds to lose, rather than quite a lot of weight to shift. That's sort of my mindset at the moment.

Secondly, as I mentioned above, I literally can't fit into the vast majority of my wardrobe. I can't even begin to do up any of the buttons on my trousers, and it's getting quite depressing having to recycle the same three outfits again and again (I can't afford to buy more clothes, and especially not to replace some of the more expensive stuff I bought when I had more money)

Finally, I really want to be feeling my best for the wedding. My waist has gone up an inch since I had my dress ordered, which is worrying me, and I'd like to just feel my absolute best on the day.

if my maths is right (I think in old money) you want to go down to 8.5 stone or so. BMI isn't super-accurate but the healthy weight range for your height is 8 stone 6 to 11 stone 6.

So you are fine now, but your target will put you right on the bottom. You are right that it is important not to get fat and to keep an eye on weight.

question: why are you putting on weight? Body shape does change as you age, don't know how old you are of course. Rather than silly faddy diets, look at what you are eating and how much you are moving. At your height and weight you clearly aren't pigging out - so what is going on?

good luck!

I wish i had similar motivation!

I'm a similar height to you OP and just under 10 stone. I still look like I'm about 4-5 months pregnant and will do until I get down to 9 stone. Any weight goes on around the middle and it's not a good look. You're right to be thinking about it now rather than when you get to nearly 12 stone like I did.

Special subject - I'm not really looking for a silly fad diet - more of an idea of what 1200 calories a day actually looks like. I make daily estimates at the moment, but even slight miscounting could make a pretty big difference.

I know why I've gained the weight - I used to be very active, probably more active than I even realised - and now I am not. I'm very much struggling with the motivation to do sport, when it used to be second nature.

On Mfp I am supposed to do 1200 calories. Health problems mean I have quite a sedentary lifestyle so that works out at one pound a week.

Tbh my diet isn't much different from my normal food as I eat very low carb anyway I've just dropped the sugary snacks.

Oh heck, here goes

Every morning I have for brekkie

2 egg omelette with onions in a bit of coconut oil

Every Lunch...green juice with a bit of carrot, apple and pear juice

Dinner...protein, veg and rice

There's a few cals left for a small snack. One or two decent chocs, bit of yogurt. That kind of thing

I'm really struggling. So little energy.

I'm 62, weigh around 11 stone, medium build, about size 14-16 and five foot 5 ins tall

Anyone got a helpful solution please ?

Kay...my diet is about 1200 calories . Breakfast and lunch is 500 cals. By 6 pm I was nearly fainting with hunger as I hadn't had dinner.

After dinner I lay on the bed and slept. Exhausted.

I am positive that 5:2 is not for me. I have a few friends who it has worked out for, but I would quite literally faint eating only 500 calories a day. I have quite a low blood pressure, and am prone to passing out if I cut calories too drastically. I'm also 5 foot 7, so 500 calories a day is a very drastic cut.

If you drink plenty of water you won't pass out
My blood pressure is 85:60 and I've never keeled over on a fast day - even after 3 hours at the gym

500 calories 2 days a week is much less drastic than 1200 every single day

BUT
You do not need to lose weight
you need to tone up

Yoga, pilates and the shred will get the results you want better than trying to get to a rock bottom BMI

I'm only on day three. I'll give it a few more days and i might up my intake to 1300 calories.

Cos, this is just misery.

All I can think about is food . My lovely OH is getting fed up.

Working on the assumption I will lose weight on it, I just feel that when I go on holiday at end of feb I'll fall at the first fence.
Then having to start again.....eeek.
Gawd, I'm not usually such a moaning Minnie. Just shows what hunger does to you.

If its about body shape and fitting into your clothes, I'd suggest exercise rather than diet. Jillian Michaels 30 day shred gets a lot of positive comments, but anything that involves weights will improve your shape.

Dowser
That is why 5:2 works so well

Monday = 500 calories
Tuesday = TDEE less 10% ; ie around 1700 calories
Wednesday = TDEE less 10% ; ie around 1700 calories
Thursday = 500 calories
Friday = TDEE ; ie around 1850 calories
Saturday = TDEE plus a tad ; ie around 2000 calories
Sunday = TDEE ; ie around 1850 calories

as you can see, two days of strictness and detox are surrounded by 5 days of healthy enjoyable meals and wine at weekends

that is why folks like me have carried on doing it long after we stopped needing to lose weight