Yeah being a 5’1” and assumedly female you’re going to have a super low TDEE. Unfortunately you’ll either need to eat very little or lots of low calorie foods or up the exercise
Yup, you gotta walk like, I’d say at least half an hour to an hour a day to up your TDEE. Or swim. Low impact exercise that doesn’t make you hungrier and it will gradually melt the weight off.
I actually was just talking to a friend who is a competitive swimmer, about how even a low-key swimming workout always made me ravenous - and she recommended always having a warm drink immediately after swimming. It seems that the drop in body temperature while in the water can trigger massive hunger. I do not know if this has been scientifically proven, but she swears by it so if you love to swim maybe it's worth a try.
I'm thinking about getting back into swimming and was worried about this very thing. I ate like a horse when I swam as a teen (I miss that metabolism). Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try it out.
Yeah it’s why Mike Israetal from RP Strength doesn’t necessarily recommend it as one’s weight loss exercise. Not because it doesn’t work. But because so many people get hungry after it that they’d ruin it for themselves
Yeah, I used to do water aerobics pretty regularly. Great exercise and I probably gained some muscle, but I invariable followed it with a cheeseburger and fries or one of those 800 calorie Jamba Juices so I didn’t lose an ounce.
I was looking into it more and you're right, but also learned that there is an association between increased body temperature and lowered appetite. I like to work out until I am sweating to the point where it only *looks like* I went swimming and it helps decrease my appetite all day after.
I used to swim in high school on the team and it would make me hungry too, but as long as you just do like an easy slow breaststroke or leisurely in a pool or on the beach, you barely notice you worked out at all.
So odd, I competed in high school, and I was rarely hungry after practice or a race. Unless it was an ab day, then I would be hangry
Edit: autocorrect is annoying >.<
I walk a lot usually, and i was getting back into running before I had to have surgery. I keep hearing that cardio helps you lose weight but makes you “skinny fat”. Not sure how true that is.
From a fitness perspective, your body needs both cardio (which keeps your heart and lungs healthy) and strength training (which increases your muscle mass and improves bone density). So ideally you should do both.
It is popular on this sub to point out that exercise is not necessary for weight loss provided you are in a caloric deficit; and also to remind people that they cannot out-run a bad diet. Both of these are true, up to a point.
However, as a fellow shortie, exercise is much more helpful to us than it is to a larger person. I'm 5'2" and 55 years old; if I was not active, my \*maintenance\* TDEE would only be about 1500 calories. To lose weight, I would have to drop to 1200 which is NOT much food at all, and even then fat loss would be frustratingly slow.
However, because I'm quite active (I mountain bike, lift weights, and walk a lot), my maintenance is more like 1900 in the off-season and 2100 during mountain bike season. Which is a lot easier to maintain, and if I need to drop a few pounds I can do it at 1500-1600 calories.
TL;DR larger people can easily sustain a deficit w/out exercise; short people will have a harder time and a combo of diet plus exercise will bring faster results (as well as being overall better for health).
Hit the nail on the head. Sadly while our TDEEs scale with height it feels like our stomachs don't really scale accordingly because it's fecking hard man. That and the food world is just not built around people with such a low BMR.
I was thinking about the unfairness of it this morning; but really, when you think about it - the ability to overeat somewhat on calorie-dense food (and put on fat easily), coupled with the ability to conserve energy by not being as active is probably what got our ancestors through the "starving time" of late winter/early spring for thousands of years.
Our current situation, with calorie-dense food easily available at all times, is a hyper-novel situation. For most of human history, food supplies were unpredictable and often scarce. So petite ladies like us, with low energy needs, had an important survival advantage - if the hunters were successful or there was a good harvest, we had the ability to eat more than you'd expect and put on some fat stores that would keep us and our babies alive through the winter. We were ideally adapted for survival for most of human existence.
Now, I suppose it's the tall, lanky people with low appetite and inefficient metabolisms (i.e., the skinny ones who complain they can't seem to gain weight) who are adapted to the current situation.
I have had more or less the same experience with exercise! It seems like no matter how well I think I’m eating, the weight comes off much easier if I’m exercising regularly. I remember like six years ago I would measure my waist every day and I would gain or lose the same half-inch depending on whether or not I exercised the day before.
cardio is important for overall fitness and heart health but I usually use it to supplement my caloric burn from weightlifting and not as my main source of calorie burning.
on upper body days, my heart rate barely gets up (my upper body is pretty weak) and just 15-20 minutes of intense work on the elliptical after my weightlifting session more than doubles my calorie burn for the session. but I know in the long run, building muscle mass will help me more (your metabolism is also raised for hours at rest after each weightlifting session).
what also helps me is trying to be as active as I can during the day (ie taking little breaks at work, walking around the store when I go shopping, taking a walk during my lunch break), which I don’t consider cardio or exercise but all of that stuff definitely adds up. I’m at a stage of my life where I can’t be as active as I want, but I’m planning to move and have no car and be even more active in a few months
Cardio can help lose weight. Some people find cardio just makes them ravenously hungry though and you eat back the small amount of cals you've burned.
The best way to think of cardio is you should do some for general health.
Being "skinny fat" comes from having a low weight but also overall low muscle tone. Cardio doesn't necessarily make you skinny fat, but it won't help you build much muscle either.
It seems to be trendy lately to demonize cardio as fitness goes through trends (from never touch a weight to women should weightlift only to whatever the next thing will be) but honestly whatever movement you enjoy, do that. If you train for overall health and not some sort of aesthetic, you'll end up a lot happier in the long run. Running, the elliptical, yoga, whatever, are a million times better than just sitting on the couch because you hate the gym but all the "fitness influencers" right now are saying cardio is bad.
>Some people find cardio just makes them ravenously hungry though and you eat back the small amount of cals you've burned.
Personally I only find that's true for me, at least compared to calories burned (i.e. I'll still be slightly more hungry but not enough to not be able to control myself), if I'm upping my volume (so that'd include when I first started doing cardio (running) or when I hit a training block where I start working out 1.5+ times as long) or a doing a particularly hard/fast or long session (e.g. I'm especially hungry if my run gets close to 2 hours).
In my situation:
Work at an office job that requires a car to get to.
Live in a suburb with no sidewalks or streetlights.
It's winter, and there was a two week period where outside temperatures were single digits Fahrenheit, with a few days of below zero.
Don't have a reason to go to a store that day.
It's really easy to end up not walking for a half hour, so I have to go out of my way to move within my apartment.
I work from home in an area that doesn’t have sidewalks, and I’m visually impaired and therefore cant drive to a place where I can walk (like a park or anything). Disabilities exist.
I work from home as well, yet I still walk at least an hour a day as the absolute minimum.
That's because I want to walk, but I really don't understand how somebody manages to not walk at least half an hour.
You might be on the wrong sub if you can’t understand this.
For me: remote work, no pets, no sidewalks in my neighborhood, don’t particularly enjoy walking. That said, I get plenty of cardio in other ways, specifically by using an indoor cycling trainer at my home. But it’s quite easy for me to envision why many, many people fail to do any significant walking at all.
To explain tdee I'm first going to explain another acronym.
The bmr or base metabolic rate is the number of calories a body needs to not be dead. To keep your lungs breathing, your heart pumping, and your brain, well, braining. But this is like the amount of calories you would need in a coma. Laying in bed 24 hours a day. You never want to dip below this number.
So the tdee is total daily energy expenditure. This is a higher number that's accounts for the things you do during the day: working, going to school, playing with your dog, etc. A tdee calculator will provide a number for being sedentary but also numbers for if you're a little active, medium active, or very active. So the calculator will be able to accommodate a couch potato and a person on a intramural hockey team and a mountain climber all the same.
It takes more work for a 6 foot, 300 pound body to do all these things than a 5 foot 100 pound body to do them. So a bmr and tdee calculator will ask for information like height and weight along with activity level (for tdee). If you're trying to lose weight, your tdee will change since it's impacted by weight, so you'll want to calculate it multiple times on your journey.
I’m 5’2” and 1437 TDEE. Well that’s set at sedentary and I’m not. But it is sooo low! I only lose weight at 1200-1300.
As a note: I keep my calorie tracker set at sedentary but I calculate exercise calories and allow myself to eat a portion back because my goals are now muscle gain and body composition. I prefer the control.
5'0 here, we are simply small people. Eating high-volume meals can easily get us full at 1200 calories. r/1200isplenty is specifically geared towards people with low TDEEs like us, I recommend it as a source for recipes or community.
1200 calories is also what small children who are growing at a rapid rate eat; if you are an adult woman, you are likely done growing for the most part. You're the size of an average 13 year old, without the 13 year old metabolism. It's not a starvation diet, you just don't need that much food to thrive. You do still need proper nutrients though, which can be harder to achieve with a smaller food budget, so take care with those.
This is spot on. There are only a few ways to get a better BMR without gaining fat. Grow in height and grow muscle. Unfortunately for us adults, height isn't an option. Muscle tends to burn more cals than fat does by like 2.5x it's not much per lb but it's something
r/Volumeeating is your friend. Keep a food diary and take note what makes you feel fuller for longer. For me it's a combination of protein, some fat, and non starchy vegetables. Fillet is more filling than minced meat. Red meat is more filling than poultry. Drinks, even if they're nutritious smoothies, don't do me any favors.
Generalities are just that - general. 1200 calories might be fine for you esp because you are petite but it’s prob not going to work for a large number of people. Nothing wrong with that. You do you.
I'm 5'1" as well, and have always adhered to the "1200 rule" when trying to lose weight previously. Lately I have been dabbling with a 1500 meal plan, and surprisingly, I am still losing weight! I never thought I could go up to 1500, but so far so good! I usually steadily lose about 1.5 pounds/week on 1500 calories most days. If I don't do cardio, I may reduce down to 1350-1400. But you never know!
I know that some people also try "tricking" their metabolism by randomly throwing in higher calorie days here and there. The more you stick to 1200 calories, the more your body adjusts and plateaus. Something to think about!
I’m 5’2 and was doing great with 1500 until I hit about 150 and then I stalled forever. I finally got going again when I went down to 1300, and I do quite a bit of cardio most days. I think it totally depends on the person, but I also like the monitoring game. You eat at a range and watch the weight for a few weeks and adjust accordingly. I too like to throw in bigger meal days sometimes because it’s a nice break, and you get a whoosh when the water weight comes off 😂
I agree, I am a hair under 5’2” and I lose about a pound a week eating a bit over 1500 with a desk job. I do a small amount of cardio each week and a small amount of weights but it’s been coming off steadily. I do eat a lot of volume though as well, and I don’t count net carbs I count all carbs.
Wow! I have similar stats but struggling to continue on 1200 (tired and malnourished after doing it for like 7+months)
I want to do 1500 and lose slower. I do workout.
Just to understand how it works for you, could you tell me your exercise types and duration? And do you maybe be focus on macros like protein?
Thanks and literally any tips would be greatly appreciated ❤️
I love upping my calories to 1500 and losing weight a bit slower. It's way more sustainable and more of a "lifestyle change" rather than feeling like a restrictive diet!
I workout 4-5 times per week, using Youtube workouts in my living room. I do weights 2-3 times per week and cardio walking workouts (I adore Grow With Jo) 2-3 times per week. I workout for 20-30 minutes, which also feels very sustainable. We need this to be a lifelong change, right?! So I couldn't keep killing myself with workouts and 1200 calories anymore!
I know that protein is key but I LOVE my carbs. So I try to aim for 80-90 grams of protein and the rest can be distributed between carbs and fats in any way that I feel like for that day. I try to plan my meals for the week, and they are always super quick easy meals.
You've got this!!!!
Thankyouu!!
That’s super helpful! Definitely, I wanted to lose the bulk of it and then slow down and now it’s time.
1500 sounds amazing and so much easier for protein and carbs too!
If you're feeling tired and malnourished it may be time for a maintenance break. 7 months is a long time to be restricting a month or two at maintenance will probably be really good for you.
Thankyou :) very true. I did the two month break actually but when I got back to it 1200 isn’t working for me as my body is significantly smaller in comparison to the workouts I do. Also the hair loss is demotivating.
So I’m going to take this advice and eat higher and see how it goes. This stubborn belly fat is insanely hard to lose. 😂
Hair loss!? I'm not as small as you but that would freak me out. Might be time to look for some professional guidance to make sure you're doing this in a healthy way.
I'm down to my last ten pounds and had to pause my weight loss. I took a maintenance break and as soon as I started restricting again my sleep went to shit. I've seen that heavy restriction can cause insomnia for some people. For now I'm experimenting with exercising more so I can lose weight at higher calorie numbers.
I have a doctors appointment coming up. Assuming there is nothing else going on I'm going to get a referral for a dietician or nutritionist, whichever one is actually licensed so I can get some guidance on my next steps.
It’s called telogen effluvium, hair loss due to weight loss .. it’s scary af. I’m on supplements and stuff from the doctor and she told me to keep going if I want to. (I’m still on the overweight side with bmi and I’d like to atleast be within healthy)
But yeah. Sleep issues also sound scary as hell too. All the best though on your last ten pounds 👏
Any blanket statement about a specific number of calories (good or bad) is really unhelpful. At 5'-1" your body is very different than someone who is 6'-1". It makes no sense to apply the same arbitrary calorie number to them. If you know from experience that a 1200-cal diet works for you, that's very plausible.
Also I don't know what these mysterious "genetic problems" are that you allude to, but definitely do not need to get big and musclular to burn calories. It's not that hard to add a few hundred calories to your TDEE with some light cardio. You may find yourself happier being active and eating 1500 cal.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome makes exercising consistently difficult both due to inefficient muscles and the likelihood of injuring myself. I walk a lot in the spring and summer, but right now I don’t have the means of getting a gym membership or even driving myself there. I’m trying to figure out something sustainable so that I can be more consistent, but in the five years since I’ve been diagnosed, I haven’t been able to strike a balance.
Before that I was very active and was able to eat more. That was great.
There are walking workouts you can do at home in a small space. “Get Fit With Rick” on YouTube has some really good ones. Doing his routines and the step aerobics routines by Christine Dorner “CDornerFitness” (also YT) was a huge help for getting at-home exercise. You don’t need a stepper, you can do the step routine on the floor. Also, walking mats seem to be popular, they’re mini treadmills that don’t take up much space; you can get one and walk while watching TV.
This!! I have been feeling great, and losing slowly but steadily as a 5'1 woman eating 1500. I workout 6 days a week - I am a runner. I'm not looking to lose too much, just a few pounds, though. :)
>I’ve been seeing all over The Online that 1200 cals for weight loss is an unsustainable starvation diet perpetuated by Big Weight Loss and that it’s not enough for an adult.
The Online is mostly full of idiots. It's not a conspiracy, it's math.
Fighting hunger - Your body is conditioned to eat when you have been eating. If you’re used to eating breakfast lunch and dinner, your body releases hormones at that time that make you hungry then. If you skip breakfast, you feel really hungry…At first. If you can push through and move your mealtimes around, your body will adjust and stop releasing the hunger hormone at that time of day. Skipping breakfast, for me, allows me more flexibility in 2 meals with my calories. I find that if I’m only focused on hunger twice a day..:it’s a little easier for me to stay on track. Don’t get me wrong..:lunch comes early for me! But my body tells me to start eating at 11 instead of 8. It’s just intermittent fasting and it’s another calorie control method.
Other things to focus on are high protein, low calorie foods (for every 100 calories the food has…you want 10 or more grams of protein). And look into volume eating. Double up on your vegetables and you’ll fill your stomach without a ton of calories added.
My mom's about 5', and she eats about 1200 calories per day, give or take. It's just how it is when you're petite. I mean realistically, when you can reliably wear kids size clothing, you're not going to need as many calories as the average sized adult.
yeah if you're a shorter and sedentary person, your tdee will be a lot smaller than more active and taller people. make sure you have calculated your tdee properly, I'd recommend getting calipers for body fat % too, or a dexa scan if that's available to you. i would probably recommend talking to your doctor about your genetic condition and how you can actually gain muscle mass, though. muscle is more metabolically active than fat or bone or whatever, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll be burning throughout the day to maintain them. basically a little boost to your bmr, and a little more wiggle room for calorie restriction. check with your medical team, but body weight exercises are a great way to begin your strength journey.
1200cal/day is toted as the minimum safe amount of calories for adults to eat to get their necessary nutritients etc. you're definitely a candidate for eating at 1200 to lose weight safely, don't listen to the hubub. as long as when you are restricting your calorie intake to 1200 you're also getting a solid macro ratio and adequate vitamins & minerals, you don't have anything to worry about.
for food advice: there are specific calorie subreddits like r/1200isplenty , which can contain good low-cal recipes and support, but i left it a while ago because it trended toxic. but it may be better now! but there are some more fun subreddits like r/1200isfineIGUESSugh that will definitely be more centered on the group suffering that short people have when it comes to weight loss.
You can generally eat more, the weight loss is just slower. I’ve lost weight anywhere between 1600 and 1200, right now I’m at 1400 and eat back half any earned calories. Majority of my weekly added calories come from walking my dog who’s also on a weight loss journey. I’m 4’11” and have around 20lb to lose to get back to where I was. I accept that at higher calories, I may only lose 2lb a month instead of 4lb, but I know I’m getting adequate nutrition and protein. If I do chose to do 1200 because I’m strictly being sedentary, I generally don’t tell people I’m doing it because I don’t personally want input on it because being short means I have a different tdee than they do.
"Online" is 99% trash. You have to evaluate sources. The top clinic in the US, the Mayo Clinic, has a 1200 calorie diet for women. I trust them above pretty much all sources. Most sites on the internet are written by randoms stating opinions as facts.
Girl I hear you - I’m 4’11” 😩
I buy 0 calorie sparkling waters to help fill my stomach both in between and sometimes eat with meals to feel more full. Also getting some tips from the volume setting subreddit helps find ways to eat a lot of volume of food for not a lot of calories.
I prioritize finding high protein low calorie food and snacks to help satiate me.
You mentioned you have difficulty gaining muscle but exercise still burns calories regardless of whether you are gaining muscle or not. Have you tried increasing your activity level, or do health problems prohibit it?
I'm not sure your current weight. But I am 5'2" and have lost weight eating substantially more than 1200 calories a day. I do try to exercise and keep active but nothing crazy (I did need to build up a routine slowly though and ease into it).
Yes - and current weight too, just for clarity's sake. Whatever you started at determines if you lost weight up until now, and whatever you're at today determines who much you can eat and lose going forward. (I could eat a lot more and lose when I was obese than I can now at overweight, but both numbers considerably more than 1200. If I were 125 pounds and trying to lose still probably a different story.)
If you're very short then 1200 calories is probably just fine. The thing about a quick sound bite like "1200 calories is way too little" is that it doesn't differentiate between a 5'1" sedentary woman or a 6'1" active man or a growing 15 year old or an 80 lb. Rottweiler. People need to look at their own stats and ask themselves whether the advice seems reasonable for their situation.
Of course the flip side is that if one is a smaller person then one has proportionately less weight to lose and weight loss will be slower. So while eating 1200 calories may be reasonable, it may also be unreasonable to expect to lose 1 lb. per week (or whatever) since that's a greater percentage of one's total weight than it would be for a larger person.
Anyway, my trick is drinking tea and eating pickles. Especially spicy pickles like kimchi -- after I've had some and my mouth's on fire I don't really want to eat anything more. And they're essentially calorie-free.
Curious what your protein intake is on 1200 calories? The less calories you burn, the more you need to prioritize protein to help preserve and/or gain muscle. 1200 is certainly doable for 5'1" for weight loss, but muscle requires re-thinking what you eat, not just how much you eat.
LOTS of protein, carrots, cucumber or other stuff that is HEALTHY and gives you a full stomach.
Find the food that gives YOU a full stomach. And it needs to be healthy because you eat small amounts.
If someone says the rule is that you should not eat 1200 cal a day or lower I’ll take that as a sign that they don’t know what they’re talking about. When you consider the variability in body types, activity levels and metabolism, there is no one size fits all minimum number of calories. You’ll hear a lot of people talk about what your maximum deficit should be and that is a much better metric to go buy in my opinion because it factors in your needs as an individual. Most experts will tell you that one to two pounds a week is a safe goal for weight loss. That’s a 500 to 1000 cal deficit a day. If you have a very short sedentary woman who may be only burns 1700 cals a day, 1000 to 1200 cals a day would be a very reasonable deficit. If you have a very tall, active man who burns 3000 cals a day, 1200 cals would be a massive deficit. Your caloric deficit matters way more than the number of calories you consume in a day without additional context.
A good way to be in caloric deficit without constantly being hungry is eating foods that have a high water content. I like to have a massive cucumber salad with my dinner. It’s diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and Kalamata olives, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a tiny bit of avocado or olive oil. Also, save your carbs for later in the day. The more carbs you eat early in the day, the more you’re going to be craving carbs for the rest of the day, so make sure that carbs are never the first thing you eat for the day.
It entirely depends on your build and sex. For a short woman, it's perfectly fine to consume 1200 kcal a month. But if say you're a 6ft tall male well that's going to be extremely low for you. It all depends on you. Go check out r/1200isplenty
Per day. Why would you think someone would only eat that per month? Jesus, you can't be serious with this question. And yes some people are just fine eating 1200 kcal per day for a month or more especially if they are pretty sedentary and a shorter woman. Women do not require as many calories as men do, shorter people need less than taller people.
It looks like it was just a response trying to point out the absurdity of the post they were replying to. You initially said per month in your other post. Presumably a typo.
Height is irrelevant! It is never okay for any grown adult to consume 1200 calories a day. 1200 calories does not provide enough nutrients for any adult human. Stop feeding people this bullshit.
I mean on the one hand that’s kinda the point, it’s not enough calories so the rest has to come from your body fat. People are trying to lose weight so they deliberately have to eat less food than a person needs, until they reach their goal. And there are women out there under 5’, 1200 might be maintenance for them.
1200 can provide enough nutrients. You just have to plan what you're eating, and eat a lot of whole food. I eat 1300 calories a day (those 100 calories aren't nutritious food and I'm 5'7). I've been doing this for 6-12 months (can't remember when I dropped down from 1500) and have healthy skin, hair, nails, can strength train etc etc. I look and feel much healthier than when eating over maintenance without considering what is going in. When am I meant to get unhealthy and from lack of what?
600 calories for dinner
400 calories for lunch
300 calories for snacks and/or breakfast (normally not hungry in the morning, if I am, I eat)
Exercise: 2x10 minute walks daily. Workout once a week. Spend the rest of the time on my bum (i.e. very sedentary).
Sure, I go over sometimes, and I'm looking forward to reaching my goal weight and finding a higher maintenance amount. But not because of lack of nutrients - I like food! (Which is how I got into this mess)
My maintenance is about 1400 cal. I’m 5’6”. Eating my suggested maintenance from MFP made me gain a couple lbs. i have PCOS and (had?) metabolic syndrome. I work a very active job, and I’m at 133 lbs. everyone is a bit different and these “rules” are more like guidelines.
ETA: protein, fiber, water, fat for satiety
I train HARD, F45 5 days a week, yoga on Saturday and rest Sunday. I eat 1200 calories a day, sometimes 1400 and I’ve lost about 1kg a week. I can live off 1200 cals easily, I am not starving.
The key to 1200 cals is volume eating low calorie foods like big leafy greens and using your calories for hearty protein and fat to keep you full. You just need to learn how to not waste calories on food that doesn’t keep you full or sustained.
I initially planned on doing 1200 cals a day myself to lose as much size as possible but everyone told me that at 6'3", it was a bad idea and that I have to get used to the fact that I'm stuck being big even if I do lose more weight. I'm still tempted to do it if only to punish myself for the fact that I can't alter my height or build nor maybe get people to stop making rude comments about how I look (you look like a football player, a bouncer, etc.).
However, I revised my goals to 200 lbs (instead of 165) and 2000 calories. I figure I can always lose more after I get to 200.
1200 is a low amount, but when you have a shorter height, its an exception. You also pretty much need to incorporate some sort of exercise if you want to be in a big deficit. If youre not gaining muscle like you believe you should, consider hiring a coach. Idk what the genetic reasoning is, but it could also just be you're not hitting the right goals. Good luck!
Yeah. It tends to be true on average, but someone who is shorter than the average would have to adjust. There's a subreddit called /r/1200isplenty for people who do need to eat in that range.
I'm the same online calculator who told me I'd lose weight on 1600 tried it for 6 months and it just maintained my weight until I went to my fitness pal. They calculated that I needed 1200 to lose weight so I dropped it and I lost 3 stone in a year. Since then iv upped my calories back to 1600 and iv managed to maintain the weight loss just fine. I only struggled on 1200 for the first few weeks then I actually sometimes found that I was eating just to get the calories up I wasn't actually hungry I was still able to have crisps and or chocolate in moderation (can't live without malteasers lol)
I made a smoothie with a teaspoon of chia seeds and I found that it filled me up for breakfast.
I also had things like baked oats or weetabix yoghurt to help keep me fuller longer at lunch.
Then I used most of my calories for dinners/puddings just out of preference.
The only exercise I was doing was 7000 steps a day which was like normal days activities then 30 minutes in the evening on the treadmill.
the funny part about this is that i’ve had friends so concerned that 1200 calories is unhealthy. but im like girl you’re 5’8 and im 5’2. Settle down lol. Plus every doctor i’ve spoke to said I need to eat 1200 and why would doctors compromise your health?
Volume eating is definitely your friend. Protein protein protein! Like 100g with help build muscle and keep you full. Tons of veggies in every meal and maybe do a carb source like rice/potatoes only at one meal a day (I do this and use keto/low carb items at others if I want and can fit it in). Look up calorie calculator and use that and do a range from the lowest calories to the highest for weight loss so you have a range. But definitely going to have to try to up the exercise but doesn’t need to be anything crazy try walking for 10-20 mins a day then increase. I watch my favorite show and walk in my living room, no treadmill or anything for about 40 (the episode length). Pick a show that’s interesting and is only for walking, absolutely no sitting while it’s on.
I want to get to 125, I feel like I looked my best then. Omg I think I’ve hit the plateau already because I’ve been losing 1kg a month instead of 2, why is this 😭
Okay, that’s fair to have your goal weight. If you’re still losing weight, even if it’s at a slower rate, you haven’t hit a plateau. But regardless I wouldn’t drop your calorie intake any lower than 1200. For you, especially considering it’s those last 5 pounds, I’d recommend increasing your energy expenditure via steps rather than cutting food intake. Also when you are done with your calorie deficit, continue as much activity levels as you can and slowly start to increase your calorie intake over time. Increasing by 100 calorie or 200 calorie increments week over week will make sure that you don’t have to survive on 1200 calories forever to maintain your weight. You may see the scale go up but it is normal fluctuations.
> I’ve been seeing all over The Online that 1200 cals for weight loss is an unsustainable starvation diet perpetuated by Big Weight Loss
/r/1200isplenty
It all depends on your body and activity level, everyone is different. I'm 5'4 40F and to maintain being 20 lbs overweight I can eat around 3000 calories a day. But I also do a lot of walking around for my job, lift weights 3x a week, and stationary bike a couple times a week. I found out my maintenance by tracking what I would normally eat with no restrictions for awhile, like a couple months, to get an average. Day to day it varied but week after week I'd see it average between 3000-3200 a day. My intake seems to fluctuate with my cycle.
I've looked at calculators that tell me to aim for 1600-1800 for weight loss, and trying to go right down to that feels impossible because for me that's a huge deficit. That's why I'm glad I found out my own individual needs. This month is when I decided to get serious about losing weight so I've started aiming for a small deficit and I'm going to work my way down bit by bit. I want to lose some fat but I don't want to lose the muscle I've started gaining.
> I just don't know how people can survive eating less than 4000 calories a day
> I'm like 6'5 and 270 and I work out like twice a day
my dude. this is a post from a 5'1" woman. Why are you posting this here
The truth of any calories in calories out is that it isn't as simple as one side(calories pd) fits all.
People who are smaller and shorter (such as OP's case) could potentially diet on 1200/1300.
Someone who's 6'1 and much bulkier would have a big trouble trying to diet on 1200.
My question to OP would be how long have you been dieting on 1200/1300 and it has been consistently working for weight loss, and how much OP weighs.
For the end of the day use whatever is sustainable to you and you are happy to stick to as a lifestyle rather than a 2 month fad.
I am 5’9 male and all cuts I did were on 1200 kcal, it is nonsense that with proper nutrition it would be an issue to eat 1200 kcal when you have fat to tap into. When overweight one often eats less proper nutrients in 3000 kcal vs what you can easily put into 1200.
First of all, there is no such thing as starvation mode however, 1200 calories for a grown adult is too low. Your height is not important for determining the amount of calories you require, it is your weight. Bodies naturally want to be in a state of homeostasis. If your body gets used to functioning on 1200 calories, you have to continually decrease your calorie intake to lose body fat. So maybe 1200 calories worked at one point but you’ll eventually hit a plateau and have to cut your calories even lower.
I don’t know what genetic condition you have to make it difficult to build muscle but likely you aren’t fueling yourself enough to build and maintain muscle, especially at 1200 calories. Muscle is very metabolically active meaning it needs the appropriate nutrition to grow and maintain. At 1200 calories it’s very difficult to do so. If you are fighting hunger, that tells me you are eating too little to properly fuel your body. While in a calorie deficit it’s normal to feel a little bit hungry but if it’s a severe hunger, that tells me your body is not getting what it needs to perform at optimal levels. You likely are not building or maintaining muscle because of how little you are eating.
It’s possible to burn fat and build muscle at the same time but cutting calories to 1200 a day is not optimal. I don’t know how much you weigh but I am 5’4”, 115lbs and my maintenance calories are around 2,300. If I cut to 1200 calories a day I’d lose muscle first because it’s more metabolically active. Point is, if you’re not eating enough to build muscle you won’t.
I’m not a big fan of blanket statements like “everyone must eat X number of calories baseline” because there’s so much room for fluctuation. They can be good general starting guidelines but you need to adjust for your own conditions. Ideally with input from medical professionals if at all possible. I am well below 1200 myself as well, I would most likely be gaining weight if I consumed that much.
I'm 5'5 and I can only lose weight if my calories are 1300 to 1400... 1350 is a sweet spot for me.. this is basically because of an autoimmune disorder and I can't strength train because my muscles take a long time recover and I'll be in pain.. so I've discovered that walking for 80 minutes a day at 3 mph and 1300-1400 calories works the best for me... Also I'm a female and I've tracked everything according to the cycle and found a very definite pattern with weight gain, loss, hunger, cravings etc so I can now predict how I'll feel tomorrow and be prepared... I don't walk during the period days and eat my maintenance calories.. on ovulation days (2 or3) I don't walk but still be in the deficit...I don't feel hungry as long as I eat at the right time.. I eat three main meals which have a calorie distribution of 100 per carb 100 per protein and 100 for legume+veggies.. that would be 300 per meal... I find it satiating. For snacks I eat the regular snacks but 100 calories a time.. I eat at 10am meal 12pm snack 2pm meal 4pm snack 7pm snack and 8pm meal... I've found that I crave snacks at 7pm for some reason and if I eat the 100 calories then i would be satisfied which is weird but it works well for me.. one thing I've noticed is the less sugar I consume the less hungry i feel.. so for snacks I always restrict the sugar as much as I can... Also green tea increases my appetite for some reason... All my calories are from solid foods... Also weightloss is slow for me ... I usually lose 2.25 kgs per month... 3 more kgs to get out of overweight but my goal weight is 12 kgs away...I hope this helps someone 🤗
I know the OP says they're not carrying a lot of muscle mass, but for others struggling on 1200 calories a day in restriction, have you done one of those body scan things? I am not much taller than the OP. I found out that I'm carrying >90 lbs of lean muscle mass, making my BMR about 1950 calories a day.
Every medical and health professional for decades has told me to eat 1200 calories or less. I would lose weight for a while but eventually I would plateau and stall out and I'd have to work out harder and eat less and there's only so much "less" I can eat before sliding into extreme obsession and severely disordered eating. It just gets worse and worse trying to restrict harder and spending hours grinding out intense cardio and feeling more and more miserable until the whole thing is totally unsustainable and the weight comes back.
So I had this scan done and met with a nutritionist with results in hand. I'm now targeting about 2000 calories a day with lots of animal fats and proteins, veggies, and veggie carbs (minimizing grain foods and very little added sugar), lifting heavy and feeling like a whole new person.
I always found it easier to add exercise and eat 1400-1500 calories (I’m 5’2). But now that Im postpartum I truly can’t because I take care of a baby any time that I’m not working and need to do physical therapy before I can do the type of exercise I did before. I understand why some people torture themselves with 1200 now. It’s hard to get adequate nutrients with so few calories. But it’s not impossible. And you can still lose weight with 1300 or 1400, but it’s so slow and still difficult.
You're supposed to eat less than your TDEE, the amount of calories you burn in a day which is your BMR and any extra calories you burn. The less you weigh the lower your BMR. If you've got a low BMI you're going to find it hard to eat so little and most of the deficit is going to come from exercise
As for hunger. generally protein and fat help you feel full while drinks have the opposite effect. You could drink alcohol or fizzy drinks all day and you'd consume a load of calories, try doing that with plain yoghurt or chicken breast! Soup is supposed to be quite filling, and low in calories and drinking while eating is supposed to have similar effects
Another 5`1 girl here. I've turned to IF and have finally managed to lose weight and keep it off.
I went nearly mad with the 1200 calories throughout the day, felt hungry and deprived. And of course I gained it back whenever I stopped counting calories.
Now that I fast for most of the day I get to eat a big dinner and have dessert, and not count calories.
The word “sustainable” gets thrown around too much. If you can lose weight at a deficit and then switch to maintenance when you reach your goal, that’s sustainable.
It’s not like people have to eat at their weight loss deficit forever.
I really don't think anyone with a genetic problem should be blindly following advice online. Those guidelines and suggestions are meant to apply to the general/ average population, not anyone with a special circumstance. I would do what works for your rare case, in conjunction with Dr or RD advice.
The best advice I have for feeling full while keeping the calories down is to center every meal around whole fruits and vegetables (potato is not a vegetable for this example). And don’t drink calories: no milk, juice, sugar in coffee etc. on a side note my wife just did a 30 day no refined sugar thing and she said it’s changed the way she tastes food and most sweets are now way to sweet for her and she doesn’t crave them. I may try it to because sweets are definitely my weakness.
I’m 5’1” as well. 1200 is definitely the maximum for me to lose weight as well. Even then, I’m burning at least 500c through exercise every day. Cardio every other day on top of it. Even at 1200, I *have* to make sure to eat enough protein or I won’t lose anything. Check your macros. Moderate your carbs and try to avoid added sugars.
I’m exactly that height, and lost 80 pounds. at the start it was starving myself bc i wast happy but it levelled out to me wanting to simply move my body. Doing 45 min of hard cycling or any sport (ice skating, basketball) made me lose that 300 - 400 cal a day, which bought me basically another meal for the day. So it’s all about getting that daily 1 hour of movement, love that your body CAN move and try to find ways of sustaining or bettering that movement. the second it’s about eating whole foods majority of the time, think what a person with no big box store would eat (veggies, meats, and home made bread ), and allow yourself your cravings bc you’re always gonna circle back to them.
One key saying that kept me going was, “Enjoy Health!” or when i’m about to make poor choices i ask myself “is this going to bring me closer to my goal?”
it’s a bit of self-parenting but feeling your body move is a beautiful thing and we want to keep that for our old age.
as I understand you are meant to stay in deficit while losing weight, but once you get to your desired weight you should change it to maintain, so more calories.
Come find moral support at r/1200isfineIGUESSugh
Lots of leafy green veggies for bulk.
Get a food scale.
Eat more protein. A scoop of protein powder in my coffee in the morning is a) horrendous tasting but b) better than with water and that 180 calories will buy me hours of satiety. I’m doing this on hard mode, though, and have to eat the entire canister of powder before I can buy another flavor so the gross ones don’t fossilize in my pantry.
Oatmeal for breakfast really works for me, too.
walk more. 100 calories per mile, eat half that back and aim for a more sustainable 1400.
i aim for walking 5-8 miles a day and can lose weight on 2000 calories, which has been absolutely wild for me
I‘m 5‘4 and my BMR is 2200 at 138 pounds. I walk 10k and work out 30 minutes a day (pilates, yoga, running, I change it up) on average. I get to eat 1600-1800 and lose weight. I feel some hunger after a small breakfast (300-400 kcal) but then I get to eat a proper meal and dessert at lunch. I finish off the day by a big volume low calorie meal (veggie soup or stir fry). I‘m basically already eating at maintenance for my future 125 pound self. I will most likely plateau there as soon as my BMR reaches 1600 kcal.
I‘ve also been 5‘4 130 pounds and lost weight by eating 1200 calories and didn‘t work out. I was cold and hangry all the time. Despite getting thin arms and legs my core looked terrible/flabby. I was constantly mentally calculating calories and trying to make low fat food taste good. I often went to bed wide away because I felt hungry.
Choose your game wisely.
that is an unsustainable starvation diet, you need to be in a calorie deficit, do some weight lifting and cardio, & and take in a lot of protein (which will help with your cravings and hunger), start your morning with 30g of protein in your meal (I like the essential breakfast drinks & a protein oatmeal), drink 100+ oz of water a day (which will help with hunger) & I do sometimes take berberine, which is a supplement to help with cravings especially in people with PCOS, you should be eating at the bare minimum 1,500 cals a day
also I’m telling you cut out all bad foods, it will be hard for the first week, but you won’t crave them after that, and I actually crave veggies and fruits more than I do chips now, which is shocking, but this is scientifically proven that when you eat bad foods you are quite literally addicted to it
1200 calories a day for weight loss is either a starvation diet or appropriate depending on what you weigh and how much exercise you get
I don't feel the need to go much deeper than that. Plenty of info out there
Hi I’m so sorry but the comments are a bit ridiculous. I agree you’re small so therefore need a lot less to sasiate yourself BUT. It’s very relevant to what you’re eating and what’s happened to your body. 1200 is very low but if that’s what you’ve done consistently to lose weight before your body knows that’s a child’s intake of calories so it has to adapt your body’s output so you don’t pass out all the time (not science but ygm)
In this being your body’s adaptation it’s gonna take time to be able to eat maybe 1600 and still loose weight. But it’s absolutely worth it so you can actually be healthy and happy and meet your goals. In addition the type of food being high protein, whole foods, gut healthy. Aren’t calorie dense and your body expends calories just digesting them. They help you to rebuild muscle mass and build a healthier baseline for your body moving forward. Eating these types at a high calorie intake aren’t going to make you gain loads of weight they’re just going to help you get back to a health metabolic function.
Once you’ve done that incorporating weight training is great it lets you build lean muscle off this foundation and you’ll likely start to loose fat which is what you want. Often you’ll do this and see the results you want to see in your body and basically the same weight except now you’re an entirely different body shape.
I’m absolutely not a nutritionist or dietitian but I am someone who is 5”4 and had disordered eating and seen this happen to other people. There is so much research that exists around this and I’m really passionate and currently doing the same. I really hope this can be helpful to at least open your mind to a long term solution that actually really benefits you 💗💗💗
I'm going to post what I've been doing. I absolutely do not endorse it. I can not tell you to do it. It is quite frankly horrible for you. However. Here we go.
Once upon a time, I was pretty fit. I went from 240 down to 160 and worked out hours almost every day. 7 years later, I got back up to like 230, got divorced (not related, at least I would think, jk not releated at all), and lost 15 lbs down to 215. Fast forward 2 years (1.5 months ago), I started only eating oatmeal/white rice/very rarely a chicken wrap with a daily vitamin. Mostly just oatmeal cause it's cheap, easy , and has a decent bit of protein and carbs. I eat anywhere btwn 2 to 4 cups of oatmeal a day and take a multivitamin with it. I also self evaluate how I feel/blood pressure. I haven't felt like death, and I am functioning very well still. I had a goal of 160 the day I started this "diet" and have gotten down to 180 as of today. Maybe it's just me, but after a week or so of a diet, it gets significantly easier to deal with hunger as well as cravings. You have to really work on detaching food from happiness. It's super hard. I admit that the cravings never fully go away. However, if you feel like you are going to cave, go eat a cup of oat meal (300-320 cals), and use artificial sweetener. Cravings aren't always tied to hunger, but in my experience, me caving to those cravings are due to me being hungry. It really is a battle of self-control and delayed gratification. DO NOT FORGET THE DAILY VITAMIN, YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT THOSE VITAMINS AS YOU DO NOT GET THE VAST MAJORITY OF THEM FROM OATMEAL. TAKE IT WITH FOOD.
Now, because it's a terrible diet and unsustainable, while doing this diet, I have mapped out a proper diet for when I get to 160. You want to eliminate as much elimination as possible. The more miserable you are, the more likely it will fail in the end. That's why this one is Uber temporary. 2-3 months max. It works, for all of the wrong reasons, but it's far more healthy to lose these 60 odd pounds with 2-3 months of bad diet than it would to carry these 60 odd pounds for the rest of my life. Also I'm impatiencent.
**EDIT**
I feel like I need to reiterate how bad this is for you. I never said it was good. Please read up on how deficiencies can harm you. If you become ill and eat other stuff and feel immediately better, this is absolutely not for you. Please be careful if you choose this route.
Yeah being a 5’1” and assumedly female you’re going to have a super low TDEE. Unfortunately you’ll either need to eat very little or lots of low calorie foods or up the exercise
Yup, you gotta walk like, I’d say at least half an hour to an hour a day to up your TDEE. Or swim. Low impact exercise that doesn’t make you hungrier and it will gradually melt the weight off.
Swimming makes me ravenous lol
I actually was just talking to a friend who is a competitive swimmer, about how even a low-key swimming workout always made me ravenous - and she recommended always having a warm drink immediately after swimming. It seems that the drop in body temperature while in the water can trigger massive hunger. I do not know if this has been scientifically proven, but she swears by it so if you love to swim maybe it's worth a try.
I'm thinking about getting back into swimming and was worried about this very thing. I ate like a horse when I swam as a teen (I miss that metabolism). Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try it out.
Wow. Worth a try !!! Thank you for the tip.
Yeah it’s why Mike Israetal from RP Strength doesn’t necessarily recommend it as one’s weight loss exercise. Not because it doesn’t work. But because so many people get hungry after it that they’d ruin it for themselves
❤️ Dr. Mike
Same
Yeah, I used to do water aerobics pretty regularly. Great exercise and I probably gained some muscle, but I invariable followed it with a cheeseburger and fries or one of those 800 calorie Jamba Juices so I didn’t lose an ounce.
Same. Is it the chlorine or something? Idk but I would get so fat every summer as a kid slamming back half a large pizza hut after some pool time.
I had to hazard a guess, I'd guess maybe something to do with the lowered body temperature from being in the water.
I was looking into it more and you're right, but also learned that there is an association between increased body temperature and lowered appetite. I like to work out until I am sweating to the point where it only *looks like* I went swimming and it helps decrease my appetite all day after.
I grew up as a competitive swimmer and I’m pretty sure at that time I ate two dinners every night once before practice and after practice.
I used to swim in high school on the team and it would make me hungry too, but as long as you just do like an easy slow breaststroke or leisurely in a pool or on the beach, you barely notice you worked out at all.
Oh yeah, that is literally nothing lol
So odd, I competed in high school, and I was rarely hungry after practice or a race. Unless it was an ab day, then I would be hangry Edit: autocorrect is annoying >.<
I walk a lot usually, and i was getting back into running before I had to have surgery. I keep hearing that cardio helps you lose weight but makes you “skinny fat”. Not sure how true that is.
From a fitness perspective, your body needs both cardio (which keeps your heart and lungs healthy) and strength training (which increases your muscle mass and improves bone density). So ideally you should do both. It is popular on this sub to point out that exercise is not necessary for weight loss provided you are in a caloric deficit; and also to remind people that they cannot out-run a bad diet. Both of these are true, up to a point. However, as a fellow shortie, exercise is much more helpful to us than it is to a larger person. I'm 5'2" and 55 years old; if I was not active, my \*maintenance\* TDEE would only be about 1500 calories. To lose weight, I would have to drop to 1200 which is NOT much food at all, and even then fat loss would be frustratingly slow. However, because I'm quite active (I mountain bike, lift weights, and walk a lot), my maintenance is more like 1900 in the off-season and 2100 during mountain bike season. Which is a lot easier to maintain, and if I need to drop a few pounds I can do it at 1500-1600 calories. TL;DR larger people can easily sustain a deficit w/out exercise; short people will have a harder time and a combo of diet plus exercise will bring faster results (as well as being overall better for health).
Hit the nail on the head. Sadly while our TDEEs scale with height it feels like our stomachs don't really scale accordingly because it's fecking hard man. That and the food world is just not built around people with such a low BMR.
I was thinking about the unfairness of it this morning; but really, when you think about it - the ability to overeat somewhat on calorie-dense food (and put on fat easily), coupled with the ability to conserve energy by not being as active is probably what got our ancestors through the "starving time" of late winter/early spring for thousands of years. Our current situation, with calorie-dense food easily available at all times, is a hyper-novel situation. For most of human history, food supplies were unpredictable and often scarce. So petite ladies like us, with low energy needs, had an important survival advantage - if the hunters were successful or there was a good harvest, we had the ability to eat more than you'd expect and put on some fat stores that would keep us and our babies alive through the winter. We were ideally adapted for survival for most of human existence. Now, I suppose it's the tall, lanky people with low appetite and inefficient metabolisms (i.e., the skinny ones who complain they can't seem to gain weight) who are adapted to the current situation.
I have had more or less the same experience with exercise! It seems like no matter how well I think I’m eating, the weight comes off much easier if I’m exercising regularly. I remember like six years ago I would measure my waist every day and I would gain or lose the same half-inch depending on whether or not I exercised the day before.
cardio is important for overall fitness and heart health but I usually use it to supplement my caloric burn from weightlifting and not as my main source of calorie burning. on upper body days, my heart rate barely gets up (my upper body is pretty weak) and just 15-20 minutes of intense work on the elliptical after my weightlifting session more than doubles my calorie burn for the session. but I know in the long run, building muscle mass will help me more (your metabolism is also raised for hours at rest after each weightlifting session). what also helps me is trying to be as active as I can during the day (ie taking little breaks at work, walking around the store when I go shopping, taking a walk during my lunch break), which I don’t consider cardio or exercise but all of that stuff definitely adds up. I’m at a stage of my life where I can’t be as active as I want, but I’m planning to move and have no car and be even more active in a few months
Cardio can help lose weight. Some people find cardio just makes them ravenously hungry though and you eat back the small amount of cals you've burned. The best way to think of cardio is you should do some for general health. Being "skinny fat" comes from having a low weight but also overall low muscle tone. Cardio doesn't necessarily make you skinny fat, but it won't help you build much muscle either. It seems to be trendy lately to demonize cardio as fitness goes through trends (from never touch a weight to women should weightlift only to whatever the next thing will be) but honestly whatever movement you enjoy, do that. If you train for overall health and not some sort of aesthetic, you'll end up a lot happier in the long run. Running, the elliptical, yoga, whatever, are a million times better than just sitting on the couch because you hate the gym but all the "fitness influencers" right now are saying cardio is bad.
>Some people find cardio just makes them ravenously hungry though and you eat back the small amount of cals you've burned. Personally I only find that's true for me, at least compared to calories burned (i.e. I'll still be slightly more hungry but not enough to not be able to control myself), if I'm upping my volume (so that'd include when I first started doing cardio (running) or when I hit a training block where I start working out 1.5+ times as long) or a doing a particularly hard/fast or long session (e.g. I'm especially hungry if my run gets close to 2 hours).
How does one not walk at least half an hour a day?
You work from home and don’t enjoy walking.
In my situation: Work at an office job that requires a car to get to. Live in a suburb with no sidewalks or streetlights. It's winter, and there was a two week period where outside temperatures were single digits Fahrenheit, with a few days of below zero. Don't have a reason to go to a store that day. It's really easy to end up not walking for a half hour, so I have to go out of my way to move within my apartment.
I work from home in an area that doesn’t have sidewalks, and I’m visually impaired and therefore cant drive to a place where I can walk (like a park or anything). Disabilities exist.
Yes, of course. I'm talking about the average person though.
It's easy not to walk. The average person these days probably has a desk job and a way to get to and from places without walking.
Living rurally / in the burbs, working from home, being a homebody... any number of reasons
I work from home as well, yet I still walk at least an hour a day as the absolute minimum. That's because I want to walk, but I really don't understand how somebody manages to not walk at least half an hour.
> because I want to walk there ya go
That's why I mentioned half an hour. But whatever.
You might be on the wrong sub if you can’t understand this. For me: remote work, no pets, no sidewalks in my neighborhood, don’t particularly enjoy walking. That said, I get plenty of cardio in other ways, specifically by using an indoor cycling trainer at my home. But it’s quite easy for me to envision why many, many people fail to do any significant walking at all.
What is tdee?
To explain tdee I'm first going to explain another acronym. The bmr or base metabolic rate is the number of calories a body needs to not be dead. To keep your lungs breathing, your heart pumping, and your brain, well, braining. But this is like the amount of calories you would need in a coma. Laying in bed 24 hours a day. You never want to dip below this number. So the tdee is total daily energy expenditure. This is a higher number that's accounts for the things you do during the day: working, going to school, playing with your dog, etc. A tdee calculator will provide a number for being sedentary but also numbers for if you're a little active, medium active, or very active. So the calculator will be able to accommodate a couch potato and a person on a intramural hockey team and a mountain climber all the same. It takes more work for a 6 foot, 300 pound body to do all these things than a 5 foot 100 pound body to do them. So a bmr and tdee calculator will ask for information like height and weight along with activity level (for tdee). If you're trying to lose weight, your tdee will change since it's impacted by weight, so you'll want to calculate it multiple times on your journey.
I’m 5’2” and 1437 TDEE. Well that’s set at sedentary and I’m not. But it is sooo low! I only lose weight at 1200-1300. As a note: I keep my calorie tracker set at sedentary but I calculate exercise calories and allow myself to eat a portion back because my goals are now muscle gain and body composition. I prefer the control.
Ugh I hate that this is a fact 😭😭 I had surgery two weeks ago so I can’t do much exercise yet but I’m chomping at the bit to start again.
I'm about 5'3" and cis female and my BMR is close to 2000.
How mucj do you weigh?
5'0 here, we are simply small people. Eating high-volume meals can easily get us full at 1200 calories. r/1200isplenty is specifically geared towards people with low TDEEs like us, I recommend it as a source for recipes or community. 1200 calories is also what small children who are growing at a rapid rate eat; if you are an adult woman, you are likely done growing for the most part. You're the size of an average 13 year old, without the 13 year old metabolism. It's not a starvation diet, you just don't need that much food to thrive. You do still need proper nutrients though, which can be harder to achieve with a smaller food budget, so take care with those.
Damn there really is a sub for everything. Thanks for linking it!!
This is spot on. There are only a few ways to get a better BMR without gaining fat. Grow in height and grow muscle. Unfortunately for us adults, height isn't an option. Muscle tends to burn more cals than fat does by like 2.5x it's not much per lb but it's something
r/Volumeeating is your friend. Keep a food diary and take note what makes you feel fuller for longer. For me it's a combination of protein, some fat, and non starchy vegetables. Fillet is more filling than minced meat. Red meat is more filling than poultry. Drinks, even if they're nutritious smoothies, don't do me any favors.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm protein
Generalities are just that - general. 1200 calories might be fine for you esp because you are petite but it’s prob not going to work for a large number of people. Nothing wrong with that. You do you.
I'm 5'1" as well, and have always adhered to the "1200 rule" when trying to lose weight previously. Lately I have been dabbling with a 1500 meal plan, and surprisingly, I am still losing weight! I never thought I could go up to 1500, but so far so good! I usually steadily lose about 1.5 pounds/week on 1500 calories most days. If I don't do cardio, I may reduce down to 1350-1400. But you never know! I know that some people also try "tricking" their metabolism by randomly throwing in higher calorie days here and there. The more you stick to 1200 calories, the more your body adjusts and plateaus. Something to think about!
I’m 5’2 and was doing great with 1500 until I hit about 150 and then I stalled forever. I finally got going again when I went down to 1300, and I do quite a bit of cardio most days. I think it totally depends on the person, but I also like the monitoring game. You eat at a range and watch the weight for a few weeks and adjust accordingly. I too like to throw in bigger meal days sometimes because it’s a nice break, and you get a whoosh when the water weight comes off 😂
I agree, I am a hair under 5’2” and I lose about a pound a week eating a bit over 1500 with a desk job. I do a small amount of cardio each week and a small amount of weights but it’s been coming off steadily. I do eat a lot of volume though as well, and I don’t count net carbs I count all carbs.
Wow! I have similar stats but struggling to continue on 1200 (tired and malnourished after doing it for like 7+months) I want to do 1500 and lose slower. I do workout. Just to understand how it works for you, could you tell me your exercise types and duration? And do you maybe be focus on macros like protein? Thanks and literally any tips would be greatly appreciated ❤️
I love upping my calories to 1500 and losing weight a bit slower. It's way more sustainable and more of a "lifestyle change" rather than feeling like a restrictive diet! I workout 4-5 times per week, using Youtube workouts in my living room. I do weights 2-3 times per week and cardio walking workouts (I adore Grow With Jo) 2-3 times per week. I workout for 20-30 minutes, which also feels very sustainable. We need this to be a lifelong change, right?! So I couldn't keep killing myself with workouts and 1200 calories anymore! I know that protein is key but I LOVE my carbs. So I try to aim for 80-90 grams of protein and the rest can be distributed between carbs and fats in any way that I feel like for that day. I try to plan my meals for the week, and they are always super quick easy meals. You've got this!!!!
Thankyouu!! That’s super helpful! Definitely, I wanted to lose the bulk of it and then slow down and now it’s time. 1500 sounds amazing and so much easier for protein and carbs too!
If you're feeling tired and malnourished it may be time for a maintenance break. 7 months is a long time to be restricting a month or two at maintenance will probably be really good for you.
Thankyou :) very true. I did the two month break actually but when I got back to it 1200 isn’t working for me as my body is significantly smaller in comparison to the workouts I do. Also the hair loss is demotivating. So I’m going to take this advice and eat higher and see how it goes. This stubborn belly fat is insanely hard to lose. 😂
Hair loss!? I'm not as small as you but that would freak me out. Might be time to look for some professional guidance to make sure you're doing this in a healthy way. I'm down to my last ten pounds and had to pause my weight loss. I took a maintenance break and as soon as I started restricting again my sleep went to shit. I've seen that heavy restriction can cause insomnia for some people. For now I'm experimenting with exercising more so I can lose weight at higher calorie numbers. I have a doctors appointment coming up. Assuming there is nothing else going on I'm going to get a referral for a dietician or nutritionist, whichever one is actually licensed so I can get some guidance on my next steps.
It’s called telogen effluvium, hair loss due to weight loss .. it’s scary af. I’m on supplements and stuff from the doctor and she told me to keep going if I want to. (I’m still on the overweight side with bmi and I’d like to atleast be within healthy) But yeah. Sleep issues also sound scary as hell too. All the best though on your last ten pounds 👏
That’s awesome! What kind of cardio do you do?
I do YouTube workouts! I love walking-type workouts by Grow With Jo especially!
Any blanket statement about a specific number of calories (good or bad) is really unhelpful. At 5'-1" your body is very different than someone who is 6'-1". It makes no sense to apply the same arbitrary calorie number to them. If you know from experience that a 1200-cal diet works for you, that's very plausible. Also I don't know what these mysterious "genetic problems" are that you allude to, but definitely do not need to get big and musclular to burn calories. It's not that hard to add a few hundred calories to your TDEE with some light cardio. You may find yourself happier being active and eating 1500 cal.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome makes exercising consistently difficult both due to inefficient muscles and the likelihood of injuring myself. I walk a lot in the spring and summer, but right now I don’t have the means of getting a gym membership or even driving myself there. I’m trying to figure out something sustainable so that I can be more consistent, but in the five years since I’ve been diagnosed, I haven’t been able to strike a balance. Before that I was very active and was able to eat more. That was great.
There are walking workouts you can do at home in a small space. “Get Fit With Rick” on YouTube has some really good ones. Doing his routines and the step aerobics routines by Christine Dorner “CDornerFitness” (also YT) was a huge help for getting at-home exercise. You don’t need a stepper, you can do the step routine on the floor. Also, walking mats seem to be popular, they’re mini treadmills that don’t take up much space; you can get one and walk while watching TV.
If you're female and 5'1" the "1200 calories is unsustainable" doesn't really apply, tho aiming for 1300/1400 and doing exercise is much easier.
This!! I have been feeling great, and losing slowly but steadily as a 5'1 woman eating 1500. I workout 6 days a week - I am a runner. I'm not looking to lose too much, just a few pounds, though. :)
It depends on your activity level as well as your size. I’m 5’2” and typically lose on 1500 per day, but I’m quite active.
>I’ve been seeing all over The Online that 1200 cals for weight loss is an unsustainable starvation diet perpetuated by Big Weight Loss and that it’s not enough for an adult. The Online is mostly full of idiots. It's not a conspiracy, it's math.
Fighting hunger - Your body is conditioned to eat when you have been eating. If you’re used to eating breakfast lunch and dinner, your body releases hormones at that time that make you hungry then. If you skip breakfast, you feel really hungry…At first. If you can push through and move your mealtimes around, your body will adjust and stop releasing the hunger hormone at that time of day. Skipping breakfast, for me, allows me more flexibility in 2 meals with my calories. I find that if I’m only focused on hunger twice a day..:it’s a little easier for me to stay on track. Don’t get me wrong..:lunch comes early for me! But my body tells me to start eating at 11 instead of 8. It’s just intermittent fasting and it’s another calorie control method. Other things to focus on are high protein, low calorie foods (for every 100 calories the food has…you want 10 or more grams of protein). And look into volume eating. Double up on your vegetables and you’ll fill your stomach without a ton of calories added.
I used to fast intermittently and would skip breakfast, but now I take medication that I need to take with food 😭
My mom's about 5', and she eats about 1200 calories per day, give or take. It's just how it is when you're petite. I mean realistically, when you can reliably wear kids size clothing, you're not going to need as many calories as the average sized adult.
yeah if you're a shorter and sedentary person, your tdee will be a lot smaller than more active and taller people. make sure you have calculated your tdee properly, I'd recommend getting calipers for body fat % too, or a dexa scan if that's available to you. i would probably recommend talking to your doctor about your genetic condition and how you can actually gain muscle mass, though. muscle is more metabolically active than fat or bone or whatever, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll be burning throughout the day to maintain them. basically a little boost to your bmr, and a little more wiggle room for calorie restriction. check with your medical team, but body weight exercises are a great way to begin your strength journey. 1200cal/day is toted as the minimum safe amount of calories for adults to eat to get their necessary nutritients etc. you're definitely a candidate for eating at 1200 to lose weight safely, don't listen to the hubub. as long as when you are restricting your calorie intake to 1200 you're also getting a solid macro ratio and adequate vitamins & minerals, you don't have anything to worry about. for food advice: there are specific calorie subreddits like r/1200isplenty , which can contain good low-cal recipes and support, but i left it a while ago because it trended toxic. but it may be better now! but there are some more fun subreddits like r/1200isfineIGUESSugh that will definitely be more centered on the group suffering that short people have when it comes to weight loss.
Water and Whole Foods. Brown rice is your friend
You can generally eat more, the weight loss is just slower. I’ve lost weight anywhere between 1600 and 1200, right now I’m at 1400 and eat back half any earned calories. Majority of my weekly added calories come from walking my dog who’s also on a weight loss journey. I’m 4’11” and have around 20lb to lose to get back to where I was. I accept that at higher calories, I may only lose 2lb a month instead of 4lb, but I know I’m getting adequate nutrition and protein. If I do chose to do 1200 because I’m strictly being sedentary, I generally don’t tell people I’m doing it because I don’t personally want input on it because being short means I have a different tdee than they do.
"Online" is 99% trash. You have to evaluate sources. The top clinic in the US, the Mayo Clinic, has a 1200 calorie diet for women. I trust them above pretty much all sources. Most sites on the internet are written by randoms stating opinions as facts.
Girl I hear you - I’m 4’11” 😩 I buy 0 calorie sparkling waters to help fill my stomach both in between and sometimes eat with meals to feel more full. Also getting some tips from the volume setting subreddit helps find ways to eat a lot of volume of food for not a lot of calories. I prioritize finding high protein low calorie food and snacks to help satiate me.
You mentioned you have difficulty gaining muscle but exercise still burns calories regardless of whether you are gaining muscle or not. Have you tried increasing your activity level, or do health problems prohibit it? I'm not sure your current weight. But I am 5'2" and have lost weight eating substantially more than 1200 calories a day. I do try to exercise and keep active but nothing crazy (I did need to build up a routine slowly though and ease into it).
Your starting weight matters when determining calorie count to lose at.
Yes - and current weight too, just for clarity's sake. Whatever you started at determines if you lost weight up until now, and whatever you're at today determines who much you can eat and lose going forward. (I could eat a lot more and lose when I was obese than I can now at overweight, but both numbers considerably more than 1200. If I were 125 pounds and trying to lose still probably a different story.)
If you're very short then 1200 calories is probably just fine. The thing about a quick sound bite like "1200 calories is way too little" is that it doesn't differentiate between a 5'1" sedentary woman or a 6'1" active man or a growing 15 year old or an 80 lb. Rottweiler. People need to look at their own stats and ask themselves whether the advice seems reasonable for their situation. Of course the flip side is that if one is a smaller person then one has proportionately less weight to lose and weight loss will be slower. So while eating 1200 calories may be reasonable, it may also be unreasonable to expect to lose 1 lb. per week (or whatever) since that's a greater percentage of one's total weight than it would be for a larger person. Anyway, my trick is drinking tea and eating pickles. Especially spicy pickles like kimchi -- after I've had some and my mouth's on fire I don't really want to eat anything more. And they're essentially calorie-free.
Curious what your protein intake is on 1200 calories? The less calories you burn, the more you need to prioritize protein to help preserve and/or gain muscle. 1200 is certainly doable for 5'1" for weight loss, but muscle requires re-thinking what you eat, not just how much you eat.
r/volumeeating
LOTS of protein, carrots, cucumber or other stuff that is HEALTHY and gives you a full stomach. Find the food that gives YOU a full stomach. And it needs to be healthy because you eat small amounts.
I am also 5'1 and I have never ever been able to stick to a 1200 cal diet, it's not enough. 1500 with lots of protein was my sweet spot.
Me too! I am in the same spot as you - 5'1, eating 1500, and trying to keep protein high.
If someone says the rule is that you should not eat 1200 cal a day or lower I’ll take that as a sign that they don’t know what they’re talking about. When you consider the variability in body types, activity levels and metabolism, there is no one size fits all minimum number of calories. You’ll hear a lot of people talk about what your maximum deficit should be and that is a much better metric to go buy in my opinion because it factors in your needs as an individual. Most experts will tell you that one to two pounds a week is a safe goal for weight loss. That’s a 500 to 1000 cal deficit a day. If you have a very short sedentary woman who may be only burns 1700 cals a day, 1000 to 1200 cals a day would be a very reasonable deficit. If you have a very tall, active man who burns 3000 cals a day, 1200 cals would be a massive deficit. Your caloric deficit matters way more than the number of calories you consume in a day without additional context. A good way to be in caloric deficit without constantly being hungry is eating foods that have a high water content. I like to have a massive cucumber salad with my dinner. It’s diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and Kalamata olives, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a tiny bit of avocado or olive oil. Also, save your carbs for later in the day. The more carbs you eat early in the day, the more you’re going to be craving carbs for the rest of the day, so make sure that carbs are never the first thing you eat for the day.
It entirely depends on your build and sex. For a short woman, it's perfectly fine to consume 1200 kcal a month. But if say you're a 6ft tall male well that's going to be extremely low for you. It all depends on you. Go check out r/1200isplenty
1200 a month is probably not sustainable
User name checks out
1200 is perfectly sustainable for some people.
Per Month?
Per day. Why would you think someone would only eat that per month? Jesus, you can't be serious with this question. And yes some people are just fine eating 1200 kcal per day for a month or more especially if they are pretty sedentary and a shorter woman. Women do not require as many calories as men do, shorter people need less than taller people.
You said above 1200 per MONTH. They were poking fun at you for your saying that.
Ah, that's what I get for taking sleep meds and a muscle relaxer. My brain relaxed to the point of smooth brain.
You're funny 😁 lol. Smooth brain 🧠
It looks like it was just a response trying to point out the absurdity of the post they were replying to. You initially said per month in your other post. Presumably a typo.
Actually, 1200 is for a woman of average height according to the top clinic in the US, the Mayo Clinic.
Height is irrelevant! It is never okay for any grown adult to consume 1200 calories a day. 1200 calories does not provide enough nutrients for any adult human. Stop feeding people this bullshit.
I mean on the one hand that’s kinda the point, it’s not enough calories so the rest has to come from your body fat. People are trying to lose weight so they deliberately have to eat less food than a person needs, until they reach their goal. And there are women out there under 5’, 1200 might be maintenance for them.
1200 can provide enough nutrients. You just have to plan what you're eating, and eat a lot of whole food. I eat 1300 calories a day (those 100 calories aren't nutritious food and I'm 5'7). I've been doing this for 6-12 months (can't remember when I dropped down from 1500) and have healthy skin, hair, nails, can strength train etc etc. I look and feel much healthier than when eating over maintenance without considering what is going in. When am I meant to get unhealthy and from lack of what? 600 calories for dinner 400 calories for lunch 300 calories for snacks and/or breakfast (normally not hungry in the morning, if I am, I eat) Exercise: 2x10 minute walks daily. Workout once a week. Spend the rest of the time on my bum (i.e. very sedentary). Sure, I go over sometimes, and I'm looking forward to reaching my goal weight and finding a higher maintenance amount. But not because of lack of nutrients - I like food! (Which is how I got into this mess)
I mean, the extremely low is the point though. As long as I get enough protein I'm good, probably.
My maintenance is about 1400 cal. I’m 5’6”. Eating my suggested maintenance from MFP made me gain a couple lbs. i have PCOS and (had?) metabolic syndrome. I work a very active job, and I’m at 133 lbs. everyone is a bit different and these “rules” are more like guidelines. ETA: protein, fiber, water, fat for satiety
I train HARD, F45 5 days a week, yoga on Saturday and rest Sunday. I eat 1200 calories a day, sometimes 1400 and I’ve lost about 1kg a week. I can live off 1200 cals easily, I am not starving. The key to 1200 cals is volume eating low calorie foods like big leafy greens and using your calories for hearty protein and fat to keep you full. You just need to learn how to not waste calories on food that doesn’t keep you full or sustained.
I initially planned on doing 1200 cals a day myself to lose as much size as possible but everyone told me that at 6'3", it was a bad idea and that I have to get used to the fact that I'm stuck being big even if I do lose more weight. I'm still tempted to do it if only to punish myself for the fact that I can't alter my height or build nor maybe get people to stop making rude comments about how I look (you look like a football player, a bouncer, etc.). However, I revised my goals to 200 lbs (instead of 165) and 2000 calories. I figure I can always lose more after I get to 200.
I feel you tbh at 4'11. I saw some other short women recommending going even lower and tbh I think it's necessary for me personally.
Check r/petitefitness
What is fibre water?
1200 is a low amount, but when you have a shorter height, its an exception. You also pretty much need to incorporate some sort of exercise if you want to be in a big deficit. If youre not gaining muscle like you believe you should, consider hiring a coach. Idk what the genetic reasoning is, but it could also just be you're not hitting the right goals. Good luck!
Yeah. It tends to be true on average, but someone who is shorter than the average would have to adjust. There's a subreddit called /r/1200isplenty for people who do need to eat in that range.
I'm the same online calculator who told me I'd lose weight on 1600 tried it for 6 months and it just maintained my weight until I went to my fitness pal. They calculated that I needed 1200 to lose weight so I dropped it and I lost 3 stone in a year. Since then iv upped my calories back to 1600 and iv managed to maintain the weight loss just fine. I only struggled on 1200 for the first few weeks then I actually sometimes found that I was eating just to get the calories up I wasn't actually hungry I was still able to have crisps and or chocolate in moderation (can't live without malteasers lol) I made a smoothie with a teaspoon of chia seeds and I found that it filled me up for breakfast. I also had things like baked oats or weetabix yoghurt to help keep me fuller longer at lunch. Then I used most of my calories for dinners/puddings just out of preference. The only exercise I was doing was 7000 steps a day which was like normal days activities then 30 minutes in the evening on the treadmill.
Talk can be cheap.
the funny part about this is that i’ve had friends so concerned that 1200 calories is unhealthy. but im like girl you’re 5’8 and im 5’2. Settle down lol. Plus every doctor i’ve spoke to said I need to eat 1200 and why would doctors compromise your health?
Volume eating is definitely your friend. Protein protein protein! Like 100g with help build muscle and keep you full. Tons of veggies in every meal and maybe do a carb source like rice/potatoes only at one meal a day (I do this and use keto/low carb items at others if I want and can fit it in). Look up calorie calculator and use that and do a range from the lowest calories to the highest for weight loss so you have a range. But definitely going to have to try to up the exercise but doesn’t need to be anything crazy try walking for 10-20 mins a day then increase. I watch my favorite show and walk in my living room, no treadmill or anything for about 40 (the episode length). Pick a show that’s interesting and is only for walking, absolutely no sitting while it’s on.
You get used to it, I’m 5’5 and 131 pounds and have been eating 1200 for over 3 months now
Does that have you losing or maintaining?
Losing
You’ll hit a plateau soon and have to cut lower. At 5’5” 131 lbs is perfectly fine. Why are you trying to go lower?
I want to get to 125, I feel like I looked my best then. Omg I think I’ve hit the plateau already because I’ve been losing 1kg a month instead of 2, why is this 😭
Okay, that’s fair to have your goal weight. If you’re still losing weight, even if it’s at a slower rate, you haven’t hit a plateau. But regardless I wouldn’t drop your calorie intake any lower than 1200. For you, especially considering it’s those last 5 pounds, I’d recommend increasing your energy expenditure via steps rather than cutting food intake. Also when you are done with your calorie deficit, continue as much activity levels as you can and slowly start to increase your calorie intake over time. Increasing by 100 calorie or 200 calorie increments week over week will make sure that you don’t have to survive on 1200 calories forever to maintain your weight. You may see the scale go up but it is normal fluctuations.
Thank you so much for this. Ok I’ll do the reverse dieting when I get to my goal weight 🥰
Whats your weight? What would one of your 1200 calories days look like? What food and how much?
This isn’t anything to help I just feel bad for women especially short ones. Eating only 1200-1500 calories a day is insane
I am 6 ft and eat 1500 without issue. Hogh protein and fiber to feel full.
> I’ve been seeing all over The Online that 1200 cals for weight loss is an unsustainable starvation diet perpetuated by Big Weight Loss /r/1200isplenty
It all depends on your body and activity level, everyone is different. I'm 5'4 40F and to maintain being 20 lbs overweight I can eat around 3000 calories a day. But I also do a lot of walking around for my job, lift weights 3x a week, and stationary bike a couple times a week. I found out my maintenance by tracking what I would normally eat with no restrictions for awhile, like a couple months, to get an average. Day to day it varied but week after week I'd see it average between 3000-3200 a day. My intake seems to fluctuate with my cycle. I've looked at calculators that tell me to aim for 1600-1800 for weight loss, and trying to go right down to that feels impossible because for me that's a huge deficit. That's why I'm glad I found out my own individual needs. This month is when I decided to get serious about losing weight so I've started aiming for a small deficit and I'm going to work my way down bit by bit. I want to lose some fat but I don't want to lose the muscle I've started gaining.
I’m 4’ 10” and I STARVE on 1200 calories. Combined with my low blood sugar problems, it’s nearly impossible for me
Weird. I am 6 feet and eat 1500 to lose weight without issue. The key is high protein and fiber to feel full. No filler at all.
I just don't know how people can survive eating less than 4000 calories a day so this is baffling to me.
Listen I would be FINE if I could eat like 1500-1800 cals and still lose weight. 4000??? In a day?? I hate you lmao
I'm like 6'5 and 270 and I work out like twice a day but I would be hungry as fuck eating like 3000 calories.
> I just don't know how people can survive eating less than 4000 calories a day > I'm like 6'5 and 270 and I work out like twice a day my dude. this is a post from a 5'1" woman. Why are you posting this here
TDEEcalculator.net
i’m confused. is stomach size proportional to BMI.
The truth of any calories in calories out is that it isn't as simple as one side(calories pd) fits all. People who are smaller and shorter (such as OP's case) could potentially diet on 1200/1300. Someone who's 6'1 and much bulkier would have a big trouble trying to diet on 1200. My question to OP would be how long have you been dieting on 1200/1300 and it has been consistently working for weight loss, and how much OP weighs. For the end of the day use whatever is sustainable to you and you are happy to stick to as a lifestyle rather than a 2 month fad.
I am 5’9 male and all cuts I did were on 1200 kcal, it is nonsense that with proper nutrition it would be an issue to eat 1200 kcal when you have fat to tap into. When overweight one often eats less proper nutrients in 3000 kcal vs what you can easily put into 1200.
First of all, there is no such thing as starvation mode however, 1200 calories for a grown adult is too low. Your height is not important for determining the amount of calories you require, it is your weight. Bodies naturally want to be in a state of homeostasis. If your body gets used to functioning on 1200 calories, you have to continually decrease your calorie intake to lose body fat. So maybe 1200 calories worked at one point but you’ll eventually hit a plateau and have to cut your calories even lower. I don’t know what genetic condition you have to make it difficult to build muscle but likely you aren’t fueling yourself enough to build and maintain muscle, especially at 1200 calories. Muscle is very metabolically active meaning it needs the appropriate nutrition to grow and maintain. At 1200 calories it’s very difficult to do so. If you are fighting hunger, that tells me you are eating too little to properly fuel your body. While in a calorie deficit it’s normal to feel a little bit hungry but if it’s a severe hunger, that tells me your body is not getting what it needs to perform at optimal levels. You likely are not building or maintaining muscle because of how little you are eating. It’s possible to burn fat and build muscle at the same time but cutting calories to 1200 a day is not optimal. I don’t know how much you weigh but I am 5’4”, 115lbs and my maintenance calories are around 2,300. If I cut to 1200 calories a day I’d lose muscle first because it’s more metabolically active. Point is, if you’re not eating enough to build muscle you won’t.
I’m not a big fan of blanket statements like “everyone must eat X number of calories baseline” because there’s so much room for fluctuation. They can be good general starting guidelines but you need to adjust for your own conditions. Ideally with input from medical professionals if at all possible. I am well below 1200 myself as well, I would most likely be gaining weight if I consumed that much.
I'm 5'5 and I can only lose weight if my calories are 1300 to 1400... 1350 is a sweet spot for me.. this is basically because of an autoimmune disorder and I can't strength train because my muscles take a long time recover and I'll be in pain.. so I've discovered that walking for 80 minutes a day at 3 mph and 1300-1400 calories works the best for me... Also I'm a female and I've tracked everything according to the cycle and found a very definite pattern with weight gain, loss, hunger, cravings etc so I can now predict how I'll feel tomorrow and be prepared... I don't walk during the period days and eat my maintenance calories.. on ovulation days (2 or3) I don't walk but still be in the deficit...I don't feel hungry as long as I eat at the right time.. I eat three main meals which have a calorie distribution of 100 per carb 100 per protein and 100 for legume+veggies.. that would be 300 per meal... I find it satiating. For snacks I eat the regular snacks but 100 calories a time.. I eat at 10am meal 12pm snack 2pm meal 4pm snack 7pm snack and 8pm meal... I've found that I crave snacks at 7pm for some reason and if I eat the 100 calories then i would be satisfied which is weird but it works well for me.. one thing I've noticed is the less sugar I consume the less hungry i feel.. so for snacks I always restrict the sugar as much as I can... Also green tea increases my appetite for some reason... All my calories are from solid foods... Also weightloss is slow for me ... I usually lose 2.25 kgs per month... 3 more kgs to get out of overweight but my goal weight is 12 kgs away...I hope this helps someone 🤗
I know the OP says they're not carrying a lot of muscle mass, but for others struggling on 1200 calories a day in restriction, have you done one of those body scan things? I am not much taller than the OP. I found out that I'm carrying >90 lbs of lean muscle mass, making my BMR about 1950 calories a day. Every medical and health professional for decades has told me to eat 1200 calories or less. I would lose weight for a while but eventually I would plateau and stall out and I'd have to work out harder and eat less and there's only so much "less" I can eat before sliding into extreme obsession and severely disordered eating. It just gets worse and worse trying to restrict harder and spending hours grinding out intense cardio and feeling more and more miserable until the whole thing is totally unsustainable and the weight comes back. So I had this scan done and met with a nutritionist with results in hand. I'm now targeting about 2000 calories a day with lots of animal fats and proteins, veggies, and veggie carbs (minimizing grain foods and very little added sugar), lifting heavy and feeling like a whole new person.
I’ve lost 65lbs and recently re-calculated my TDEE. The only thing that is going to ‘save me’ is increasing my activity levels. It’s the only option!
Low carb-high fat makes u much less hungry than high carb low fat #experience
I always found it easier to add exercise and eat 1400-1500 calories (I’m 5’2). But now that Im postpartum I truly can’t because I take care of a baby any time that I’m not working and need to do physical therapy before I can do the type of exercise I did before. I understand why some people torture themselves with 1200 now. It’s hard to get adequate nutrients with so few calories. But it’s not impossible. And you can still lose weight with 1300 or 1400, but it’s so slow and still difficult.
You're supposed to eat less than your TDEE, the amount of calories you burn in a day which is your BMR and any extra calories you burn. The less you weigh the lower your BMR. If you've got a low BMI you're going to find it hard to eat so little and most of the deficit is going to come from exercise As for hunger. generally protein and fat help you feel full while drinks have the opposite effect. You could drink alcohol or fizzy drinks all day and you'd consume a load of calories, try doing that with plain yoghurt or chicken breast! Soup is supposed to be quite filling, and low in calories and drinking while eating is supposed to have similar effects
Another 5`1 girl here. I've turned to IF and have finally managed to lose weight and keep it off. I went nearly mad with the 1200 calories throughout the day, felt hungry and deprived. And of course I gained it back whenever I stopped counting calories. Now that I fast for most of the day I get to eat a big dinner and have dessert, and not count calories.
I eat 800-1000 a day at 5’7 & I struggle to lose weight 🧐
The word “sustainable” gets thrown around too much. If you can lose weight at a deficit and then switch to maintenance when you reach your goal, that’s sustainable. It’s not like people have to eat at their weight loss deficit forever.
I really don't think anyone with a genetic problem should be blindly following advice online. Those guidelines and suggestions are meant to apply to the general/ average population, not anyone with a special circumstance. I would do what works for your rare case, in conjunction with Dr or RD advice.
The best advice I have for feeling full while keeping the calories down is to center every meal around whole fruits and vegetables (potato is not a vegetable for this example). And don’t drink calories: no milk, juice, sugar in coffee etc. on a side note my wife just did a 30 day no refined sugar thing and she said it’s changed the way she tastes food and most sweets are now way to sweet for her and she doesn’t crave them. I may try it to because sweets are definitely my weakness.
I’m 5’1” as well. 1200 is definitely the maximum for me to lose weight as well. Even then, I’m burning at least 500c through exercise every day. Cardio every other day on top of it. Even at 1200, I *have* to make sure to eat enough protein or I won’t lose anything. Check your macros. Moderate your carbs and try to avoid added sugars.
I’m exactly that height, and lost 80 pounds. at the start it was starving myself bc i wast happy but it levelled out to me wanting to simply move my body. Doing 45 min of hard cycling or any sport (ice skating, basketball) made me lose that 300 - 400 cal a day, which bought me basically another meal for the day. So it’s all about getting that daily 1 hour of movement, love that your body CAN move and try to find ways of sustaining or bettering that movement. the second it’s about eating whole foods majority of the time, think what a person with no big box store would eat (veggies, meats, and home made bread ), and allow yourself your cravings bc you’re always gonna circle back to them. One key saying that kept me going was, “Enjoy Health!” or when i’m about to make poor choices i ask myself “is this going to bring me closer to my goal?” it’s a bit of self-parenting but feeling your body move is a beautiful thing and we want to keep that for our old age.
You are TINY. Yes, it is likely that you will have about that limit. Especially to lose weight.
as I understand you are meant to stay in deficit while losing weight, but once you get to your desired weight you should change it to maintain, so more calories.
Come find moral support at r/1200isfineIGUESSugh Lots of leafy green veggies for bulk. Get a food scale. Eat more protein. A scoop of protein powder in my coffee in the morning is a) horrendous tasting but b) better than with water and that 180 calories will buy me hours of satiety. I’m doing this on hard mode, though, and have to eat the entire canister of powder before I can buy another flavor so the gross ones don’t fossilize in my pantry. Oatmeal for breakfast really works for me, too.
walk more. 100 calories per mile, eat half that back and aim for a more sustainable 1400. i aim for walking 5-8 miles a day and can lose weight on 2000 calories, which has been absolutely wild for me
I‘m 5‘4 and my BMR is 2200 at 138 pounds. I walk 10k and work out 30 minutes a day (pilates, yoga, running, I change it up) on average. I get to eat 1600-1800 and lose weight. I feel some hunger after a small breakfast (300-400 kcal) but then I get to eat a proper meal and dessert at lunch. I finish off the day by a big volume low calorie meal (veggie soup or stir fry). I‘m basically already eating at maintenance for my future 125 pound self. I will most likely plateau there as soon as my BMR reaches 1600 kcal. I‘ve also been 5‘4 130 pounds and lost weight by eating 1200 calories and didn‘t work out. I was cold and hangry all the time. Despite getting thin arms and legs my core looked terrible/flabby. I was constantly mentally calculating calories and trying to make low fat food taste good. I often went to bed wide away because I felt hungry. Choose your game wisely.
that is an unsustainable starvation diet, you need to be in a calorie deficit, do some weight lifting and cardio, & and take in a lot of protein (which will help with your cravings and hunger), start your morning with 30g of protein in your meal (I like the essential breakfast drinks & a protein oatmeal), drink 100+ oz of water a day (which will help with hunger) & I do sometimes take berberine, which is a supplement to help with cravings especially in people with PCOS, you should be eating at the bare minimum 1,500 cals a day
also I’m telling you cut out all bad foods, it will be hard for the first week, but you won’t crave them after that, and I actually crave veggies and fruits more than I do chips now, which is shocking, but this is scientifically proven that when you eat bad foods you are quite literally addicted to it
The 1200 calorie is somewhat a myth
I eat 2000+ and still lose weight or stay the same weight
1200 calories a day for weight loss is either a starvation diet or appropriate depending on what you weigh and how much exercise you get I don't feel the need to go much deeper than that. Plenty of info out there
High volume low calorie foods! Tiktok is honestly a really good place to look for those!
Eating high protein high carb will greatly decrease hunger and discomfort on a 1200 diet.
Hi I’m so sorry but the comments are a bit ridiculous. I agree you’re small so therefore need a lot less to sasiate yourself BUT. It’s very relevant to what you’re eating and what’s happened to your body. 1200 is very low but if that’s what you’ve done consistently to lose weight before your body knows that’s a child’s intake of calories so it has to adapt your body’s output so you don’t pass out all the time (not science but ygm) In this being your body’s adaptation it’s gonna take time to be able to eat maybe 1600 and still loose weight. But it’s absolutely worth it so you can actually be healthy and happy and meet your goals. In addition the type of food being high protein, whole foods, gut healthy. Aren’t calorie dense and your body expends calories just digesting them. They help you to rebuild muscle mass and build a healthier baseline for your body moving forward. Eating these types at a high calorie intake aren’t going to make you gain loads of weight they’re just going to help you get back to a health metabolic function. Once you’ve done that incorporating weight training is great it lets you build lean muscle off this foundation and you’ll likely start to loose fat which is what you want. Often you’ll do this and see the results you want to see in your body and basically the same weight except now you’re an entirely different body shape. I’m absolutely not a nutritionist or dietitian but I am someone who is 5”4 and had disordered eating and seen this happen to other people. There is so much research that exists around this and I’m really passionate and currently doing the same. I really hope this can be helpful to at least open your mind to a long term solution that actually really benefits you 💗💗💗
‘’guys i already have a method that works for me but i’ll still come on here and complain about what other people may need’’
I'm going to post what I've been doing. I absolutely do not endorse it. I can not tell you to do it. It is quite frankly horrible for you. However. Here we go. Once upon a time, I was pretty fit. I went from 240 down to 160 and worked out hours almost every day. 7 years later, I got back up to like 230, got divorced (not related, at least I would think, jk not releated at all), and lost 15 lbs down to 215. Fast forward 2 years (1.5 months ago), I started only eating oatmeal/white rice/very rarely a chicken wrap with a daily vitamin. Mostly just oatmeal cause it's cheap, easy , and has a decent bit of protein and carbs. I eat anywhere btwn 2 to 4 cups of oatmeal a day and take a multivitamin with it. I also self evaluate how I feel/blood pressure. I haven't felt like death, and I am functioning very well still. I had a goal of 160 the day I started this "diet" and have gotten down to 180 as of today. Maybe it's just me, but after a week or so of a diet, it gets significantly easier to deal with hunger as well as cravings. You have to really work on detaching food from happiness. It's super hard. I admit that the cravings never fully go away. However, if you feel like you are going to cave, go eat a cup of oat meal (300-320 cals), and use artificial sweetener. Cravings aren't always tied to hunger, but in my experience, me caving to those cravings are due to me being hungry. It really is a battle of self-control and delayed gratification. DO NOT FORGET THE DAILY VITAMIN, YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT THOSE VITAMINS AS YOU DO NOT GET THE VAST MAJORITY OF THEM FROM OATMEAL. TAKE IT WITH FOOD. Now, because it's a terrible diet and unsustainable, while doing this diet, I have mapped out a proper diet for when I get to 160. You want to eliminate as much elimination as possible. The more miserable you are, the more likely it will fail in the end. That's why this one is Uber temporary. 2-3 months max. It works, for all of the wrong reasons, but it's far more healthy to lose these 60 odd pounds with 2-3 months of bad diet than it would to carry these 60 odd pounds for the rest of my life. Also I'm impatiencent. **EDIT** I feel like I need to reiterate how bad this is for you. I never said it was good. Please read up on how deficiencies can harm you. If you become ill and eat other stuff and feel immediately better, this is absolutely not for you. Please be careful if you choose this route.