Is 1200 a day enough?

I filled out my profile and CC said that I should target 1200 cals a day.  Does that seem low to anyone?

Age:  35

CW:  176

You need to consume a min. of 1200 calories a day. This is the minimum amount needed to sustain your body without causing damage. I have consumed 1200 calories and you will loose weight, but you need to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and lean protein. Make sure you also get enough health fats (olive oil, nuts, etc). It can be done, but I personally would recommend at least 1300-1400 at your weight. Eating just 1200 calories is not exact fun.

Good Luck

1200 cals is something like the minimum to sustain a 120lb woman who lays in bed all day. One of the mods usually posts where that number came from.

176lbs needs more like 1700 to lose weight safely I'd say, without knowing your height though

We would need to know your height, goal weight, when you want to lose the weight by, and activity level to know whether that was an OK amount of food.

There was a great thread on here a few weeks ago about how for most women, 1200 is WAY too low...it's the minimum you need to sustain your organ function if you live a sedentary lifestyle. If you do anything over that, you need more.

You could sabotage your weight loss by eating too little by sending your body into starvation mode. Not to mention that 1200 is pretty unrealistic and unsustainable for most people. You'll get farther eating an amount that you're satisfied with than burning out because you're hungry every day,

I am 5'5 and need to get down to between 125-130.  (This is the weight that I am most comfortable with) 

So, CC doesn't tell you how many calories you need to stay at each day to achieve your weight loss goals??  (I don't have a specific target on when - maybe 6 months??)

I just ran it through the calculator- that's a loss of 1.2 lbs a week to lose it in about a year, which seems like a lot of weight a week to me...

It's really up to you. You can try it and see how sustainable it is, and if it's not, up your calories and know that it will take longer to lose the weight (but you're more likely to be able to lose it).

I would suggest at least adding some exercise in so you aren't sedentary. Then you'd be able to eat more. It's best to combine diet and exercise when losing, anyway. Maybe try to walk for 20 minutes a day to start, and slowly increase that? I was NOT an exerciser when I started on here, and I've built up to running 3x a week and lifting weights 3x a week.

You can do it!

2 lbs a week (isn't that about avg??)  for 6 months would be a loss of 48 lbs which would put me in my goal range.    Or even a little bit less a week would still get me close.   I'm not sure where your 1.2 lbs a week for a year came from??   And why is 1.2 lbs a week "a lot of weight a week"? 

CC suggests eating 1200 to get to 125 lbs by August 29, 2009 (they calculate that date for you if you don't set a goal date). I said it was high because I thought you weren't supposed to lose more than 1 lb a week. If you set the date at 6 months from now, it will tell you that your goal is unrealistic because you'd have to eat less than 1200, which is unhealthy.

Original Post by twt11:

2 lbs a week (isn't that about avg??)  for 6 months would be a loss of 48 lbs which would put me in my goal range.    Or even a little bit less a week would still get me close.   I'm not sure where your 1.2 lbs a week for a year came from??   And why is 1.2 lbs a week "a lot of weight a week"? 

I don't have stats on this, but I'd feel very confident saying 2 lbs a week is not average at all. I think people's ideas of appropriate weight loss progress get skewed by shows like biggest loser and the celebrity one on vh1. Sure, if you have a team of experts helping you every day and losing weight is your full-time job, you can lose 2-4 lb per week steadily.

In the real world, and especially for people who aren't obese, 1.2 per week is a lot to expect to lose every week for any substantial amount of time. Here is what happens if you try to lose weight too fast: 

Say you cut your cals way down to 1200/day to try to burn off 45-50 lbs in 6 months. At first you see awesome loss, but it slows down quickly. Your metabolsim is slowing down to adapt to the restricted calories. Also, on 1200 a day you will probably feel deprived and miss your favorite foods. When you are hungry, you miss pizza, and your progress has slowed to a crawl, you'll most likely quit.

Even if this doesn't happen, bodies are odd little biological things. Even if you follow a really smart fulfilling plan that allows you treats and cheats every once in a while, your progress will probably stall out from time to time. Mine tends to go down for a while, plateau for a bit, go up and down for a few days, and then drop. If you're setting a goal date that is too close, these stalls and fluctuations are extremely discouraging.

My advice (not a doctor or nutritionist, so take it for what it's worth): eat more like 1600-1800 per day, get exercise, and give yourself a "trial" month or two to see how your body is responding before you make any definitive goals. Don't start out too restrictive, because it is a recipe for disaster :)

Say you cut your cals way down to 1200/day to try to burn off 45-50 lbs in 6 months.

 Great advice, just chiming in that you could in theory (just doesn't work well in practice) burn off more like 20-25 lbs in 6 months at 1200/day, not 45-50. That would be about 2 lbs/week, which is unhealthy and would require you burning 7000 calories more than you take eat weekly.

Actually most experts say that losing 2 pounds a week is perfectly healthy as long as you don't go below 1200 calories a day. Typically they advise eating 500 less calories than you need and burning 500, or some similar combination. So if you typically burn 1800 calories at sedentary you could eat 1300 and burn 500, or eat 1200 and burn 400 to lose two pounds a week.

That could be difficult to do if you're just starting out, however, and you would want to make sure you don't feel terribly deprived or you'll set yourself up for bingeing.

You may be listening to different experts than I am.  The experts I've read say that you should expect to lose no more than 1% of your body weight in a week.  So, the most weight someone who's 170 can safely lose at a consistent rate would be 1.7 pounds a week.  This would slow down to 1.5 pounds a week when they dropped to 150 pounds and 1.25 pounds a week when they were down to 125 pounds.  That's if everything goes perfectly.  I think the "1-2 pounds" number is to address the large number of women who want to lose weight, weigh between 100 and 200 pounds and don't want to deal with percentages/math.  :-)

I think it's better to aim to lose 1 pound a week because then you're more likely to do better than plan (and feel extra-motivated as a result) rather than to aim for 2 pounds a week then get discouraged if you "only" lose 1 or 1.5.  At least, that's how my brain works.

Re: the original question, 1200 cals/day is way too low for someone who weighs 176.  That's exactly my start weight (am now down to 155 four months later and still losing steadily) and my BMR at the time was 1500 cals/day.  You shouldn't eat below your BMR.  1500-1700 cals/day would be perfect for you if you're lightly active; you'll need more than that if you exercise a lot.  If you're sedentary, stick to the low end of that range - i.e. aim for 1500ish most days.

I don't think 1200 is enough and cringe ever time I see it posted as a minimum recommendation. I worry that it's misleading.

About the CC tool...I used it on November 3, 2008 (yesterday) when trying to update my burn meter (got a little lost). The tool suggested I eat 1300 a day to reach my goal weight of 155 (the weight that I am) by November 3, 2008 (the date that it was). Wha..? 

There's a glitch in it somewhere, since the CC Burn estimator has me at 1800, sedentary. I'm 5'11" and 155 with a BMR of 1550. I usually eat around 2000 for maintenance.

I suggest you find out what your BMR is and not eat below that. If you want to lose more weight in a week, increase your deficit by adding exercise and not by limiting food.

According to the burn meter on here I am only burning 1800 cals a day so if I consume 1800 calories a day then I will remain at my current weight. 

I have been consuming around 2000 cals a day on a normal day and have been gaining an average of about 4 lbs a month. 

So, presumably you're sedentary then?  In that case, your best bet would probably be to aim for eating 1500 cals/day (giving you a food-deficit of 300 cals/day) and add 200 cals/day of exercise (doesn't actually have to be every day - but aim for 1500ish cals of exercise a week - so you could either walk for about 45 minutes every day or ride your bike for an hour 3 times a week or whatever type of exercise you like).  That'll give you a deficit of 500 cals/day to lose 1 pound a week. 

Also, I have to ask if you're weighing your food and counting *everything* (including drinks, condiments, etc.).  Given your stats, you shouldn't be gaining weight if you're truly eating 2000 cals/day.  It's really really easy to underestimate portion sizes.  That's how most of us put on the weight in the first place. 

If you are taller, older, heavier, younger, shorter, etc -- these numbers may not suit you completely -- but they are a good starting place.

BREAKDOWN OF WHY 1200 CALORIES A DAY IS MINIMUM

Your body needs at least 1200 calories per day to survive. Here is a very rough scientific break down provided by a dietician for a  5' 2", 19 year old female weighing approximately 100 pounds, sitting around all day and doing nothing:


-The heart needs 12% of the calories (144 cals)
-The kidney needs 12% of the calories (144 cals)
-The Liver needs 23% of the calories (276 cals)
-The brain needs 23% of the calories (276 cals)
-The skeletal muscle needs 30% of the calories (360 cals)