1200 = net calories?

i'm fairly new here, so if this could be a ludicrous question, but i've been told that i should not consume less than 1200 calories a day. but does this mean a net worth of 1200 calories? for example, if i consume 1200 calories but work off 500, does that amount to 700, so i should consume 500 more? thanks!

That is exaclty right. 

You need to find what the right amount of calories is for you.  Don't just go with 1200 because that is the minimum.  It might be too low for you.

That amount is your net, end of day, final amount, after all your activities and burning of calories has been taken into consideration

thank you so much! :)

sharonc27, thanks for asking that question...I didn't realize that this was the way it was supposed to be...yesterday I ate 1400 cals but worked off 500...oops!  

That is a problem alot of people have.  I think its the one thing I have posted the most in the last month on the website.  hehe.  So you guys are not alone.

If you burn 500 of those calories and are at a 700 deficit, your body will react pretty much the same way as it would if you only ate 700 calories with no exercise.  You are not giving it enough energy to survive, so it will end up in starvation mode.

Good luck

Thanks, I def don't want to end up in starvation mode...lost two pounds last week, and I want to do everything I can to keep the weight coming off!  

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU FROM ME TOO!!

I didn't realise this either.  I've not gone over 1500 cals (food wise) and I've been doing exercise too and I haven't lost loads of weight considering how good and healthy I've been.

The problem I think I may have is eating enough food.  I have a good breakfast, snack on fruit throughout the day, have salad for lunch with a viniagrette dressing and dinner is normally a small amount of protein with small amount of carbohydrate and tonnes of veg.  I'm stuffed after that lot so don't think I could possibly eat anymore!  My analysis gives me a nutrition grade of A.

Help!!!

Huh. I didn't realize that either. But then the trouble is, that while calorie counts are fairly accurate, exercise readouts tend to be widely INaccurate.

I burn only about 1000 extra calories a week (averages out to 142 per day), and I'm averaging around 1350 calories a day (the site recommends I aim for 1200), so I suppose I'm doing okay. I'm steadily losing 0.5 a week, which was my goal.

mrs_r, how many calories are you eating in a day?  Have you logged them?  I've found that when I estimate calories, I am often way off, mostly because of portion sizes.

And how much are you burning off?  Need some numbers here, not just approximations and estimates.

Hi Bigtwinky

I can give you exact data from my report over the last couple of weeks as an example:  Here goes:

Sunday 11th Feb (very worrying now I look)

Total calorific consumption = 946 (really wasn't hungry at all)

Total calorific expenditure through exercise = 976

(I tend to find that if Im extremely busy (off one one cleaning) then I just don't get hungry and forget to eat).  I blitzed my house on Sunday, it does look nice now though!

Tuesday 6th Feb

Total calorific consumption = 1208

Total calorific expenditure through exercise = 474

Saturday 10th Feb

Total calorific consumption = 1249

Total calorific expenditure through exercise = 1324 (was gardening, swimming, cooking for couple of hours, vacuuming)

So you see, I'm now wondering if this is why I'm not losing as much weight as I should.  What do you reckon?

I agree, it seems that you are burning way more than you are eating, so you are starving your body.

What is your daily caloric intake amount that the site tools recommend when on Sedentary level?

If that amount is 1300, you need to be at 1300 (or 1200 at a very minimum) at the end of the day after your activities are factored in.

You can do small things if you don't feel like eating too much like adding 1-2 tbps of olive oil to a salad.  That should be a few hundred calories and it is very good for you.

Have some shakes or energy bars that are higher in calories.

Don't want to scare you, but this:

Total calorific consumption = 1249

Total calorific expenditure through exercise = 1324

is really, really not good. You need to eat.

Well to be absolutely honest, I really didn't realise that you had to take away the calories burned in exercise from those comsumed to gain an accurate reading.

I think that I should be, according the site, consuming around 1500 cals per day.

I honestly do not starve, far from it.  I make healthy choices and I eat regularly (I like to call it grazing).

Maybe then the answer is to not increase the amount of food I'm eating but to exchange the salads for a sandwich???  I don't eat any bread whatsoever and I only manage the same amount of breakfast cereal as my daughter (she's 5yrs old), it's around 1oz bran flakes with 3floz semi-milk. 

If I do this, do you reckon I will begin to lose more weight?

Have actually just checked the calories needed each day and clicked on sedentary as advised and I should be consuming around 1250 cals per day to reach my goal of 147lbs.

That's around the amount I've been consuming on most days but obviously not taking into account the calories burned through exercise.

I'm confused now!!!  I am actually not sedentary either.

OK, just made myself an ASDA slim a soup (51 calories) and this brings my total for today to 1505.  No exercise today either. 

Okay Sharonc27;

Here's the deal.  I eat 1200-1400/day.  Yesterday I went a little over and ate 1437 (there was a b-day party at work).  NOw today I shoveled snow for two solid hours and burnt 811 calories just from that.  I only at a little over 1,000 so far today

ALL IN ALL, SINCE 1/22, AT THIS RATE, I ONLY LOST A TOTAL OF 1 LB!!!!! What am i doing wrong?  I don't know how this works sharon. Maybe you can guide me.
Thanks,

Soon to be 50.

i have a problem cause iam disabled with a hip to be replaced and so activity is very poor. hard to walk and so my movement is just the up and down movement i do in the house.

what i want to know is i had been doing weight watchers but at about 1600 calories it just maintains where i am. so i thought about it and i came on here and it said about 1300 calories and then i calulated everything and it said 1550. so isnt that where i was originally. i am really confused about how many calories a sedentary person is to really have when movement is not good at this point. just verry frustrating.

susan

Quick question. You need 1200 calories at minimum a day for your body to carry out its daily activities yes? the amount of calories for a sedentary person to function effectively is 1200 calories. so you eat 1200 calories for your daily intake yes? but then you are just eating enough to maintain your weight surely? Am I just being stupid here? It just doesn't make sense to me (altho eating 1200 cals doesnt make sense to me i dunno how anyone doesnt die of hunger :P) Surely you NEED a calorie deficit to lose weight.

I thought the whole point is that you have to burn more than you consume daily in order to lose weight. Is the calories burned through exercise JUST exercise? Or is ALL your daily activites?

Well my weight loss has been coming along very nicely.  I consume arount 1100 to 1300 calories a day and burn about 400 through exercise aday.  I am normally in the 600 - 900 calorie deficit.  Its been working great for me and I don't feel hungry at all.  I get to splurge a little on the weekend and manage to lose more weight by surprising my metabolism with high calorie intake days. 

I have learned that working out on an empty stomach helps burn fat more effectively rather than burning off the food you just ate and also weight lifting is key.  I tend to lose more weight on days that I lift, but I also lift heavy to put on muscle mass which in turns burns more calories daily than fat.  All in all I am losing about 1.5 lbs a week which is awesome for me.

If you go to your account home page it will total how many calories you consumed along with the total of how many calories you used up including any exercise you've listed along with your normal daily expediture for your activity level...For example, so far today I've had about 845 calories, and my burn up has been 2197 totalling a deficit of 1353....But I still need to eat about 355 more calories to meet my 1200 minimum....so my daily deficit will be 2197-1200 or 997 for today....It will be difficult to get in those 355 calories because it's already 8pm and I dont want to be eating all night....

For several weeks i was only eating a total of about 800 calories everyday and my normal expenditure was around 3000 with going to the gym (didn't go tonight) and I was not only not losing wgt, I had started to put on a couple of pounds....So it is important to end up with a net of at least 1200 calories for the day...Since I started eating more, I've lost 2 lbs this week....

Hope this helps.