I thought 1200 cal. was always the goal.

I have read some post, and some people can eat 2000 calories a day to lose weight.  I thought women had to stay under 1200 a day to see a difference, thats what I always try to stay under.  I can't stay motivated at 2 pounds a week that feels like it will go on forever!

Hate to say it, but if you can't handle the thought of losing any less than 2 pounds a week...then you better get used to yo-yo dieting your entire life because any more than that is just simply unsustainable. What's your rush?

Staying under 1200 is NOT the goal. In fact, it is extremely unhealthy, and against the posting guidelines of this site. Creating a deficit of about 500 cals per day IS the goal. A 500 calorie defecit will typically create a 1lb per week loss.

Original Post by darlene999:

I have read some post, and some people can eat 2000 calories a day to lose weight.  I thought women had to stay under 1200 a day to see a difference, thats what I always try to stay under.  I can't stay motivated at 2 pounds a week that feels like it will go on forever!

 Calorie Count's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. Please help our moderators follow this vision and respect the following guidelines.

1200 calories is the absolute minimum a completely sedentary (you don't even get out of bed) adult female would need to survive. Anything less is considered a starvation diet on this web site.

Losing more than 2 lbs a week isn't healthy weight loss.  As soon as you go back to normal eating habits your body will hang onto every calorie.

I lose weight eating 1600-1800 calories/day. The only people who need 1200 cal diets are the SUPER SHORT and SEDENTARY.

ohhhhh no no noooooo. Your calorie needs vary on independent factors. If you're heavier, taller, more muscular... these are all things that will affect how many calories YOU personally need a day, along with how active you are. 1,200 is the basic guideline to not go under, which it sounds like you are. You'll have to calculate your BMR and make sure you don't fall below that number - forget about the 1,200. I'm really short and about 10 lbs. from my goal weight and even I can't function on that little.

Do you need help figuring out your BMR?

Honey, if I tried to eat only 1200 (or less) calories/day I'd be the biggest b****!  Lol!  That is the bare minimum that a healthy woman should be consuming, and even at that - you'd have to be fairly petite and sedentary. 

When I first started calorie counting I was under the impression that I could only eat 1200 calories a day, and if I ate over that my whole day was shot!  I'd be upset with myself and worry that I had thrown all of my progress out the window!  Believe me - it was very dramatic and not pretty!

As ezzied said, figure out what you're BMR is (that's the amount of calories you'd burn if you sat on your butt all day and literally didn't move).  Then, use the tools on here to figure out how much you actually burn by setting your typical, daily activity level (the safest is sedentary, then adding significant activity on top of it).  You'll know how much your deficit is (never more than 1000 calories), and how much you're safe to eat!

So quit starving yourself ;)

Original Post by darlene999:

 I can't stay motivated at 2 pounds a week that feels like it will go on forever!

With this mentality, you're likely to either give up or hurt yourself.

No, the goal is to manage one's weight safely and sanely.  The calorie target is just a tool to help us gradually get to our healthy weight goal.

How much we eat and move should be looked at as a lifetime project, not a diet that will end.  If you can't imagine yourself doing something happily for the rest of your life, you should reconsider doing it now.

If you make a healthy lifestyle for yourself, it doesn't matter whether you lose 0.5., 1, or 2 pounds a week (less than 1% of your current weight is a good way to think of it), because you will eventually get to goal, and you will be healthy and happy all along the route.

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither were our bodies.. they won't get slim in a day either. 

I have a LOT of weight to lose. already chucked 87.2 still got a ways to go.. been at it since April.  I changed my relationship with food.. (I could never diet forever.. but I can eat the way I eat now forever)  Life is good.  Enjoy the journey~!

As several people have said above, what you have heard and have been doing is very unhealthy and will not lead to successful and sustainable weight loss. We consider losing more than 1-2% of your BW per week is unhealthy and quite often is not sustainable. So for most people that is 1-2lbs per week maximum.

Calorie Count's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. We do not support diets of less than 1200 calories.

I can tell you first hand, you can lose on much more than 1200 cals. Of course it varies from person to person, but I am a "not very active" petite 5'1" woman and lost 30+ lbs on 1500 a day (some days 1200, some days 2000 calories). It works!

What is your height and weight and how much do you aim to lose?

If you tell us more about yourself perhaps we can help to guide you in the right direction.

NYCGirl, Moderator

What is the BMR, and how do you figure it out.  I am just going by what I have heard in the media my whole life. 1200 calories or less to lose weight.  The last time I really dieted was 11 years ago when I was in my late 30's.  I lost 40 pounds in 2 1/2 months staying under the 1200 cal. mark, taking one day each week to eat what I wanted.  It has taken me this long to put the same amount of weight back on.  I work nights and sleep into the afternoon so my hours of eating have changed.  How is it best to eat working these hours.  I want to do it right.  I am just an impatient person I guess.

I'm 5'5, 48 yrs old, pretty lazy but do manage a bowling alley so I do walk quite a bit at work.  I weigh 188 pounds and would like to be at about 155.

First of all, don't believe everything you see in magazines.  Alot of these "under 1200" diets are considered crash diets or starvation diets.  They are popular among the stars.  But unfortunately, most stars are too focused on their outward appearance and don't care about what these diets are doing to them long-term.

I just plugged your stats into the CC calculator.  On sedentary days, you burn a minimum of 1780 calories a day.  Since you are not obese and don't have tons of weight to lose, a good rule of thumb is to subtract 500 calories from your burn to figure out how much you should be eating each day.  This means that you can safely drop down to 1280 calories a day.   Yes, it's fairly close to 1200 but you will notice that it is not under 1200.  This is the key.  Eating 500 calories less each day will give you a weight loss of about 1lb a week.  I know that this doesn't seem like alot, but you are not obese.  It's usually only the obese that can lose more than this in a week because they have much more to lose than you.

I know that losing weight slower and steadier can be frustrating, but it's the best way to do it so that you can ensure that your body is still getting enough nutrients in a day.  Besides, that's why we are all here.....to support each other and keep each other motivated when we get frustrated or bummed out.  We are here for you, and you don't have to feel like you are doing this all alone.

Good luck.

I'm working on the basis that it took so long for the weight to go on (about five years) and it will take a long time to come off. Hopefully not five years but at the rate of between one and two pounds a week then my original goal of nearly 100 pounds has the potential to take 100 weeks to take off. I would rather that it took longer to come off and stayed off than to lose weight quickly and very soon after regain that weight and more besides.