I am under 1200 Calories a day...Please help

Please do not yell at me.  Let me explain first....

I just realized today that I have been steadily decreasing my calories (not on purpose) and have managed to get under 1200 calories a day for about the last 2 weeks (again not on purpose).  I eat when I am hungry, I eat 5 - 6 times a day, and I eat a well rounded diet (meat, fruit, veggies, lots of water) I have been trying to stay away from carbs.  Sometimes I log my dinner the following morning as I do not get on-line much at home.  And I guess I was thinking I was eating more calories then I actually was.      

I have stopped losing weight and was trying to figure out why...so I went to my analyse button to find out where I have gone wrong and saw that I have been steadily decreasing my calorie intake and that I have not been hitting the 1200 calorie minimum I was striving for 1300 a day.  I had one day this week where I was well over 1200 calories (too much junk food that day, I guess) and I gained 2 lbs.    

So here is my question....Should I steadily start increasing my calories to get back up to 1200 - 1300 a day or should I just jump up?  If I do either of these will I gain weight?

I hope this all makes sense and if you have any advise please share.

Thank you for your time.

If you've been starving yourself for awhile, it's possible you've lowered your metabolism sufficiently since the body eats muscle to provide the energy it needs during starvation.  So either way, you may gain weight.  I say just do it, it's better to put an end to starvation than to continue unhealthy eating because you don't wanna gain fat.  After you're back to a healthy level of calories, don't mess up again.  Each time you starve, you make it that much harder on your metabolism (not to mention useless internal organs like the heart).

BTW, we don't know if 1200 is enough for you.  Personally, my weight loss stops at less than 1500.  So unless you know, calculated, whatever, eat enough calories for you since 1200 isn't a magical number for everyone.

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I’ve been on a 1200 program for two months. Lost 13 and then plateau!  I have been at 199 for three weeks.   I guess my body figure out what was going on.  I exercise and am an active mother of three toddlers.  I burn about 2290 and was eating 1200 which is over a 1000 calorie deficiency.  When I exercise I burn another 400cal, which means some days I had a calorie deficiency of 1400.  I now have realized how much I have messed my body up.  I plan to not go under 1300 now and plan to eat some 1500 or 1600 on the day I work out.  However I have heard that if you have high calorie day like 2200 or something it might get your body moving again.

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I’ve been on a 1200 program for two months. Lost 13 and then plateau!  I have been at 199 for three weeks.   I guess my body figure out what was going on.  I exercise and am an active mother of three toddlers.  I burn about 2290 and was eating 1200 which is over a 1000 calorie deficiency.  When I exercise I burn another 400cal, which means some days I had a calorie deficiency of 1400.  I now have realized how much I have messed my body up.  I plan to not go under 1300 now and plan to eat some 1500 or 1600 on the day I work out.  However I have heard that if you have high calorie day like 2200 or something it might get your body moving again.

I understand, I really do. I seemingly do this weight loss stuff backwards. I started out low carb and when I started logging my calories I was shocked to see I was getting around 800 to 1000 a day. I upped my calories and lost a little and then got stuck. I realized when I did my analysis that I was only getting around 1100 a day. So I increased again. I am now averaging 1400 calories and I have to increase AGAIN to see where it gets me. It takes longer, but it is working. I just have the hardest time "doing what I know" factually, instead of cutting calories like we were always told in the past.

Original Post by fringe1000:

I understand, I really do. I seemingly do this weight loss stuff backwards. I started out low carb and when I started logging my calories I was shocked to see I was getting around 800 to 1000 a day. I upped my calories and lost a little and then got stuck. I realized when I did my analysis that I was only getting around 1100 a day. So I increased again. I am now averaging 1400 calories and I have to increase AGAIN to see where it gets me. It takes longer, but it is working. I just have the hardest time "doing what I know" factually, instead of cutting calories like we were always told in the past.

I agree we really have always been told the less we eat the more we lose. Can someone please get it out of my HEAD! So fringe 1000 are you losing at 1400 or are you going to have to up it some more. I have been on this wbsite for days trying to get some held because I think I forced myself in to a plateau.  I was eating way to little. Ah.....first to much, then to little.

hi,

I might try a day of overfeeding to boost your metabolism and stop your body from any catabolizing it may have been doing. Eating ~1000 calories over what you need to sustain your current weight gets a good response from your body (i.e. gets your body out of starvation mode and stops breaking down your muscles and other undesirable processes.) The 1000 calorie overfeeding doesn't have to be junk (in fact you can go all healthy and that's great!), but it is recommended to get a good amount of carbs. Even during a weight loss diet, having a day of overfeeding once every week or so is a good idea because it gets your body out of low metabolism, break-down mode. If you do the overfeeding day, just be sure to factor it in to your calories in all the other days of the week keeping in mind that eating below 1200 calories is unhealthy for women.