I suppose this should be phrased as “why is 1200 calories considered a minimum, regardless of activity, gender, height and weight”.
I understand that this would be a substantially low number for a tall active male, however when you start dropping down to, let’s say a relatively sedentary 4’9 woman for example, why is this still maintained as the same minimum? Is it just for your baseline metabolic needs?
I’ve only heard that number used for war rations. The only reason I’ve seen it referenced there was for “this is what we have to feed people without killing them all” kind of thing. I wouldn’t say something designed to meet the bare minimum during food scarcity is healthy
The people that say that don’t understand what they’re talking about because they’ve failed to consider individualization. Everyone’s needs are different. I’m a 180lb male, and if I dieted by going from 3,500 to 1,200 calories I would be literally starving. I’d be miserable and unhealthy and I’d wreck my body. If a 5’0 100lb woman dieted by going from 1,300 to 1,200 calories, no one would bat an eye. It’s all individual. 1,200 is far too low for MOST people, but by no meals all.
I’ve taken Nutrition courses and nobody should be trying to eat towards a predetermined number. Get a check up and get an estimate for your RMR.
Your RMR will represent how low , you PERSONALLY, can go based off your age, mass, and height
I honestly wouldn’t know about 1200 calories being used as the general basal metabolic rate for anyone, regardless of gender, height, etc.
You can actually go ahead and simply calculate your personal BMR by simply googling “BMR-calculator”. Obviously, that’s just a rough estimation, but you’ll get an idea. Mine, for example, is around 1700 calories. There are different formulas and sometimes some calculators add a few extra calories to the calculates BMR just to be safe.
Eating less than your BMR over a longer period of time will obviously lead to weight loss, but also could have other adverse effects. Generally, when wanting to lose weight though, it probably is not that smart to go below your BMR, since your metabolism will try to adapt to your extremely low caloric intake - by reducing e.g. thyroxine and sympathetic nervous system activity - and your BMR will simply decrease.
the point is that there are very very few people who could healthily eat less than that.
If you are short enough that being sedentary means it’s fine for you to eat less than that… well you have some sort of dwarfism and a doctor has hopefully explained things like that to you as you were growing up.
I think 1200 is about the lowest amount of calories needed to still get enough vitamins and minerals. However, its also a bit of a generic minimum, similar to BMI charts. It can be different for each individual, but when dealing with entire populations in a public health perspective, its best to give a universal estimate instead of a universal formula
You have a good point. I am a 5’ tall female and i am super active. For example work out 5-6 days a week. Usually my workouts burn between 450-600 calories. I would say I maintain a trim figure by eating no more than 1500-1800 calories a day. My body simply doesn’t need more than that. It is not a surprise that people tend to overeat and not know why. You can eat an extra 1000 calories a day without realizing it if you aren’t careful. Portion sizes are insane. The portions we are given at restaurants are NOT what we should usually be eating at one meal
I am a 30y 195lbs male, who have been trying to lose weight for a while. My TDEE is around 2700-2900, and I have been sticking to 2200 for about 6 week, until a week ago. I was frustrated with lack of progress because I was constantly hungry and could not stop myself from binging at least once a week.
After watching coach Eugene Teo on YT, who was dieting on just 1200kcal, I decided to try and mix things up. I have only eaten 1500kcal a day, as well as implementing 16/8 fasts, and the difference is night and day! I feel hungry every day, in the proper sense of the word, but not famished. No binging or cheating, not tempted to break the fast etc.
I know I probably don’t get sufficient nutrients, and that this is not a viable long term diet, but so far I feel great! I’m on my feet all day at work without getting tired, and my training is no worse than at 2200kcal. If anything I’m even less tempted by food than before.
I heard 1200 was the minimum for women and 1500 the minimum for men in the context of weight loss and making sure it isn’t too extreme, also from the perspective of preventing eating disorders. Those number won’t sustain anyone
I think I remember hearing someone say the 1200 minimum is to do with anti eating disorder education. I don’t know how it helps with that, when as you mention, a very short and sedentary person will not reach healthy weight until they go below 1200. Your basal metabolic rate always scales, so the smaller an adult is, the less calories they will need.
I know some calorie trackers, like My Fitness Pal, won’t let you set a daily goal below 1200. I don’t know a way around that. Maybe if you calculate your daily calorie expenditure and then detract your required calorie deficit from that and arrive at 1000 calories, you just have to lie to the app and say you ate 200 calories of lard :D
Edit: No actually, I would try to create my own recipe on MFP that has my ideal macros and then add 200 calories of that to my daily intake if I had to eat at 1000. Otherwise I would lose the use of macro tracking on the app.
I found a lot of my info on sites for weight lifters/ body builders. They are constantly gaining and losing weight aka bulking and cutting. A cheap $25 Bluetooth scale will give you your body fat %. Once you have that ://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.htmlclick on +SettingsSelect Katch-McArdleenter in body fat and all the other numbers. calculate.You will have your calorie count to maintain calories. Reduce it by 10% to slowly lose weight. Or more for faster results.
It’s a guideline that will work for most people without resorting to doing actual testing to measure your metabolic requirements. For the large percentage of people who start a diet and pick a random number of calories per day as a target, it keeps them from doing anything that might cause health issues over time.
If you actually do RMR testing, they can give you actual numbers for things like your RMR and TDEE and then you can calculate the actual minimum caloric requirement based on your own physiology and metabolism. For some people it might be less, and for others it can be significantly more.
First of all, this number is just an average. The number of calories needed depends from person to person (if you have a fast metabolisms you consume more calories) and depends mainly on the activity that the person has.
Logically, a man who works in building or other physically intensive manual labor needs much more than this amount.
A person who spends the day sitting in an office and at night lying on the couch watching TV doesn’t need that much.
It also depends on the size and weight of the person. That’s why it is said that men need more calories than women, because they are usually bigger. Which is not always correct.
This number of calories was intended to be interpreted as a measure of guidance for those who want to lose weight. In short it can be said that by consuming less than this amount of calories the body goes into calorie deficit and will get the energy it needs for its daily activities in the body itself. Usually consuming the stored fat, which makes the person lose weight.