@thebucketwoman your maintenance is probably a bit higher. BMR (what you need when you are literally just sleeping) is only 60-70% of your calorie needs. If you are losing .5 pounds/week on 1200 calories that means you are eating at a 250 calorie deficit/day basically. that means your maintenance is at least 1450.
@thebucketwoman 1200 can be fine if you are short and sedentary. With no mention of activity level, it is possible 1200 is too low and that can also mess up your metabolism.
@thebucketwoman I'm not saying it's not fine for some people, but oftentimes people underestimate how much they can eat. There's definitely many women out there struggling on 1200cals/day and if you aren't giving your body proper fuel and nutrition, it will be harder to lose weight.
@dawn16 I heard about this! I think it's really similar to zigzag calorie intake and so the effect is the same. You can find online several websites that automatically calculate your calories for each day of the week in a zigzag format. That way, there are a couple of days you'll go a little higher than usual and then drop again. I don't do it consistently but I tried it a few times and it helped me in different ways. However, make sure you're eating healthy calories, and not processed foods haha.
@skylar24 Well in this case you would probably get more micronutrients with the fruit but with the ice cream you’ve got more protein and fat. Plus it’s easier to eat ice cream if you are aiming for higher calories
