My mother eats only 1200 calories normally…how much for a fast day?

This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by sylvestra 10 years, 3 months ago.

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lucitedragon

5:28 pm
10 Jan 14
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My mother’s not very internet savvy so I’m asking this question for her. This concerns how many calories she should be eating on a given fast day. She only eats 1200 calories on average daily to start with, so the recommended caloric input of 500 for women would be considerably more than one quarter of her normal daily intake. Should she be eating only 300 calories on a fast day? That’s what a quarter of her daily intake would be but that doesn’t seem like very much. Should she go with something in between, like 400 calories? That would be a third of her normal daily intake. Thanks in advance for you answers!

Angie090465

5:35 pm
10 Jan 14
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hi Lucitedragon!

I am not sure how to answer your query, so I would say please use the tool under the “how?” section and put in your mother’s stats and it will calculate her recommended TDEE, 1200 seems quite low, but then I have no idea about the science behind it lol!!
hope that helps a little and hopefully more replies will follow!

good luck to your mum on her fasting 🙂

sylvestra

6:36 pm
10 Jan 14
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@lucitedragon ….your mother’s TDEE will depend every much on her stats but I have noticed that age is a big factor.

Out of curiosity I entered my stats gender/age/weight/activity at the same levels ( I used lightly active as that’s what I am) against ages of 27, 47 and at my age,67 years. It came out as follows

Age BMR TDEE
27 1375 1891
47 1275 1754
67 1175 1616 – this is mine

1200 cals, while low for many, may not be too low for her especially if she is ‘sedentary’
so depending on her age

I aim for 400 cals on fast days so that would probably a good sustainable amount for your Mum. I also aim for around 1400 on non fast days but frequently on eat 1200.

lucitedragon

9:14 pm
10 Jan 14
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Ah! I didn’t know that BMI/TDEE calculator existed. Very helpful! My mom is 67 and, because of back problems, not able to exercise very vigorously. According to the calculator it looks as if her TDEE is around 1500. But her diet of 1200 seems to do a good job at adequately sustaining her. She also goes to Weight Watchers so I suspect some sort of professional has told her 1200 is adequate. So yeah, I think 400 would be the ceiling for her. Thanks so much, both of you! If anyone else has anything to add, please do. 🙂

sylvestra

10:03 pm
10 Jan 14
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Your Mum is the same age as me @lucitedragon – so from my own experience 1200 is a reasonable amount and probably fine for her. Us LOACA (that’s Ladies of a Certain Age as you probably gathered from the thread of that name) need less than you young uns!!! 😀