Thanks for the input, everyone. I guess it really just varies from one person to the next depending on how much you weigh, how tall you are, how much you exercise, etc. I just know that when my friend told me she was only going to eat 1200 calories a day, which is what prompted me to post here, I thought, "What?! You're gonna starve, though!"

1200 is manageable, if you cook and prepare everything from scratch and you are really careful about your choices. A massive, filling salad for lunch can be made for under 200 calories, if you don't have a dressing. It's not easy though, and I'm not sure I agree with it.

I ate well. 3 meals a day sometimes a protein shake as an extra. Dinners were also normal including chilli, bolognese, chicken dinners, salads with spiced chicken baby potatoes cheesy coleslaw, Lasagne with chips etc.

Extras in day would be fruit and/or mullers, sugar free jelly with fruit etc.

If I wasn't satisfied I did go over but the first couple of weeks are naturally the hardest because you are reducing the junk you're eating and generally changing you're eating habits.

I tried it, not this time but when I tried dieting before. I managed it although it involved a lot of lettuce I didn't starve but I was hungry. I think it's one of those things that you have to ride out until you stomach shrinks a little

I always thought it depended on your height and weight. I use a BMI to determine how many calories a day I should be getting.

Jessica, you're right, it does. For a tall and heavy person, their initial calorie intake, in order to lose weight, might be around 200 per day. Other situations increase calorie needs too.

In my case I was breastfeeding a young toddler. So I had a starting intake of around 2150 a day, but that's certainly dropped now!

It does depend on your height and weight, along with how much weight you're trying to lose. For instance, I can go through MyFitnessPal and say I want to lose 2 pounds per week and I'll wind up with 1200-1300 calories per day, but if I say I only want to lose a pound per week, it goes back up to 1700-1800 calories a day.