Foodies on the 1200ish calorie restriction...

cpalumbo89

let's be friends! I want to see your diaries!

fullofsmiles04

Hi there, I am attempting to do a 1200 calorie a day diet for approximately a month before I up them a little because I am participating in a biggest loser competition at my work. I have decided to cut out all chocolate, candy, pop, ice cream, pastries, cake, chips, crackers and cookies. I have a MAJOR sweet tooth so it is going to be a challenge but I think it will help me lose some pounds! Feel free to add me and look at my dairy. I intend on it being a lot cleaner than it used to be!

agratzy

I am also on the 1200! Because I am a receptionist and a tiny girl at 5-3, I don't burn many calories throughout the day. The only way to hit a deficit is to eat like 1700 or less, and 1200 is what I've come up with.

I've been able to get by really well on making lots of my meals mushroom based, which is completely delicious. I also eat tacos pretty much all the time. Campbell's Chunky Soups are a lunch staple. I try to use 400 calories on the first half of the day and then have a larger supper and a drink or two. I exercise every other day, adding about 400 extra calories to eat but I don't always use them up. I was definitely surprised how many calories a glass of wine accumulates... so that sucks but other than that it's been managable!

gothchiq

OK; I'm not sure how helpful it will be though because I tend to just log the individual amounts and ingredients of what I ate. You can usually tell if it was a salad lol, or something like that. Putting together recipes on MFP is slow and painful so I almost never do that. I do cook from scratch almost exclusively. I use a lot of mushrooms too. Also green peppers and onions. A little olive oil. I make my own bread.

monica_reinert

I try to eat around 1200 calories a day I have an open diary. Feel free to add me.

JodieP13

I added you. I have an open diary and really suck at logging. I'm going to try and be more honest with it in the new year! PROMISE!

misschiplash78

Me too me too....

cpalumbo89

Sorry my app is being weird and I get rerouted when I try to click on someone's page. I can't add anyone, please add me. Thanks!

astrose00

Add me, if you can. If not, I will add you later. I am at 1200 calories and watch Food Network while I work out!!! Think of it as some kind of desensitivity shock treatment. LOL.

Christine_72

cpalumbo89 wrote: »

Sorry my app is being weird and I get rerouted when I try to click on someone's page. I can't add anyone, please add me. Thanks!

the exact same thing happens to me!! Would like to know why???
I just write down the username and manually add them.

obscuremusicreference

I wouldn't say I'm much of a "foodie" but I do net 1200 and my diary is open to friends. I thought everyone watched cooking shows while working out??? All those people who say they gain weight looking at food have it exactly backwards.

ericah971

I try to stay within 1200 calories because i'm short. My diary is open so feel free to add me. I workout 6 days a week. My meals are homemade 95% of the time. I LOVE to cook and would love to exchange recipes and ideas with anyone.

victoria5936

Add me! I am looking to make friends to do the same.

Novican

I have not eaten any junky snacks this year, but still manage to eat 1500 -1600 calories a day. 1200 is way difficult. I'm trying to get down to it slowly. I just want to know from experience what NO junk after a full year will do for me. What's 1 year in a lifetime? Maybe the year that makes me gain healthy habits forever.

fenshae

My calorie limit is in the 1900s right now, but I'm doing a Whole30 and finding that I'm naturally eating quite a bit fewer cals than that most days simply because I'm getting full sooner (lots and lots of veggies and good fats). I cook most all of my food at home and am happy to share recipes/explain any weird diary entries if they intrigue you (I've got some photos up in my blog, too)

KGill67

As a fellow foodie, I try to focus on quality instead of quantity; I'd rather have a smaller amount of something I really enjoy than a larger amount of something 'meh' (unless I am truly hungry). Example: today's lunch was hummus and rice crackers plus fruit (I love hummus). Over the holidays, I indulged in smoked salmon, scallops, dried cherries, hazelnuts, and some nice cheeses. The nice thing about these 'treats' is that a small amount usually satisfies me, and they're too pricey to allow me to overindulge!

I run 3/4 times per week, so my calorie allowance is usually 1600 - 1800 per day, which allows me a bit more flexibility.

Abberration

I can't add people either, but feel free to add me! I cook dinner from scratch almost every night. Would love to share recipies, too.

Babeskeez_

I was doing my cut of my TDEE but wasn't losing last year so now I am doing the reco of 1250. I have an open diary for friends I am not a breakfast eater so thats why lots of my eating is night and snacks.

acdejong13

Hello, I'm new here and was pleased to find this thread! I'm literally in week one, started at 1500 calories and decided to take it down to 1200 as I am hitting fruits and veggies harder than ever before! We recently joined a bountiful basket coop and the abundance of the fruits and veggies has really fired me up:) I'm 5'9 and 180lbs which is about 40 lbs heavier than I have ever been, time for a change...I'm open to new friends, hoping we can help eachother succeeded. Not sure how it has been for all of you but 1200 cal is a DRASTIC change and shock to my system, as is the introduction of all of this good food rather than the yuk, and I could use all the help I can get:)

CountessKitteh

I try to stay at 1200 even when my Fitbit earns me extras. It's no small accomplishment!

WinoGelato

CountessKitteh wrote: »

I try to stay at 1200 even when my Fitbit earns me extras. It's no small accomplishment!

Everyone does realize that MFP is designed to calculate your calorie goal excluding exercise, and that any exercise that you do should be tracked and at least a percentage of calories eaten back in order to preserve lean muscle mass as well as other negative changes that can result from too large of a calorie deficit (hair loss, fatigue, etc). Not to mention that the additional calories help fuel the exercise, contribute to sustainability of the program, etc?

When I first started I too was set at net 1200 calories and was losing, but was not satisfied. I read more about TDEE and reasonable calorie deficits, increased my goal to first net 1400 then net 1500 and continued to lose about 1 lb/week. Once I had only about 10 lbs to lose I changed my goal to close to net 1700 and continued to lose about 0.5 lb/ week. I got a FitBit about midway through my first year on MFP and ate back those adjustments and continued to lose - have now been successfully maintaining for the last 8 months or so using FitBit, eating back those calories, etc.

Horsejumper1

I'm ~1500 baseline, but I'm a food blogger so I come up with new meals all the time. My diary is open if you'd like to add

captjac97

Kruggeri wrote: »

CountessKitteh wrote: »

I try to stay at 1200 even when my Fitbit earns me extras. It's no small accomplishment!

Everyone does realize that MFP is designed to calculate your calorie goal excluding exercise, and that any exercise that you do should be tracked and at least a percentage of calories eaten back in order to preserve lean muscle mass as well as other negative changes that can result from too large of a calorie deficit (hair loss, fatigue, etc). Not to mention that the additional calories help fuel the exercise, contribute to sustainability of the program, etc?

When I first started I too was set at net 1200 calories and was losing, but was not satisfied. I read more about TDEE and reasonable calorie deficits, increased my goal to first net 1400 then net 1500 and continued to lose about 1 lb/week. Once I had only about 10 lbs to lose I changed my goal to close to net 1700 and continued to lose about 0.5 lb/ week. I got a FitBit about midway through my first year on MFP and ate back those adjustments and continued to lose - have now been successfully maintaining for the last 8 months or so using FitBit, eating back those calories, etc.

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Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?

captjac97

Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?

WinoGelato

captjac97 wrote: »

Just got my FitBit for Christmas so I am learning about the adjustment for calories. My original goal was 1200 but according to both Fitbit and MFP, I am eating too few calories. I am 5'8 and weigh 178. Would like to get down to at least 150. I think my diary is set to view. I will check. I am open to anyone adding me as a friend for advice, encouragement, and ideas for recipes, exercise, etc. @Kruggeri, how long did it take for you to really figure out how many calories you needed to eat in order to still lose and then maintain?

I'm not sure how long it took me to figure out the magic numbers, I don't know that I still have the magic numbers to be honest. One thing I didn't do, which I'm not advocating, just being honest, is that I didn't weigh and measure my food when I logged. I didn't start it up front, and I was losing without it, so I never really started doing that. I know now from being on here for almost 2 years and seeing so many, "why am I not losing" threads, that this simple step is critical for many people to be successful.

I do rely pretty heavily on my FitBit for estimating my daily calorie burns, which are pretty consistently around 2100 cals. A 10% deduction from that puts my calories at around 1900, which is almost exactly what MFP estimates my maintenance calories to be (without exercise). That seems pretty accurate, when I adhere to that I lose pretty predictably, so I have found FitBit to be pretty reliable for estimating my TDEE. I actually am planning to increase my calorie goal in the next few weeks, I had purposely kept it at a deficit for the holidays to keep things in check.

The best way really is trial and error, and patience. Give the FitBit at least a few weeks to get used to it, watch your daily burns, see if they are consistent or if they fluctuate, and then consider if you need to adjust your goals accordingly.

Good luck!

chocolatexxmintt

I'm at 1210 calories and workout almost every day lets be friends

Angel_Grove_

I'm not a foodie, but my husband is and he does most of the dinner cooking, so there's always something interesting going on in my diary. Cabbage Lasagna or Creme de Maripois soup, anyone?

My net is 1200, but it's hard to hit that, especially since I haven't really had time to exercise (but we cleaned all the crap off the treadmill last night, so hopefully...)

I will say, though, that when I first did food logging abut 4 years ago, I had been counting calories I ate, but not counting back in what I burned. I lost really fast for a while, but hit a major plateau. Found My Food Diary (basically a paid version of this site) and learned about minimum intakes and such and found out that I actually needed to increase my calories because my body had basically gone into starvation mode.

After I started logging my food/workouts, I ended up eating about 1700-1900 calories a day when I worked out (burning 500-700 in my workouts) and the rest of the pounds melted off. If you eat TOO little, your body will try to conserve every little bit it can.

Angel_Grove_

*Obviously all those pounds are back now... hoping to make it stick this time :-)

jmoulder

add me! I am around the 1300 goal mark though

Brunette_H

I love cooking and make dinner from scratch every day. I'm on 1200 although I do eat back at least some exercise calories on top as most days I'm too hungry to get by on 1200!

I'm back at this after a 3 month hiatus and looking forward to making more healthy things now that we've finally got through all the Christmas food!

Feel free to add me anyone.

rosebette

I don't know what you mean by "foodie." A foodie is usually someone who is a gourmet cook or has gourmet tastes. Anyway, I'm at around 1200 most of the time, with some added calories for exercise. I find that you have to be more of a "foodie" preparing more of your own meals and making sure everything is nutrient dense and good quality at that low a calorie level because you can't afford to fill up on junk.