1200 Calorie People... How do you do it and stick with it?

agar62

Protein for Breakfast!
If I don't have some sort of protein in the morning for breakfast, then I am starving all day.

My day usually consists of: Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwich (less than 300 calories) and a cup of Coffee, Lean Cuisine and a Diet Soda for Lunch, (around 300 calories) Piece of Candy for a snack (I crave chocolate in the afternoons) or some fruit like strawberries or grapes, and a healthy veggie packed dinner (like chicken and veggie stir fry or grilled pork chops and veggies, usually around 500 or 600 calories)

Also, pure will power. Honestly, I was starving at first, but once I got used to the portions, etc, I don't think about it anymore. I also don't limit myself if I am really craving something. If I gotta have Pasta, then I let myself have pasta, but I try and watch the portion sizes and exercise the remaining calories off. But that way it's not like I can never eat what I want.

jennyb007

Hi there, I have 4 rivetas and low fat cheese for lunch and then can generally meet 1200kcal or thereabouts. I make sure have a filling breakfast with low GI like muesli so don't get too hungry and then have a meal in the eve. I haven't measured any exercise yet as recovering from a C section at mo. Having little calories at lunchtime works for me as I tend to be busy during the day whereas in the evening when I am at home I get hungry so thats what I save my calorie allowance for. But of course everyone is different. Good Luck!

Terpnista84

When you HAVE to do it, it's much harder. When you don't, it's easier. I am allowed to eat way more than I do but I barely break 1,200 on most days when I don't focus on food. On Saturday I ate no solid foods despite 2 hours of cardio and lifting for about 25 mins. Not very healthy but didn't have an appetite. To me it's all mental. When you deprive yourself you will want it more. When you don't, you want it less.

Not very healthy but didn't have an appetite.

Pretty sure I've seen a program about an anorexic who had that as an excuse for not eating...

It sounds way worse than it really is but believe me, I had some concerns myself. My mind was starting to scare me. I'm definitely trying to eat more though. I don't feel guilty about going over but I do feel programmed to eat as little as possible.

Also, I have a habit of eating less earlier during the day just in case I go over later on in the day. Take Saturday for instance- I didn't want to eat too much because I had no idea what I would be doing later and if I would be drinking.

I definitely agree with your concerns.

Diamond05

Lots of veggies and lean protein! Low carb!

lshender

You do it with lots of veggies and a few low cal snacks ( i have a half cup of Corn Chex when I get home from work). Also, let yourself go once in awhile. It's easier for me to do 1200 calories Monday if I had wine and dessert on Saturday night. But don't forget to journal that too. It's the journey, not the day.

latinpr

The fresco tacos from taco bell are actually pretty good and low in calories. One soft chicken taco is only 130 calories.

Calliope610

Account deactivated!

nxd10

I'm at 1230 now NET. I haven't had a problem - I've done it a year.

Biggest things I dropped:

I drink water, coffee, tea . . . things with no calories.
I choose bread carefully and eat it infrequently. I make wraps with Smart and Delicious low carb tortillas (50 calories) or kale.
I eat small portions of everything I want but are really calorie dense - 1/4 cup ice cream, a square of chocolate.
I never let myself get hungry. I eat a few cashews or a fig or whatever.
I eat exercise calories (and just got a fitbit to do it better). It's way harder if you don't.
Rice and potatoes are very calorie dense. I eat them in small quantities.
Whipped cream, butter, etc. Gone or I choose to eat them because I want to and just enjoy it.
It also helps if you eat soup before dinner - especially a broth. Fills you up but very few calories. Plus it lets your stomach know food is coming.
Put low cal munchies on the table for when you're done eating but still talking - carrots, celery, nuts, radishes. Keeps me from taking another helping.

I found that the more carefully I chose, the more I really enjoy what I eat. The best thing about logging is figuring out where the dumb calories are so you can keep the ones you really enjoy. More ice cream, less low quality bread.

missmelissa919

Try to eat as clean as possible
Foods with 5 or less ingredients (if processed)
Fruit and vegetables
Green tea x3 with meals (hot)
Lean proteins
Limit whole grains and dairy
Green (spinach) smoothies

Just started a couple weeks ago. Not going to lie it's hard but if you have the right mindset you can do it:)

toutmonpossible

If I'm assiduously trying to lose weight, I look at the week, not the day. I try to make one or two healthy protein entrees the center of the meal (fish, chicken, turkey, lean beef) and then I fill in the rest with green vegetables and carbs. It is virtually impossible not to get enough carbs. I take a multivitamin.

My problem is usually not hunger; it's boredom, or a desire to eat food that blasts my calorie goals out of the water and if I don't choose wisely, it's easy to do that.

I recently resumed exercise at the gym and on the second day I realized that I'd exercised fasted without even thinking about it. I wasn't hungry and I had plenty of energy.

Sometimes I like to do Intermittent Fasting because it naturally confines eating to limited periods and it's easier to stay within my limits. At other times, I will go on an extreme diet for a week or two at most. The easier it is for me to follow a plan the more likely I am to stick it. I don't do well with scores of choices and having to make elaborate shopping lists.

The rest of the time, which is most of the time, I try to eat fairly normally and I weigh myself a few times week.



Some people have a mistaken sense of entitlement about how much and what they can eat. They simply don't accept that if their activity, metabolism level, or state of fitness don't permit them to eat as they have in the past they have to eat less. Unless or until you have that attitude change you're going to have trouble losing weight and sustaining the loss. Once you have the right mindset it's not that difficult, although there is a considerable amount of trial and error.

MyChocolateDiet

Sorry I can't help you. I can't stick to it when I exercise. Only on days I don't. Those days it's easy. I seem to be less hungry then.

55in13

I did that for 5+ months. I am upping a little now to try to lose the last few pounds slower. I did it by averaging around 1200, sometimes doing a 16:8 IF day or two where I did not have breakfast and would end up with only 900 or so and some days where I allowed myself a bigger dinner and went over. I gave up all workday snacks and always had little or no breakfast and a light but healthy lunch. I found it easier to get used to eating less during the day than to to try to come up with ways to have lots of low cal things to eat throughout the day. That worked for me, but most people seem to prefer the "grazing on low cal stuff" method. Dinner was a pretty normal family meal and would usually be the bulk of my calories. After dinner I allowed myself a fruit and/or nut snack. One.

One other controversial (around here) note...
1200 is the recommended minimum intake in order to get nutrients. "Net" is not a term the nutritionists who came up with that recommendation use. It is an MFP concept. I chose not to eat exercise calories back. I had enough fat sores to cover a big deficit when I was doing this and it was highly effective. No plateau, not metabolic crash. It was hard to stick to sometimes. No deficit is sustainable; at some point you have to switch. I am doing that now and will proceed at a different rate for the last few pounds.

Anyway, this worked for me to lose the bulk of the weight so far and I am happy with where I am at this point. I should also say that I was not overweight most of my life and just let it slip in middle age. This gives me a lot of confidence that I will be able to adapt once I get back to my old weight. I really, really did not like being overweight.

ZiezieO

What are you eating that you can't manage 1200 calories? I asked myself. I saw that I ate like an idiot and ate mindlessly a lot. I knocked it off and added a little will power... now it's just natural.

wanderlustlover

No processed food (or as close as possible)
No starches (rice, bread, noodles, chips, grains)
No candy, chips, ice cream
No soda or coffee

All lean meats (nothing super heavy, fatty, and not often red meat)
A green smoothie for breakfast every morning
40-60 oz of water a day
Bags of vegetable snacks, or bags of 1/4 cup of nuts, string cheese


This is what my normal is. It took effort for me to eat *UP* to 1,000-1,200 when I joined MFP. I'm now trying to working *UP* to eating 1400 to reach my TDEE. Take out all the unhealthy, friend, processed, sugar-digesting (= starch) foods, and you'll find out really fast that it's incredibly hard

leahmanderson

I was surprised with how easy it actually can be to eat only 1,200 cal a day! There were days I even ate chocolate cheesecake at the end of the day because I still had a some calories left over. I was also not allowing myself to add extra calories from any workouts to the 1,200 I could eat a day.

What worked for me was making my earlier meals lower in calorie. Not too low, because you don't want to be really hungry and you want to have energy. But having some fruit and an egg or two was great. The egg is great for protein and helps to keep you full. And the natural sugars in the fruit gave me a bit of a boost. I'd say you could limit your calories to maybe 300 for breakfast. I mean, a large egg is just 70 cal, so you could have 4 of those and still just be at 280. And if you need an on-the-go type of breakfast, hard boil a bunch of eggs and have some apples and other easy to grab fruits. Hard boiled eggs also make great snacks that are low in calorie, but filling. I will hard boil most of the eggs I buy after I grocery shop!

Then for lunch, I love making a hard boiled egg sandwich. I have an egg slicer ($1 at Dollar Tree) that makes thin slices and I put one egg between two slices of whole wheat bread. Add salt. 170 calories for a tasty and filling sandwich! If you can afford the calories, go ahead and use some butter or low fat mayo. I think the low fat mayo is 40 cal for 1 tablespoon, which should be more than enough and your sandwich is just 210 cal. Add a fruit and some veggies to snack on. I am not used to eating raw veggies--I don't care for the texture--so I started with something I could manage. Baby carrots! And they are very filling. Not sure how many calories they are, but they taste even better with a tiny bit of humus on them. You could even make a salad. I've always been one who didn't need dressing on a salad. I'm fine with some onion, salt, and pepper to season it. But I do like balsamic vinegar. I'm not sure how many calories are in it, but the taste is very strong so a little goes a long way. And green leaf veggies seem to be very, very low in calorie--I think lettuce like green leaf and spinach is something like just a few calories...6? not sure.

Also having the salad for dinner is nice. I will make whatever I normally do for my hubby, but turn it into salad form for me. Like with tacos. I just added a serving of the meat, some shredded cheese, and some sour cream to a big--and I mean big--bowl of salad and it was delicious! But also low in calorie. I'm guessing you could do this with almost any dish. Just get creative! BBQ chicken? You could probably grill a piece of boneless, skinless chicken breast, add a little bit of BBQ sauce, slice it up into small pieces, then add it to a salad with a little bit of fat free ranch if you'd like. Or if the dish wouldn't necessarily go well mixed in the salad, then just have it lay on a large bed of lettuce so that maybe some of the juice or flavor can dip onto the lettuce. For me, it doesn't even seem like I'm limiting myself.

Now onto explaining the cheesecake...my DH saw a large triple chocolate cheesecake on markdown and just had to get it. And he wound up not even liking it. I was a little worried that it would be too tempting to keep in the house, but it wasn't bad! It was actually nice. Each slice was about 380 cal. So if I still had a some cal left at the end of the day, I would treat myself and cut a piece in half so it was just 190 cal. And it's so rich, you don't even need much to get your chocolate fix. It was surprisingly easy to not keep going for more. And for someone who loves chocolate and cheesecake, that says a lot.

So I think it boils down to finding what you do like, being creative, and rewarding yourself every now and then. Good luck!

babydiego87

eating lots of fruit n veg = low calorie = eat a lot = fibre = full = 1200 calories

/fin

MissyGorman2012

Lean protein, whole grains and fresh fruit and veggies. Stay away from processed foods - stay away from the aisles altogether if you can. If you are eating so low, make it count. I find that if my protein is up, my hunger is down. I made sure each meal has at least 20 grams of protein.

brit__2006

Hi everyone.

I know 1200 calories is quite low for some people. However, I have found that the ONLY way I can lose weight is to cut my calories down to 1200. I also exercise daily. I have tried upping to 1400, 1600 and 1700 for periods of time but they have just not given me results.

That being said, I also find sticking to 1200 calories difficult sometimes! Some people on here really do stick with there 1200 calorie allotment even with exercise.

Are there any tips? What is the best to eat? How much do you exercise?

Thanks!

For me personally, I think it is easiest to stay on a 1200 calorie diet when you are eating more times a day. Smaller fresher meals, fruit, veggies, and white meat. Def stay away from processed foods, and liquid calories. Or if you want to eat more, work out more. I eat 14-1500 calories on the days I know I'm going to work out, and then I eat 1200 on days that I can't. I've tried upping my calories too, and anything over 1500 i won't lose, no matter how much I work out. But I also retain water badly. Hope that's any help.

lulu1066

What a great post. I have stuck it on my fridge. Personally, I am trying to be a bit French, and not eating until I am hungry. Interestingly, Monday - Friday that's about 4pm, and at the weekends most of the time time. It's slowly coming off - 50lbs in eight months. I am now in my safety zone for weight - 150-155 and I am 5''11 and am keeping it up by trying to listen to my body.... Not easy sometimes, esp after a glass of wine.

LibertyBelle89

Breakfast, a banana or a cereal bar about 9am, lunch at 1pm might be tuna salad, seasoned rice with salad, or pasta. Then dinner at 6.30/7pm might be Chicken and veg, a healthy curry or whatever i fancy really! i usually have enough left for pudding or a sweet treat in the evening. I don't snack, and i don't feel i need to. If i do need a snack i will have snackajacks rice cakes or a piece of fruit.

oh and forgot to mention, my key is portion size. i eat slowly and stop when i am full

^^^Almost my day to a T!