I can't reach my calorie count of 1200

Leaz947

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help me figure this out.
My SW was 146
My CW is 140
And My GW is about 125
I'm 5'8" and I put my goal on MFP as 135 I think, or something along the lines of that.
Anyway, my daily intake is of 1200cal as I'm very sedentary. First couple of days I was really hungry and now, not even two weeks after I'm barely able to eat 1200 calories, I've done for the day today and I haven't even hit a 1000. Am I supposed to force myself to eat?
All I really did for my "diet" is replace snacks with healthy things, try not to binge eat when I'm stressed, etc.
Anyway, why can't I hit my calorie goal? I'm happy that I'm losing weight but doesn't my body need more food? I didn't even want to have my dinner today, I had to force myself to have it.
Also, does anyone know how long it will take me to lose this much weight? I have started exercising recently but I don't really log it on MFP because it just makes my calorie count look pathetic...

kimny72

Hello!

Are you using a food scale? Can you open your diary?

cwolfman13

If you are at the place of needing to lose weight, you were eating way more than 1200 calories...so add some of that stuff back into your diet. Also, many people cut out a bunch of dietary fat because they don't understand that fat is actually healthy and necessary to a proper diet...so if you did that, stop.

Leaz947

kimny72 wrote: »

Hello!

Are you using a food scale? Can you open your diary?

For most things yes, and if I don't I put way more on the diary than what I am actually eating just in case.
Just opened the diary, sorry, I'm still kind of new to this!

Leaz947

cwolfman13 wrote: »

If you are at the place of needing to lose weight, you were eating way more than 1200 calories...so add some of that stuff back into your diet. Also, many people cut out a bunch of dietary fat because they don't understand that fat is actually healthy and necessary to a proper diet...so if you did that, stop.

I still eat some things but my diet consisted of chocolate bars, crisps, ice cream, pies, fizzy drinks and sausage rolls mainly.
I would eat a whole big bar of chocolate which in itself would have about 1000 calories. Now if I have some it's two cubes, I still have fat in my diet, I just have a normal diet now, you can check out my diary if you want and spot if anything is wrong.
Thanks!

cwolfman13

diary isn't open

cerise_noir

You are already at a healthy weight..Your goal weight would put you in the underweight category.

Aren't you the one with the horrible boyfriend who is forcing you to lose weight?

timmcelyea64

Im guessing your maintenance is 1500-1700 kcal per day. 1200 kcal is 300-500 daily deficit and 2100-3500 per week. This is generally thought to be about .75-1 pound fat loss per week if things work right. If you are not hungry don't eat unless you are not getting the nutrition - a variety of whole foods. A greater deficit is more loss and if you are not active your system will down regulate to try and accommodate the deficit so it is a moving target. Exercise helps and I suggest resistance training to maintain muscle mass and prioritize fat loss. Im no expert but this is general mainstream approach.

TreyTnt9

I still don't understand these kind of posts. How are people "barely able" to eat 1200 calories and must force themselves. Then how did you get overweight in the first place?

Leaz947

cerise_noir wrote: »

You are already at a healthy weight..Your goal weight would put you in the underweight category.

Aren't you the one with the horrible boyfriend who is forcing you to lose weight?

Hey, I'm the one with the boyfriend who made quite a few comments about my weight but I want to lose weight too, I have been wanting to do for a while on my own accord. But yes, he does want me to lose weight.

Leaz947

TreyTnt9 wrote: »

I still don't understand these kind of posts. How are people "barely able" to eat 1200 calories and must force themselves. Then how did you get overweight in the first place?

My BMI says that I'm on the 55th percentile at the moment of healthy weight. I'm slightly chubby, not overweight.
And I got chubby when I was about 14.

Leaz947

cwolfman13 wrote: »

diary isn't open

Just opened it, sorry.

Leaz947

timmcelyea64 wrote: »

Im guessing your maintenance is 1500-1700 kcal per day. 1200 kcal is 300-500 daily deficit and 2100-3500 per week. This is generally thought to be about .75-1 pound fat loss per week if things work right. If you are not hungry don't eat unless you are not getting the nutrition - a variety of whole foods. A greater deficit is more loss and if you are not active your system will down regulate to try and accommodate the deficit so it is a moving target. Exercise helps and I suggest resistance training to maintain muscle mass and prioritize fat loss. Im no expert but this is general mainstream approach.

Resistance training? I'm new to all of this so I don't really know what type of training that is, sorry.
Thanks for the comment by the way!

singingflutelady

Leaz947 wrote: »

timmcelyea64 wrote: »

Im guessing your maintenance is 1500-1700 kcal per day. 1200 kcal is 300-500 daily deficit and 2100-3500 per week. This is generally thought to be about .75-1 pound fat loss per week if things work right. If you are not hungry don't eat unless you are not getting the nutrition - a variety of whole foods. A greater deficit is more loss and if you are not active your system will down regulate to try and accommodate the deficit so it is a moving target. Exercise helps and I suggest resistance training to maintain muscle mass and prioritize fat loss. Im no expert but this is general mainstream approach.

Resistance training? I'm new to all of this so I don't really know what type of training that is, sorry.
Thanks for the comment by the way!

Strength training.

cerise_noir

Leaz947 wrote: »

cerise_noir wrote: »

You are already at a healthy weight..Your goal weight would put you in the underweight category.

Aren't you the one with the horrible boyfriend who is forcing you to lose weight?

Hey, I'm the one with the boyfriend who made quite a few comments about my weight but I want to lose weight too, I have been wanting to do for a while on my own accord. But yes, he does want me to lose weight.

You're already at a healthy weight, though. Why not eat at maintenance and lift heavy? That will lean you out, but the number on the scale won't really down (and shouldn't really matter). You look beautiful.

leanjogreen18

TreyTnt9 wrote: »

I still don't understand these kind of posts. How are people "barely able" to eat 1200 calories and must force themselves. Then how did you get overweight in the first place?

Many people like myself start eating more protein, fiber and drink more water. so foods that are more filling. I can't explain it but it seems my appetite went down when I started eating 1250 calories as well.

I'm sure if I return to eating my old way I wouldn't be satisfied at 1250.

ETA I still eat old foods but I make sure to have protein, fat and fiber each meal now.

cwolfman13

johunt615 wrote: »

TreyTnt9 wrote: »

I still don't understand these kind of posts. How are people "barely able" to eat 1200 calories and must force themselves. Then how did you get overweight in the first place?

Many people like myself start eating more protein, fiber and drink more water. so foods that are more filling. I can't explain it but it seems my appetite went down when I started eating 1250 calories.

Me too...but I have zero problem eating 3,000ish calories. Personally, I think a lot of this is mental.

cosmonew

So you started logging it looks like on November 1st. That is 12 days. Great job. However, if you want to be in this for the long haul you need to sustain your body or you are most likely going to go craving crazy one day.
It really isn't difficult to eat 1200 calories. Grab a handful of almonds theirs (160 calories) Or 2 Tbsp. of Peanut butter (thats 200) or have a snickers or a latte...really the possibilities are endless . Like others have said, "If you are overweight, you must have had no problem eating over 1200 calories at one time."

SLLRunner

cerise_noir wrote: »

You are already at a healthy weight..Your goal weight would put you in the underweight category.

Aren't you the one with the horrible boyfriend who is forcing you to lose weight?

This.

Op, have you looked into body recomp. If done correctly, you weigh the same or more but be smaller.

SLLRunner

Leaz947 wrote: »

cerise_noir wrote: »

You are already at a healthy weight..Your goal weight would put you in the underweight category.

Aren't you the one with the horrible boyfriend who is forcing you to lose weight?

Hey, I'm the one with the boyfriend who made quite a few comments about my weight but I want to lose weight too, I have been wanting to do for a while on my own accord. But yes, he does want me to lose weight.

So......you are trying to lose weight for your boyfriend? Because he wants you to?

You're not overweight yourself, but you are loaded down with the weight of that boyfriend.

Seffell

Have a Snickers and you'll hit the 1200. Surely you can eat one Snickers?

Christine_72

5"8 and a goal weight of 125lbs? Why oh why??

ETA: You're at the perfect weight for your height right now. I'm 5"8 and 143lbs is as low as I'll go, any more than that and i start to look gaunt and sickly.

gabbyo23

Rolling my eyes reading this and all other posts like it.

What..you can't manage a bar of chocolate? Can't squeeze a spoonful of peanut butter into your teeny weeny itsy bitsy stomach???

Rubbish. Of course you can. You didnt get "chubby" (your words, not mine) by eating like a sparrow.

I feel like your just wanting people to tell you your not fat and not to lose weight because your nasty boyfriend is messing you up.

I'm not going to say that. If you want to lose weight go ahead. You know yourself if you need to or not. And you know who your boyfriend is.

We accept the love we think we deserve.

marm1962

I'm 5'4" and my goal weight is 130....5 lbs under what my doctor said and you have 4 inches on me!

trigden1991

You must have eaten more than 1200 calories to gain the weight you're trying to lose so why would it be hard now?

RoxieDawn

It makes me really sad to see all these threads where folks cannot meet the "min" calorie requirements.. And even not logging exercise cause it makes logging look "pathetic"...

There is always an under lying cause to this.. and usually it stems from taking the dieting way too far.. beginning of disordering thinking and behaviors towards food, to their environment (hense the boy friend pressures)..

OP you either will or will not buckle down and eat some calorie dense foods like some ice cream, etc..to meet your calorie goals or you won't.. Most times I see these as cries for help, so if you want to help yourself, all you have to do eat something calorie dense..

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1

Lounmoun

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1

You definitely should try to get at least 1200 calories.
You could drink a glass of milk if you are not hungry.
Include some of the foods you used to eat more often.

My calorie goal is 1200 without exercise. I never have trouble eating that much.
Typical breakfast foods- full fat Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with whole milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit, 4% cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
Typical lunch foods- sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers (about 300-500 calories)
Typical dinner foods- something different every night of the month. (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually.
Typical snack foods- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese (about 100-300 calories)

Leaz947

gabbyo23 wrote: »

Rolling my eyes reading this and all other posts like it.

What..you can't manage a bar of chocolate? Can't squeeze a spoonful of peanut butter into your teeny weeny itsy bitsy stomach???

Rubbish. Of course you can. You didnt get "chubby" (your words, not mine) by eating like a sparrow.

I feel like your just wanting people to tell you your not fat and not to lose weight because your nasty boyfriend is messing you up.

I'm not going to say that. If you want to lose weight go ahead. You know yourself if you need to or not. And you know who your boyfriend is.

We accept the love we think we deserve.

Okay, I'm getting quite angry now.
No, I do not want anyone to give me reconfirmations, you haven't seen me, you do not know what I look like and quite frankly I don't care about your opinion about my body.

I am asking for advice on how to eat healthy and get to my daily calorie goal without eating unhealthy things. When I say that I'm full I'm saying that I don't want to eat anything because I don't feel like it
If you just came to say that then thank you for your comment but don't judge or assume please.

Lounmoun

cosmonew wrote: »

Like others have said, "If you are overweight, you must have had no problem eating over 1200 calories at one time."

I don't think OP was overweight at 5'8" and 146 lbs.

Sterno26

How long did it take you to get from 146-140?

RoxieDawn

Leaz947 wrote: »

gabbyo23 wrote: »

Rolling my eyes reading this and all other posts like it.

What..you can't manage a bar of chocolate? Can't squeeze a spoonful of peanut butter into your teeny weeny itsy bitsy stomach???

Rubbish. Of course you can. You didnt get "chubby" (your words, not mine) by eating like a sparrow.

I feel like your just wanting people to tell you your not fat and not to lose weight because your nasty boyfriend is messing you up.

I'm not going to say that. If you want to lose weight go ahead. You know yourself if you need to or not. And you know who your boyfriend is.

We accept the love we think we deserve.

Okay, I'm getting quite angry now.
No, I do not want anyone to give me reconfirmations, you haven't seen me, you do not know what I look like and quite frankly I don't care about your opinion about my body.

I am asking for advice on how to eat healthy and get to my daily calorie goal without eating unhealthy things. When I say that I'm full I'm saying that I don't want to eat anything because I don't feel like it
If you just came to say that then thank you for your comment but don't judge or assume please.

I am not judging at all.. I see something that is being carried a little bit too far in your dieting.

You are telling yourself you are full.. you are telling yourself you have had enough food for the day, you allowing some thoughts and "disordered" thinking to take over and perhaps the pressures you have in your environment.

I see that you quite possibly can benefit from some professional counseling. I hate broad cast that on this thread, but the red flags are there. Its okay to say that something might be getting out of control and may be bigger than you can handle.

But in the short term, look at the calorie dense list of food there is stuff in there in which all you have to do is eat a small hand full of this or that that will get you to your calorie goal.