Cannot survive on 1200! Food diary included
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Yes, but how much did you tell the app you wanted to lose per week?1
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I put in 2lbs per week and sedentary3
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More protein, more vegetables, lose the crisps as those are using up calories you need for nutritious foods.11
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Eat more protein and add more fat to your diet. It will keep you feeling full and not so hungry.5
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I have found little changes I can eat more, I can understand its hard having children around, I used to look after my little brother a lot and its so hard not to eat what he left etc but I found just switching my bread to weight watchers danish (4 slices 201 cals), snacking on small amounts of homemade popcorn (I crave savoury more than sweet so I add herbs and spices to my popcorn), eating cottage cheese and quark instead of cheese and mayonnaise, beans and pulses, fruits and vegetables, Greek yogurts, ryvita, basically filling up on high protein low calorie foods and now low fat due to health reasons, it makes all the difference, I googled a lot to help me find foods that fit with my needs and I managed to get it all within living on a tight financial budget, if you can afford it invest in an exercise bike, you can find they quite cheap, its helped me so much due to having anxiety I can exercise in the privacy of my own home if I go over my allotted calories, you could exercise 20 mins in the evening or morning whilst your children are happily watching a movie
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When I first started I was on 1,200 a day and I found it fairly easy to maintain. That said, everyone is different. If you are feeling constantly hungry you aren't going to be able to maintain it and you're more likely to binge (i.e. on crisps).
It might help you to consider that when I upped my calories to 1,300, I actually found I was losing weight faster than on 1,200 - go figure! I have now upped mine to 1,400 on maintenance/tiny bit to lose.
If you're eating 1,200, this is the minimum and you need to eat most of your calories back from exercise, as 1,200 after exercise is likely to be far too little.
If it helps, on 1,200, my day was roughly as follows:
Breakfast: 30g Special K with 100ml semi skimmed milk
Lunch: homemade lunch bowl brought into work - chicken seasoned with fajita, with rice, red peppers, sweetcorn, kidney beans, and cucumber
Dinner: Dinner of 400-600 calories. Examples include fish dishes (sea bass with lots of high fibre veg and baby potatoes), lean meat with veg (chicken mostly), smaller portions of pasta dishes etc.
Snacks: carrot batons, and banana or apple
Drinks: only water, squash, and green tea
I haven't included food weight etc. as it's only a rough idea for you. Feel free to add me if you're interested in those bits though, my diary is open and I log daily.
EDIT: I have just also noticed from your diary that you might be a vegetarian. Please substitute my fish and chicken for other protein sources such as tofu and quorn
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Like the others said, I would try to get more protein and veggies in and not use so many calories for snacks. I'm at 1230 for the day and rarely am I starving. I've finally learned to pick the right foods throughout the day...add me if you like 5
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TavistockToad wrote: »I would eat a big ol'bowl of veggies with each meal- I see you are eating some and that's good. But eat a cup of carrots, a cup of celery, and a cup of peppers/cukes (three cups with each meal) and as a snack and I think you will feel much fuller and they are very low cal.
I would be sick of whatever veg it was after half a cup...
I average 800g- 1,000g of veg/fruit a day and don't get tired of it at all. It's what I base my days around. Stir frys, wraps, green smoothies, cut up with low calorie dressing, salads etc etc
Op, I'm currently at 1,200-1,400 a day and am finding it pretty easy, but I follow a modified DASH protocol, along with IF, so that's why it's going so well for me, personally.2 -
Okay, you have another 247 calories remaining. Remember your goal for calories is to get as close as possible to 1200. Also if you swap out the crisps (138 calories), you would have about 440 calories left to go - which is a low calorie, but complete meal. Add in a brisk walk and you then up your calories again.7
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
Thank you I will, let's see what I've got left for dinner now3 -
Thanks for comment, I do gym classes and cycle to and from work 3 days a week so that'll help a lot on those days. The other four days however, I've got my two daughters to look after all day so find it difficult to fit anything in
You would be a good candidate for IIFYM on a weekly basis. Go over to iifym.com, use their free TDEE calculator, enter in your stats along with your exercise you do, how many days a week you do it, and the intensity. It'll calculate your Total Daily Energy Expendature ALL WEEK rather than just a day at a time. That's the amount of calories you burn in a day to stay your same weight. Then take that number x 7 and you'll have your weekly calories. Subtract 3500 calories from that for each pound a week you want to lose.. that'll give you a daily calorie amount that you can manually enter into MFP.
That way on days you don't exercise you still eat the same as you do on the days you don't. Of course there's a catch; you must be consistent with the exercise you entered or you either won't lose weight at your expected rate. The 2nd catch is that you can't enter exercise into MFP after entering your calorie goal using their calculator. You must either zero out the calories or simply not enter your exercise into MFP otherwise you'll get more calories for exercise that's already calculated into your daily goals. That would mess up your weight loss goals for sure.
For me, I do 5 days a week for a minimum of 90 minutes at a time at a "Difficult" intensity. So for me, 6'2" tall, 188 lbs, goal weight of 175, with a sedentary lifestyle it puts me around 2706 calories a day.
2706 x 7 = 18492 calories per week (7 days)
If I eat that much, keep my exercise the same, I'll stay at 188 lbs. But, I want to lose weight at a rate of .5lbs per week (I know, not very aggressive). So that's 3500 (this is how many calories a pound of fat is expected to be) / 2 = 1750.
So, subtract 1750 from the 18492 = 16742
Divide the 16472 / 7 = 2391.7 calories per day
So I can go into settings, edit my goals on MFP, change the daily calories to 2391 (actually I chose closer to 2300 to edge in a bit more loss per week) then I set my macros in standard percentages below that of 40% Carbs, 30% Protein, and 30% Fat. It's not super difficult to do this manually, and it can certainly help someone with a lower calorie goal be more consistent. I hated starving on rest days, so I found this method more to my liking.
Try it and see if it helps you. Again, the catch is you can't add in exercise to MFP and expect to eat those calories back because you'll be double dipping on them unless it's something extra you don't normally do. For instance, I don't figure in mowing my grass or extra workouts, so whenever I do more than my 5x90 min workouts I allow those calories to stay in MFP and I eat those calories as a treat.
Good luck!
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TavistockToad wrote: »MommaGem2017 wrote: »Do you exercise at all? Do you track steps with a pedometer or fitness band? You may be able to eat some more based on exercise calories.
No proper 'exercise' as such today, just spent day playing with girls and a bit of cleaning. I don't but I definitely want to invest in a Fitbit
I hope you aren't set to sedentary then?
I think I am because I've got a desk job (three days a week)
Nope0 -
I put in 2lbs per week and sedentary
With so little to lose, 2lbs per week isn't suitable, and not possible as mfp calorie floor for women stops at 1200 unless your maintenance calories is 2200. You need a 1000 calorie deficit to lose 2lbs per week, so if your maintenance is let's say 1800, you won't lose 2lbs per week eating 1200 as it is only a 600 calorie deficit.
For nutrition/health, it is not recommended for women to go below 1200, and men 1500.
Set to lose .5lbs per week and eat back half of your cardio calories.5 -
OliveGirl128 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »I would eat a big ol'bowl of veggies with each meal- I see you are eating some and that's good. But eat a cup of carrots, a cup of celery, and a cup of peppers/cukes (three cups with each meal) and as a snack and I think you will feel much fuller and they are very low cal.
I would be sick of whatever veg it was after half a cup...
I average 800g- 1,000g of veg/fruit a day and don't get tired of it at all. It's what I base my days around. Stir frys, wraps, green smoothies, cut up with low calorie dressing, salads etc etc
To each their own :drinker:2 -
243 calories is still a lot to work with for your last meal or snack but you have to make it count!
Greek yogurt and (healthy, nutritious) cereal/granola is my new favorite combo.
Not sure where you're from but wal mart has full size tortillas that are low carb and 50 calories each! My go-to quick dinner is a cheese & veggie quesadilla (I'm vegetarian)... you can make one for less than 300 calories. If I have extra calories I use black beans too.
Feel free to add me so you can check out my diary it looks like you're vegetarian too. I am and stick to 12-1400 calories per day (depending on activity)
ETA might want to go back a couple days if you look at my diary, yesterday was an off day as my fiance and I went out to eat at the restaurant we're having our rehearsal dinner at and I got 0 exercise >_< lol3 -
My advice is to be pickier with your snacks. One of my current favorites is yoplait greek 100 protein. They are only 100 calories for a serving (container), and are high in protein so they help sustain you for longer. I am 5'0 and started at around 167 and am down to around 134 on a 1200 calorie budget (and some exercise). Feel free to add me if you'd like to see my diary or want to share any meal or snack ideas!2
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This is what I suggest, of course you don't have to do it this way. Eat at maintenance at least for a couple weeks until you get the hang of logging accurately. Then subtract from there. That's what I started doing after wasting so much time with trial and error.
If not, @livingleanlivingclean has great advice too! Good luck 3 -
The breakfast is a little low in fat which might be setting you up for crisps later. Even adding a teaspoon of olive oil when cooking your egg will make such a difference.
Some people feel full with extra fiber (veggies, oatmeal), others with extra fat (nuts, oils), and others with extra protein.
You are on the higher end with carbs and on the lower end of the three filling categories mentioned above.
I'm a snacks person so in order to fit them in I made a relatively thin lunch. I'd have a salad or a soup. But then I needed a protein based snack by mid-afternoon!4 -
Losing weight is like saving for a holiday or a new car- you can tighten your finances as much as possible, in order to put aside the amount needed as quickly as you possibly can- and spend three months beforehand absolutely miserable, surviving on beans on toast, and unable to fit in even a packet of crisps.
Or you can put aside smaller amounts of money over six to nine months, and still have a good quality of life in the meantime.
It's your choice. Fast and hard, or easy and slow. But you cannot have fast and easy.
Switch up your activity to 'lightly active' and drop your goal, which you set, to "1lb a week" or "0.5lb a week".7
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